58 pages • 1 hour read
Gordon KormanSwindle
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2008A 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.
Symbols & Motifs
The Babe Ruth Baseball Card
The Babe Ruth baseball card that Griffin finds in the old Rockford house is the primary symbol in the book. As a rare item worth a substantial amount of money, the card represents Griffin’s and Swindle’s hopes and dreams. When Griffin comes upon the old desk in the Rockford house, he notes that it “wasn’t exactly Antiques Roadshow quality” (13). This reference conjures images of people discovering that a family heirloom is even more valuable than they thought or that an item they believed to be valuable is inauthentic or more common than they realized. These two options face Griffin when he discovers the baseball card and he cannot help fantasizing about its potential value. When he learns its true value, he feels like he hit the jackpot. Swindle feels the same way, and because Griffin does not initially know the card’s value, Swindle purchases it for a fraction of its worth. Griffin’s dream is to help his family, while Swindle’s dream is to get rich. The fact that neither Griffin nor Swindle ends up with the card implies that waiting for a windfall is not the best way to solve life’s problems.
The Old Rockford House
The old Rockford House symbolizes a link between the past, present, and future. When the story opens, the house is about to be demolished to erect a local museum. This creates an interesting contrast because a piece of the town’s history is about to be destroyed to make way for a museum that will display that history in glass cases. On the one hand, if the goal were to preserve and showcase the town’s history, the town could have chosen to restore the house as a historic monument. On the other hand, a museum would contain more about the town’s history than a single residence would, thereby representing a larger portion of the community. Building the museum on the Rockford house’s lot symbolizes both continuity and progress, safeguarding the town’s history in the present and preserving it for years to come.
Palomino’s Emporium
Palomino’s Emporium is the opposite of the Cedarville museum in that it symbolizes the wrong way to preserve history. When Griffin enters the Emporium for the first time, he observes: “It was more like a museum than a comic shop—a museum where you could look but not touch, and everything was under surveillance by grim-faced guards. […]. The whole place felt as welcoming as a bank vault” (22). The Emporium’s heavy surveillance and high prices for its collectibles ensure that few people will see or buy the items in the store. Griffin’s analogy to a bank vault implies that Swindle prefers to hoard the items for himself, rather than allowing others to enjoy them. Griffin even notes that the Emporium used to be a stone carver’s workshop with headstones displayed outside, further implying that Swindle’s objects are entombed in the store. Swindle closing his Emporium and leaving town at the end of the book symbolizes the defeat of greed and the triumph of openness, as everyone in town can enjoy the museum and skatepark.
Griffin’s Plans
Griffin’s handwritten plans are interspersed throughout the narrative and represent his desire to control events and achieve his goals. The plans reveal Griffin’s meticulous personality; he carefully numbers and details each step and even records the time of sundown on the day of the heist down to the minute (144). Griffin’s plans also reveal his belief that in every situation there is always a way out. For instance, when Griffin hears police cars approaching after the heist, he implements his backup plan: “There was a code Z in all of Griffin’s plans—the escape clause. The moment when the operation was either completed, or busted, or both, and all that remained was to get the heck out of there” (205). Having a “code Z” helps Griffin feel in control. When he is caught at the Rockford house mailbox, however, he realizes that his plans have limits: “There was no countermeasure for this, no recovery. This was a major disaster” (243). By the end of the book, Griffin learns that plans cannot solve everything and that he can be successful without having to control every situation.
Related Titles
By Gordon Korman
