Snapdragon

The latter half of Part 2 resolves Snap’s journey to learn magic and stresses The Strength of Found Family.

Violet worries that she’s “been relying on [Snap] to take care of herself too much” (185), but when it counts, both she and Jacks show up for Snap. Violet has been steadily supportive of Snap through the entire narrative. Jacks has also been supportive but had to adjust to having a young person she cares for in her life. Jacks’s biggest fear and the reason she and Jessie broke up was that she would treat a child the way her parents treated her, ostracizing them for being different. She has kept her distance from people to ensure this never happens.

When Snap loses control of her magic and hits a car, Jacks says, “You sent your raw power flying at a car…that whatchu wanted? No. Then it didn’t work” (181). For Jacks, with her history of being ostracized by her family and the town, harming a civilian is the worst thing that could happen. An innocent person getting injured might feed peoples’ confirmation bias against witches, falsely convincing them that they really are dangerous. This fear makes her short with Snap, dismissing her before there is real resolution to their conflict. This is the beginning of the test of character Jacks faces regarding whether she will replicate the trauma instilled by her own parents.

Jacks’s true character is revealed when One-Eyed Tom, with their shared eye, sees Snap being hurt by Chuck. Though Jacks hasn’t ridden her motorcycle out of guilt since hitting One-Eyed Tom, she tries to ride again. Jacks’s respectful treatment of roadkill helps her save Snap; her motorcycle is out of gas, so a spirit of a buck Jacks helped animates the motorcycle to get it running. Thus, the empathetic way Jacks has conducted herself in the past plays a role in proving that she is different from her parents in the present.

After she and Violet chase Chuck away, Jacks tells Snap, “I owe you an apology…Just because you weren’t doing things my way doesn’t mean your way was wrong…I was being stubborn” (208). Jacks knows the pain of being scorned by adults and does not want to pass that trauma on. In response, Snap hugs Jacks and admits that she understands the lessons Jacks was trying to teach her better now. Both grow a stronger interpersonal relationship.

Snap has also discovered what triggers her magic and how she can tap into energy: When the people she loves are threatened or need help. The first time she accidentally used magic, Lulu was wishing that she had long hair. Snap used her magic to help Lulu achieve the feminine hairstyle she wanted. The second time she used magic, it was to protect a baby possum. And the third time, it was to tame the large dogs that Chuck was misusing to attack Snap and her family.

After using magic this third time, Snap understands what Jacks means about the important uses of magic. Magic is the strongest when it is used to help Snap’s family, like Violet, and found family, like Jacks and Lulu. After Chuck’s attack, Snap realizes that even if she seems different, this difference leads her to care fiercely about her loved ones. This care culminates in her invitation for Jacks to formally join their family at Thanksgiving Dinner, uniting her with Jessie again. This gives Jacks a happy ending she didn’t think was possible at this stage in her life.

Snap’s use of magic forges an example for Lulu, who decides she also wants to be a witch. Unlike Snap, who uses her magic to protect, Lulu wants to use magic to create. She wants to be able to “grow plants like Jacks” to help her grandfather’s farm or father’s herb garden (216). When Lulu places a seed in the sun and leaves her room, the seed sprouts with a twinkle of purple magic. Since Lulu is applying her will and energy toward something she truly cares about—like Jacks saving animal spirits or Snap protecting her loved ones—her magic helps the seedling.