50 pages • 1 hour read
Lindsay CurrieScritch Scratch
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Water
Water is the primary motif in Scritch Scratch. It is one of the most important clues in the mystery. The first time Claire sees the ghost of Willie Novotny, he is soaking wet. When she investigates the seat where he was sitting on the tour bus, she notes that it is damp, as is the paper that reads “396.” On Monday morning, her dresser is flooded with water, and one night, the ghost leaves wet footprints on her floor. He often haunts bathrooms: on the bus, at school, and twice in Claire’s house. He turns on faucets, flushes toilets, and makes the bathtub overflow.
All of these incidents are his way of telling Claire that he died by drowning. Readers who are paying close attention to the list of stops on the ghost tour at the beginning of the story might notice that only one of them has to do with water: the wreck of the SS Eastland. It is very common in ghost stories for ghosts to have traits related to their manner of death, and Willie Novotny is no exception. Mystery stories sometimes include enough information for readers to figure out the answer on their own, and the water motif in Scritch Scratch is intended as just such a hint for readers. Claire never realizes what the water signifies on her own. She only makes the connection after Willie leaves a piece of paper in the bathtub that reads “Eastland.” This allows the reader the chance to make the connection before she does.
Makeup
The conflict between Claire, Casley, and Emily revolves largely around makeup. Makeup as a symbol is essential to the novel’s exploration of the changing lives of girls as they reach later adolescence, especially the pressure on their physical appearance. At first Claire sees this change as a threat to her and a cause for jealousy and rejects it as a negative influence.
Before Emily moved to town, Claire and Casley bonded primarily over their shared love of science. Now that Casley is friends with Emily, she loves borrowing Emily’s makeup and trying out new looks. Emily encourages Claire to wear lipstick, which makes Claire angry because she sees makeup as a vain and frivolous hobby that is drawing her best friend away from her. Casley sees nothing wrong with wearing makeup and seems to see an interest in makeup as a natural or even inevitable part of growing up. She says, “Things change, Claire. It isn’t a bad thing” (116).
Later, Claire realizes that Emily wears makeup to distract herself from her parents’ divorce and the big, painful changes happening in her life. She agrees to wear lipstick, a moment that symbolizes her acceptance of Casley and Emily’s friendship and willingness to join in. As Claire’s attitude alters, the novel models healthy ways for young people to navigate these life changes. Claire remembers her mother telling her that wearing makeup is each girl’s individual choice, which she must respect. Exploring makeup is framed as a normative, positive, and accepted part of growing up as a girl. At the end of the story, Warner notes that “most girls” are interested in makeup, and Sam teases Claire for being the exception. The fact they both respect and like her—Warner as a “crush”—emphasizes that her preference is also valid, as long as she respects others’.
The Scientific Method
The scientific method is an important motif that underpins the novel’s procedural mystery plot, suspense, and its emphasis on ingenuity, thinking, and problem-solving. At first, it is set up as a classic “head versus heart” binary for those things that are emotional, supernatural, or unexplained, but the novel shows how it can be used more flexibly alongside feelings to great effect.
Claire is very interested in science. Her desire to categorize things in rational terms is partly a way for her to deal with her fear of ghosts and the paranormal: She is always seeking a rational explanation. Her friendship with Casley used to be based partly on their shared love of science, but Casley is now more interested in makeup. For Claire, the scientific method symbolizes hope and her journey of Overcoming Fear. If she can use the scientific method to understand why she is being haunted and to put the ghost of boy 396 to rest, maybe her life can return to normal.
Claire and Sam both use the scientific method to observe the haunting and then research real tragedies in Chicago’s history. They eventually form a hypothesis: that the ghost haunting Claire died on the SS Eastland. They go to the site of the Eastland disaster as an experiment, which they deem successful when Claire has a vision of the boat sinking. They draw their conclusion: Willie Novotny wants the history of the SS Eastland to be remembered so that he can be at peace. The inclusion of the scientific method in Scritch Scratch also functions as a teachable moment for young readers, who will likely also be learning about the scientific method in school. They can apply what they have learned in Scritch Scratch to real research projects.
