39 pages • 1 hour read
Susan Carol McCarthyLay That Trumpet in Our Hands
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A 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
Chapter 26 Summary
The stranger turns out to be Agent James Jameson of the FBI. He tells Warren and Luther that they have friends in very high places, namely the White House, the NAACP, the Florida Board of Tourism, and the Anti-Defamation League. Told to go inside with her mother, Reesa instead hides and listens to the conversation. Jameson gives Warren and Luther two pieces of paper, one with a list of alleged Klansmen and the other with information about the Klan’s car chase. They agree to mark off any inaccurate names and share information about the chase.
Chapter 27 Summary
It is orange blossom time, but Reesa is unable to enjoy the sights of the flowers; the orange blossoms mark the anniversary of Marvin’s death. When she wakes up in the night from a nightmare, her grandmother brings her special sheets bought in Chicago; Reesa is pacified by this gift. The next day Mr. Jameson returns and has a talk with Warren. Reesa is assured that a plan is in the works.
Chapter 28 Summary
When Reesa and Warren go to pick up Ren from his friend Petey’s house, they are surprised to see that Ren is injured. Earlier in the day, Ren and Petey, having gone out to look for gators, interrupted a large Klan ceremony. When the boys made fun of them, one responded by firing on them with birdshot. Ren was grazed on the side of his head and around his ear. The McMahons become outraged, and Warren calls Emmett Casselton, the Grand Cyklops and Klan leader, because the ceremony took place on his land.
Chapter 29 Summary
Agent Jameson appears at the McMahon’s home again. Still furious about his son’s wounds, Warren informs him that he is going to dynamite the Klan’s fishing camp. Jameson offers him a better alternative: Warren should go back to the Klan’s headquarters and confiscate their rolls and records. Warren readily agrees. The operation would require someone to stand watch, so Warren’s employee, seventeen-year-old Robert, volunteers. He defends the challenge to his youthful age by saying that his father had nearly been killed by the Klan in South Carolina.
Chapter 30 Summary
Luther’s choir ladies, who have been feeding Luther information about the Klansmen for whom they work, send Warren flyers announcing a big Klan rally in Orlando. Warren consequently plans his trip to steal the Klan’s records from Lake County the night they will all be away. The plan is set: Luther will go early and unlock the little-used gate, and then, he will signal when no vehicles are present. A few hours later, Warren and Robert will wade through the small lake to access the building. They plan to take twenty minutes to complete the search and intend to be home no later than 11 o’clock.
Chapters 26-30 Analysis
In these chapters, Ren learns that even a White Protestant child is not too innocent to experience the violence of the Klan; when he interrupts a Klan ceremony, his face is grazed with birdshot. As in Chapter 25, when the Klan members’ children appear poisoned by their parents’ hatred, Chapter 28 demonstrates that young children, not just the teenaged Marvin, can be victim to the violent racial hatred as well. The hate goes beyond race, religion, or national origin. In this book, the theme of racism emphasizes that hate permeates every member of the community. Reesa’s family, while not racist, experiences fear and rage, which are base experiences of the human soul.
After Ren is injured, Warren’s anger boils over in defense of his family. When his rage inspires him to bomb the Klan’s headquarters at the fishing camp, his darker self emerges, and he takes a different approach to his search for justice. Agent Jameson of the FBI restores Warren’s faith in the rule of law by offering him a chance to channel his energy into fingering members of the Klan by stealing their records from their meetinghouse. Law enforcement fails the McMahons, thanks to the racist statesmen in power in Florida, and the ultimate outcome only arrives through calculated action on Warren’s part. Warren’s desire to bomb, just as the Klan bomb, demonstrates that he has become tainted with hate; the conflict between good and evil can wreak havoc even on heroic characters like Warren.
