The Seventh Most Important Thing

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015

A 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.

Download PDF

Chapters 40-44Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 40 Summary

Arthur settles into his community service work—searching for the important things in good weather and helping Mr. Hampton build otherwise. Spring cleaning means people throw out all sorts of things. Arthur collects stuff from the trash and realizes Roger is useful: “he could fix things” (197). Roger’s skill means Arthur, Squeak, and Barbara get practically new things from someone else’s trash.

“The Fifth Important Thing” Summary

The first Saturday in May, Arthur arrives at the garage to find Mr. Hampton sitting outside. Arthur thinks it’s odd that Mr. Hampton is sitting outside on a warm day wearing a sweater and looking cold, but he doesn’t comment. Mr. Hampton sends Arthur to get them each a bottle of soda from the store across the street.

When Arthur returns, Mr. Hampton tells a story from his childhood. His mother said to put empty soda bottles on the end of a tree branch so that all the guilt people have bottled up inside can be set free and run down to the ground. Arthur puts his and Mr. Hampton’s bottles on a nearby bush. Doing so feels silly, but “it kind of helped” (203).

Mr. Hampton asks Arthur for a promise. If anything happens to him, Mr. Hampton wants Arthur to be “the next Director of Special Projects for the State of Eternity” and finish the sculpture (205). Arthur agrees, not knowing that Mr. Hampton will die three days later.

Chapter 41 Summary

Officer Billie comes by to tell Arthur about Mr. Hampton’s death. Arthur thinks about Mr. Hampton’s last request. He never thought it “would come true so soon” (207). Squeak, Roger, and Arthur’s family try to talk about Mr. Hampton, but Arthur doesn’t want to discuss him. He isn’t ready yet.

Chapter 42 Summary

Arthur goes to tell Groovy Jim that Mr. Hampton died. Arthur confesses he was the kid who threw the brick at Mr. Hampton, but Groovy Jim already knows. Arthur gives Groovy Jim his phone number and asks Groovy Jim to call if anything goes on with the garage and Mr. Hampton’s sculpture. A few days later, Groovy Jim calls and tells Arthur to “come to the garage right away because something is happening” (214).

Chapter 43 Summary

When Arthur gets there, everything in the garage has been moved. Arthur remembers Mr. Hampton saying, “everything in his creation had its place” (215), and Arthur yells at the man who took everything apart.

Groovy Jim introduces Tony, the owner of the garage. Tony is there to clean out the garage and get it ready to rent out to someone else for $50 per month after $100 is paid in back-rent. Arthur can’t afford the rent but knows he can’t lose the sculpture. Tony agrees to let Arthur and Groovy Jim keep the garage until the end of May (less than three weeks away) for $50. Groovy Jim empties his wallet, cash register, and tip jar to pay the rent. Arthur feels sick that Tony took all Groovy Jim’s money. Groovy Jim shrugs it off and the two “get heaven put back together” (219).

Chapter 44 Summary

Arthur calls Officer Billie to ask for help with the garage. Officer Billie says there’s nothing she can do, and she’ll keep Arthur informed about his probation. She tells Arthur not to take anything that doesn’t belong to him and asks if she’s clear, to which Arthur thinks “Nothing was clear” anymore (221).

Chapters 40-44 Analysis

Arthur finds practically new things in the trash that Roger fixes. Roger mirrors Arthur’s dad, who was also good at fixing and building things. Roger’s skills here also mirror how he fixes Arthur’s family. Roger makes the items Arthur finds usable and enjoyable by Arthur’s friends and family. The items were trash to someone but are treasure after fixed. Arthur also grows to like Roger more in these chapters. He no longer thinks of Roger as trash or feels like he is dishonoring his father by thinking of Roger as family.

Soda bottles are the fifth important thing and represent Arthur releasing his negative emotions. Mr. Hampton’s story from childhood mirrors how Arthur talked about his dad a few chapters ago. Ironically, Arthur and Mr. Hampton really get to know one another right before Mr. Hampton dies. Mr. Hampton is the second father figure Arthur loses in the story, and Arthur responds in a similar way, with anger and sorrow. When Tony takes heaven apart, Arthur yells but realizes he needs to pull himself together. Arthur is aware of his spiraling emotions and takes charge of them before they escalate to violence, a sign he’s grown since his dad’s death.

The dissembling of the sculpture mirrors Arthur’s emotions. He feels like nothing makes sense and like his world is coming apart, much like the sculpture. Mr. Hampton left Arthur in charge of the sculpture, and Arthur is determined not to lose Mr. Hampton’s life’s work, but he doesn’t know how he’ll accomplish this. The garage rental and the upkeep of the sculpture present the main conflict in the novel and a turning point in Arthur’s development. As a character, he can either rise to the occasion or give up, as he nearly did at the beginning of the novel.