40 pages • 1 hour read
Emmy LaybourneMonument 14
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012A 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 17-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Rum”
Jake, Brayden, Niko, and Dean gather in the kitchen to drink rum from Dixie cups after the woman dies. Brayden teases Niko about the Boy Scouts; Niko laughs it off. Jake brings up sex and makes it clear he knows Dean has not yet had sex. Jake says, “It’s just absolutely the best thing ever. Once you get it, all you can think of is getting it again” (163).
Dean becomes drunk and angry. Of Astrid, he tells Jake, “You don’t deserve her… You don’t even love her. You just want her so you can get your rocks off” (163). Dean continues speaking to Jake, recalling that he named Astrid’s body parts after “Disney princesses,” which he heard while he was watching them in the kitchen (164). Jake starts punching Dean, and Niko and Brayden pull Jake away after he’s hit Dean a few times. Josie comes in and rushes to Dean’s side. He vomits.
Chapter 18 Summary: “I Meet Painkillers”
The next morning, Dean says, “I felt like I’d fallen up a ski lift, then fallen down a black diamond mogul field and been hit by a Snowcat” (165). Dean realizes that he must apologize to Jake and make it seem like he didn’t spy on him and Astrid in the kitchen. Dean lies and says he learned about what he saw in the kitchen because Astrid had been speaking with him in confidence. Jake believes him and apologizes for beating him up. He tends to Dean’s broken nose with hydrogen peroxide and cotton. He also gives Dean pain pills, which are “demi-roids” (168). Dean feels their effects immediately.
When the young kids see Dean, he says he broke his nose by falling off a shelf, which Jake corroborates.
Josie informs everyone that they have lice.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Lice and Other Vermin”
Josie escorts everyone to get their hair washed. They bend over buckets while she pours water over their heads and uses Nit-Out Shampoo. While Josie washes Ulysses’ hair, Sahalia bends over a bin, and “[w]e can see skin under the leg of her shorts[…] It was like a Sports Illustrated bikini issue” (172). When she stands, she wets her t-shirt, and her nipples are visible. Jake and Brayden stare, while Dean turns away. Josie wraps Sahalia in a towel then begins washing Brayden’s hair.
Chapter 20 Summary: “We Get High”
Dean wakes up with two black eyes and dilated pupils. He falls asleep during breakfast. Alex asks what happened to him. Dean confesses that Jake hit him, but tells Alex to leave him alone. Jake stops by and gives Dean more pills, and the two get high. They eat cookies, and Dean feels, “relaxed but energized. Loose and happy” (177). Jake admits that, as a result of chemical exposure he, “can’t get it up for anyone anymore” (178).
The two boys encounter Sahalia and Brayden playing air hockey. The boys flex their muscles, and Sahalia feels Brayden’s. Josie arrives and admonishes Sahalia for her dress and behavior.
Dean feels exhausted, so he asks Alex if he can cover lunch and dinner for him. Dean sleeps all day and awakes to find Astrid standing over him. Astrid tells Dean to never spy on her again, and he apologizes.
Chapter 21 Summary: “The Hatch”
On the tenth day, Dean wakes up to make breakfast, with Max as his helper. Max insists on making sundaes, so the two make a sundae bar for everyone. When it gets to be 8:30 a.m. and no one has shown up, Dean and Max search for them. Everyone is gathered in the storage room, looking at the intercom. Two men are at the door, Craig Appleton and Robbie, who claims to know Mrs. Wooly. Mr. Appleton explains that they had to shoot the man who had been guarding the store.
The students argue over whether or not to let the men in. After voting, they decide to let them in, provided they hand over their guns, leave in the morning, take only what is given to them, and abide by all the students’ rules. The men agree and enter through the hatch in the roof. They clean themselves and change their clothes. Mr. Appleton is injured, so the students take him to get his wound patched up. Robbie brings a dog named Luna, who all the children flock to.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Breakfast with Outsiders”
Dean observes the newcomers and labels Mr. Appleton an “army guy” while Robbie is a “family guy” (196). Mr. Appleton tolerates the kids while Robbie seems to enjoy them. Robbie speaks Spanish with Ulysses, and the two cry and embrace. While Niko tends to the gashes on Mr. Appleton’s legs, he asks the younger kids to leave.
Chapters 17-22 Analysis
These chapters continue to explore power dynamics within the group, with a specific focus on gender issues. Social prowess among the males is tightly tied to their success with females. While the boys are drinking after the woman dies, Jake denigrates Dean by saying the latter has never had sex. This makes him a lesser member of the group. Niko tries to elevate his status by saying he dated a senior at his old school. When Dean gets drunk, his words underline the importance of female approval when he says to Jake, “You come to our school, you’re immediately popular. You’re the best player on the football team. You get the hottest girl in school” (163).
In this way, the novel underscores the ways in which females act as objects and a form of social currency within the group. When Sahalia washes her hair and wets her t-shirt, Dean says, “It was hot. It was crazy” (173). He reasons that she may not have intended to be provocative, “[b]ut it seemed to me she wanted us to see her body” (173). Here, Sahalia sexualizes herself and is in turn sexualized by the males around her. She seeks to gain social clout by winning Brayden’s affections. Josie becomes upset when she sees Sahalia wearing overalls over a bra and tells her “Prostitutes dress like that” (180). Josie implies that Sahalia is using her body as a form of currency in order to secure male attention.
Dean’s character also goes through some challenges and changes in this section. After Jakes beats him up, Dean resorts to lying and manipulation when speaking with Jake because Dean “couldn’t have him as my enemy” (165). During their discussion, Dean intentionally lowers himself by confessing to his crush on Astrid and elevates Jake by saying Astrid loves him. He reinforces the original power dynamics to avoid further punishment from Jake. In this way, one “win[s] confidence by telling [their] secrets” (167). Dean also takes advantage of the alcohol and drugs around him, something he has never done before. Here, Dean responds to the pressure around him by resorting to lying and abusing substances. As a result, he confesses, “I felt so low. Like a worm” (183).
