Shatterproof by Ronald Smith is the 4th book in the Cahill’s vs. Vespers series. One theme that runs
through the entire series is the loss of innocence. The young Cahill’s in
this series faces so many challenges and witnesses so many unthinkable events
that they begin to see the world in a whole different way. They realize
there are many evil people and situations in this world, which leads them to
distrust everyone and even break laws to complete the task on hand.
After seven members of the Cahill family were kidnapped in Book 1 of Cahill’s
vs. Vespers, Dan became completely disillusioned. Vesper 1 kept sending
Dan and Amy impossible tasks to complete in exchange for keeping the Cahill’s
alive. Dan realized they could never outsmart Vesper 1 and decides to
gather all the ingredients to create the master serum. It is well known
that even though the master serum gives immense power, it is also very
dangerous. Dan however doesn’t care anymore and thinks that’s his only
option. Dan is a complete different person from the boy he was in the
first series of books. He was a carefree boy who enjoyed life and liked
to have a good laugh. However after going through all the terrible
experiences he has become serious and lost his innocence. He learns to
accept death as an ordinary event, “Everybody dies. Why do we run away so hard and so fast, when
it’s always there?” His older sister Amy even starts worrying about Dan not
having a proper childhood, and growing up too fast by experiencing such horrible
events.
This situation is not unique to this novel. In the real world such situations
occur all the time. Recently, I read about the Civil Wars that break out in
Africa. In such cases, young boys are recruited and turned into child soldiers….They
lose their innocence very early in life and begin to think of murder as an
everyday event. This is a very tragic thing for society. A society where
children are forced to face atrocious behaviors and lifestyles can never go on
to prosper in life.
In this novel, another Cahill family member who completely loses his innocence
is Dan and Amy’s cousin Jonah Wizard. In the heat of a confrontation he
shoots Luna Amato, a Vesper agent. Immediately he realized that for the
first time in his life he has murdered someone, and that leaves him in complete
shock. “Jonah stared in horror at her – at what he had done to her. He
was no longer Jonah Wizard, platinum-selling recording artist and movie
star. He was Jonah Wizard,
murderer.” He becomes unable to talk or
communicate further. Being born in the Cahill family means you’re part of
something great, but taking a life made him realize there are also evils
involved. Additionally, to accomplish something for the greater good, a
person needs to take sometimes terrible actions, whether theft, or in this case
murder.
The loss of innocence is an important theme in the novels. It has significance
because of its impact on the characters. This theme ends up determining the
actions of each character which influences the overall plot. A child full
of innocence would never dream of committing murder, or taking in a chemical
that might alter him for the worse. The fact that Dan and Jonah are doing such
things shows the mercilessness of reality.
After the first series in the 39 clues, the five branches of the Cahill family
stop their feud and come together. However their troubles only get worse
as they a more terrible enemy. The young Cahill’s learn they have to lie,
steal, and even murder to stay ahead of the Vespers and save their own
family. They end up losing their innocence too early which makes them
look as the world from a completely different perspective.
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