57 pages • 1 hour read
Jeffrey Zaslow, Randy PauschA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Section 1, Chapters 1-3
Section 2, Chapters 4-5
Section 2, Chapters 6-7
Section 2, Chapters 8-11
Section 3, Chapters 12-15
Section 3, Chapters 16-19
Section 3, Chapters 20-22
Section 4, Chapters 23-24
Section 4, Chapters 25-27
Section 5, Chapters 28-31
Section 5, Chapters 32-34
Section 5, Chapters 35-37
Section 5, Chapters 38-40
Section 5, Chapters 41-45
Section 5, Chapters 46-50
Section 5, Chapters 51-55
Section 5, Chapters 56-58
Section 6, Chapters 59-61
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
This section moves into the latter part of Pausch’s life and includes grim details of his illness. He is facing the biggest brick wall of his life: “Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of any cancer” (57).
After a severe surgery (which entailed the partial removal of organs) and then powerful chemotherapy and radiation, Pausch spent six months at home before visiting the doctor for another check-up. This visit was not good, as Pausch and his wife Jai learned that any future treatments would be about maintaining Pausch’s quality of life while he was still alive rather than prolonging his life. The doctor’s prognosis was three to six months. Oddly, Pausch remembered the phrase that Disney employees used to explain the park’s hours. Rather than telling guests when the park closed, they told them that “the park is open until 8,” responding in a positive way, not a negative one. Pausch reflects, “I knew then. That’s the way the rest of my life would need to be lived” (63).
The next couple of chapters show two sides to Pausch: He is both the “epitome of a person appreciating this day and this moment” (64) and “self-possessed to a fault […] too brash and […] inflexible, contrary, always spouting opinions” (67). Luckily, he had a good mentor in Andy van Dam, his “Dutch uncle” who taught computer science at Brown University and would gently tell him when he was being an arrogant jerk.
He finishes this section with a little lesson he wanted to teach his niece and nephew: “People are more important than things” (70). Even though Pausch loved his car, he didn’t love it more than his niece and nephew. To make them comfortable enough to have fun with him, he poured a bottle of Coke on the backseat.
Like anyone else, Pausch isn’t perfect. Despite his heroic acceptance of his mortality and his choice to live the remainder of his life as positively as possible, he also includes unflattering but honest details that remind us that he is human and flawed. This also highlights that even though he is giving a last lecture and writing a book, this doesn’t mean that he has all the answers; he is still learning as he goes. Coach Graham and Andy van Dan emerge as similar mentors for Pausch in the sense that they challenge him to be a better person by holding a mirror up to him, forcing him to look at himself honestly.
The major message of this section is the importance of positive thinking, which is best demonstrated by the story about how Disney employees communicate the park’s hours to guests. Just as Disney uses a positive framework to interact with guests, Pausch chooses to embrace positive thinking regarding his terminal diagnosis. Rather than focus on his mortality, he opts to spend the next months of his life living at his fullest.