King and the Dragonflies

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 13-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 13 Summary

Worried about Sandy’s wellbeing, King stands across the road from Sandy’s house for hours. Mikey Sanders sees him and confronts him. He tells King, “You stay away from here. […] You hear me?” (187).

After hanging out near the Sanders house for two nights without seeing any sign of Sandy, King summons the courage to knock on the door of the house. Sheriff Sanders answers the door and greets King with hostility. He threatens to have King arrested and sent to juvenile court for aiding a minor runaway if he does not leave immediately. The sheriff says Charles (Sandy) told him everything about the bayou hideout. King starts to say that Sandy told him the sheriff hits him, but he stops when the sheriff steps toward him in a threatening manner.

When King returns home, his father tells him he received a phone call from the sheriff. The sheriff told his parents that he helped Sandy hide. His mother asks King if it is true that he is gay. She says the sheriff told her “that Sandy is gay and that he got the idea to be gay from being around you—because of you” (193). King tells his mother that the sheriff is lying, but he realizes that his parents believe the sheriff.

Feeling sad, King retreats to his backyard tent. He calls out Khalid’s name and hopes his brother will visit him in his dreams. He wonders if Khalid is mad at him, since he hasn’t been going down to the bayou to look for him lately.

Chapter 14 Summary

King thinks his father’s blank stare means he now feels nothing for him. He believes his father no longer considers him his son because he’s gay.

Breanna thanks King for convincing Darrell to ask her to be his girlfriend, even though she is taller than he is: “We should be who we are and like who we like, no matter who’s going to laugh” (198).

Breanna defends King when Camille and Darrell criticize him for helping Sandy hide. Camille calls him a liar, and Darrell questions why King is best friends with a gay kid. Jasmine asks King if it’s true that he’s gay. At first, King answers, “I don’t know” (205). When Jasmine accuses him of lying, King says, “When Sandy told me he likes other guys, I told him that I think I might, too” (205). Jasmine then asks King if he likes her. He responds that she is his best friend. She then asks if he likes her romantically. King shakes his head. Jasmine turns her back on him and leaves.

King realizes that Khalid isn’t a dragonfly and that he never was. He finally admits to himself that Khalid is gone and will not return.

Chapter 15 Summary

King finds a note from Sandy in his backyard tent. The note says, “Meet me in front of the school tonight” (209). When King meets Sandy at the school, he hugs him.

Sandy tells King that his father has locked him in his room and lets him out only once a day to eat and use the bathroom. He escaped to meet up with King by getting the key to open the window bars in his room. Sandy says he must leave town to get away from his father. He plans to go to New Orleans and hide by blending in with the Mardi Gras crowd. He asks King to go with him. Sandy tells King he can’t be himself here: “Everyone hates you, just for who you are” (211).

King responds that there are people who love him. Sandy says, “Seems to me like the people who love you are the ones who do the most hurting” (211). This comment makes King realize that Khalid had hurt him even though he might not have meant any harm. Khalid hurt him when he told him, “You don’t want anyone to think you’re gay, too, do you?” (211). King feels guilty and ashamed for being angry at Khalid. He tells Sandy that he can’t run away with him.

Sandy says the days he spent in the bayou were some of the happiest of his life. He says his father doesn’t understand him. He asks King if his parents understand him. King admits that his parents won’t even talk to him about being gay.

Sandy describes his plan to travel to New York after Mardi Gras and stay at a center that takes in homeless gay people. He then says he must return to his room before his father realizes he is gone. However, he plans to steal the key again next Tuesday and catch a bus to New Orleans. Sandy tells King he will wait for him at the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. King nods that he understands the plan, without saying whether he will meet Sandy at the cathedral.

Chapter 16 Summary

While King is packing for the family’s trip to Mardi Gras, his mother says she decided to give him space and let him talk when he is ready about the possibility that he is gay. However, when his mother suggests he speak to someone, King angrily tells her he does not want to see a therapist. He then tells her that he doesn’t want to talk to her because she doesn’t listen to him.

In New Orleans, King feels a special connection to his Auntie Idris, who “has a way of knowing how you feel […]” (221). She picks up a photo of Khalid that she has placed on a nightstand and says, “The spirits of this world—they don’t stay dead for long” (222).

It’s the day before King is supposed to meet Sandy at the cathedral. He wonders if he is brave enough to leave his parents, even though they do not understand him. He overhears Auntie Idris telling his mother that King just needs someone to listen. At dinner, Auntie Idris speaks to Khalid in a prayer.

Later in the evening, King asks Auntie Idris what she meant when she talked about spirits not staying dead. Auntie Idris tells King she still misses her deceased father but that the missing had changed and become memories. She said her father visits her in her dreams. King admits to himself that Khalid is not a dragonfly, but he hopes his brother will visit him in his dreams.

Chapter 13-16 Analysis

In this section, secrets spill into the sunlight. The immediate results are mostly negative for King but will eventually lead to positive resolutions. When King shows up on the Sanderses’ doorstep and bravely confronts the sheriff about abusing Sandy, the sheriff retaliates by outing King to his parents. The sheriff claims King is responsible for giving Sandy the idea to be gay, even though it was actually Sandy who came out to King first. King is not ready to admit his gay identity and tells his parents the sheriff is lying. The sheriff, as the clear antagonist of the story, unwittingly reveals the underlying problem that causes King to be unhappy. Initially, this seems like a bad thing, but it will eventually aid King in his journey to self-acceptance and self-discovery.

Though King refuses therapy and won’t discuss the possibility of being gay with his mom, he has nearly crossed the threshold of revealing his true self, which we see in his interactions at school. Breanna thanks King for convincing Darrell to ask her to be his girlfriend, even though she is taller than he is: “We should be who we are and like who we like, no matter who’s going to laugh” (198). This statement has an impact on King and bolsters Khalid’s dream message that a person is not just their body. He later comes clean with Jasmine and tells her he likes her only as a friend. When she asks him if he is gay, King tells her, “When Sandy told me that he likes other guys, I told him that I think I might, too” (205). Jasmine is angry that he lied to her and walks away, but King is starting to be honest about his feelings despite these repercussions.

Both King and Sandy are grasping the mature concept that people who love them can be flawed. Sandy, who has run away to escape his father’s beatings, tells King, “Seems to me like the people who love you are the ones who do the most hurting” (211). This comment makes King realize that Khalid hurt him when he told him to stop being friends with Sandy so that people wouldn’t think he was gay. He has awakened to the fact that the brother he idolized was not perfect and that there is nothing wrong with Sandy’s being gay. This is a step toward his accepting his own identity.

The chapter in New Orleans illustrates how the death of a loved one causes people to contemplate spiritual beliefs about life after death. Auntie Idris plays a key role in helping King come to terms with Khalid’s death when she tells him, “The spirits of this world—they don’t stay dead for long” (222) and describes how her dead father visits her in her dreams. Since Khalid has been visiting King in his dreams, the talk with Auntie Idris reinforces his budding spiritual beliefs.