Willodeen

The story begins in earnest in these chapters. Willodeen wanders the woods, something she does most days rather than attend school, and her concern for Sir Zurt shows how creatures, even ones deemed pests by most people, are important to her. She bestows a title on the old screecher, showing the deep level of respect she has for animals, especially those that manage to survive when the odds are against them. The hunters, motivated by the bounty the village offers for screecher pelts, symbolize one of the problems with disrupting The Balance of Nature. The village is within its rights to offer bounties for the creatures, but these rewards increase the number of hunters and the number of screechers that are killed. The initial result might seem positive to the villagers—they no longer need to deal with screechers’ unpleasant smell—but fewer hummingbears return to Perchance each her. Willodeen discovers the reason for this later in the book, but Applegate foreshadows that screechers and hummingbears are connected by coupling the explanation about Perchance’s hunting culture with this revelation about hummingbears’ disrupted migratory patterns. Without putting restraints on screecher hunting, the animals are driven away and nature’s delicate balance is thrown off.

Along with the screecher smell being unpleasant for residents, Perchance is motivated by tourism revenue. The village thinks that driving out screechers is the best business decision, but in destabilizing the ecosystem, the decision ends up hurting more than helping. The bounty ultimately ended up causing the fair’s attendance to dwindle because fewer hummingbears were migrating to Perchance, making the area less desirable. This cycle symbolizes the problems with short-sighted decision-making and prioritizing money and profit over nature and the environment. The villagers presume that screechers’ unpleasant smell means they have no value, as opposed to hummingbears who are valuable because they attract tourists. Nature does not abide by mankind’s profit motives, and if the villagers tried understanding screechers rather, they might have learned the truth about the ecosystem and not driven the creatures away. These negative consequences are symbolized less abstractly in the fire; out of balance with the ecosystem, very destructive wildfires occur in Perchance, including the one that killed Willodeen’s family.

The theme of All Identities are Valid is also introduced in these chapters through Willodeen’s anecdote about Duuzuu. Her pet hummingbear survived the fire that killed Willodeen’s family but she suffered injuries to her wings. Because of this, the wild hummingbears rejected Duuzuu because she could not fly as they could. Willodeen shows unconditional love to Duuzuu, indicating that she is no less valuable or special just because she’s different. This theme about identity parallels the discoveries Willodeen will make about screechers; their unpleasant smell doesn’t make their lives any less valuable. Their inherent value as living creatures is reflected through Perchance’s loss of tourist revenue after they disappear.