Inkling

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-13

Chapters 14-18

Chapters 19-22

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

When Ethan wakes up, he finds Inkling playing with Sarah. Sarah is delighted when Inkling forms into a dog, and she names him Lucy. Ethan has Inkling hide when Peter comes in, and Sarah tells her dad about the “puppy.” Ethan mentions that Sarah desperately wants a dog, and Peter replies noncommittally. In school that day, everyone is very impressed with Inkling’s work. Vika accuses Ethan of having Peter do the drawings, but Ethan replies that he received no help from his father. Although this is objectively true, Ethan still feels guilty. Later, Ethan and his friend Soren walk home from school together, and Ethan confesses that he did not do the drawings. Ethan takes Soren to the Rylance’s house to show him Inkling.

Whenever Ethan is in school, Inkling feels the compulsion to find something to do. Inkling immerses himself in the comic books in Ethan’s desk drawers, absorbing all the stories. The colors and stories fill Inkling with energy. He swirls around the hallway until he finds a vintage King Kong poster. When Ethan enters his house with Soren, they find the hallway covered with onomatopoeia words and colorful designs. Ethan immediately searches for Inkling but finds Peter first. Fortunately, Peter does not notice the changes in the house and quickly returns to his studio.Ethan runs to his bedroom, Soren trailing behind, to find Inkling charging toward him shaped like a giant gorilla. Ethan yells at him to stop, and Inkling argues that he should not have to listen to a tiny human. Ethan replies that if Inkling does not clean up his mess, Peter will find out and will return Inkling to the sketchbook. Inkling returns immediately to his ink splotch form and cleans up the mess.

Once the house is clean, Ethan, Inkling, and Soren return to Ethan’s bedroom, where Inkling tells them about the comics he devoured. Ethan decides that comics are unsuitable for Inkling, particularly the ones he got from Soren’s brother, which tend to be violent. Ethan hands Inkling Anne of Green Gables to eat and explains Inkling’s existence to Soren. The boys have Inkling try to absorb a picture on Soren’s phone, but Inkling cannot do this; in fact, the splotch cannot even see the picture on the screen. Ethan explains that he cannot draw, and Soren accepts this news readily. They agree not to tell anyone else about Inkling. Inkling, interrupted in his “reading,” asks Ethan if they are friends, which Ethan confirms. Inkling flows onto Ethan’s hand, and asserting that he wants a better look at Ethan, climbs Ethan’s arm and spreads over his face, almost suffocating him. Ethan catches his breath, and Inkling apologizes. The splotch did not realize that he could hurt Ethan that way. Ethan accepts that it was an accident, but Soren expresses concern and wants to talk to his brother about Inkling. Ethan refuses.

Chapter 6 Summary

That night, Inkling explores the Rylance house again. He feels a pull toward the studio, though the sketchbook still frightens him. When Inkling spies Rickman, he hides in Peter’s room. As he settles on the nightstand next to Peter’s head, he begins drawing compulsively and realizes that he is drawing Peter’s dreams. This means that he is a part of Peter rather than the sketchbook. Inkling draws a hospital bed but is interrupted by Rickman. Quickly, Inkling erases the drawing and rushes into the hallway. He scares Rickman by turning into a cobra and then returns to Ethan’s room.

Sarah wakes Ethan in the morning, looking for Lucy, so Inkling greets her in puppy form. Rickman enters the room and attacks Inkling, and Sarah yells at the cat. Ethan carries Rickman out of the room, and Inkling hides. Ethan tries to look for him, but his morning chores keep him too busy, and he does not realize that Inkling is now hiding in Ethan’s backpack, enjoying The BFG while Ethan is in school. During the school day, Vika challenges Ethan to a drawing demonstration to prove that the new illustrations are his. Ethan agrees but starts to panic. When he begins, he sees Inkling at the tip of his pen. Inkling starts to draw, with Ethan following his movements with the pen, creating the illusion that Ethan is the one creating the pictures. When Ethan finishes, everyone cheers, but Vika looks at the drawing suspiciously. Inkling begins to return to Ethan’s backpack but gets distracted by Soren’s bright red shoes. Inkling tries to eat the ink but is unsuccessful. Unfortunately, the lunch bell rings with Inkling still on Soren’s shoe. Ethan panics and tries to find Inkling, then notices him on Soren’s shoe. Ethan and Soren walk to the lunchroom with Inkling still on Soren’s shoe, but Inkling suddenly jumps off Soren’s shoe and dashes into the locked art room.

Chapter 7 Summary

Inkling dashes into the art room, lured by the ink scent. Excitement fills him as he spots other splotches and hopes to find creatures like himself. Disappointment hits when he realizes they are just splotches. Annoyed, he decides to turn them into drawings. Ethan and Soren enter the room, accompanied by Mr. Sawyer, the art teacher. Soren praises the artwork, but Mr. Sawyer is baffled by the excellent pictures now replacing second-grader action art projects. Ethan grabs Inkling, who is still on a piece of paper, and the boys exit, leaving the bewildered art teacher. Ethan and Soren talk to Inkling in the bathroom, who complains about feeling alone. Ethan comforts the splotch, urging him not to run off again.Soren asks to borrow Inkling to cheat on his history test, suggesting it is similar to how Ethan uses him. An argument ensues, and the friends part ways angrily.

After school, Ethan asks Inkling to teach him how to draw. They work for 20 minutes, and although Ethan improves, the gap between his work and Inkling’s remains significant. Inkling tweaks Ethan’s work for consistency, but Ethan decides to tackle as much of the graphic novel as he can without assistance. During dinner, Sarah shares stories about “Lucy.” Peter becomes frustrated with the repeated tales, leading to a brief argument between him and Ethan. Peter also announces that his publisher, Karl Worthington, is visiting with his daughter, Vika.

Chapter 8 Summary

Karl and Vika visit. Vika asks about Peter’s latest book, and Peter pretends that things are going well. Vika mentions the graphic novel project, but Peter seems to have forgotten it. Peter asks Vika and Ethan to watch Sarah, and the children move to the living room to watch TV. Vika talks with Sarah before asking for directions to the washroom. Ethan points her there and then eavesdrops on Peter and Karl in the hallway. Karl is lecturing Peter about the necessity of creating new comics, noting that Peter must be short on money after two years without working. He gives Peter a comic titled Exterminatrix, admitting that it is trash but insisting that it is popular. Peter promises to finish something in nine months, maybe four with luck. Ethan worries about his father’s writer’s block and the possible consequences for the family.

Meanwhile, Inkling sneaks back to Ethan’s desk, eating more comics. He shifts into a giant robot when Vika enters Ethan’s room. Vika is impressed by the “mural” of the robot but moves to Ethan’s desk to look at the graphic novel project. Vika refuses to believe that the work is Ethan’s. Inkling, disliking Vika’s behavior, starts to shift when Ethan walks in and orders Vika out of his room. He sees Inkling, now morphed into a giant squid, and tells him to stop. Vika, assuming that Ethan was talking to her, snaps back at him. She asks what happened to the robot mural and touches the wall. Inkling swirls around her. Vika yells at Ethan to get it off, but Ethan insists that nothing is on her. Hearing the commotion, Peter checks on the children, and Vika claims to have slipped. She accuses Ethan of using the robot to do his drawings. Ethan replies that aliens are doing the drawings, and Inkling slips under the bed.

Chapters 5-8 Analysis

As Inkling grows both physically and intellectually, his own unique identity begins to emerge, and Oppel accordingly changes Inkling’s pronouns. At first, Inkling is an “it,” but later, Inkling becomes a “he.” At first, Inkling’s words mimic the writing style of whatever book he last read. As the story continues, and Inkling reads more, he develops his own voice. Inkling realizes that “he hadn’t just come from Mr. Rylance’s sketchbook; he’d come from Mr. Rylance himself” (67). Therefore, Inkling’s identity is not a mishmash of sketches; instead, he is a part of Peter’s imagination. He can see Peter’s dreams and feel some of his feelings, yet he is separate. Because Inkling now has his own personality, he gains new depth and nuance with each book he devours, much like a child would gain new layers with each new experience in life. This process is demonstrated when Inkling comes to enjoy different things than either his creator, Peter, or his friend, Ethan. As Inkling tries to figure out who he is, his struggles to find his place stand as a microcosm of the challenges that the other characters face with establishing and maintaining their identity.

Inkling also establishes likes and dislikes. Inkling loves comic books and bright colors. He reads Anne of Green Gables and “feel[s] like [he has] just made a great friend” (62). As part of establishing his identity, Inkling searches for others like him, only to be disappointed. Much of Inkling’s identity revolves around pleasing others. For example, he turns into a dog for Sarah, helps Ethan, and hides when told. As the narrative continues, however Inkling starts to follow his own desires, “want[ing] to be as big as his noisy thoughts” (97). He tries to protect Ethan, even though doing so alerts others to Inkling’s existence. Inkling begins to make choices outside of the characters around him as he creates his Identity.

As Inkling changes and becomes his own individual, Peter loses parts of himself in grief. In the wake of his wife’s death, he has irrevocably lost a significant part of who he is, and this grief becomes a vicious cycle as his sadness and depression progressively cause him to withdraw from his family and the world. Because he is failing at Coping With Grief in a healthy way, he loses touch with his inner talent and enjoyment for sketching; although he is an artist and a storyteller at heart, his two years of writer’s block intensify his frustration and annoyance with everyone. Caught up in his own suffering, he has lost sight of the fact that The Power of Art and Creativity is what he needs to rediscover in order to begin the healing process. Others try to help Peter to reengage with life but building a new identity after such a deep loss takes work, and Peter’s struggle implies that it is never possible to simply go back to the way things used to be. This dynamic is emphasized by Peter’s refusal to return to the Kren comics, for although Peter’s fans want more stories about this character, Peter knows that Kren’s death is part of his own journey as an artist. Bringing the character back would therefore damage Peter’s artistic integrity. Similarly, Peter’s publisher, Karl, wants him to copy another author’s style, but doing so would also remove part of Peter’s identity. All of this external pressure conflicts with Peter’s inner turmoil and makes him sad and confused.

Ironically, while Peter loses his identity, Ethan is busy discovering new parts of his own sense of self. For example, because Ethan realizes that using Inkling to draw pictures for his project is cheating, he decides to “make the graphic novel as much of his own as humanly possible” (85), and this resolution establishes his own artistic integrity even though he still needs Inkling’s coaching on various techniques. Likewise, Ethan learns to trust his friends more, for he admits his artistic weaknesses to Soren, and he also grows confident enough to share Inkling with others. Thus, Ethan grows and creates his own identity with Inkling’s help.

However, while Ethan is busy building his identity as an artist, Vika is struggling to keep her own. Vika is the best artist in the sixth grade, and because she wants to become as good an artist as Peter Rylance, she works hard to achieve this goal. When viewed in this context, Vika’s hostility toward Ethan is clearly rooted in insecurity rather than outright hatred, for she sees Ethan’s new abilities as a threat and therefore tries to prove that he is not a good artist. This inner compulsion to maintain her status as the best artist fuels her many attempts to sabotage Ethan’s artistic successes, and as the novel progresses, it also fuels her attempts to snoop around the Rylances’ house to find his secret. As the characters in Inkling figure out who they are, they face many challenges, and the theme of identity weaves through the story, showing each character’s journey of self-discovery.