Night of the Twisters

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1984

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-11

Chapter 12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Friendship as Sustenance

One of the main themes of Night of the Twisters is friendship. The book’s central friendship is between Dan Hatch and his best friend Arthur Darlington. Dan and Arthur have a strong connection with one another that helps them endure and survive a terrifying experience. Before Dan’s brother Ryan was born, Dan’s mom referred to Dan and Arthur as her “twins” (18). Although there are differences between Dan and Arthur both physically and in terms of personality, Dan explains they “were practically inseparable” (18). They do everything together and consider themselves to be “blood relatives” (18).

Dan and Arthur’s friendship is crucial to surviving through the night of the twisters. They keep one another calm and depend on each other for survival. When the first tornado is about to hit, Arthur is at Dan’s house but decides he wants to go home to help his family. Dan stops him by holding him down on the basement floor, yelling to him that the twister is already there (52-53). They offer one another moral support when they are trapped in the basement, taking turns holding Ryan so each can attempt to find a way out. Dan is also able to change Ryan, who is turning blue from the cold, into a towel “with Arthur’s help” (68).

Dan’s friendship with Stacey, Arthur’s sister, is also significant. Stacey’s concern and empathy for others brings her closer to Dan, particularly as she is crucial to rescuing him—as well as Arthur and Ryan—from Dan’s basement. Her nurturing qualities are revealed as she then takes charge of Ryan so Dan can focus his attention on finding his mom. When she helps Dan and Arthur get Belle Smiley out of her basement, Dan starts to think of her as a “rescuing angel” (93). Later, after they are taken to the women’s section of police headquarters to spend the night, both Stacey and Arthur joke around with Dan to try to be lighthearted. They know Dan is worried about his family. Stacey also acts as a calming presence for Dan by praying with him and holding his hand as they try to go to sleep. Dan holds “her hand tight,” closing his eyes “against the terrifying dark” (130).

Dan’s friendships with Arthur and Stacey grow stronger amidst the chaos. They see how much they need each other and how important friendship is during a crisis. Had they not had one another, the situation might have been much worse. Dan and Arthur are together through almost everything that occurs on the night of the twisters. Their friendship sustains the most harrowing situation both have ever lived through. At the end of the book, Arthur is over for dinner a year later, helping Dan and his family prepare for a feast that Arthur’s family will also attend. The last scene shows Dan and Arthur in the bathroom, getting ready for dinner, with Arthur grinning. They respond to Dan’s mom’s request for help in unison, showing that their connection is as solid as ever.

The Strength of Family

Family is a central theme of the book as Dan’s relationship with his family grows stronger throughout the story. Dan starts out with a strained relationship with his parents and baby brother, Ryan. He describes his mom’s nerves as “frazzled” (19) since Ryan was born. However, he doesn’t do much to help her, which upsets his dad. Before the twisters come, Dan’s dad asks him to help his mom with the dishes. When Dan protests because Arthur is over, his dad gets angry. As his dad leaves the house, he tells Dan, “The sun doesn’t rise and set on you!”(26). Dan is upset by the comment and continues to think about what his dad said to him for a while afterward.

Dan is also dismissive about his Aunt Goldie. He trivializes her interests and feels he gets “stuck having to enroll in her personal fulfillment classes every summer” (10). When she stops over before going bowling, Dan tells her he and Arthur are going for a bike ride because he doesn’t “want to get stuck having to sit there and talk to her” (28). However, Dan is most resentful about the presence of his baby brother. He feels that he and his parents were “one small happy family for eleven great years” (19) before Ryan came long and they “could have gone on that way forever—without Ryan” (19). Dan used to be the center of attention and Dan feels Ryan has taken that away from him. Meals at the dinner table used to be “nice and peaceful” (22) but now everyone is always fussing over Ryan.

The night of the twisters changes Dan’s relationship with his family. It shows him how important they are to him, especially his brother Ryan. When the first tornado comes, Dan grabs Ryan from his bedroom and takes him to the basement to wait out the storm with him and Arthur. Dan knows that since his mom has left to help their neighbor, Belle Smiley, he alone must take care of his brother. Taking charge of the situation and protecting Ryan shows Dan how much he loves his brother. As he delivers Ryan safely to his mom, he resolves to “make sure he had the best big brother who ever lived, that’s what I’d do” (82). When he’s in the women’s section of the jail, he thinks how he had resented Ryan and wonders “how I could have felt that way about him” (124). Dan’s inability to understand his earlier attitude shows how much he’s changed over the course of one night.

Being separated from his parents during such harrowing circumstances also makes Dan realize how much he needs and appreciates them. His only mission is to be reunited with his family. He knows when he sees them again all the tension from earlier will be forgotten. He is so desperate to be with them that he starts running alone to his house in a potentially dangerous situation to search for them. He decides “home base is home base, no matter how much it’s been torn up” (139). When his family finds him, they all hug emotionally “with Ryan squished in the middle” (140). Dan learns that his dad had been searching all over to find everyone. Later, Aunt Goldie makes it out to the farm where everyone is staying, and they are all together again. While Dan’s friendships get him through the worst of the storm, his family is what motivates him to stay safe and protect Ryan. There is nothing more important to him than his family.

Community and Close Bonds

The theme of community is present throughout the book. Before the twisters come, people in Dan’s neighborhood look after one another. Although not all the neighbors know each other, the ones that do try to take care of each other. Dan and Arthur’s families live close, and they also live near Aunt Goldie. Everyone sees each other regularly and they all support each other. For example, Dan and Arthur regularly attend Aunt Goldie’s crafts class, which is one of her side projects. Dan and Arthur’s families are also close with their elderly neighbor, Belle Smiley. Dan and Arthur go to her house before the tornado comes to admire her new door.

Once the twisters hit, the theme of community intensifies. As the first tornado approaches, Dan’s mom leaves her house to check on Belle Smiley. She’s worried because she can’t reach Mrs. Smiley on the phone when the sirens first start going off. She tells Dan and Arthur she’s “driving over to make sure she has her TV on.” (44). After the first tornado, when Dan finds his mom and she tells him Mrs. Smiley wasn’t responding when she tried to call down to her in her basement, Dan, Arthur, and Stacey volunteer to find her. At first Dan’s mom is hesitant, but Dan argues they have flashlights and they “can get there lots faster than those firemen who have to search every house along the way” (84). Once they rescue Mrs. Smiley and get her safely on the bus, she tells them she would “sure enough have perished if it hadn’t been for you kids” (99). She then invites them to come by soon for cookies.

Another example of the strength of the community is when Stacey rescues Dan, Arthur, and Ryan from Dan’s basement. Immediately after the first tornado, Stacey rushes out to Dan’s house to find Dan and Arthur. She then helps pull them out the basement, along with Ryan, to safety. While she’s concerned about her brother, she’s also concerned about Dan and his family. When Dan tells Stacey he’s not going anywhere without finding his mom, she puts her arm around him and reassures him by telling him “We’ll find her, you’ll see” (73). She then sets out with them to search for her.

In the aftermath of the storm, when everything must be rebuilt, Dan marvels that “Suddenly, everyone became our neighbor” (148). They “were coming out of the woodwork” (148). The Red Cross, the National Guard, the Mennonites, and other volunteers from all over the country come together to help with the relief efforts. In their neighborhood, Belle Smiley puts together an “open house” (149) in which she serves some of her dozens of jars of canned goods that the Mennonites retrieve from the basement. It becomes “a neighborhood gathering place” (149) where you could go to “gather your wits” (149). Dan, Arthur, and their dads go several times. Enduring the twisters and their aftermath not only requires friends and family, but neighbors and community as well. People need one another and they all understand that no one can rebuild alone.

Towards the end of the book, the strength of the community is still evident at Mrs. Smiley’s funeral. “Everyone in the neighborhood, even the Catholics, who generally went to Mass, attended her final open house,” (152) Dan explains. He’s “truly sorry” that she wasn’t able to see how many people came out for her “fine funeral” (152). As Dan and Arthur’s families gather for an anniversary celebration a year after the twisters, Dan knows they’re “all going to miss” (151) Mrs. Smiley. In such a tight-knit community, everyone feels the absence of such a beloved member.