Inkling

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-13

Chapters 14-18

Chapters 19-22

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 14-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 14 Summary

When Ethan comes home, Peter is furious because he was unable to work without Inkling. Ethan says Peter could have done some work alone, but Peter admits he cannot because he is still struggling. Ethan shares that although Inkling helped him with a project, he also created some pictures alone. Peter is proud and understands that Ethan used Inkling’s talents to avoid letting his friends down. They reach an understanding, but they soon discover that Inkling is missing from Ethan’s backpack. They return to school to look for Inkling but find nothing, so they leave to pick up Sarah.

Earlier at school, Vika lured Inkling away with colorful paper and trapped him in a jar. Now, she takes him home to show her dad. Inkling stays still, making Karl believe that he is a toy. Karl comforts Vika and tells her that everything will be fine despite the company’s money problems. Karl then tells her to return Inkling, but she does not agree. On Saturday, Soren talks with Ethan about Inkling. They search Ethan’s backpack and find a blank comic book page. Ethan realizes that someone else must have fed Inkling. They suspect that Vika is the culprit and brainstorm ideas to get Inkling back.

Chapter 15 Summary

Ethan waits in the park for Soren, who shows up with his brother’s new quadcopter drone. They fly the drone to Vika’s house. Ethan goes to Vika’s door to distract her. He meets Vika’s mom, Celine Worthington, who was kind and helpful after Olivia’s death. Celine is happy to see Ethan and calls for Vika. Vika comes down, avoiding eye contact. Celine leaves them alone and returns to grading papers.

Ethan and Vika discuss the project. Ethan claims that Vika is an amazing artist and asks her to teach him, but Vika is suspicious and demands to know why Ethan is there. When he says she knows why, Vika makes him leave. Ethan goes back to the park to help Soren with the drone. A gust of wind blows the drone into Vika’s room, and because Soren has lost sight of it, the drone is even more challenging to fly. The quadcopter crashes into Vika’s bed just as she enters. She takes out Inkling and talks to him, then spots the drone. Ethan tells Soren to fly it away, but Vika grabs a tennis racket and damages it before the boys manage to fly it out of the room. Vika slams the window, saying she knows the drone is Ethan’s doing. Soren flies the damaged drone back, and Ethan promises to pay for repairs. Ethan now knows where Inkling is but has yet to learn how to get him back.

Chapter 16 Summary

Vika puts Inkling in a fish tank and feeds him. Inkling asks about Ethan, and Vika lies, claiming that Ethan loaned the splotch to her. Inkling asks if Vika will let him go if he draws something for her, and she agrees. She brings her father into the room, and Inkling draws a double-page spread. Karl is amazed and tries to grab the picture, but Inkling climbs up his hand. Inkling tries to escape, but Vika traps him in a jar. The glass rim cuts off a piece of Inkling, which falls to the ground, and Vika scoops the rest of Inkling up and traps him again.

Vika feeds the small, severed ink splotch on the ground an Exterminatrix comic and puts it gently in the fish tank. Karl wonders if it will survive. Vika worries that Inkling will not draw for them, but Karl believes he will. Meanwhile, Ethan tells Peter that Vika has stolen Inkling. Peter is preparing to confront Karl, when Karl and Vika unexpectedly arrive at the Rylance house. Karl has questions about Inkling and believes that Peter always used him to create comics. Peter and Ethan explain Inkling’s origins, but Karl does not believe them. He refuses to return Inkling, saying that Inkling cannot belong to anyone if he is a person.

Karl suggests a collaboration, offering to allow Inkling to help finish Peter’s project. However, he wants to move Inkling to the company’s office so that Peter can only work with him there. Karl adds that anything Inkling creates or assists in creating will belong to Karl’s company, Prometheus Comix. Peter rejects this proposal, and Ethan demands that Karl return Inkling. Karl argues that the proposal is an opportunity and insists that he is not stealing Inkling because Inkling does not belong to anyone. Ethan tells Karl to let Inkling out and see what he does, but Karl refuses and leaves with Vika. Ethan is furious and hits the wall until Peter stops him, promising that they will find a solution.

Chapter 17 Summary

Inkling spends the night trying to get out of the jar. Meanwhile, his missing piece eats an array of violent Exterminatrix comics. With every word it eats, the piece gets larger and redder. By morning, the piece is much bigger than Inkling and is only capable of drawing violent words and images. When Vika wakes up, she is surprised by the new ink splotch. She asks its name, and it says “BLOTR,” which Vika translates as Blotter. Vika shows Karl how Blotter has grown, and Blotter draws a picture of a woman holding a bomb and exploding. Karl is impressed, but Vika is not. Inkling worries that the violent comics have influenced Blotter for the worse. Inkling wants to be with Blotter, but he is afraid that Karl is ruining the other ink splotch. Blotter asks for more food, but Karl wants him to draw first. Blotter draws fast, but his pictures are gruesome and violent. Karl is thrilled with the results.

On Monday, Ethan struggles to focus in school. At recess, Vika tells Ethan that Karl is staying home, so he should not even consider stealing Inkling. Ethan says that Vika took Inkling first, and his family needs him, but Vika contends that without Inkling, Karl’s family might lose their company and their house. Sarah interrupts and hugs Vika, telling her to be mad at Lucy. When Vika learns that “Lucy” is Sarah’s name for Inkling, she looks guilty, but she still insists that Peter should work with Karl.

Meanwhile, at the Worthington house, Inkling worries about himself and the Rylance family. He tries to talk to Blotter, but Blotter does not believe that he came from Inkling. Inkling tries to convince Blotter of the need to escape, but Blotter thinks that Inkling must be trapped in the jar for a good reason. Blotter goes back to drawing while Inkling wonders if Ethan will help him.

Chapter 18 Summary

The entire family feels a new weight of grief without Inkling. Ethan promises Sarah they will find Lucy. After Sarah goes to bed, Ethan tells Peter his plan to break into Prometheus Comix and rescue Inkling. Peter thinks it is impossible and argues for working with Karl. Ethan is furious, but Peter argues that working with Karl will allow Peter to finish the book, and they need the money. Peter promises to take care of Inkling and sneak him out later. Ethan is still upset but makes Peter promise to rescue Inkling at the first chance.

At the Worthington house, Blotter finishes his first comic, and Karl is delighted. Vika wants to see it, but Karl says she is too young. Inkling, who saw the comic’s creation, thinks it is violent, poorly drawn, and boring. Vika asks her dad to give Blotter different things to draw, but Karl wants to focus on violent comics because they are popular. Karl tries to get Inkling to draw, but Inkling stays quiet. Vika wants to feed him, but Karl says Inkling has to draw first. Vika worries that Inkling might die, but Karl reassures her and states that if Inkling refuses to draw, they will feed him to Blotter. Inkling feels deeply unhappy; he wanted to reunite with Blotter, but now he worries that Blotter might absorb him completely. Karl wonders aloud what the splotches would create if he were to feed Inkling to Blotter. When he leaves, Vika pressures Inkling to draw something, worried about what might happen to him.

Chapters 14-18 Analysis

The Power of Art and Creativity weaves throughout Inkling as the story explores the complex interplay of the artistic process, the frustration of writer’s block, and the struggle to maintain artistic integrity. Although the novel as a whole is meant to celebrate and showcase multiple art forms, this section examines the darker aspects of artistic expression, particularly the crucial moment when financial pressures outweigh artistic achievement. While artists and writers deserve to be paid for their effort and need to make a living just like everyone else, Oppel uses the character of Blotter to raise implicit questions about the potentially negative effects that such pragmatic pressures can have on the quality of the art that is created as a result.

Rather than taking the idealistic stance that art should only be created for its own sake, Oppel provides examples for a more moderate view, for the primary conflicts of Inkling illustrate that although art that is created solely for money is problematic, striking the right balance can allow art to be both profitable and high-quality. For example, Peter owes his fame as an artist to the success of his “Kren” series, which he created for fun. Even when the series becomes popular and profitable, Peter keeps his creative process intact by ending the series when it feels right rather than giving in to the fans who want more. With this detail, Oppel suggests that commercial success is not a corrupting influence as long as the artist stands their ground and resists changing the essence of their content to for the sake of a higher paycheck.

This underlying moral is further emphasized when Peter abandons his own morals and artistic integrity when money problems become a significant factor in the household. His morally questionable actions are always accompanied by attempts at rationalization, as when he exploits Inkling to finish his work for Karl, arguing that since Inkling is from his imagination, having Inkling write for him is no different than doing it himself. Similarly, he agrees to work with Karl despite his publisher’s blatant theft and imprisonment of Inkling, insisting that the family “need[s] the money” (211). When money comes into play, Peter forgets about his art and uses Inkling’s energy and talent to save himself. Significantly, the narrative also implies that the result of such a forced collaboration would not be of any artistic value even if Peter were to finish his book with Inkling’s help, for any art created under such conditions would no longer be an act of free creation or expression; instead, it would be motivated only by the desire for money.

While Peter’s desperate drive to make money through art without safeguarding his own integrity turns him into a morally gray character, Karls act of holding Inkling (and by extension, Peter) hostage makes the publisher the clear antagonist of the story. While he does not reveal the full extent of his villain status for quite a while, Oppel provides early foreshadowing of Karl’s tendencies when he pushes Peter to copy a popular but violent comic. Accordingly, Karl’s greed worsens when he finds out about Inkling. At first, he takes the moral high ground, telling Vika that the Rylance’s odd behavior “doesn’t make it okay to sneak around their house. Or steal” (173). However, Karl’s greed takes over as soon as he realizes the profit to be gained by stealing and exploiting Inkling. When Ethan argues that Inkling is a person, Karl replies, “if he’s a person, how can he belong to anyone” (196)? He gaslights Peter and Ethan by arguing that although Inkling came from Peter’s imagination and Vika stole him from Ethan’s backpack, “it doesn’t mean you own him. And maybe Inkling wants to do his own thing now. A change” (196). Karl’s greed overcomes his ethics, and he moves solidly into the role of an antagonist.

Karl’s behavior from this point forward clearly illustrates his lack of respect for the artists whose work provides a basis for his company to exist. Similarly, he shows no sense of discernment for what constitutes high-quality art, for he simply feeds Blotter “every single issue of Exterminatrix and all the copycat bestsellers [he] could get [his] hands on” (212). Thus, Blotter becomes an exaggerated monstrosity that symbolizes the end result of Karl’s own inner drives; instead of growing into an autonomous and creative being like Inkling, Blotter grows bloated on a diet of crude violence and becomes a repugnant caricature of Karl’s worst impulses. The goal of Blotter’s work is not to embrace artistic expression; like Karl, his only goal is to make money. Thus, Blotter’s work lacks the originality that made Peter’s “Kren” series so popular, and when Oppel accordingly describes the ill-tempered splotch’s work as being “embarrassingly dull-witted and, well, boring” (213). As the novel’s conflict increases in intensity during the days of Inkling’s imprisonment and Blotter’s growth, Oppel clearly uses these events to argue that art motivated exclusively by money is not art.

Even Karl’s company name, Prometheus Comix, hints at Karl’s true nature, for the original Prometheus was a Greek god who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans, after which the gods punished him with eternal suffering. Within the context of Oppel’s novel, the figure of Prometheus therefore represents stealing something unique and precious and giving it to those who have not earned it and therefore cannot fully appreciate it. Likewise, just as the original Prometheus played with fire and was metaphorically burned, Oppel implies that Karl is doing the same, for he is meddling with something that he does not entirely understand, and his actions will have unintended consequences.