91 pages • 3 hours read
Caitlin Alifirenka, Liz Welch, Martin GandaI Will Always Write Back
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2015A 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.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“Caitlin: September 1997”-“Martin: November 1997”
“Caitlin: January 1998”-“Caitlin: May 1998”
“Martin: June 1998”-“Martin: October 1998”
“Caitlin: December 1998”-“Martin: April 1999”
“Caitlin: May 1999”-“Caitlin: June 1999”
“Martin: June 1999”-“Caitlin: December 1999”
“Martin: January 2000”-“Caitlin: February 2000”
“Martin: February 2000”-“Caitlin: September 2000”
“Martin: November 2000”-“Caitlin: December 2000”
“Martin: January 2001”-“Martin: April 2001”
“Caitlin: April 2001”-“Martin: July 2001”
“Caitlin: September 2001”-“Martin: June 2002”
“Caitlin: August 2002”-“Martin: September 2002”
“Caitlin: October 2002”-“Martin: December 2002”
“Caitlin: January 2003”-“Martin: April 2003”
“Caitlin: April 2003”-“Caitlin: July 2003”
“Martin–July 2003”-“Martin–August 14, 2003”
“Caitlin: August 15, 2003”-“Caitlin: October 2015”
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
Beta“Caitlin: January 1998”-“Caitlin: May 1998”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“Caitlin: January 1998” Summary
Caitlin has a crush on her classmate, Matt, who eventually asks her out. They date for a short while before Caitlin realizes that they have nothing in common. She eventually breaks up with him. She does not realize that she has not heard from Martin in a while until his letter arrives in the mail. When she opens it, she finds a photograph of him. She notes that he looks young and serious in the photograph. Martin explains in his letter that the photograph was taken several years ago, which is why he looks so young.
Caitlin wants to give Martin a present, so she goes to Spencer’s, a store that sells gag gifts, and gets him a keychain. She sends it to him with her next letter. Eventually, Martin writes back with a longer letter that refers to Caitlin playfully as “the queen” (42). This amuses Caitlin. Martin also expresses gratitude for his gift and promises to send Caitlin “very nice African-type earrings” (44) in his next letter. He further describes his life in Zimbabwe, referring to his country as still politically and economically “developing” (44), which confuses Caitlin. Martin talks about how some people in Zimbabwe sometimes do not earn enough to feed their families and that oftentimes multiple families share a room to make ends meet. This surprises Caitlin, as she assumes that Martin must come from a wealthy family based on what she presumes to be a private school uniform in his photograph. However, Martin describes the Sakubva, the city where Caitlin’s letters to him are sent, as “filled with poor people and crime, like LA” (46). Since Caitlin has never been to Los Angeles, she does not understand the comparison entirely.
Martin’s letter closes with a request that Caitlin send him a US dollar bill. He will send her currency from his country in exchange. Excited, Caitlin mails her letter to Martin with a dollar bill enclosed.
“Martin: April 1998” Summary
When Martin receives a dollar bill in the mail from Caitlin, his family is taken by surprise. Due to inflation, a US dollar is worth 20 Zimbabwe dollars. Martin’s mother asks him why Caitlin would send so much money to him, to which Martin sheepishly replies that he had asked her to, not knowing the implications of such a “generous gift” (50). Martin asks his mother to keep the dollar bill safe for him, as he is unsure what to do with it. For several weeks, Martin witnesses his family eating mostly sadza, a modest porridge, as they are unable to afford additional beans and collard greens. He offers to use Caitlin’s dollar to buy enough groceries to last the family for two weeks. Grateful, Martin considers sending Caitlin a Zimbabwean dollar, but since the money can buy a day’s worth of sadza for his family, he decides against it. Instead, he writes to Caitlin with the same promise he has made to her before, which is that he “would always write back, no matter what” (51).
“Caitlin: May 1998” Summary
Caitlin experiences several fallouts with her best friends and breakups with boyfriends. In the frenzy of her changing relationships, her correspondence with Martin remains constant. In recent letters, Caitlin and Martin discuss their feelings toward animals. When Caitlin reveals to Martin that she has a beloved pet rabbit named Louis, he tells her that he thinks rabbits are delicious. Horrified, Caitlin quietly decides not to mention Louis to him ever again. In Caitlin’s next letter to Martin, she asks him to send another photograph of himself so that she can see what he looks like presently. Remembering that Martin’s birthday is coming up, she also encloses a Reebok T-shirt for him as a birthday present. When she buys the t-shirt with her friend, Lauren, she is teased about having a crush on Martin. Caitlin insists that Martin is “like a member of [her] family” (56).
“Caitlin: January 1998”-“Caitlin: May 1998” Analysis
In his early letters to Caitlin, Martin alludes to his family’s poverty by discussing the economic struggles within Zimbabwe. While he does not reveal the real struggles of his family, his discussion of the poverty he witnesses every day is his way of indirectly relaying his life to Caitlin. By describing Zimbabwe as a country that is “developing” (44) and the ways in which several families share a single room at times, he slowly introduces Caitlin to the economic complexities of his home country. His indirect descriptions of his life are a way of mitigating her possible responses to his poverty. In response to Martin’s descriptions of poverty in Zimbabwe, Caitlin is expectedly shocked. Lacking a context for understanding this level of poverty, Caitlin does not immediately comprehend Martin’s economic circumstances. She still believes that he is another adolescent of a similar class status as her. This disbelief foreshadows the growing direness of Martin’s family’s poverty, which will eventually compel Caitlin’s intervention.
In an instance of national and cultural misunderstanding, Martin’s request for Caitlin to send him a US dollar in exchange for a Zimbabwean dollar has a larger impact than expected. While Martin had meant for the request to be a way of swapping cultural knowledge, Martin’s mother’s soft reprimand alerts him to the vast differences between him and Caitlin. When Martin receives Caitlin’s dollar, Martin’s mother reveals the total value of the dollar in Zimbabwean terms, due to inflation. Whereas much of the national and cultural understanding has been on Caitlin’s part prior, this instance reveals Martin’s own lack of knowledge of the global relationship between the US and Zimbabwe that produces this disparity in currency exchange. Caitlin’s dollar becomes more than just a cultural token; it is a “generous gift” (50). As money has become factored into their friendship, Martin attempts to mitigate their economic differences by offering a promise of continued friendship. This promise offers a value that exceeds the bounds of monetary exchange value.
