60 pages • 2-hour read
Clown in a Cornfield
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.
Frendo
The image of Frendo the Clown is a prominent symbol throughout the novel, representing Kettle Springs’ idealized past. The first time Frendo appears is at the end of Chapter 1 when Quinn sees the scorched mural of Frendo staring straight into her new bedroom. Without the context of Frendo’s role in Kettle Springs’ cultural history, this paints the image in a sinister tone, foreshadowing the threat that will soon loom over Quinn and her new friends.
At the Founder’s Day parade, Frendo’s image is so prominent that Cole quips that Frendo is the founder of Kettle Springs. This joke is based on the false narrative that Frendo was a historical person who helped uplift the spirits of the first residents of Kettle Springs during the Great Depression. Cole admits that the narrative was invented by his grandfather, who created the character of Frendo as a mascot for his corn syrup business, Baypen. Because Baypen became the driver of the town’s economy, the residents of Kettle Springs came to accept the false narrative around Frendo.
Frendo’s image is co-opted by both the youth of the town and its older residents. At first, Cole and his friends incorporate Frendo into their prank videos in order to update his image for a modern audience. Later, Dunne and his collaborators disguise themselves as Frendo to carry out their homicidal plan. This tricks the teens into believing that the Frendo killers are out to commit pranks, letting their guard down until the Frendo killers reveal their true purpose. Frendo’s status as an avatar of the past gives Dunne’s plan symbolic meaning. Through Frendo, the past of Kettle Springs attempts to destroy its future, culling the youth in order to fulfill its misguided belief that it can bring back the heyday that Frendo represents.
Cornfield
The cornfield is a motif for Weaponizing the Generational Divide. It is one of the geographical features that defines the setting of Kettle Springs. In the past, the cornfield was the lifeblood of the Baypen corn syrup factory. Once the factory closed down, however, the cornfield became stagnant, making it unable to yield the necessary profit to sustain the town. It is explained that it would cost the town more to harvest it than to plant it since government subsidies only extend to the planting of new crops.
The conditions of the cornfield aptly represent the state of the town. Kettle Springs cannot develop because its economy was dependent on a single industrial entity that its owners chose to shut down for unspecified reasons. In Chapter 5, Town Mayor Harlan Jaffers promises that Arthur Hill, the current factory owner, may attend the Founder’s Day parade, suggesting the possibility of reinvestment and redevelopment. When he fails to attend the parade and the parade is disrupted by the teens’ prank, the town elders vow to take revenge against them for destroying their chance for renewal. Viewed another way, however, this merely exposes the older generation’s failure to adapt to new times, finding ways to thrive that aren’t dependent on the corn industry. Cole claims that he set the Baypen factory on fire because it was a reminder of the town’s stale past. Instead of awakening to the possibility that it can thrive in other ways, this merely turns Arthur and the other town adults against Cole and his peers. Dunne crucially describes Cole’s generation as a “blighted crop” that needs to be culled in order for the town to survive.
Much of the action of the novel occurs in the midst of the cornfield. Quinn finds it difficult to navigate the cornfield because its vastness obscures her ability to discern any legible landmarks. In the same way, the town elders’ idealism for the past obscures their ability to look forward and discover new methods of progress led by their descendants’ generations.
Difference
Difference is a character trait that recurs among the protagonists of the novel, functioning as a motif for The Challenges of Being an Outsider. The protagonists are made to feel bad for certain qualities that separate them from the ideals that Kettle Springs expects of them.
Quinn, for instance, is marked by her difference as a newcomer to Kettle Springs. She feels the antagonism from both the town’s youth and elder populations, first in detention and later when she visits the Main Street Eatery with her father. This discourages her from thinking that she might ever belong in Kettle Springs, an idea she overcomes by the end of the novel.
Quinn’s status as a newcomer makes it easy for Janet to sympathize with her. In her experience as an Asian-American girl, she feels that she has never been seen as a member of the Kettle Springs community. This is represented by a key experience from her backstory, in which a boy told her that she wasn’t from Kettle Springs. Janet then devoted her youth to actively participating in the social life of the town, proving that she was the kind of person who could claim Kettle Springs as her home.
Finally, Cole’s experience of difference motivates him to stand up for her and vouch for her acceptance into his social circle. His entire character arc revolves around reckoning with the difference he feels from his peers and from the older generation that resents him for choosing to be different. Cesare symbolizes this difference in Cole’s decision to wear his hair long while the “squares” wore buzz cuts. The squares represent Kettle Springs’ ideals, while Cole represents a deviation from that ideal.
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