97 pages • 3-hour read
Tricks
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Themes
The Struggle With Identity and Self-Worth
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child sexual abuse, child abuse, antigay bias, substance use, addiction, and death.
Each narrator grapples with their identity and self-worth throughout the narrative. Seth’s and Ginger’s storylines, in particular, exemplify the problems with undervaluing their self-worth and struggling to identify who they are in the world, which leaves them vulnerable to predators, who take advantage of and abuse them.
Seth’s struggle with self-worth stems from his sexual orientation. Seth’s father’s decision to kick Seth out of the house leaves him both physically and emotionally traumatized. Seth struggles with accepting himself because he knows that his father’s love is conditional. He explains why he hides his identity when he says, “[I]t is because of who I am, all the way inside, the biggest part of me, the part I need to hide” (23). Hopkins uses internal rhyme in these lines to emphasize the significance of Seth’s words. Seth becomes so focused on surviving his father’s house that at first, it feels like he has escaped and found freedom when he lives with Carl, until it becomes clear that Carl has taken advantage of him. Ginger’s storyline also exemplifies the struggle with self-worth because she experiences years of sexual abuse at home. Ginger does not feel that she can trust anyone in her life to save her from her abuse, so instead, she runs away from home to protect herself. Due to her abuse, Ginger does not feel like she has a say in anything that she and Alex choose to do in Las Vegas, which is why she does not object when they strip even though she does not want to. Ginger, like many of the other characters, believes that love will save her from any experience, when instead, it detracts from her safety.
While Seth does not find true safety because he can never return home, he does learn that he needs to provide for himself if he ever wants to live outside of the control of a keeper. In contrast, Ginger develops her self-worth after she learns that Gram wants her to come home. She realizes that she put Alex before herself when “the biggest part of [her] should be [her]. Just have to find her” (624). Although Ginger still needs to learn how to apply this principle to her life, she understands that she cannot let other people dictate how she wants to live. Instead, she must prioritize herself to find healing after experiencing traumatic violence at the hands of predatory, abusive individuals.
The Impact of Family and Societal Pressures on Youth
Each teenager struggles to put themselves first in their life, especially as they interpret the different messages around them from family and society. Cody’s and Eden’s storylines exemplify how these pressures from society and family impact their lives, causing them to feel so out of control that it leads them to isolation. Cody’s narration shows that even a supportive family can cause someone to feel immense pressure to perform. Cody’s struggles with providing for his family after Jack dies put pressure on him. Rather than expressing the pressure that he feels to his mother or finding a healthy way of communicating his anxiety, Cody turns to his gambling addiction to give him relief. Cody’s decision to turn to his addiction rather than expressing his feelings reveals the disconnect between his emotions and his thoughts, especially as a young man. While Cody’s mother is supportive of him, Cody has internalized messaging from society that suggests that men should not express their fears but instead push everything down; as a result, he eventually has no one else to turn to. When Cody does ask Ronnie for help at the end of the novel, he finds that she is more than happy to help him and that she wants him to express his emotions to her. This causes Cody to realize that he should have turned to other people in his life for support earlier; instead, he felt too ashamed to ask anyone for help.
In contrast with Cody’s supportive family, Eden’s family’s control over her life almost destroys her. While she has Andrew to support her emotionally, her family’s emotional abuse leads Eden to believe that she is evil in the eyes of God. While Eden struggles against this because she finally experiences unconditional love in her relationship with Andrew, she internalizes the message that she is not worthy of unconditional love, especially when Jerome abuses her. Eden’s family’s messaging follows her throughout the novel, even after she has decided that she does not want to live with them. Eden experiences guilt and self-hatred when she has sex to survive because of her parents’ dogmatic belief in sexual purity before marriage. Since Eden must offer sex to survive, she experiences self-doubt because she does not know if she can ever be forgiven, either by Andrew or by God. While Eden does not want to give into these beliefs about herself, she finds herself believing that she is not worthy of love because of the things that she has done, even though her actions only stem from her desire to survive the situation that her parents put her in. The characters’ experiences underscore how familial and societal pressures cause them to feel so out of control that they lead them to isolation, create internal struggles, and expose them to dangerous situations.
The Possibility of Healing in the Face of Adversity
Although Tricks deals with difficult themes, Eden’s, Whitney’s, and Ginger’s storylines end with the hope that they will find a way to heal after everything that they have experienced. Since Hopkins describes the graphic abuse that each teenager faces, it initially seems impossible at different points in the novel that they will ever find healing. However, Eden, Whitney, and Ginger all find healing because of their connections to other people. Eden meets several “good Samaritans” throughout her storyline who instill a sense of hope in her about the goodness of other people. While Eden does not find healing directly through these people, their kindness toward her reinforces her belief in the goodness of God, which her parents took from her. When Eden meets Alex at the end of the novel, she takes her kindness and decides to pray in a church afterward. Eden compares herself to Mary Magdalene several times in the novel to signify her desire to find healing, as well as to show that she does want to believe in God. While Eden’s parents’ dogmatic beliefs almost kill her, she finds that she can have faith in God and other people without denying the love that she feels for Andrew.
Whitney’s storyline reveals the changes that can happen to people through severe abuse and addiction. Whitney survives in the motel room because of Ginger’s help after one of her clients attacks her. While Ginger and Whitney do not interact too many times, Ginger’s care for Whitney reminds her of the possibility to find real love and care from other people, rather than the abuse that she experiences from Bryn. Whitney’s survival after her overdose causes her to find healing with the last person she imagines: her mother. Whitney’s experiences cause her mother to realize how her behavior hurt Whitney, which causes her to apologize to her. While Whitney does not feel completely confident that she will heal, she does have a spark of hope after seeing her mother’s change. Hopkins leaves Whitney’s recovery process as a cliffhanger, but Whitney’s ability to forgive her mother signifies the hope for her healing. While the trauma and abuse that the characters faced will follow them, all teenagers find a way forward toward healing with their families or their painful personal experiences.
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