The Bell Bandit is partly about how its characters navigate their lives in the face of change and loss. “Different but the same” refers to the inevitable and relentless progression of time. This motif appears early on in the text, as Jessie notes that, on their drive to Grandma’s house for their annual trip, there are already some notable differences to past years: “It was because of the fire that they weren’t even sure if they would be staying at Grandma’s for New Year’s Eve the way they did every year. And that was the really big thing that was different this year” (5). Grandma’s memory loss, which causes the fire in her home, is destabilizing in many ways for the Treski family as they grapple with this new version of the familiar person they love.

Humans take comfort in stability, tradition, and knowing what to expect from certain circumstances, so this trip to Grandma feels new and unsettling due to Grandma’s illness and the missing bell, an important symbol of tradition and familiarity for Jessie and Evan. Jessie seeks out shelter in the tepee she and Evan built the previous summer because it represents something immutable and familiar to her: “Jessie loved the tepee.