Keeper

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of alcohol dependency and human and animal death.

At the start of The Keeper, Gato regards himself as an unexceptional boy who isn’t any good at sports. As he develops his skills under the Keeper’s watch, he begins to realize that there is another path available to him, but that it will come at a cost. Through Gato’s character arc, the novel explores the role of self-sacrifice in following dreams. 

Central to this theme is the internal conflict that Gato undergoes due to his upbringing. Gato explains that his family “lived in a logging town. The only reason the town existed was to cut trees. My father knew for a fact that when I left school, I would work for the logging company. There was no alternative” (37). These thoughts highlight the trapped feeling that Gato has while growing up in his village: He is destined to work for the logging company, believing that there is nothing else that he can do. Due to the novel’s setting—an unnamed, remote village in South America—they are far from any cities, there is no education for children after the age of 15, and there are no other local career options.