55 pages • 1 hour read
Susan Beth PfefferThe Dead and the Gone
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008A 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 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
The novel opens on May 18. Alex Morales is working at Joey’s Pizza in New York City and helping a customer, Greg Dunlap, who lives in the same apartment building as Alex and his family. They chat about Alex’s family and how everyone is doing, and Greg mentions a plumbing problem. Alex promises to tell his father, Papi, about the problem as soon as he returns home from Nana’s (Alex’s grandmother) funeral in Puerto Rico. As Alex and Greg talk, Joey, Alex’s boss, is watching a baseball game. Suddenly, the cable goes out. Despite this inconvenience, Alex continues working and doesn’t leave the restaurant until ten o’clock due to short staffing.
As Alex walks home, he notices that the weather is muggy and overcast, as if threatening a thunderstorm. He soon hears sirens in the distance, and while he’s curious, he doesn’t pay them much mind. When he turns the corner on 88th Street, he sees people standing outside of their apartment buildings and pointing to the sky, where he sees nothing but clouds. As he reaches his apartment door, the power goes out. He enters to find his sisters, Briana and Julie, home alone. Bri tells him that Mami (their mother) was called into the hospital, where she works as an operating room assistant. The kids realize that with Papi in Puerto Rico, Mami at work, and Carlos (their older brother) in California serving as a marine, they must deal with this strange situation alone. The siblings talk about the asteroid hitting the moon—scientists predicted the event—but none of them shows any sense of alarm or concern about it.
Early the next morning, the children’s uncle, Jimmy, shows up at the Morales apartment and takes Alex and Julie to his bodega to help him move stock and prevent looting, leaving Bri behind in the apartment. Uncle Jimmy explains to the kids that the asteroid knocked the moon closer to the Earth, causing enough problems that his wife, Lorraine, is starting to become very worried and even “hysterical.” As they pull up to the bodega, they see Benny, a large man armed with a gun, keeping guard over the store. Julie gets to work building boxes to transport supplies, and Uncle Jimmy and Alex load and deliver Benny’s payment of cigarettes and beer to his apartment. They then take a load of supplies to Uncle Jimmy’s apartment, where Alex briefly chats with Aunt Lorraine and sees her great concern. When they return, Julie has finished building boxes and has also packed numerous boxes and bags of food for her and her family.
Uncle Jimmy takes Alex and Julie back to their home along with the supplies he’s allowing them to take. When the children enter their apartment, Bri tells them that she believes Papi tried to call, but she couldn’t be sure because of the static. This relieves the kids, but their overall concern for the situation is growing. Later in the morning, Carlos calls to tell his family that he’s being deployed, though he doesn’t know where he’s going. Alex then leaves his sisters in the apartment and goes to school to find out what’s happening there. As he does, he sees the chaos unfolding in the city. Traffic has jammed every street, and there are still many emergency vehicles racing around. Alex finds the school closed, so he begins his return home as it starts to rain and thunder. He thinks of taking the subway but sees the stairway to the station blocked. A police officer informs him that the subway tunnels have flooded. Knowing that Mami takes the subway to Queens for work, Alex begins to wonder if she is okay. Exhaustion overtakes Alex, so he says a prayer and goes to sleep as soon as he gets home.
Chapter 2 Summary
It is now May 20, and the electricity has returned, so Alex watches the news for any information about what he and his family are facing. He sees the destruction that has hit New York as well as the rest of the world: There have been 20-foot tidal waves, plane crashes, blackouts, evacuations, looting, riots, and (in New York) a mandatory curfew. He again thinks of Mami, who hasn’t contacted her family in 24 hours. Alex tries the phone, but it is dead. He returns to the TV to find out more, but the power cuts out. To fight his rising panic, Alex makes a list of things he does and doesn’t know. As he does so, he begins to assess his situation and reflects on the resilience of the city of New York and how it always seems to pull through the toughest of circumstances. He also thinks of Papi and his other relatives in Puerto Rico, wondering how they’re doing and if they’ve survived the conditions there.
After making his list and processing what he learned on the news, Alex leaves the apartment to attend the 8:15am Mass at St. Margaret’s Church, leaving his sisters to put away the food that he and Julie brought home the day before. As Alex walks to church, he sees how much bigger the moon is now that it is closer to Earth. Father Franco begins Mass by making several announcements. He tells his congregation to stay close to home and to avoid driving. He explains that the electrical outage is nationwide but will likely be over by Monday. As to the phones, he says that there is no estimate as to when they will be back online because the communication satellites have crashed. He ends his announcements by drawing attention to the bulletin boards outside the church, which will communicate any updates, and suggests that everyone check the boards daily. After Mass, Alex returns home to his sisters, and Bri makes breakfast. After they eat, Alex realizes that they have a radio but no batteries for it. He looks for cash to buy some and ends up in Papi’s office, where he finds $20 and two apartment keys. Altogether, the kids only have $50 and a modest stock of food, but they are confident that Mami and Papi will return home soon.
The next day, Alex feels his panic growing, so he goes for a walk, telling his sisters to work on homework. He finds downtown eerily quiet as he goes to the bulletin boards at St. Margaret’s. Posted is a sheet of the identified dead; Alex looks for his parents’ names but does not see them. He then puts his parents’ names on a list of missing persons. Alex also learns that school will resume on Tuesday. After visiting the bulletin boards, Alex heads to Joey’s Pizza, where he finds Joey working. Joey explains that his wife thinks they should move, as the restaurant isn’t likely to recover financially from the disaster. Joey pays Alex his outstanding wages, and Alex returns home.
On May 22, the Morales children attend Mass together. Afterward, Bri and Julie go to a friend’s house for lunch, and Alex goes for another walk. He buys batteries from a store owner who charges too much for them. When he returns home with the batteries, he gets the transistor radio working and hears an announcement for a missing person hotline. Because this means the phones must be working, Alex tries the phone, finds it works, and calls Mami’s hospital. He talks to a woman who informs him that there are no personal calls allowed and that she’s unable to search for his mom. She does take down Alex’s phone number and promises to call if she learns anything. In their conversation, Alex learns that the phones have been working since the day before. Alex then calls Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Lorraine to see if they have heard from Mami. When he learns that they haven’t, he calls the missing person hotline and signs up to go to Yankee Stadium in three days: This is where the city is keeping the unidentified dead. Finally, Alex tries calling Nana’s house in Puerto Rico, but a message alerts him that his call cannot go through.
May 23 is appointed a National Day of Mourning, so there is nothing on TV but memorial services. Alex decides to visit Father Franco at St. Margaret’s, leaving his sisters behind to watch a movie. At the church, several people are already waiting for Father Franco, so Alex waits until it’s his turn. When he meets with Father Franco, Alex informs him of Papi’s situation, asking for help finding him. Father Franco calls another office and learns that tidal waves hit the Puerto Rican coast very hard, though there is no information about Milagro del Mar, the village where Papi is visiting. Alex thanks Father Franco for his help and visits the bulletin boards on his way out. All he sees are more names on the lists of the missing and the dead. He tries to pray for their souls but finds no meaning in it.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The first two chapters of the novel establish the type of teenager that Alex is and the relationship that he has with his family. He is very mature and intelligent, showing a great sense of leadership and concern for his sisters. Alex hopes to attend Georgetown for college and already attends a prestigious private high school, so he’s smart and responsible enough to look after his sisters until he can find their parents. The chapters provide less information about Bri and Julie, but they are respectful and do as Alex suggests, showing that the siblings get along and will work well together as they try to survive this difficult situation.
These chapters also establish a clear sense of tension. The Morales family lives in an apartment building in a typically busy neighborhood of New York City. That this bustling area is now so quiet and still helps create a sense of mystery and foreboding. Having Papi in Puerto Rico at the time of the disaster furthers the tension since Alex is preoccupied with trying to find his father and determine when he might be able to return home. Of course, Alex is also struggling to find Mami, who isn’t as far away yet still hasn’t reached out to her children. The uncertainty also weighs on the novel’s characters, especially Alex, as they continue to hope and pray that their parents are well and will return quickly to help them navigate the disaster.
It is significant that amid the disaster the children keep up their religious practices. For Alex, who appreciates rules and order, the structure of attending Mass may be part of the attraction, but faith itself also plays a key role in the children’s lives even (if not especially) during times of uncertainty. The support that faith can provide in navigating difficult times is one of the novel’s central themes, although as Alex’s struggle to pray before the bulletin boards demonstrates, maintaining faith can itself be a challenge when questions of physical survival loom large.
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By Susan Beth Pfeffer
