Tornados symbolize change and the unknown throughout the novel. Sometimes, the change is destruction, like the roof of Pete’s family home being ripped off and folded like a book. However, they can also bring positive change, as they do in the case of Tornado’s arrival. In the present timeline, the tornado represents the unknown throughout most of the novel. While the family listens to Pete’s story, they are not yet aware of what will happen to their home and whether Link could be injured. Tornados are characterized as a sudden and unexpected threat; Byars, therefore, characterizes change as similarly unexpected and unknowable. While there is some warning for the tornado in the present timeline, the one in Pete’s story is more unexpected: “There was no warning like we had today. No funnel cloud, no nothing. One minute we were eating beans and biscuits at the table. Next there was a roar” (7). Tornados are, therefore, representative of the fact that life can change, for good or ill, with very little warning.

Food functions as a motif throughout the novel. In the first chapter, the presence of food in the storm cellar indicates the intersection between dramatic events like tornados and everyday life.