55 pages • 1 hour read
Ivan DoigThe Whistling Season
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A 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 19-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
Morrie is saddened by Eddie’s departure. Paul and his classmates wonder what they can do to elevate his mood. Morrie decides he is going to resign, but Oliver and Rose dissuade him and focus on celebrating the arrival of Halley’s comet through a musical. Damon joins in the brainstorming and they win Morrie over to the plan.
Paul summons Rose outside and shows her the approaching comet. Rose says that seeing the comet is just what Morrie needs.
Morrie tells his students about the celebration for Halley’s comet. In three weeks’ time, when the comet is at its full brightness, their parents will be invited to the schoolhouse for a nighttime program, the contents of which must remain secret until then. Though Rose and Oliver want to know what Morrie has planned, Paul and his brothers will not tell them.
The day before Comet Night, Toby's doctor gives him permission to go back to school. The doctor arrives with Harry Taggart, the school inspector. After Taggart departs, Rose goes to see Morrie to tell him the inspector is coming.
The next morning, the students arrive to find that Rose went to the school and cleaned it. Morrie, who was not present at first, appears and introduces himself. After questioning Morrie about his credentials, Taggart observes the rest of the morning. Warned by Damon that the inspector was there, all the children are on their best behavior, scrubbed and obedient. Morrie puts them through educational drills, at which they excel. Milo, a talkative student, inquires about Comet Night, attracting Taggart’s curiosity. The inspector decides he will stay for the event. In the afternoon, Taggart gives standardized tests, which demonstrate that the school satisfies state standards. Taggart notes that Paul has gained the highest score ever on the test. What neither of them know at the time—but what the adult Paul does—is that Paul will end up being Taggart’s boss when he becomes the state superintendent.
That night the schoolhouse fills with parents. After a brief presentation about cosmology and the comet, all the students produce harmonicas and play a song called “O Eastern Star.” When the music stops, parents call out for more. Milo sings a solo and the presentation concludes when Rose sings a beautiful song as well.
The adult Paul contrasts the triumph of that night to the present-day anxiety caused by the Soviet launch of Sputnik which has, among other things, caused states such as Montana to reevaluate their public education systems.
Chapter 20 Summary
The following Saturday, Oliver asks Paul and Damon to ride with him to Westwater. Their journey home takes them past the cemetery where their mother is buried. Oliver challenges his sons to a horse race and they gallop to the next section line. Then Oliver turns his horse into the cemetery and goes to Florence’s grave. After a time of silence, he confesses that he has fallen in love with Rose and is going to ask her to marry him. He asks the boys what they think of this and Paul says that things will certainly be different now. There will be a lot more whistling in the house.
Chapter 21 Summary
As Oliver and Rose prepare for their wedding, Rose is grateful for her good fortune. Morrie gives his blessing. Paul tells Rose that she should take the opportunity to come out early in the morning and see how Halley’s comet, now in its departing phase, has gained an extra tail.
When the day of Toby’s last doctor's appointment arrives, Toby frets that the doctor will not be able to come see him if it rains. Oliver responds that he will take Toby to see the doctor. Oliver asks Rose and the boys to go through Florence’s closet to decide what needs to happen to her clothing. Eventually, they come to her wedding dress. Rose says she will place it in a drawer for Oliver. Paul asks Rose about her own wedding dress. For the first time, she mentions her husband's name: Casper. Immediately, Damon and Paul realize Rose’s husband was the Capper, the boxer who intentionally lost a fight and was killed by gamblers. She explains everything that happened to the boys and asks them to keep this secret so as not to destroy her relationship with her father. Paul reluctantly decides, along with Damon, that they will keep the secret.
Paul wakes from a troubled dream that night, wondering if Morrie is actually Casper, on the run from gamblers in Chicago. Opening Damon’s scrapbooks, he finds the article about the lost fight and sees a photo of Casper climbing out of the ring, noting how much he looks like Morrie. At the end of the article, however, he sees the name of Casper’s manager, Morgan Llewellyn, and realizes who his teacher really is.
Chapter 22 Summary
At their after-school Latin session, Paul wants to confront Morrie about his true identity. The lesson is interrupted when Brose Turley crashes in and holds a knife against Morrie's neck, while Eddie immobilizes Paul. Brose demands to know if Morrie has summoned the comet and if that comet is the reason for the winter-spring drought that has ruined his trapping. Morrie tells Brose that he has long said the comet would be coming and leaving and would have no impact on human life at all. Eddie affirms the truth of what Morrie says. Assured that the world is not coming to an end, Brose and Eddie depart. Paul throws up in the slop pail. He tells Morrie that he did a good job defusing the situation. When Morrie says that it was really nothing, Paul responds, “No? Maybe not for a fight manager” (335), revealing that he knows Morrie’s identity.
Morrie asks if there is a way that they can “negotiate our way out of this uncomfortable situation” (337), and explains the circumstances of the fixed fight. Morrie describes how he and Rose fled from Chicago to Minneapolis until they were able to relocate to Montana. Morrie tells him that he and Rose have no idea where any of the gambling money might be. Paul says that he must tell his father, but Morrie says that it would be a mistake to do so because Rose’s feelings for Oliver are genuine. Morrie says he plans to leave once the wedding has taken place, and Paul makes Morrie promise to stay long enough to give Rose away. As Paul rides back to the farm he goes to the pond between the houses and sees Whistler swans.
The adult Paul finishes the narrative, saying that he understands now how he can maneuver the legislature into adding a few lines into their annual appropriations bill that will allow him to save the small schools of Montana. He will call it a simple housekeeping measure, in honor of Rose.
Chapters 19-22 Analysis
The final section of the book resolves several plot lines: the reinvention of the Marais Coulee school, the successful inspection, and the joyous climax of Comet Night; the softening of Brose Turley towards Morrie and education in general; and, most significantly, the revelation of Rose and Morrie’s history in Chicago. For Paul personally, the school inspection proves the most significant. Every part of Taggart’s visit to Marias Coulee exceeds expectations. He finds the school clean and well-equipped. The children—who all show up on time—demonstrate respect and academic interest. Their well-qualified teacher makes him laugh, then shows excellent teaching ability. The testing instruments demonstrate that the students are on grade level. The Comet Night gathering reveals an engaging, creative side of students and teacher alike, offering a vivid image of Seizing All Opportunities for Education. If Taggart did not admire Toby’s “nurse” when he first met her, he certainly did when she sang for the community on Comet Night. The effects of Taggart’s visit to the Marias Coulee School remain visible 48 years after Comet Night; the adult Paul notes it has just received a new coat of paint, implying children still learn there.
With these narrative resolutions, The Power of Secrets in the Community comes newly into relief, demonstrating that while some secrets bind people together, others threaten the cohesiveness of those bonds. In a moment when it seems everyone might live happily ever after, Rose accidentally reveals her husband’s first name. As soon as she mentions Casper, Paul, and Damon realize she is the widow of “The Capper,” Casper Llewellyn. Knowing that Casper died at the hands of angry bookmakers, the boys deduce that Rose has come to Montana for her own safety. As she lays out her story for the brothers, she puts them in the position of deciding whether to keep this enormous secret or potentially ruin the relationship between their father and Rose. While Paul feels uncertain about the right course of action, he observes, “I could see in my brother's face that for him, Rose was too much to let go of” (318). Keeping this potentially explosive secret comes on top of his early observations that he already keeps many secrets; in doing so, he sacrifices some of his own mental well-being to keep the family intact.
Paul wakes that night with the suspicion that Morrie was no innocent bystander as Rose pictured him. Long accustomed to Seizing All Opportunities for Education, Paul turns to Damon’s sports scrapbook. When Paul reads that Casper’s manager was Morgan Llewellyn, he knows that Rose has kept another secret and that Morrie is involved as well. Paul realizes he must uncover these last secrets to see where they lead, then decide what he must do for those he loves. In their conversation, Paul initially says he must tell Oliver what he has learned. With all his secrets now revealed, Morrie offers the one thing he has left to bargain with—that he will leave Marias Coulee.
Learning these secrets, negotiating around them, and acquiring the ability to keep them is a powerful educational experience for Paul. The adult Paul’s reflections on these conversations and bargains reveal that both men kept their promises. In the Tension Between Destiny and Chance, the deciding factor in this situation was human intention and reserve. For the welfare of his former sister-in-law, Morrie completes the school year, walks Rose down the aisle, then leaves, never to return. The more difficult role falls to Paul and Damon, who spend the remaining years with their father and stepmother without revealing Rose’s secret.
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By Ivan Doig
