The Skeleton Tree

For much of the novel, Frank is both a foil and an antagonist to Chris. As the only other human in the forest, Frank takes on outsized importance in his contrast to Chris. A young man ruled by anger and driven by bitterness, Frank is cruel and uncaring, and he’s seemingly incapable of empathy. In every way that matters, Frank is Chris’s opposite.

Frank looks and acts like his father. Chris compares a moment of cruelty in Frank with his father’s quick temper and sees a physical resemblance between the two: “With sunlight mottled in the trees behind him, with the silver of their fish, it was as though the old photograph of my father had come to life” (71). Frank easily abandons projects if he thinks they’re destined to fail. After trying to light a fire, destroying their matches as a result, he gives up. He builds a giant “X” for a rescue plane to see, but it blows away, and he’s frustrated, so he doesn’t rebuild it. He attempts to build a raft but instantly quits. He has the idea to climb the mountain but can’t rouse himself to go. Although Frank has bursts of energy and ideas, they fizzle out because he thinks only in negatives, which results in negative outcomes, and Frank fails yet again, creating a cycle of negativity.

Frank is a chronic liar, and much of what he tells Chris proves false. He lies to protect himself from pain, and he hurts Chris to save himself from being hurt. Chris, ever empathetic, only wants to understand the truth of Frank’s life. Frank lies about his father teaching him survival skills and sports, taking him camping, and teaching him to hunt. In the end he admits to Chris that Uncle Jack spent time with him, not his father. Still, he’s so hurt by his father’s abandonment and indifference that he struggles to tell the truth.

The novel’s tragic hero is Uncle Jack. When his brother dies, he leaves behind two shattered families and two boys without father figures. Although a wild man at heart, Jack works to bring the brothers together, to act as a father figure, and to reconcile the pain of the past to help create a fresh start for the boys. Tragically, Jack’s boat sinks before he can achieve these aims, and as a result the boys are left without a father figure, without answers, and without much hope. Only when they work together do the brothers begin to heal their fractured relationship and live out Uncle Jack’s last great idea.

The physical and emotional opposite of his brother, Uncle Jack is an explorer, a free spirit, and thus a danger. Chris mourns Uncle Jack and buries a piece of Puff to lay him to rest.

Frank eventually reveals that it was Uncle Jack, not his father, who showed up for him throughout his childhood, teaching him to hunt and fish, taking him camping, and teaching him sports. To Frank, Uncle Jack was more of a present father than his biological father. This suggest a man of integrity and drive, who is perhaps not as dangerous and wild as Chris’s mother believes. The novel doesn’t explain why Uncle Jack keeps Frank hidden from Chris and his mother, what Jack hoped to gain through the sailing trip, nor how he hoped to bring the boys together.

Like most people, the boys’ father was a character rife with contradictions. In one memory, Chris recalls playing pirate on the beach with his suit-clad father. In another, he recalls a moment of cruelty when Frank says, “‘Can’t you do something useful?’ I heard the same words a thousand times from my father. Just as he might have done, Frank got up and slapped the boy from my hands” (63). In the end, Chris can only describe his father as boring and absent. Thus, the father is a static figure whose motivations and intentions remain unknown.

Physically, the father looked and sounded like Frank—who has dark hair and eyes and a moody disposition—and was the opposite of his brother, Jack. He was a poor father, a poor husband, and a poor role model to his children. He left a legacy shrouded in mystery and pain, and left behind two brothers who are strangers and a sibling who felt compelled to clean up the mess he left behind.

When Frank rips out the last page of the book in the cabin, it’s because he believes it’s more real to live with not knowing how something ends. Because their father died just as he was planning to make a big change, the boys must live with never knowing what he intended. He remains as big a mystery in death as he was in life.

Although this character doesn’t appear in the novel, remnants of his life suggest a character of intellect, determination, and ability. However, based on the words the raven speaks, he was angry and bitter. Like Frank, cabin guy distrusted the birds and was quick to anger and judgmental. By Thursday’s estimation, cabin guy revealed himself as angry, judgmental, and contradictory. Words like, “lousy birds” and “clever bird” suggest a man who distrusted yet respected Thursday and his companion.

In the margins of the book in the cabin are cabin guy’s notes. They suggest a man who didn’t believe in magic, who read in disbelief, and who was critical of the book’s content, adding his own thoughts to the margins.

When Thursday risks his life and ultimately dies saving Chris, the action recalls the image of the other raven hanging from red twine in the cabin’s doorway. Although the novel doesn’t clarify what happened, Thursday’s companion could have died trying to save cabin guy from a bear, or could have died at cabin guy’s hands. As with the uncertainty about Chris’s father’s motivations, the novel leaves this detail a mystery.

A raven who befriends Chris (and whom Chris names Thursday) brings trinkets and plot-driving tools to the boys throughout the novel. Thursday is an orbital character, delivering moments of assistance as well as heightened anxiety. In the novel’s conclusion, Thursday saves Chris from the grizzly bear, and Chris finds Thursday’s battery to fuel the radio. However, the character is shrouded in mystery. Raven’s bond for life, and thus Thursday chooses to live in a coffin with his dead companion. Thursday is the watcher of the dead as well as the savior of the living.

Chris can distinguish Thursday from other ravens by his size. He’s larger, his feathers are softer, and he’s less haggard. The bird has superior intellect, and his ability to speak overshadows his other skills. Thursday heals Frank using medicinal herbs and understands the radio’s assembly well enough to deliver the missing piece to Chris. His final act, leading a pack of wolves to attack the bear, is heroic and brave. He martyrs himself for his friend, demonstrating a deep and enduring love for Chris.