50 pages • 1 hour read
Lois LowryGossamer
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006A 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 15-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary
During a phone call with the social worker, John’s mother says that she is in counseling and is looking for a job after her recent move. The job would need to be part-time so that she can be home for John, and she’s run into trouble for leaving him alone before. The young woman tells the social worker that she took out a restraining order against John’s father, who seems to have left the state anyway. She wants John back and calls him her best friend. This comment prompts the social worker to remind her that she needs to set limits and parent her child, and the woman says that she’s capable of doing those things. In response to an unknown statement by the social worker, she answers, “I lost it, okay? It was a bad time for me. I did some stupid things” (65). Feeling defeated, the woman begins to cry. She asks the social worker to tell her son that she loves him and that she dreamed about him the previous night.
Chapter 16 Summary
Back at the Heap, Littlest One sucks her thumb and frets about the boy. Thin Elderly embraces her and confirms her fear that the Sinisteed will likely inflict more nightmares on him. He says, “We just have to hope that the Horde won’t come with him. The boy is very vulnerable” (67). Littlest One feels that the boy needs her help in particular because she understands what it’s like to be small, and she’s determined to give him as many good dreams as she can. Thin Elderly shares her concerns and suggests that they don’t give the elderly woman any dreams for a few nights so that they can focus their time and energy on strengthening the boy. When a Sinisteed inflicts a nightmare, the victim can lose some of their positive fragments of memory, and this happened to the boy. Littlest One says that the woman will help the boy become stronger, too, because she comforted him with a story. Littlest One is afraid of Sinisteeds, and her teacher encourages her to rest so that she’ll be ready for a night of hard work.
Chapter 17 Summary
John complains about the chores that he completes for the woman, such as sweeping the porch and feeding Toby. He joins the woman when she takes the dog on his daily walk to the park. John tells the woman that his parents will come for him soon and that his father will “come all the way from California with his gun” to fetch him if she tries to keep him (72). The boy says that his mother is wealthy and lives in a mansion and that he’s only staying with the woman because his mother is on vacation. John holds Toby’s leash during the walk back to the woman’s home, and he says that the dog “would be roadkill” if it wasn’t for him (73). The woman allows him to think that. John calls Toby a worthless mutt, but he is priceless to the woman. She found Toby, abandoned and freezing, when he was just a puppy. Back at the woman’s home, John gives the dog a biscuit with the woman’s encouragement.
Chapter 18 Summary
For three nights in a row, the Sinisteed inflicts a nightmare on John, and the woman comforts him while Littlest One and Thin Elderly watch helplessly from the hallway. Dream-givers are taught not to touch living creatures lest they awaken, but Littlest One decides to gather memory fragments from Toby so that she can give them to John. At first, Thin Elderly is alarmed by the idea, but she reminds him that she has a gossamer touch. The only belongings that carry positive memories for the boy are a pink seashell, a photograph of a woman, and a chrysalis he found in the garden. This makes it difficult for the young dream-giver to gather enough material for good dreams, and the boy is sorely in need of them. She tells her teacher, “He’s starting to love the dog! I can feel it!” (80). Thin Elderly agrees to let Littlest One try to collect fragments from the dog. While his student undertakes that task, he gives the woman a restorative dream that he gathered from a crocheted blanket. This memory is of “one of the happiest mornings of her life” (80), a beautiful Christmas from the woman’s childhood.
Chapter 19 Summary
Littlest One gathers fragments of affection and companionship from Toby without waking the dog up and bestows them on John. The dream calms the boy, and he smiles in his sleep. Then the two dream-givers return to the Heap. Most Ancient no longer leaves the Heap to give humans dreams. Instead, he spends his time pondering the problems and responsibilities facing dream-givers. Thin Elderly tells Most Ancient about the situation with John and informs him that he granted Littlest One permission to touch the dog. He praises his trainee’s insightfulness, creativity, and “truly exquisite” technique. Most Ancient is fond of the smallest dream-giver, and he agrees that she broke the rule for a good reason, so there will be no consequences. He encourages Thin Elderly to get some rest.
Chapter 20 Summary
John’s mother starts a job at a school handling students’ records. She thinks about her husband, Duane, who has an alcohol use disorder. She used to be a server, and he belittled her decision to take computer classes. However, she is good with technology and wishes that her life was as orderly as the computer programs with which she works. The assistant principal commends her for helping an anxious mother who thought that her daughter’s records were lost. She is surprised by how kind her colleagues are to her, and she imagines her son making friends there. She herself hasn’t had friends since high school because Duane “wouldn’t let her do anything but work” (90). John’s mother is determined to put her life in order so that she can have her son back as soon as possible. She decides to call the social worker on her break instead of smoking a cigarette.
Chapter 21 Summary
The Sinisteed’s attacks on John become less frequent. Littlest One gathers fragments from Toby, the seashell, the chrysalis, and a stuffed donkey named Hee-Haw that used to belong to the elderly woman. She uses these memories to give the boy good dreams. Thin Elderly praises his student’s efforts as he watches the slumbering boy peacefully cuddle the stuffed animal. Littlest One can gather far more information from the objects she touches than most dream-givers. She tells Thin Elderly that the sad parts should also be included in dreams because they’re important parts of the stories of humans’ lives. He tells her that she’ll make a good teacher one day. Littlest One hypothesizes that the woman forgot all about Hee-Haw until the dream-givers brought back memories from her childhood. She giggles happily as she reflects on how she, Thin Elderly, the woman, Toby, and Hee-Haw have all helped John grow stronger. Thin Elderly admits that he’s still worried that a Horde will attack John, which frightens Littlest One. He reassures her, “Tonight the boy is safe” (96).
Chapters 15-21 Analysis
In this section, John, his mother, and Littlest One persist on The Journey of Personal Growth and Resilience, and their characters develop in parallel. John’s shifting attitudes toward the elderly woman and her dog signal that he is gradually beginning to act with kindness and gentleness instead of anger and harshness. Meanwhile, Lowry characterizes John’s mother’s growing strength as she puts in efforts to secure a new place to live and find a job. As she tells the social worker in Chapter 15, she’s “really cleaning up [her] act” (64). This statement reflects her desire to reunite with her son as well as her growing self-efficacy. Finding employment at the school represents a milestone in her progress not only for financial reasons but also because it disproves the damaging statements her ex-husband made about her potential and intelligence. Her decision not to smoke during her break offers another example of how her desire to reunite with John motivates her to take better care of herself. Lowry juxtaposes the metaphor of “cleaning up” with the grime of smoking to reinforce the fact that John’s mother is on a positive path. Although John and his mother are not yet ready to reunite, they both make progress in their healing.
Littlest One also experiences personal growth in these chapters. Her skills in crafting dreams improves, which impresses her teacher. She retains her playfulness, as seen in her amusement at Hee-Haw’s name, but she gains a new solemnity. For example, she tells Thin Elderly, “If I ever get to train a new young dream-giver, that’s one of the things I’ll teach: that you must include the sad parts, because they are part of the story, and they have to be part of the dreams” (96). This suggests that a journey of personal growth includes both the good and the bad and that growth is born out of “the sad parts.” Littlest One’s curiosity and creativity also contribute to her growth. These traits enable the protagonist to envision solutions that older dream-givers wouldn’t think of, such as gathering fragments from Toby even though dream-givers are taught not to touch living creatures. She also recognizes that John needs her help in particular because she understands what it’s like to be small. Lowry hence conveys a message to young readers through Littlest One’s development: that being small and young doesn’t mean that someone can’t make a difference, and that sometimes these qualities are a strength and not a weakness.
The motif of touch supports the idea that being small and “delicate” can be a strength. In an important development, Littlest One touches Toby so lightly that she can gather memories without waking him. While discussing Littlest One’s unprecedented accomplishment, Thin Elderly again uses the word “gossamer” to describe his student’s touch, and he explains to her that it means “something very fragile and delicate” (77). This continued emphasis on the protagonist’s touch shows that gentleness is the strength of being younger and smaller than others, and it’s thanks to this gentleness that she is able to give John dreams that support his healing process.
Strapping and Thin Elderly’s efforts in this section speak to The Healing Power of Happy Memories. Chapter 15 offers a testament to the power of connecting people to happy times when John’s mother is moved to tears as she remembers her dream about John. This dream reminds her how much her son means to her and motivates her to continue working on herself so that she can reunite with him. Indeed, dreams are so powerful that giving the elderly woman good dreams helps John, too: “She’d forgotten [Hee-Haw] until the dream! But then she remembered, and she went up to an old trunk, and found him again, and brought him to the boy” (96). The stuffed donkey gives John comfort during nights plagued by nightmares, offering further evidence of the power of memories.
Lowry also develops The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Addressing Trauma when constructing the dynamic between John and the elderly woman. John’s fascination with violence in Chapter 17 illustrates his anger and indirectly reveals the abuse he’s experienced at his father’s hands. Gradually, Littlest One’s empathy and the elderly woman’s tireless patience help John attain the rest and safety he needs to begin dealing with his trauma. Furthermore, Thin Elderly’s attentiveness to the elderly woman, who is “worn out from getting up at night” and comforting John (80), shows that those who care for individuals dealing with trauma require support for their emotional and physical needs as well. This suggests that empathy and compassion are needed for the whole social ecosystem involved in addressing trauma—not just survivors but also carers.
Lowry uses symbols to convey John’s character development. Toby’s past and the growing bond between him and the boy reinforce the dog’s meaning as a symbol of love. The elderly woman showed compassion by saving Toby when he was an abandoned puppy. Hearing that Toby has also been mistreated sparks John’s empathy, and Littlest One can gather fragments of “affection and companionship” from the dog because John begins to treat him with kindness (85). Toby’s symbolic significance makes him an important part of John’s growth. Another sign that John is mending is his treatment of the chrysalis introduced in Chapter 18: “He’s very gentle with it because she explained how a butterfly was being made inside” (79). Later in the story, the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, symbolizing the start of a new life for John.
Lowry uses atmosphere and foreshadowing to create tension in the narrative. For example, in Chapter 15, she shows only the young woman’s side of the phone conversation rather than including the social worker’s dialogue. Restricting the setting to her cramped and dreary apartment creates a tense, stifling atmosphere. In addition, these chapters increase the novel’s suspense through continued references to the Horde of Sinisteeds. Combined with the dream-givers’ warning about the gathering Horde, Littlest One’s belief that John “really needs [her] most” foreshadows the novel’s climax (67), in which she protects the boy when the Horde converges upon him.
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