A Crooked Kind of Perfect

The organ is the most prominent symbol in the story and in Zoe’s life, and it represents Making the Most of Imperfection. Zoe’s dream begins with visions of herself playing Carnegie Hall as a celebrated pianist, but instead, her father brings home an electric organ. Zoe is left to make do with what she has been given and to find a way to work toward her dream through a highly unlikely and uninvited means. Zoe refers to the instrument as a “wood-grained, vinyl-seated, wheeze-bag organ” (3), and she sees it as a tired, almost silly instrument compared to the grandiosity and elegance of a piano.

Zoe’s opinion of the organ starts to change as she learns to play it. She discovers how fun it can be to play around with different beats and sounds, to make up her own lyrics, and to give her dad something to dance to. Zoe’s skills improve quickly with practice and instruction, and she advances enough to be able to take place in an organ competition. While it isn’t Carnegie Hall, it is a big step in the right direction, one Zoe ends up taking very seriously. She comes to understand that music is music, and it’s more about who is playing it than the instrument it’s being played on.