Petey

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1998

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-9

Part 1, Chapters 10-14

Part 2, Chapters 15-19

Part 2, Chapters 20-23

Part 2, Chapters 24-27

Character Analysis

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Part 1, Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

Petey opens as Roy and Sarah Corbin arrive at the train station in Bozeman, Montana to surrender their two-year-old son Petey to the custody of the state. When he was born, Sarah was told Petey had “deficiencies,” and it was immediately apparent from her son’s physical characteristics that he was not a typical baby (2). Sarah and Roy had taken Petey to Butte to see a specialist, who declared Petey an “idiot,” and asserted there was nothing that could be done to improve either his condition or his chances for development (5). The specialist recommended the Corbins place their son in an institution. During the two years Petey lived at home with his family, Sarah gave Petey all her time and attention in the hopes she would see some improvement as he continued to develop. Eventually, she admitted she was unable to provide for her son to the degree that he would require for the rest of his life. At the close of the chapter, a heartbroken Sarah and Roy relinquish their son to the county health nurse. The nurse boards the train with Petey, and they begin their trip to the psychiatric hospital at Warm Springs. An old woman traveling in their train car takes a seat beside the nurse and happens to peer inside the bundle of blankets to look at Petey. The woman recoils in disgust and rises abruptly from her seat, moving away from them in haste. The nurse retorts that Petey isn’t going to bite her and tells the little boy it’s a good thing he “can’t think” (10).

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary

At the admitting services at Warm Springs Insane Asylum, Petey and the county health nurse are greeted by the admitting nurse, who notes he has been well cared for. Before the county health nurse leaves, the admitting nurse asks for any additional details that might be pertinent to Petey’s ongoing care. The county health nurse mentions only that Petey’s parents had been reluctant to give him up. The admitting nurse acknowledges this is often the case and voices her disapproval of the criticism parents of children like Petey so frequently face upon having to make such a decision. In the admitting nurse’s experience, most parents have tried everything within their power to help their children before ultimately abdicating their role as caregivers. When the doctor on the admissions service performs an intake evaluation on Petey, he confirms the diagnosis of “idiot” given to the toddler in Butte. He and notes Petey will likely be confined to his crib, and cynically replies, “What treatment?” in reference to the treatment Petey will receive while at Warm Springs (14).

Petey is brought to Infants’ Ward, where he is surrounded by other young patients. Children with intellectual disabilities, hydrocephaly, microcephaly, and other diagnoses populate the ward, and their sounds and appearances unnerve the attendant escorting Petey to his new home. Confined to his crib, the next few years pass for Petey marked only by the changing of the light around him with the rising and setting of the sun. As he grows, his body contorts and constricts involuntarily into semi-permanent configurations, the movement of his muscles outside his control. By age five, Petey begins to smile at the nurses and attendants who work with him, hoping to make a connection, but they fail to recognize his attempts to engage with them.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary

When Petey is eight years old, a 17-year-old named Esteban Garcia begins working at Warm Springs Insane Asylum. A former migrant worker, Esteban seeks out employment at Warm Springs specifically because he hopes to be of help to other people. Though his interviewer believes Esteban is too small for the physically demanding job of ward attendant and tries to warn him of the thanklessness of the job, Esteban manages to persuade the man to hire him with his eloquence and determination. Esteban is assigned to Infants’ Ward, and Petey catches Esteban’s attention as he comes to know the patients at his new job. Esteban inquires with other staff about the specifics of Petey’s diagnosis, and he is told Petey is an “idiot,” and that he “can’t think,” but Esteban is not convinced this conclusion is correct. When he discovers Petey’s love of Hershey’s chocolate, Esteban makes a point to share his candy bars with Petey, and through their interactions Esteban begins to encourage Petey to communicate his desires by nodding. When Esteban tries to demonstrate Petey’s ability to interact intelligently with a colleague, the nurse dismisses Petey’s requests for chocolate as “conditioned behavior” (25), not an indication of intention or intellect. Esteban is not deterred by her lack of acknowledgement, but his time with Petey and at Warm Springs Insane Asylum is cut short that afternoon before he has a chance to keep working with his young patient. When a group of visitors walks through Infants’ Ward on a tour and Esteban overhears a man referring to the patients as “freaks,” he reacts. Esteban chastises the man, yelling “They are not freaks! They are poor children!” (26) Petey is devastated when Esteban never returns, unaware his first friend in life was fired by the superintendent for his vocal defense of the patients in his care.

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

When Petey is 11, he is transferred to Ward 18, a psychiatric unit designated for the treatment of grown men. Most of the children on Infants’ Ward were transferred out upon turning five, but Petey had been allowed to remain longer because of the intensive physical care that he requires. When an attendant comes to collect him and bring him across campus for the move, Petey goes outside for the first time in the nine years he has been at Warm Springs. Sitting upright in his wheelchair, Petey makes every effort to thoroughly embrace the beauty and wonder of the outdoors as they traverse the grounds. When he enters the ward, Petey is bombarded by the sights, sounds, and smells of the dozens of patients occupying Ward 18. Petey immediately feels very vulnerable in his wheelchair, intimidated by the behaviors and interactions taking place around him.

Petey’s life on Ward 18 differs greatly from the environment he experienced on Infants’ Ward. With more patients to care for, the attendants are unable to devote the time that Petey requires to be adequately looked after, and he spends most of his days partially dressed in bed or in his wheelchair. He is subject to the intense heat coming from the vent above his bed and endures the frustration and hazard of choking on his food when he is fed too quickly by the attendants. All around him, the intense clamor and constant business of the ward serve to overwhelm and intimidate Petey.

Part 1, Chapters 1-4 Analysis

The physical characteristics that Ben Mikaelsen assigns to the character of Petey are typical of a severe presentation of cerebral palsy. While cerebral palsy came to be better understood by the medical profession beginning with increasing research into the condition in the middle of the 19th century, not all physicians, even specialists, understood the nuances of the diagnosis. The providers in the novel who diagnose Petey as an infant and later as a toddler act upon the presumption that he is intellectually disabled in addition to being physically disabled. In so doing, they commit a massive oversight in their diagnostic process. The scientific literature of the time indicated an overlap between the musculoskeletal symptoms of cerebral palsy and intellectual disability. Some patients diagnosed with cerebral palsy do have an accompanying, or comorbid, intellectual disability, but this varies with each case. In Petey’s situation, an intellectual disability is readily presumed instead of being carefully confirmed. Petey’s institutionalization may have become inevitable at some point in his life due to the amount of care he would eventually require. At the time his mother made the decision to surrender him to the care of the state, however, she was doing so with incorrect and incomplete information. That inaccurate information follows Petey until he is transferred to a nursing home. Throughout his time at Warm Springs, Petey’s treatment is dictated by the expectations imposed upon him based on his incorrect diagnosis. Petey therefore does not receive the interaction and enrichment crucial to his childhood development both because there is not enough staff to provide that individualized care and because it is believed such efforts would be futile in his case. Petey thrives despite being overlooked and underestimated.

Throughout the 20th century, it was common for physicians and laypeople alike to encourage parents to institutionalize their disabled children and to do so sooner rather than later to avoid the heartbreak associated with separating a child and their family. Social services and community supports were not philosophically inclined to encourage families to care for severely medically compromised family members in the home. In the 1920s, the population of Montana was approximately half a million people, spread out over many square miles. Unlike more populated states, Montana had fewer facilities serving those with disabilities overall. As a result, Petey is not placed in an institution specifically dedicated to serving the intellectually disabled. Had he been born in another state, he might have found himself in a so-called “state school” with more children his own age and later with adults whose characteristics were more like those attributed to him. When Petey is transferred out of the only ward available to children at Warm Springs, he is surrounded by men with psychiatric illnesses, an environment ill-suited to a young child whose only true disabilities are medical.