64 pages • 2 hours read
E. R. BraithwaiteTo Sir with Love
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1959A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
A Youth Employment Officer visits the class. Many of the students already have internships and apprenticeships. The students are excited but realize how much they will miss class, trying to cram in all the conversations possible before they leave school. Despite being raised in a multicultural neighborhood, Braithwaite finds that puberty is responsible for racial rifts, and the students want Braithwaite’s advice for healing this racial tension.
One day, Clinty mentions that Blanchard might be leaving at the end of next term, which Braithwaite pretends not to know. Clinty says she doesn’t care for Blanchard’s superior attitude, but Braithwaite says he finds her charming.
The staff and students have Christmas dinner in the dining hall, which is heavily decorated. The students give Mrs. Drew a bouquet in gratitude, and she thanks them. Braithwaite watches with disgust as the younger students gorge themselves with cake. He and the older children clean up afterwards. The seniors go home to make themselves presentable, and Pamela asks Braithwaite for a dance later, saying she’ll bring a special record that is not jiving music. She asks Braithwaite to call her Pamela for the evening. The boys arrive polished, and the girls look very sophisticated, but “a new, beautiful, grown-up Pamela” (185) blows everyone away, including Gillian. Gillian expresses gratitude that she got to Braithwaite before Pamela.
The staff and students dance and play games, and even Weston has a great time. Clinty says Braithwaite is lucky to have Blanchard. Braithwaite and Pamela dance together, and Pamela asks if she can visit Braithwaite once school is over. Braithwaite says yes, and Pamela leaves shortly thereafter.
The next morning, the students are quiet, and Braithwaite thinks on how quickly the time has passed, and how much some of the students have grown. The students talk excitedly about how mature they felt during last night’s party, then they ask Braithwaite about Blanchard. Moira Joseph thanks Braithwaite on behalf of the class, saying that he has made them better people. Pamela gives Braithwaite a beautifully-wrapped gift. Florian enters amidst the students’ cheers. Florian and Braithwaite see the note on the label, which reads: “To Sir, With Love” (189) and contains all their signatures. Florian and Braithwaite smile as they look at the students.
Chapter 22 Analysis
With most relevant conflicts concluded by this stage in the novel, the final chapter serves as the book’s denouement. This chapter contains none of the problems witnessed throughout the book, but rather concludes with a sentimental ending to demonstrate Braithwaite’s growth as a character. In the beginning of the book, Braithwaite views this job merely as a means of employment, while he sees his students as a collective disgrace to English society. In contrast, Braithwaite views the students as his own children at the end of the novel, symbolizing the empathy and tolerance that has developed throughout the course of the novel. Much as an individual becomes less self-centered once he or she becomes a parent, Braithwaite no longer focuses on his own happiness within the last chapter, but instead looks upon the smiling faces of his students to dictate his own happiness, demonstrating his maturation as a character.
Paralleling Braithwaite’s growth as a character, this chapter is rife with references to maturation. The students, especially Pamela, are on the cusp of adulthood, yet in the eyes of Braithwaite, they remain giggling children. The students' push and pull between adulthood and childhood mimics Braithwaite’s symbolic parenthood of them. For much of the chapter, he does not seem to engage with them, but rather listens to their conversations and looks upon them with fatherly love. In the final scene, Braithwaite is accompanied by the fatherliest figure of all: Florian. Visually, Florian and Braithwaite are separated from the students, looking upon their figurative children. This scene captures the paternal concern that both men have as they watch their students begin their adult lives. Although separate from his students, and most likely from their futures, Braithwaite will always view them with fondness.
