56 pages • 1 hour read
Bethany HamiltonSoul Surfer
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2004A 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 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Surgery”
In the first two sentences of this chapter, Hamilton tells us that she was lucky on the morning of the attack because the doctor on duty at the hospital had dealt with a shark bite that took off a surfer’s foot a few years earlier. This same doctor was also a surfer and a member of Hamilton’s church; that is, he was already a member of her community. The second doctor, the one who would operate on her that morning, had been prepared to operate on her father when that surgery was interrupted by the news of the shark attack.
Hamilton gives the reader some indication of the incredible damage the shark bite did to her body, without going into too much medical detail. The doctor, prior to taking Hamilton into surgery, tells her mother that “a lot of things had to have gone right for her to make it to this point” (99).
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Road Back”
This chapter includes Hamilton’s account of her recovery from the attack and surgery, including the worry, fear, and exhaustion her family members experience. Hamilton’s own response reveals her resilience: Two days after the attack, she informs her father that she wants to be “the best surf photographer in the world” (105), and she assures her friends and family that she is still the same person. She also asks herself, “Why did God choose me and what does He have in mind for me?” (106).
Hamilton’s loved ones suffer in the aftermath of the accident, and she details her grandmother’s tears, her parents’ financial troubles, and her brother’s difficulty at school. A few days after the attack, Bethany meets with a blind psychologist. He tells Bethany he has accepted that he has lost his sight and has found his purpose in helping others accept their own losses. Hamilton is deeply affected by this meeting, which helps her in her recovery. While in the hospital, Bethany also visits a classmate of her brother who is in the hospital with a brain tumor.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Why I Do It”
The chapter opens with a section about what it feels like to surf. Hamilton explains: “Surfing is a force that moves you body and soul. [...] This is why I’m a surfer” (122).
Hamilton admits that, prior to the shark attack, she often shrugged off the possibility of a shark encounter because, “Life is full of what-ifs. You can’t let it hold you back. If you do, you’re not really living at all [...] just kind of going through the motions with no meaning” (123). She lists some of the precautions that surfers routinely take but says that most of the time, a surfer never knows that a shark is close by. The remainder of Chapter 9 is a lengthy bulleted list about the history of surfing.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
In these chapters, Hamilton goes into moderate detail about the aftermath of the shark attack that changed her life. She begins with an account of her own experience, then turns her gaze outward to include the experiences of her family and friends. She then looks beyond that immediate circle to the wider community and includes their response to the attack.
Several thematic elements that have been present in earlier chapters are present here, as well. Faith is the most obvious and important theme that is woven throughout the narrative, but resilience and the acceptance of chance are included, too. In Chapter 7, the doctor tells Bethany’s mother that “a lot of things had to have gone right for her to make it to this point” (99). This statement reinforces the theme of chance that has been present throughout the book as well as the fact that chance can both benefit and disadvantage a person, depending on the circumstances.
Chapter 8 highlights Hamilton’s resilience. In Chapter 3, Hamilton recounted the lessons her father instilled in her and her brothers about losing, saying that he taught them that losing was inevitable and that the correct response to losing was to gather yourself together, get back on your feet, and carry on. Hamilton, it would seem, took this lesson to heart: In the days after the attack, she tells her father she wants to be a surf photographer, reassures her friends and family, and, rather than asking herself why this terrible thing had happened to her, asks, “Why did God choose me and what does He have in mind for me?” (106). Vignettes such as these illustrate the fundamental characteristics of Bethany Hamilton as well as two of the primary themes of the book, resilience and faith.
Community is another theme that Hamilton returns to, illustrating the many ways her community supported her recovery. This idea of community is present in the dozens of visitors from Hamilton’s church who crowd her hospital room, as well as a visit Hamilton makes to her brother’s classmate in the hospital. Hamilton turns her attention to the ways her loved ones suffered in the aftermath of the accident to show that in a community, all members are interconnected, sharing in both the joy and the suffering of every member in the community. In Chapter 9, Hamilton invites the reader to share in this community by including a sensory account of surfing—the thrill and emotions that go with the sport—and the history of the sport. Sharing this knowledge with her readers not only allows them to better understand why surfing matters so much to Hamilton, but also gives the reader access to what might be a previously unknown activity that they have only seen in movies.
Having established the joy of surfing, Hamilton admits that she was previously undeterred by the threat of a shark attack, noting, “You can’t let it hold you back. If you do, you’re not really living at all” (123). This statement is an important reflection of Hamilton’s acceptance of chance. Sharks, she writes, “prefer to move silently and stealthily underwater, a total surprise to their victims” (124). Hamilton seems to be asking the reader to consider how one is supposed to prepare for something one is unaware of, a question that sums up her approach to chance. You can take reasonable precautions, she seems to suggest, but you will never be able to prevent everything.
