82 pages • 2 hours read
Robert BeattySerafina and the Black Cloak
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Identity and Self-Discovery
Serafina’s curiosity about her origin and her identity is strong at the start of the story, and it only grows stronger when she learns that Pa adopted her. She realized long ago that she is a bit different, both innately (her eyesight, her agility, her toes, her flexibility) and in her living circumstances. She hopes that those differences will not prevent her from someday making friends.
Hearing the story of her birth (what Pa knows of it) prompts her questions about her mother anew. It is important to Serafina to learn more about her mother and her background; she hopes it will explain exactly what she is, as at times, she does not feel human. This does not stop her from bravely pursuing friendship with the young master of the estate, Braeden. In fact, after several conversations, Serafina works up the courage to ask him, “When you look at me, do you see…do you see…a normal girl?” (168). Braeden diplomatically discusses how everyone has differences, and that he likes Serafina because of hers, not in spite of them; he points out what makes him different as well—for example, he communes with his animals on a level others do not understand.
Serafina is emboldened by his reaction, and the two work closely seeking clues, but when she is separated from Braeden and has a chance once more to think about her identity, she grows pensive: “She stood for a long time, thinking about why she was alive and the others weren’t, and she asked herself again: Was she good or was she evil? She had been born in and lived in a world of darkness, but which side was she on? Darkness or light?” (223). Now the traits that make her different aren’t just about physicality and skills, but about inner motivations and moral decisions. This deepens the seriousness of her questions about identity. Consequently, her trying on the Cloak to see how it fits is a logical action symbolizing her deliberation whether she is more good or evil.
Ultimately, Serafina discovers that she cares for others; her concern over Braeden shows her this, and her defeat of the Man in the Black Cloak proves that she will be a skilled guardian of the estate and its residents. Moreover, she learns that her individual differences should not dictate her path but can assist her through challenges: “And she knew her fate wasn’t set by how or where she was born, but by the decisions she made and the battles she fought. It didn’t matter if she had eight toes or ten, amber eyes or blue. What mattered was what she set out to do” (292).
A Home for Oneself
Serafina is content in her basement lodgings with Pa. She likes finding nooks and crannies for her daytime naps, and “She’d always had a hankering for sitting quietly in dark, confined spaces” (63). She feels “most at home” (1) on her mattress in the workshop behind the boiler. Part of her contentment comes from her job as the Chief Rat Catcher; another is that she loves her Pa, their mealtimes together, and his companionship. Now that Serafina is growing older, though, she has plenty of questions about who she really is and where she came from—as well as how she might someday be someone’s friend. These curiosities manifest in her nightly prowling around the basement and often further—into the upper floors of Biltmore. Her passion for stories is an important part of feeling contentment in her home as well. She often borrows books and returns them without anyone being the wiser.
Several times Serafina thinks of Biltmore as her home and appreciates its appearance from the edge of the forest and especially after spending her first night away from it in the carriage trapped on the roadway. Her tenacity in finding the “rat” Mr. Thorne and defeating him is partly motivated by her desire to keep Biltmore rat-free and safe from intruders. Even after Serafina reveals herself to the Vanderbilts and their guests near the end of the story, and she communicates to Mrs. Vanderbilt exactly where she sleeps, she is content to stay in the basement—with the happy addition of a nicer bed and soft linens and pillows.
Braeden’s character also communicates the idea of a home for oneself. Braeden lost his home and family in a fire, and the Vanderbilts brought him to live at Biltmore. Braeden represents the struggle one can have feeling at home even with a solid roof overhead, symbolized by his challenges in navigating the mansion despite living there. His character also demonstrates how a home can depend on one’s comfort level with one’s companions, symbolized by the four carriage horses Braeden requested be brought to Biltmore from his old home. Braeden feels more at home in the company of his dog and horses.
The Power of Courage Combined with Skill
Serafina demonstrates a number of skills that make her unique: she can hide, track, and hunt; she is agile and can see in the dark. These talents make her a very capable Chief Rat Catcher, for example, in the opening sequence of the story. She possesses animal-like reflexes and instincts, but her human side always wins out in terms of caring for others, generosity of spirit, and decision-making. In the opening scene, once she catches the rats, she determines to let them go at the edge of the forest. The rats are surprised at her charity (but quickly take advantage of it). In addition to her skills and her magnanimity, Serafina is courageous. She combines her courage and skills to become a powerful force.
In the subbasement where she first sees the Man in the Black Cloak, her fear almost wins out—the cloak is about to consume her soul as it did Clara Brahms’s moments before—but Serafina’s courage swells up, prompting her cat-like skills to kick in: “Hissing wildly, she reached up and clutched his face, clawing at his eyes. She kicked his chest with her feet. She bit him repeatedly, snapping like a snarling, rabid beast, and she tasted his blood in her mouth. The girl in the yellow dress had fought, but nothing like this” (23). Later, when the mountain lioness attacks her in the clearing near the old cemetery, there is a similar wave of courage that heightens her reflexes: “[…] Serafina slammed her hands into the lioness’s face and tore at her eyes, then whirled herself into a wild, twisting frenzy […] Then she sprang up and darted away like a scalded dog” (144). Near the climax of the story, it takes perhaps the most courage for Serafina to utilize skills that are not instinctive to her: She walks slowly and in the open down a corridor of the mansion to bait the Man in the Black Cloak. She also slows her speed through the forest so that he can track her. This combination of skills, courage, and cunning leads to her triumph over Mr. Thorne and the Cloak.
Other examples of this theme include Braeden’s courage and skill with calming his team of four horses when they are trapped on the forest road. There is also Pa’s courage, skill, and perseverance in repairing the sabotaged dynamo to provide light to Biltmore once more.
