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Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Great Gilly Hopkins, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Home
Fantasy, Lies, and Growing Up
Bigotry, Insecurity, and Shared Humanity
The Foster Care System
Summary
Analysis
Gilly exaggerated as she described some aspects of her life to Courtney, but Trotter is, in Gilly’s opinion, an actual “religious fanatic.” She reads her Bible daily, prays often, and attends church for hours on Sunday. Church is terrible for Gilly. An old woman named Miss Minnie Applegate oversees the Sunday school class. In addition to talking often about how someone named Billy Sunday saved her, she does things like talk about the Ten Commandments and then refuse to define “adultery.” Gilly is the only one in the class who knows what adultery is, so she earns another $0.78 by enlightening her classmates and spreading pertinent gossip she has gleaned from Agnes. The preacher is extremely young, and Gilly finds him insufferable. Mr. Randolph attends the Black Baptist church, which is fancier and seems more fun than Trotter’s White church.
Trotter continues to implement clear rules and boundaries, such as that Gilly and William Ernest attend church with her and watch their language (as evidenced by her taking offense to Gilly saying “hell” once in her first few days). As obnoxious as this is for Gilly, it’s nevertheless reliable—there’s no question as to what Trotter expects of Gilly. And to Gilly’s credit, she makes the most of her church experience by highlighting inconsistencies and hypocrisy, and by helping her classmates understand what Miss Applegate won’t teach them.
Themes
The week after Gilly’s failed dusting attempt, Mr. Randolph reveals over Sunday supper that his son is visiting later. Gilly is immediately anxious. What if the son knows about the money on Mr. Randolph’s shelf and suspects someone took it? After pie, Mr. Randolph asks if he’s spilled any crumbs on himself, since his son is picky. He’s spilled on his tie, so Trotter asks Gilly to go look through Melvin Trotter’s ties in her closet and choose a “nice one,” not one of the ridiculous ones he started wearing near the end of his life. Giggling, Mr. Randolph asks for one of the silly ones—he’s certain it’ll annoy his son.
Gilly is finding her theft and lies increasingly difficult to keep up with. She doesn’t want to get caught, and she’s also developing closer relationships with Trotter and Mr. Randolph that makes the prospect of them finding out she stole from Mr. Randolph even worse. This is the first that Trotter mentions her late husband, and this brief introduction helps to humanize Trotter more. She may have loved him, but he also had his (humorous) faults.
Themes
Disgusted by Mr. Randolph and Trotter’s familiarity—they aren’t even the same skin color—Gilly races upstairs. Really, she’s mostly upset at the possibility of Mr. Randolph’s son, a lawyer, discovering her theft. When she notices Trotter’s purse, Gilly looks through it and discovers that Trotter must have just cashed the welfare check. There’s at least $100—Gilly can get to California now. She chooses a tie with ballerinas on it, stashes the cash in her room, and stomps down the stairs. Trotter deems the tie “the worst crime Melvin ever committed,” but Mr. Randolph is delighted. Trotter grudgingly ties the new one for him, and William Ernest walks Mr. Randolph back home.
Again, this passage makes it very clear that while Gilly shift to racist thought patterns, what’s actually motivating that shift is fear, not genuine, ideological racism. There is, of course, nothing wrong with Mr. Randolph or Trotter, or their friendship—but Gilly fears getting in trouble, and she takes it out on the adults. Finding the money allows Gilly to cement her plan to leave and reunite with Courtney, which she believes will free her from uncomfortable situations at Trotter’s. However, she fails to consider that even Courtney almost certainly has faults. Gilly idealizes her mother, but the novel has already shown that Courtney’s behavior leaves plenty to be desired.
Themes
After helping Trotter clean up, Gilly excuses herself upstairs, leaving Trotter and William Ernest in front of the TV. She has to go now. Gilly packs her things and sneaks downstairs to her coat. Trotter had been planning to buy her a new one as soon as this check came in. But as Gilly grabs her jacket, William Ernest asks where she’s going and begs her not to go. Gilly insists she must and runs out of the house, continuing for several blocks. Her jacket isn’t warm enough, but luckily, California is always sunny.
Gilly’s selfishness (her desire to get out and find Courtney in sunny California) contrasts immensely with Trotter’s Trotter plans to attend to Gilly’s obvious needs, as by purchasing her a new coat. It’s subtle, but the clarification that the cash came from a welfare check highlights one aspect of the safety net that exists to help foster parents like Trotter care for kids. It’s intended to keep Gilly comfortable and safe here—not with Courtney.
Themes
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Gilly reaches the bus station at dusk and tries to make herself look as old as possible in the bathroom. She approaches the ticket counter and stammering, asks for a one-way ticket to San Francisco. She tells the clerk she’s visiting her mother when he asks if she’s alone, and then he shocks her: the bus doesn’t leave for another four hours. Gilly wants to leave now. Sighing, the clerk says he’ll check the routes and try to get her a sooner bus with a transfer. He keeps her money and sends her to sit. Gilly waits anxiously, watching the clerk talk on the phone and then help another couple. Angry—she was here first—she starts for the counter.
Despite Gilly’s efforts, she fails to look mature and in control as she purchases her bus ticket. In fact, the insight into her thought process as she waits—that she was here first, and her insistence that the clerk prioritize her more difficult request instead of helping easier customers—reveals an extremely childish understanding of how the world works. Gilly is out of her depth, and this calls into question whether she’ll make it to San Francisco at all.
Themes
Gilly doesn’t see the policeman until he grabs her arm and asks if she’s going to San Francisco alone. The clerk must’ve called him. Gilly refuses to tell him where she lives or give him a phone number. When the clerk hands the policeman her cash in an envelope, she insists she didn’t steal it. He doesn’t seem to believe her. Not knowing what else to do, Gilly lets the officer drive her to the station. There, two officers question Gilly and look through her suitcase. One finds the photograph of Courtney, angering Gilly, and another finds the postcard. It constitutes proof that she does know someone in San Francisco, but it also has her Thompson Park address on it. Gilly just stares at the officers, refusing to answer their questions.
The officers treat Gilly like a criminal, despite her only being 11 years old. This highlights some of the ways in which kids in general suffer as they encounter systems that are ostensibly there to help them, but that are emotionless and don’t always attend to the needs and limitations of young people. That said, Gilly did steal money for her ticket, and it remains to be seen how she’ll have to answer for her crime. Gilly is so angry when the police find the photo of Courtney because she’s kept it private for so long, as a result of her fear and the trauma she suffered when Courtney abandoned her.
Themes
A half-hour later, Trotter and William Ernest race into the station. Gilly can only hear Trotter’s replies to the officers’ questions. Trotter tells them her name, Miss Ellis’s name, explains that Gilly is a foster child, and says she has no money to pay the taxi outside. The officers produce the envelope of money and pay the taxi, and Trotter says she has no intention of pressing charges against a child. Turning finally to Gilly, Trotter says she’s here to take Gilly home. Gilly wasn’t afraid Trotter would press charges, but she can’t go back now—Gilly the Great can’t even properly run away, and her fingernails are dirty. She stays silent, and the officers suggest they keep Gilly overnight, in jail, where she’ll be safe. Trotter is distraught.
Trotter sees no reason to formally punish Gilly by pressing charges—she recognizes full well that Gilly is trying to cope with trauma and abandonment, and she sees no reason to needlessly increase Gilly’s suffering. Gilly, however, is unable to bring herself to accept this gift due to her own poor self-image. She’s built herself up to be “Gilly the Great”—but if she can’t successfully pull off an escape, and if she can’t keep herself clean enough to not appear visibly poor, she doesn’t feel good or worthy.
Themes
Suddenly, William Ernest rushes to Gilly, hits her knees, and begs her to come home. Gilly feels her brain suddenly unfreeze, and she takes his hand. The officer reminds Gilly she doesn’t have to go if she doesn’t want to, but Gilly just nods. An officer drives them home.
William Ernest’s emotional outburst, more than Trotter’s, shows Gilly that she’s genuinely wanted and loved. It helps her to shift her thinking and understand that her foster situation might not be exactly what she wanted, but it is giving her a chosen family—and perhaps, at least for now, that’s enough.
Themes
