49 pages • 1 hour read
Neela Vaswani, Silas HouseSame Sun Here
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | 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.
April 2009-June 2009Chapter Summaries & Analyses
April 10, 2009 Summary
Spring starts to show itself in New York, and Meena can feel the change in the air. She’s impressed to see River on Time magazine, and she’s glad that people are finally paying attention to the Appalachian Mountains. Meena learns about serfdom at school, and how historically, people have wanted to control others to be rich, powerful, and comfortable. Even though America doesn’t have true serfs today, Meena’s teacher says that people do take advantage of others, such as illegal immigrants, by paying them less for work than they would citizens. Meena worries during the discussion that people will know she is living in New York illegally, but no one notices her nervousness.
Meena helps Mrs. Lau with a writing assignment for her ESL class. Mrs. Lau writes about noticing a woman on the subway wearing a pair of pants from the sewing factory where she worked. The story makes Meena think about who made her clothes, and how many products in New York came from India, just like her. When she gets home with Mrs. Lau, the landlord is waiting to ask Mrs. Lau where her son is. He refuses to look at parts of her apartment that need repairs, and Meena worries he suspects she is living in Mrs. Lau’s son’s apartment. She and Mrs. Lau spring clean the apartment, and it makes them feel better, like they are “making a new world, just the way we wanted it to be” (264).
30 April 2009 Summary
River has been chosen to represent Mawmaw’s activist group at the United Nations, so he will get to come to New York for three days. He’s excited, but he also feels like he didn’t do anything special to deserve attention like this. Mawmaw will come to New York with him, and they are both looking forward to meeting Meena in person.
River goes fishing with his father, and his dad apologizes for the rude comments he used to make about people because of their skin color. His time working in Biloxi with all kinds of people made him realize that, “we’re all more alike than we think we are” (268). River has learned this lesson for himself because of his friendship with Meena; even though they are different, they are very much alike.
May 14, 2009 Summary
Meena can’t wait to see River in New York and gives him advice about how to navigate the city without getting lost. She has exciting news to share too—her parents passed the citizenship exam, and the next step is the swearing-in ceremony. Early in the morning before her Daddy took the exam, she shared a special time with him, helping him study, and eating toast that he cut in the shape of Texas.
The landlord shut off the electricity in their apartment for several days and wouldn’t take Mrs. Lau’s calls, so Mrs. Lau plans to contact a lawyer. Even though things are bad in their living situation, Meena keeps a positive attitude and is used to being without electricity, since it happened often in India. She ends her letter with sample questions from the US citizenship exam.
19 May 2009 Summary
River’s dad is home from work, and his family goes to Cumberland Gap National Park to enjoy the warm weather, trails, and creeks. He loves the quiet of being out in nature, and he appreciates the natural beauty there. His parents tell him they plan to buy a new house, and that River’s father found a construction job nearby and can come live at home again. River’s mother’s headaches were caused by worry over the loss of their house and his father’s absence, but her will to live was renewed after the rock fall incident. Now, her headaches are gone, and River’s family can be together again. Even though River is sad to leave Mawmaw’s, they will live close to her and see her often.
June 4, 2009 Summary
All of the rent-controlled tenants have been kicked out of their apartments. Mrs. Lau goes to live with her son in Brooklyn, and she shares a tearful goodbye with Meena. Kiku arranges for them to stay with Ana Maria’s family until they can find a new apartment, and he leaves on his bike to get Daddy in New Jersey. All the housing in New York is expensive, and they are having a difficult time finding a place to live. They may have to move to New Jersey, and Meena knows this would mean saying goodbye to her school friends and neighborhood. Meena’s parents have their citizenship swearing-in ceremony later that day, but even though they will be citizens, they won’t have a place to live.
On the bright side, she’s enjoying staying with Ana Maria. She hears someone in the building playing the trumpet at night and feels like the joyous, yet mournful, song of the trumpet is a sign that everything will be ok. She knows she has her family, and that’s what matters. She’s excited to meet River soon and to show him around New York as an American citizen.
April 2009-June 2009 Analysis
House and Vaswani continue to highlight challenges faced by immigrants through Meena’s fear of eviction. They also showcase the powerless position of the poor through the landlord’s cruel treatment of rent-controlled tenants. Meena worries her family will be found out soon when the landlord sees her with Mrs. Lau. When the landlord shuts off the electricity, there’s nothing Meena’s family or Mrs. Lau can do to assert their rights. As Meena’s fear of eviction is finally realized, family and friends come together to help one another. Even though it’s difficult for her family, Meena knows they will be ok. She recognizes that losing their material goods doesn’t really matter because her family matters most. Meena’s situation shows the difficulty immigrants face finding affordable housing, as well as the way immigrants and the poor can be easily taken advantage of without having a way to fight back. However, despite the landlord’s choice to value money more than people, Meena learns to value people above all else.
House and Vaswani also develop the theme of race, as River’s father apologizes for his racist behavior in the past. He met all kinds people in Biloxi, and after taking the time to get to know them, realized people are much more alike than he thought, no matter their race. River has discovered this for himself in his relationship with Meena. His and Meena’s friendship is strong because of the differences and similarities they share.
Finally, the motif of nature also develops as River goes with his family to one of his favorite places: Cumberland Gap. River loves the quiet and trails of the park. While surrounded by the mountains, he reflects on the way immigrants have passed over the mountains throughout history, and that all people are immigrants of some kind in their search for a better life. His love for nature and the clarity he experiences while enjoying nature reminds the reader that natural areas are valuable and worth protecting.
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