43 pages • 1 hour read
Lauren WolkBeyond the Bright Sea
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 26-28 Summary
By assuring Osh that she only wants to learn about her biological family to fill in the pieces of her life story, Crow consoles him. Yet when she tells him she plans to revisit Penikese, Osh accuses Crow of wanting to go back to find the treasure and get money, which upsets Crow and Maggie makes scold Osh for being insensitive. They have a conversation about their names. Osh asks Maggie “[w]hy do you call me Daniel?” (177), and she explains that it’s because he would not say his real name when they met. With all of the upset caused by Crow learning about her past, Osh wonders if they should all begin again with new names, with Crow going as Morgan. Crow insists that everyone stay who they are, reminding Osh that while she never knew her mother and father, “[y]ou, I know” (179). Maggie, Crow, and Osh reconcile and solidify their bond, agreeing to go to back to Penikese.
Steady rainfall keeps them from returning for days. In the meantime, Officers Kelly and Reardon reappear, wanting to discuss the highly accurate portrait that Osh drew of Mr. Kendall. When they question Osh, he says his name is Daniel Fisher. They also question Crow about seeing Kendall in New Bedford. She tells them a bit of her backstory to explain what she was doing there. They are curious about the letter she received from Nurse Evelyn, and want to keep it as evidence. Crow complies, but keeps the last page—the one explaining the meaning of the words on the letter bound to her the day Osh found her, assuring the officers it is “private” (185). Crow also tells the officers about what happened in New Bedford, though she omits the part about visiting the hospital in search of Jason.
After the officers leave, Osh, Crow, and Maggie discuss the possibility that Kendall will return to Cuttyhunk. They think it is unlikely, but still feel on edge given that he is at large. Word about the officers’ visit and Kendall’s possible treasure hunt spreads quickly. Visitors descend on Penikese in droves in the next few days, digging holes everywhere in pursuit of buried riches. Osh isn’t worried, saying “Crow knows where [the treasure] is. They don’t” (187). Crow is touched by this praise of her intuition. They decide to wait for the treasure-hunters to leave before returning to Penikese. In the meantime, Crow watches for any sign of the Shearwater and wonders about Jason. Her patience wearing thin, Crow coaxes Osh into heading to Penikese on a rainy day, expecting there to be few treasure-hunters then.
Chapters 29-30 Summary
On the island, there are still a few people digging, but Maggie, Crow, and Osh keep to themselves. They head to the graveyard, which has not been disturbed. While there, Crow imagines the scene of her birth and separation from her parents. She intends to exhume her presumably false grave, but a shout from the police officers investigating on the island interrupts her. They talk about developments in the case, and share the news that Kendall has been seen heading out in a boat.
When the officers ask what Maggie, Crow, and Osh are doing on Penikese, they lie and say they are harvesting plants for Osh to use for making pigments and visiting the graveyard to pay their respects. Despite the presence of the police on the island, Maggie and Osh urge Crow to dig as soon as the officers are out of sight. She comes across a metal trunk. Sure that it “was far too heavy to hold nothing but bones,” they open it (201). They are awestruck and frightened to see it contains real treasure—gold coins and bars, jewelry, and more. Realizing the seriousness of what they have discovered, they quickly prepare to leave, though Crow stops briefly at Elvan’s grave to say, “He was a stranger, my father” (202).
Osh, Crow, and Maggie load up their boat just before the officers reappear. They sail back to their island in silence and agree to hide the treasure. Osh makes the point that though they discovered the treasure, it is actually “nobody’s,” since it was found on public land (206). Over lunch, Osh urges Maggie to take a simple string of pearls for herself. He worries that things will change, but praises Crow for being strong, declaring, “if I could have build a human being I would have built you. Just so” (208). Crow hopes to see the Shearwater and meet the man she believes is her brother soon.
Chapters 26-30 Analysis
In these chapters, conflicts between Osh, Crow, and Maggie show that the trio has a complex, family-like dynamic, despite being unrelated. Osh is increasingly hurt as Crow learns more specifics about her biological family. After she receives Evelyn’s letter, he storms off, hurt by Crow’s desire to go back to Penikese; then, he insults Crow by insinuating that she wants to return only in order to find the treasure. This acting out triggers Maggie’s own deep-seated frustration with Osh—she is hurt because he will not tell her his real name. However, the argument and its resolution strengthen their relationships: Osh tells Maggie, “[y]ou’re part of what I am now,” and Maggie announces, “[w]e’re going to put this straight, once and for all” by going back to Penikese (181).
Osh’s accusation that Crow is only interested in treasure reverberates as Crow considers the presence of treasure hunters on Penikese. She resents the hoards of people swarming the island for never having cared about the lepers who once lived there, and only being greedy. Thus, the experience of waiting to go back to Penikese creates an important turning point in Crow’s character, sharpening her sense of empathy for the lepers. Given that she now knows her family members were counted among the colony’s members, that empathy also rests on a newfound sense of belonging.
Unlike the treasure hunters’ destruction interaction with the physical material of the island, Crow establishes a spiritual connection with Penikese when she visits the graves of her parents. Kneeling at her mother’s grave, Crow “leaned [her] forehead against the wet ground, [her] eyes open, as close to her bones as [she] could get” (203). This melding of concrete and abstract yields a two-fold treasure: gold that has tangible value and more pieces of Crow’s identity.
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By Lauren Wolk
