Skeleton Man

“But that is one of the things I do well, melodrama.”

When Molly offers this admission and questions her own perceptions, Bruchac acknowledges that Molly’s fear over her circumstances might only be the product of her active imagination. However, as her suspicions are eventually confirmed, her willingness to admit her fondness for fanciful tales indicates that she is in fact a reliable narrator who is willing to take multiple possibilities into account.

“A tall, elderly, thin man with stooped shoulders, all dressed in gray—even his shoes!—was standing there looking out the windows. […] He turned around and looked at me with a face that was so thin it looked like bone. He didn’t look like an Indian.”

From the first glimpse of Molly’s so-called “great-uncle,” she is shaken by the ominously monstrous aspects of his appearance, and as a result, his appearances in the story are always accompanied by her distinct unease and her certainty that all is not as it seems. Given that the novel opens with an objective summary of the Skeleton Man legend, the details that Bruchac chooses to include at this first glimpse suggest that Molly is indeed facing the Skeleton Man himself.

“And that was that. Unlike in a court of law, when grown-ups make a decision about a kid’s future there is no appeal.”

With this statement, Bruchac highlights the injustice of Molly’s predicament, for she knows very well that she is in danger and yet has no control over her life. The author also establishes the fact that Molly is the ultimate authority on her own experience and should be taken seriously. Likewise, the author’s narration also makes it clear that he holds adults in this situation in disdain.