96 pages • 3 hours read
Matthew QuickBoy21
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 38–40Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 38 Summary
The town mourns the loss of the basketball team’s state championship. Mr. Allen drives Russ and Finley several hours outside of the city, to Russ’s surprise, and Finley takes in the smell of manure and the sights of nature. “I’ve never been to a place like this before, and it makes me swivel my head right and left so I don’t miss anything” (226). In the middle of the woods, Finley realizes that the surprise is stargazing, and the man running the viewing station goes over the rules, including no car lights and limited noise. They drive even further out into the woods and come upon a tree/lighthouse with a large viewing deck. All three are in awe: there is nothing but the green of trees and the tops of other viewing structures for miles around.
After dinner, Mr. Allen retires to the bed downstairs, and Russ and Finley lie on the viewing deck, where they will spend the whole night, to watch the sun set. After a long silence, Russ says that they should talk about what happened to both of their parents. Finley doesn’t want to, but eventually Russ convinces him.
Finley explains that his grandfather stole money from the Irish mob so that his wife could die in Ireland. The mob kidnapped Finley to force Pop to return. Finley’s mom went to the cops to try to rescue Finley, so the mob killed her and when Pop returned, they cut off his legs. Finley’s dad told him to never tell anyone or else they might all die. Instead of talking, Finley started playing basketball.
Finley and Russ talk about how they are forgetting their dead parents, and then Russ explains that his parents were robbed and shot “in a shady neighborhood [… A] completely random act of violence” (232–33). Finley asks Russ about his favorite memory of his parents, and Russ tells a story of his mom joining his dad onstage: “they sort of communicated with music” (233), even though Russ had no idea that his mom sang. Finley says he doesn’t have a memory like that, and then jokes about basketball, but Russ is too emotional to talk and so they sit in silence.
The sky goes black, and “then all of a sudden millions of stars blink above us…like a diamond exploded” (234). Finley is amazed, and Russ explains that whenever the world is ugly, he looks at the stars to make himself feel better. Finley thinks about Erin and his mom, and then asks Russ about fate. They “lie next to each other in silence all night, looking up at the impossible mind-blowing awesomeness of the universe” (235).
Chapter 39 Summary
Finley’s family visits his mother’s grave on the anniversary of her murder, as they do every year. Pop cries and apologizes to her gravestone. Finley’s dad tells Finley to take the first chance he gets to leave Bellmont. Finley remembers that his mom liked green Life Savers and that she would feed him the other colors, but he also worries that he made up that memory. His dad spends the rest of the day with Pop, but he does not talk about Finley’s mom. Finley misses Erin while lying on the roof.
Chapter 40 Summary
Before Finley’s high school graduation, Pop hands him a white envelope with an Amtrak ticket to New Hampshire in it as a graduation present. Accompanying the ticket is a letter from Erin explaining that she had to leave to protect them, and that she now goes by Katy Reidy. Everything has been taken care of, including money, and she wants Finley to come live with her.
Finley is confused, and Pop explains that some of the older Irish mob guys felt bad about kidnapping him, so they are giving him “a chance to start over someplace better” (242). His dad says if he goes, he can never return to Bellmont, and should be careful about contacting them, but if he doesn’t go he’ll lose Erin, possibly forever, and be stuck in Bellmont for a few years at community college. Finley feels torn between his love for Erin and desire for a better future, on one hand, and his love for his father and grandfather on the other. He asks them what they think he should do, but he already knows their opinion.
Russ rings the doorbell, and Finley tells him he won’t walk at graduation because he “got a ticket to Hogwarts” (244). After a bit, Russ understands the code and the need for silence. They hug and wish each other beautiful lives, realizing they’re probably never going to see each other again.
Finley quickly packs, and Pop and Dad drive him to the train station. Finley admits to being scared. Pop reassures him, saying that good women are the key to happiness. He apologizes to Finley and gives Finley his grandmother’s rosary beads. Dad apologizes for Finley’s bad childhood, and they all start crying. Finley gets on the train, rereading Erin’s letter, feeling many different emotions all at once. Finley realizes that his dad has given them his savings, and starts to worry about his dad and grandfather. He has a conversation with a woman across the aisle, which distracts him temporarily. Then, everything he’s leaving behind comes flooding into his thoughts. To calm himself down, he visualizes his life with Erin: “And then Erin and I are kissing on a new roof, under the same endless unknowable space above, and somehow we’re okay” (250).
Chapters 38–40 Analysis
Finley and Russ both demolish silence in these chapters, which present the idea that trauma can only be healed when it is confronted directly. Finley remembers more and more of the past that he is trying to forget, but he is no longer agonizingly depressed by the loss of Erin. Rather, Finley recognizes that friendship has the power to unburden someone of his trauma. Even though Russ and Finley return to silence after they tell their stories, this silence is different, tied not to the pain and violence of city life but rather to the cosmos and therefore to nature: a beneficial kind of silence.
These chapters solidify the beneficial and cleansing effects of nature in a way reminiscent of transcendentalist writers. When Russ and Finley go stargazing, they find comfort in the lack of other people and the sprawling nature that surrounds them. Both boys’ traumas are associated with city life and not with nature, which is characterized as peaceful. It seems as though the boys must extricate themselves from the senseless and inherent violence of the city, withdrawing to the calming presence of nature to allow themselves time to heal. This juxtaposition between the violent trauma of city life and the peaceful healing of nature is solidified when Finley leaves the city of Bellmont to pursue a positive future with Erin in New Hampshire. Erin represents Finley’s future, which he must venture into nature—away from Bellmont—to obtain.
These chapters also present the real choice that Finley must face in order to grow as a character. Russ’s friendship existed as a precursor to this choice; now Finley must make an actual decision. In this moment, Finley decides to be a real adult. However, this choice could not have happened if not for his psychological maturation over the course of the novel. When the novel ends, the reader realizes that Finley has changed as a result of Russ’s friendship, solidifying the importance of friendship as the key theme throughout the work.
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