43 pages • 1 hour read
Lauren WolkBeyond the Bright Sea
Fiction | Novel | YA | 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 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 11-12 Summary
After Maggie does some research in the local library, she learns that Dr. Eastman, the former director of the Penikese colony, now lives in Louisiana. Right away, Crow decides to write a letter to Eastman with direct, personal questions about what happened on Penikese, such as “What was the first baby’s name? The one born right after the colony opened?” and “Was there yet another baby that was sent away in a skiff?” (72). While impatiently awaiting a reply, Crow tries to focus on tending the garden and other chores. Osh shares some wisdom to ease Crow’s anxiety about the mysteries of her identity, telling her “[w]hat you do is who you are […] And what if you were one thing and became another?” (75). Despite his assurances, her daydreaming about the past continues, and she is ecstatic when Maggie finally brings her Eastman’s reply.
Maggie reads the letter aloud to Crow. Eastman admits that he was a little suspicious of Crow’s letter, wondering why someone would write out of the blue asking about Penikese. Nevertheless, he shares crucial details. Susanna and Elvan, two of Penikese’s residents, had a baby boy who appeared free of leprosy. They named him Jason and sent him to an orphanage in New Bedford. The doctor does not know the current whereabouts of the boy (who would now be an adult), or even if he still goes by the same name. Eastman says that years later Susanna had another baby, but it was stillborn and buried immediately. Susanna died not long afterward, followed shortly by Elvan; both are buried on Penikese.
Crow wonders if the couple had been her parents, but the doctor’s letter suggests this is impossible. While Crow does not want to be the child of lepers, she has grown attached to the idea of having some concrete idea of her family. Consequently, she does not quite believe the doctor’s story, asking Maggie “I know what the doctor wrote […] but don’t you think it’s still possible that I came from Penikese?” (83). Maggie suggests that Crow might most of all to feel like she comes from somewhere.
Chapters 13-15 Summary
Osh reluctantly learns the contents of Eastman’s letter. By now, Crow has thought so much about the possibility that she came from Penikese that she thinks it is true. Osh urges her to be patient, assuring her that she will figure out her history and that she probably already knows the truth in her heart. He feels separated from his own past, which he left behind before arriving in the Elizabeth Islands “because my country was not really my country. It was just where I lived” (86). Osh tells Crow how much he loves and cares for her, but Crow decides to write for more details to Susanna’s former nurse, Miss Evelyn Morgan, now also living in Louisiana.
Crow sends Evelyn a much shorter and more cryptic letter, writing down the few words surviving on the note attached to her infant body when Osh found her. She follows the list of words by asking Evelyn, “I wonder if they mean anything to you” (89). Crow hands her letter to the post office attendant herself. Watching the attendant handle it with “his hand wrapped in newsprint” so as to not touch it, Crow is both amused and bothered (94).
While awaiting a reply from Evelyn, Crow keeps an eye on Penikese. One night, she sees a small sailboat departing the island. Curious about why the gamekeeper would leave so mysteriously, she mentions what she saw to Osh. She also tells him about the thud she heard when she knocked on the door to the leprosarium. Unable to shake the feeling that something unusual is going on, Crow tells Osh she’d like to revisit Penikese. Osh agrees, but suggests they wait a day or so, giving them time to pull up their lobster traps—and immediately turn back if they see the gamekeeper’s boat.
After retrieving their lobsters, Osh and Crow head into town to sell them. Crow talks to Mr. Benson, a townsperson who casually mentions that the gamekeeper from Maine is very thin, “like a sandpiper, head to toe” (102). Crow is taken aback, since the man they met on Penikese was very large and spoke with a Southern accent. This confirms to her that her instincts were correct, and that something fishy is going on.
Afterwards, Crow heads to Maggie’s for her school lessons. Maggie is upset, because hawks or an owl killed one of her lambs. But when Crow tells her about the thud she heard inside the leprosarium, and mentions her plan to go back to Penikese, Maggie agrees to join the expedition.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
We learn more about Crow’s close relationship with Maggie in these chapters: Maggie serves as a surrogate mother to Crow. Together, the two make a team quite adept at finding the truth about Penikese, with Maggie serving as researcher and Crow as the confident investigator. While Crow deals with the emotions of wondering whether she came from Penikese, and how others treat her, Maggie urges her to continue researching her origins: “[i]f you have a chance to be closer to people, you should take it. And it’s not that you weren’t good enough […] People are afraid of things they don’t understand” (83-84).
In her excited quest for the truth about her past, Crow is prone to flights of fancy. Surprisingly, while skeptical Osh steps in to ground her imagination, he also clearly believes in and supports her. When she becomes convinced without evidence that Susanna and Elvan are her parents, he concurs that sometimes “people know things. They don’t learn them. They don’t figure them out. They don’t discover them. They know them” (86-87).
Osh’s somewhat mystical belief in Crow’s instincts demonstrates his deep love for his adopted daughter. It also connects to his feelings about his own past. He left his home country “[w]here some of us were less than others” and wound up sailing to the Elizabeths with an instinct that “it would take me to another life” (87-88). Meant to show support for Crow, Osh’s story also demonstrates parallels between the two: Both were removed from a dire situation to have a better life. Affinities like these eventually prove the point that even though Osh and Crow are not biologically related, they have built a meaningful, valuable life together.
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By Lauren Wolk
