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 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
On June 12, a Sunday, Alex and Julie attend Mass, and Julie then goes to a friend’s house for the afternoon. Before Alex leaves the church, Father Franco informs him that Bri is adjusting well to life at the convent farm. Alex goes home, where he spends some time studying for his upcoming finals. Uncle Jimmy arrives at the Morales apartment and tells Alex that he and his family are leaving for Tulsa because conditions in New York are worsening. He asks Alex if Bri could come to help Aunt Lorraine with the children, especially since Lorraine is now pregnant with their fourth child. Alex tells Uncle Jimmy about the arrangement for Bri at the convent, and Uncle Jimmy says that they could take Julie instead, though she is younger and not as hard a worker. Alex remembers his vow to Bri and declines the offer, allowing Julie to stay with him.
Two days later, Father Mulrooney asks the students at St. Vincent to raise their hand if they are planning on leaving New York at the end of the school year or before the beginning of the next one. He does the same for those who are planning to stay. Alex sees that there are a few boys planning to attend the following school year, but he questions how many will actually stay when the time comes.
June 15 marks four weeks since the asteroid collided with the moon. Julie and Alex attend a Mass for the dead in the evening, making it Alex’s second of the day. As he sits through the service, he feels nothing. Several days pass, and Alex is studying for his Latin final that coming week. Someone knocks on the door, and he opens to find Greg Dunlap, the tenant who spoke with Alex at the pizza parlor on the night the asteroid hit the moon. Greg explains to Alex that he and his partner are leaving New York for Vermont and gives Alex the keys to both his apartment and its neighbor, the occupants of which have not returned. Greg explains that there is a small amount of food in his neighbors’ apartment, which is a great blessing for the kids. After Greg leaves, Julie comes out of her room and wants to go explore the apartments right away. Alex says they should wait to let Greg and his partner leave, but the conversation reminds Alex of the two keys that he found while searching Papi’s office for money. He tells Julie that they can explore those apartments instead.
Alex and Julie head to the elevator and ride to the 14th floor, where they open the door to one of the apartments. He notices that this apartment is bigger and nicer than his own and understands that while they are in the same building, the tenants live very different lives. The kids move to the kitchen and begin packing up food. Julies takes this food home, and Alex moves down to the 11th floor to the next apartment. He finds a folding grocery cart in a closet and begins packing what food he can find, which includes more canned goods than in the previous apartment. He then heads to the elevator to find Julie waiting for him, and they go home together.
On June 20, Alex is at school listening to Father Mulrooney’s announcements before Mass. He states that the school will remain open for the summer and will provide students with lunch each day. However, each student must complete a social welfare assignment to eat. Alex meets with Father Mulrooney later that day and learns that he must visit 10 people in surrounding apartment buildings to ensure that they are okay and don’t need help: Each person must sign a sheet to signify that Alex checked on them. When Alex picks Julie up from school, she shares that her school will also be open for lunch over the summer. Her task is to help tend a vegetable garden that the school planted in Central Park. When the siblings return home, they each eat two Oreos to celebrate.
Three days later, Alex learns on the radio that the city will evacuate Queens by June 30. This dashes any remaining hopes he had of Mami’s survival. The next day, he visits the bulletin boards at St. Margaret’s, which he has been avoiding. On the bulletin board is a list of the times and places for the evacuation. As Alex is looking at the list, Father Franco comes out to post an announcement that a nearby elementary school will provide each person with one free bag of food. The distribution will occur each Friday at 9 o’clock in the morning. The next day, Alex begins his welfare checks as assigned, and he listens to Julie chatter about her experiences with the garden—a welcome distraction to Alex’s constant thoughts about food.
June 30 arrives, and Alex stays by the phone on the unlikely chance that Mami will call once officials evacuate Queens. The phone never rings.
Chapter 7 Summary
July 1 marks the first food distribution, so Alex and Julie head over to 84th Street over an hour early to get in line. When they arrive, they see a line three blocks long. They take their place at the end and wait. By 10 o’clock, the line begins shifting forward slowly, but by 11 o’clock, a police officer calls over a loudspeaker that the food has run out and that everyone is to return to their homes. A riot breaks out, and Alex and Julie struggle to escape, leaving Alex with a bloody cut on his face and Julie with a purple bruise on hers; in the chaos, Alex tries but fails to save a baby being trampled and shoves an old man to the ground. He drops Julie off at her garden, and he arrives at St. Vincent de Paul just before lunchtime. However, Father Mulrooney sends Alex away because he has not turned in his welfare assignment sheet in two days. This angers Alex, but he manages to control it and leaves the school hungry, forcing Alex to go without food for a long weekend due to the Fourth of July holiday.
Bri’s birthday is July 2, so on that day, Alex calls the convent, ignoring the fact that the nuns will not allow personal calls. The nun who answers refuses to let Alex speak to Bri, which enrages him. Resisting the urge to slap Julie when she giggles at him for swearing, he runs to the elementary school that distributes the food each Friday and screams curses at it in the street. At Mass the next day, Father Franco warns his congregation to boil all their water, as cholera is spreading. He also reminds them to use insect repellant to prevent catching West Nile virus. Alex is simply too angry and hungry to care.
The next Tuesday, Alex returns to school with his required signatures and hands his sheet to Father Mulrooney. Father Mulrooney lectures him on obedience and rules, but Alex retorts that sometimes rules cause the very problems they are trying to prevent. As Alex leaves the headmaster’s office, he sees Kevin, who tells Alex that he likes his style. The following day, Kevin again approaches Alex, this time giving him a canned ham.
The next food distribution day approaches, and Alex finds an alarm clock in one of the empty apartments. He sets the alarm for five o’clock so he can leave his apartment as soon as the 6 o’clock curfew lifts to get in line. When he arrives at the school, the line is long but shorter than the previous Friday. Alex has come alone to prevent any harm coming to Julie, though he knows that it will cost them a bag of food. The line begins moving, and he has his food by 10:35am. When he arrives at school, he talks briefly with Kevin, who tells Alex to take him to the elementary school next time so he can get an extra bag of food for him and Julie. This makes Alex grateful to God and Chris Flynn, who made this friendship possible.
Chapter 8 Summary
On July 10, Alex and Julie see a dead body in the street for the first time; two days later, they see two more bodies with rats eating one of them. Alex wants to protect Julie from these things but knows that he can’t shield her from reality. As they walk, Julie mentions that the sky tastes and looks weird, as if it had “died.” Several days later, Alex talks with Kevin as they wait in the food distribution line and learns that the strange taste and appearance of the sky is due to many volcanoes erupting around the world. Alex refuses to believe that this is true, but Kevin asks the woman behind them about it, and she agrees that the volcanoes are affecting the atmosphere and blocking the sun—a detriment to farming. Because of all the ash in the air, Kevin’s father believes that the weather will become cold and everyone will starve. This is already happening, as the unusually hot New York weather has now turned unusually cold. The woman believes that scientists are doing everything they can to fix the situation and that they will make things normal again. Alex only cares about his next meal.
Alex checks the mail for the first time in a while on July 19 and finds two postcards. One, dated June 14, is from Carlos and tells his siblings that he is going to Texas. The other postcard is from the convent and gives an assigned time for Alex to call Bri. However, the assigned time was the previous Thursday. Regardless, Alex calls the convent and successfully demands to talk to Bri. The siblings share their most important information because their time is limited. Alex then hands the phone to Julie, and the sisters chat about all that they’ve been doing for the past month. Despite having no word from their parents, Bri still has faith in a miracle because simply talking to Alex is a miracle to her. Before hanging up, Alex asks Bri what the sky is like, and she says it’s gray and strange. At this, Julie asks if they should go to Texas.
Chapters 6-8 Analysis
One element of significance in these chapters is the fact that the conditions in New York—and the world—are continuing to worsen. Food is becoming more and more scare, so it becomes Alex’s sole focus, as he is the provider not just for himself but for his sister. The physical conditions of New York are also getting worse. People are now dying in the streets, which attracts rats, and diseases are starting to spread, adding another layer of concern and fear for the survivors. As the tidal waves and volcanic eruptions show, the Earth is still shifting and changing based on the differing gravitational pull from the moon. This adds another layer to the idea that rules no longer apply in the disaster; it is not simply the rules of human society but of nature itself that have gone haywire, requiring people to constantly adapt and adjust.
Significant character development also occurs within these chapters. Alex is learning that he has less and less control over his situation, reinforcing how meaningless rules are now. Whereas he once made lists and appreciated the structure that rules provide, this situation forces Alex to realize that the very rules meant to keep the peace are now causing chaos for those trying to stay alive. This causes him to be angrier and more argumentative with those in authority—another new and different behavior for him. Julie is also showing signs of maturity and development. She is no longer as whiny and demanding as in earlier chapters. Instead, she follows her brother’s guidance and does what Alex asks without pushing back. She also finds joy in her gardening and purpose in her work and service. Above all, she feels safe so long as she is with Alex, showing a newfound appreciation and affection for her brother and all he’s doing to help them survive.
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By Susan Beth Pfeffer
