48 pages • 1 hour read
Michael FinkelThe Stranger in the Woods
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2017A 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 25-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 25-26 Summary
Finkel attends Knight’s hearing at the Kennebec County Courthouse on October 28, 2013, seven months after his initial arrest. Due to the unique circumstances and the six-year statute of limitations, Knight pleads guilty to 13 counts of burglary and theft. In lieu of prison, he enters the Co-Occurring Disorders and Veterans Court program with the district attorney claiming that Knight has alcoholism in addition to psychological conditions.
The sentence is seven months of jail, cut to one week for time served, a fine of $2,000 for victims, and one year of counseling, community service, daily case manager calls, weekly court visits, and random drug testing. He must live with his mother in Albion and stay in the state of Maine.
Knight, calling his sentence a “double winter,” is reticent to rejoin society and prefers the structure of jail. He admits he’s “extremely emotionally thin-skinned” and needs counseling for basic conversational cues (167). A chance to work on an organic farm falls through after neighbors learn about it. Finkel offers to help Knight with employment, but Knight rejects help and claims that he does not want to see Finkel again. He backpedals from this stance, telling Finkel that he would like to see his book collection and speak to him next spring “when the lilacs bloom” (170).
Knight’s reintegration into society seems to go smoothly. He works for his older brother Daniel’s scrap metal recycling business in exchange for room and board. He never misses his Monday court dates and paints an old rail station for the Albion Historical Society as community service. He even develops a relationship with Alice Macdonald, a high-school classmate who was his only other regular visitor in prison.
Finkel sends Knight video footage of his bookshelves but receives no response. Knight’s family members and Macdonald shut down any attempt to reach him, including one time when Finkel makes an unannounced trip in person. Finally, Finkel receives a brief note from Knight in response to a Christmas card, which inspires him to make another trip to Albion. He buys a lilac sprig and apple pie as gifts on the way to Joyce Knight’s house and sees Chris Knight for the first time in seven months.
Chapter 27 Summary
Knight is healthier than he was in prison, with a clean-shaven beard and repaired teeth. He rejects Finkel’s gifts but leads him to an area behind the garage where lilac and apple trees bloom. Despite the encouraging reports from authorities, Knight says that he’s only giving them what they want to see. People regularly see him as arrogant or offensive “like I’m in high school all over again” and give him tiresome platitudes (179). He has received Finkel’s video, but his family doesn’t want the two to speak.
Knight worries about going crazy, losing his interest in reading, and being forced to take medication. Knight gives Finkel direct eye contact at times; he is actually conversing rather than just dictating thoughts like before. Knight asks Finkel what he thinks “The Lady of the Woods” is. Finkel guesses Mother Nature, but Knight means Death. He shares a near-death experience where he saw a woman in a hooded sweater draw near him as he lay in his sleeping bag during a particularly terrible winter. Unable to return to his campsite, Knight reveals a plan to go back into the forest around November while wearing thin clothing so that he can die a relatively painless death of hypothermia.
The two weep together. The experience gives the writer a better understanding of Knight: He left the world because no place made him happy, but the forest never gave him the answers he needed to live a full life. Finkel also realizes why Knight chastises him for leaving his family to conduct their prison interviews. Knight tells the author to do what he wants with the hermit story after he is with the Lady of the Woods.
Chapter 28 Summary
Finkel stops on the road and worries about what to do about the detailed suicide plan. Legally, no one can hold Knight because the threat isn’t imminent. He contacts several psychologists, who all concur that he is a high suicide risk, with one stating that for someone seeking autonomy, “suicide can be considered the ultimate expression of independence” (185). Finkel tries to visit Knight one more time, but the visit is cut short when he mistakes his older brother Daniel for him.
Knight writes him letters every month imploring him to reconsider his decision. When November comes, Finkel tries to fly over one more time, but stops when his wife informs him of a letter from Knight demanding to leave him alone. Finally, the writer resorts to calling contacts to make sure Knight is still alive.
On March 23, 2015, Knight completes his sentence without issue and receives three years of probation and additional counseling. To Finkel, Knight appears more passive than before but laments that he has lost some of his earlier defiance. Still, Finkel is happy to receive a final elegy to their relationship from Knight with a simple doodle of a daisy as a sign of adaptation.
Finkel makes a final trip to North Pond, where the campsite is fully excavated and feels lonely. He wonders what would have happened if Knight did die at the campsite like he wanted to. The forest would have eventually consumed his campsite and remains without a sound, finishing “an existence, a life, of utter perfection” (191).
Chapters 25-28 Analysis
While Finkel finds some humor in Knight confessing to low-price crimes and Knight complains about arbitrary requirements in his sentence, the punishment is lenient considering the number and duration of his crimes. In Maine, a burglary in a dwelling is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The sentence could irk some North Pond residents who desire a more severe punishment, but that might not matter as the resolution seems to revert the area back to a place where residents can leave open windows and unlocked doors without a care.
Chapter 26 is the first time the reader learns of anyone else visiting Knight regularly. Knight sees Alice Macdonald as a source of comfort, but he is uncomfortable when she tells him she wishes that she could touch him. This, along with his refusal to acknowledge any connection with Finkel, demonstrate how truly difficult socializing is for him. Finkel’s visit, the first time the two talk without some physical barrier between them unlocks repressed emotions, as Knight shares more personal feelings than he ever did in prison.
The hermit’s confession of suicidal thoughts puts Finkel in a tight situation. Building a strong-yet-professional rapport with sources is vital for a journalist, but Finkel approaches Knight more as a friend. Writing letters and checking with contacts seems to be his best option given his circumstances, though Knight’s counseling and other relationships may also play a role in his decision to abandon the plan.
Finkel picks up on the theme of family again after mentioning it in the opening chapters. He reveals that Knight affectionately calls Finkel’s sons “cowboys” and regularly admonishes how often he travels to Maine. The confession puts these statements in a new perspective: Knight does appreciate family and relationships yet cannot connect with others. The statements that Finkel finds amusing given the speaker are warnings about the pain that isolationists endure.
The flower Knight draws for his final letter is a sign of adaptation, as he previously said he never had an interest in journaling or art while in the woods. Art lives on after the creator is gone, and Knight goal was to disappear without a trace. That goal is no longer possible, as the arrest and now Finkel’s book exposed him to the world. A nameless disappearance into the ether would have made him an ideal hermit.
