48 pages • 1 hour read
Cynthia KadohataCracker
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2005A 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 25-31Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary
Rick continues to attract attention to the cause of finding Cracker. He will be traveling back to the US shortly to continue his rehabilitation. Before Rick leaves, U-Haul visits him in the hospital and shows him a photo that a Vietnamese photographer captured of Cracker lying dejectedly in the abandoned base. Cracker looks close to death in the photo. U-Haul encourages Rick to move on with his life.
Rick continues to consider the photo once U-Haul leaves; he wonders how long Cracker can survive with the US withdrawing from the war.
Chapter 26 Summary
In rehab outside of Denver, Rick considers that he seems to be the only one unhappy to leave Vietnam. Rick reflects angrily that the Army does not care about the well-being of the dogs. Willie wrote back twice to Rick, assuring him that he would tell everyone he could about finding and repatriating Cracker. Rick’s parents visit him in the hospital, but he is only interested in Cracker and his rehabilitation. Rick feels that the quicker he gets better, the quicker he can try to find Cracker. After a month, he is discharged.
Chapter 27 Summary
Cracker trots toward Bien Hoa. She kills and eats a lizard. She finally arrives and comes across a group of American soldiers. One approaches her cautiously and checks her tattooed ear, confirming that she is an American army dog. He takes her leash and leads her to an American base. She is happy to be fed, brushed, patted, and kenneled. Mostly, she is happy that she will see Rick again soon.
The men discuss the Army’s practice of putting down military dogs or else leaving them with the South Vietnamese Army. Only a select few among those deemed healthy are brought back to America.
Chapter 28 Summary
Cracker is ecstatic to see Bruno in a nearby kennel. Cody sees Cracker and, amazed, lets both dogs out to play. The dogs run through an obstacle course and the base.
Later, Cody weeps as he holds Bruno. The dogs are then kenneled and loaded into trucks. Bruno and Cracker look at each other from their separate kennels, worried.
Cracker is taken to the vet. She passes a room full of dead dogs and tries to pull away. A vet and a soldier discuss the tragedy of 20 dogs having been put down that day. As Cracker is injected with something, she drifts off, thinking of Rick.
Chapter 29 Summary
Rick flies to O’Hare airport in Chicago. Over the loudspeaker, the pilot advises any soldiers in uniform to change out of their uniforms to avoid “incident over your status as Vietnam veterans” (291). Rick doesn’t have any civilian wear. He reflects on how much he aches for Cracker.
He is greeted by his parents and grandparents at the gate. Someone yells at him that he is a “baby killer” (294). His parents have brought him a change of clothes, and he changes in the bathroom. The real world seems fake to Rick. He misses Cracker desperately.
Rick tells his family that he has talked to a friend about a job in his security firm and that he will be getting his own place. The phone rings.
Chapter 30 Summary
Cody is on the phone. He tells Rick that they found Cracker alive, and she is one of the few dogs who will be shipped home. He gives Rick the flight details. Rick asks about Bruno; Cody brokenly tells Rick that Bruno was not selected to come home. She will be given to the South Vietnamese Army.
Rick finds Willie’s phone number and calls him.
Chapter 31 Summary
A week later, Rick waits for Cracker at the baggage collection area in the Chicago airport. She has been quarantined for a week. Twenty’s uncle helped shorten the time. Willie and his parents are there as well. They greet a very sleepy Cracker, who was tranquilized for the journey.
Willie carries the crate to Rick’s car as Rick carries Cracker. Cracker briefly worries that she will be going home with Willie; she wants to stay with Rick. Rick and Willie shake hands. Rick sees that Willie is close to tears when he hugs Cracker goodbye, and Rick gives Willie his dog tags and thanks him for raising a great dog.
Cracker lies across Rick’s lap in the car ride to his new apartment. She is happy.
Chapters 25-31 Analysis
A new threat arises in the final chapters: the Army’s practice of euthanizing or abandoning dogs as “unnecessary equipment” (286). Cracker overhears an Army vet saying that they euthanized 20 dogs in one day just before he sticks “yet another sharp thing into her” (290). To maintain suspense, Kadohata employs a cliffhanger. The subsequent two chapters, Chapter 29 and Chapter 30, switch to Rick’s point of view, leaving the reader unsure of Cracker’s condition until Chapter 30, when Rick finally receives the call from Cody.
Rick is miserable and anxious without Cracker: “Cracker was all that mattered” (292). Though he is relieved when he receives word that Cracker is safe and coming home, he is saddened to learn that Cody and Bruno will be separated by the Army’s decision to leave Bruno with the South Vietnamese Army. Rick’s relief and Cody’s grief illustrate two different sides to the theme of Companionship and Loyalty. While Rick and Cracker show the positive power of the bond between soldier and dog, Cody and Bruno’s sad ending shows what happens when loyalty and companionship clash with the demands of War and Conflict. Cody’s duty to obey the Army’s commands forces him to betray his loyalty to Bruno, causing harm to them both.
Rick’s Ambition for Greatness continues to be explored through his residual trauma from being labeled a generalist by a math teacher in his childhood. This made Rick determined to become a specialist who excelled in some area. As he reflects on the missing Cracker, however, Rick considers that becoming a specialist hasn’t brought him the happiness he had hoped: “[S]o his math teacher had been wrong all along. This was what applying yourself all came down to: silence” (295). Rick achieves his dream of respect and expertise but realizes that what has become most important is his relationship with his dog. This connects to the recurring theme of companionship and loyalty. Rick discovers that loving companionship is more important than being esteemed by one's peers. When he is finally reunited with Cracker, he is ready to carry this lesson into his new life.
The final chapters also demonstrate that conflict persists, even in the aftermath of the Vietnam War itself. Rick is surprised by the pilot of the plane warning soldiers to change out of their uniforms. This foreshadows Rick being verbally abused by a woman in the airport, who calls him a baby killer. Kadohata continues to draw readers’ attention to the contentious nature of the war, especially given that parts of this war—unlike previous wars—were televised to the American public. The guerilla-style warfare meant that many innocent South Vietnamese people were caught in the crossfire, leading to civilian deaths that were widely condemned, especially by those who already ideologically opposed America’s involvement in a foreign war. Despite the US’s involvement in the war being over, these conflicts are not resolved.
Kadohata provides some closure for Willie’s grief over surrendering Cracker; this grief is explored in the opening chapters but left unresolved until the closing chapters. Willie has the opportunity to see and hold Cracker again before allowing Rick to take her: “[H]e knelt down before Cracker and hugged her close […]. ‘you’ll always be my dog. I made you the best dog in Vietnam’” (306). Rick and Willie symbolically shake hands, and Rick gives Willie his dog tags, symbolizing his gratitude for Willie raising and then surrendering Cracker.
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