The Beginning of Everything

The castle, a huge concrete fortress in Ezra’s old playground, symbolizes strength, protection, safety, and exclusion. When the football team arrives to vandalize the playground, Ezra doesn’t hesitate to step in—returning to the castle joking that he has completed his “quest.” The castle gives him warrior determination, making him feel “invincible.” In a more somber setting, the castle offers Cassidy a sense of protection and strength, providing her a safe place to think and the fortitude to follow through with rejecting Ezra. Cassidy builds her own impenetrable castle walls—not allowing anyone in to ease or share her grief about Owen and his connection to Ezra.

Coyotes appear throughout the narrative and represent the untamed; they conjure feelings of adventure and of impending doom. To the gated community, they symbolize fear—fear that there are things beyond people’s control, that an “interloper” might disrupt their “perfect little planned community” (64). Cassidy is wary of them but sees them as free and wild, the way she likes to portray herself. Ezra accepts them as a part of life and uses the fear of them to insist on driving Cassidy home, benefiting from the coyote’s fearsome reputation.