58 pages • 1 hour read
Tananarive DueThe Reformatory: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 8: “The Hunt”
Part 8, Chapter 38 Summary
Robbie gets lost traversing the cornfields. Blue appears to him as a crow to guide his way.
Haddock becomes increasingly concerned when Robbie doesn’t turn up. When he realizes that his desk key is missing, Haddock connects it to Robbie’s sudden disappearance. He briefly checks his office to confirm that the photographs and the haint jar are missing and then gets Boone to help him find the thief. Looking at the boot prints outside, Boone deduces that they are Robbie’s. Haddock uncovers the jar of Vaseline and recalls Crutcher’s account of seeing Robbie covered in grease. Haddock summons the hunting dogs.
Gloria and Miz Lottie wait at the railroad trestle where they are supposed to meet Robbie. When Miz Lottie’s idling truck dies, Gloria takes a walk. Miz Lottie gives her the pistol for protection. Gloria inspects the creek and decides that it is too steep for Robbie to climb on his own. She ties a rope around a tree. When she gets back to the truck, Miz Lottie is taking angina pills. She asks Gloria to drive. They hear the Reformatory alarm bell and the dogs barking, so Gloria decides to descend to the creek to meet Robbie halfway.
Part 8, Chapter 39 Summary
Haddock sets his favorite tracking dog, Colonel, to find Robbie’s trail. While the Vaseline may have covered Robbie’s scent, Colonel can smell Robbie’s boots. Crutcher joins the hunt after he and his sister come back from the dormitory. They go to the shed and then to the Funhouse, where they discover the hole in the fence.
Haddock refuses to call anyone else for backup, fearing they might see the photographs in Robbie’s possession. Boone goes around the fence while Crutcher and Haddock go through the fence. As they consider their surroundings, Haddock deduces that Robbie is heading for the creek. He then confronts Crutcher about looking into his shed, implying that Crutcher already knows that he sexually abused boys with a broom. Crutcher angers Haddock when he claims not to know what Haddock used the broom for. He warns Crutcher not to say anything about it.
Part 8, Chapter 40 Summary
Robbie reaches the edge of the woods, where he loses sight of the crow. He is unsure of where to go but keeps moving for fear of Haddock and the dogs closing in on him. His satchel tears on a tree limb, so he stops to recollect all but the sketch of Redbone, which Robbie chases as it flies around. The sketch, influenced by a haint, continues to move in a particular direction, but Robbie is unsure whether it is Redbone or Blue. He follows it until he reaches the creek, where he sees his mother’s ghost. She soon disappears, and the sketch returns to Robbie half torn.
Robbie proceeds upriver, half submerged in water. The crow returns to Robbie and nearly forces him to drop the haint jar. Robbie understands that he needs to break it to set the haints free. Though he worries that the water will ruin the photographs and the sketch of Redbone, he trusts Blue and breaks the jar open with a stone, saying a brief memorial to give the haints peace.
Blue confirms that the haints have been freed. He then tells Robbie that they need to do one more thing: Kill Haddock in order to save the other boys who have been left behind at the Reformatory. Blue clarifies that Robbie only needs to be caught by the warden; Blue will take care of killing Haddock.
Part 8, Chapter 41 Summary
Gloria searches for Robbie in the creek. She confronts the possibility of dying while trying to rescue her brother and affirms that she has exhausted all possible avenues to help him while he is still alive. Her gift for premonitions causes her to sing the freedom song “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ’Round,” which will become popular during civil rights demonstrations in the late 1960s. The song fills her with hope as she comes to understand Miz Lottie’s faith.
Singing the song, she finds her way to Robbie, who is talking to someone unseen at the creek. Before she can call him, Haddock and his dog intercept Robbie. Gloria prepares to shoot Haddock with the pistol when she sees him carrying a much bigger gun. Crutcher, also armed, catches up to them.
Robbie tells Haddock that the haints are free. He tries to tell Crutcher the truth about what the photographs reveal. Haddock denies the truth, and Crutcher encourages Robbie to stand down. When Robbie tells Crutcher that Haddock started the 1920 fire, Haddock shoots Crutcher.
Haddock blames Robbie’s indiscretion for Crutcher’s shooting. He threatens to have the dogs eat Robbie if he doesn’t give back the photos. Robbie dares him to come and get the photos from him. Gloria fires a warning shot at Haddock. Haddock puts together that she is Robbie’s sister. He fires back at her, narrowly missing her. Robbie urges Blue to do something when the water suddenly turns cold.
Haddock remembers killing his sister and the way her ghost’s attempt to hurt him shaped his relationship to haints. Blue and a fog of other haints surround Haddock, and Blue commands Colonel to attack the warden. The dog bites his throat, causing him to drown in the water.
Part 8, Chapter 42 Summary
Colonel walks away after killing Haddock. Still alive, Crutcher apologizes for not shooting the warden. He urges Robbie and Gloria to leave before the other dorm masters arrive. Robbie watches to see if Haddock will stay dead or come back as a haint. He and Gloria then leave the creek.
Robbie loses sight of Blue flying overhead. Gloria’s premonition allows her to detect how many trackers are still following them. They finally reach the bridge and climb the rope just as the trackers spot them. Gloria gets Miz Lottie to start the truck as Robbie fights back the tracking dogs. They board the truck and drive away.
Gloria reassures Robbie that he is safe, but he grieves for Redbone. Miz Lottie tells them to hide under the tarp while they drive to the train station.
Part 8, Chapter 43 Summary
Miz Lottie drops Gloria and Robbie off at the Tallahassee train station. They rest on the segregated train for Black passengers, which has been made filthy by racist train workers. Robbie lets Gloria hold the satchel, which she knows they will eventually give to the NAACP to relieve the suffering of the Reformatory boys. While he sleeps, Robbie holds the sketch of Redbone and dreams of him.
They reach Illinois on the second day. Gloria takes Robbie to the dining car, where they spend $5 to eat. In Chicago, Gloria and Robbie visit the mailing address of their father, but they are too afraid to ask the white attendants at the information booth for directions. Gloria sees a Black man and is about to ask him instead, but then she sees that he is their father. The three happily reunite. The novel describes that the children will eventually tell their father what they experienced. Gloria will go to college, and the three of them will participate in civil rights protests.
Robbie sees his mother’s ghost at the train station. He understands how the dead helped free him.
Part 8 Analysis
The climax continues into the final part of the novel, with Haddock chasing Robbie into the woods. Throughout this section, Due finds little ways to increase the tension around their chase: Robbie gets lost in the woods, and Gloria worries whether Miz Lottie will get them out in time, let alone survive the escape. The final confrontation occurs between the major characters—Robbie, Gloria, and Haddock—who are each accompanied by an ally—Blue and Crutcher, respectively. The balance of this showdown shifts when Crutcher moves from being an enemy to an ally. Due uses the hunting dog, Colonel, as a point of comparison for Crutcher. To Haddock, both Colonel and Crutcher are instrumental in fulfilling his wishes, but Colonel is Haddock’s favorite hunting dog, while Crutcher is expendable. Having realized the horrors of the warden’s actions in the shed, Crutcher is inclined to believe Robbie’s claims about the photographs. Haddock understands that Crutcher will believe Robbie and immediately turns on Crutcher, shooting him. Once again, he blames Robbie for his actions instead of taking responsibility.
Haddock nevertheless receives his comeuppance because Robbie has released the haint ashes into the creek. Robbie trusts Blue’s instruction to break the jar because Blue has argued that doing so will ensure the safety of the Reformatory boys. Once again, Due conveys The Struggle to Resolve the Past and Preserve the Present, allowing Robbie and Blue to work together to remove a common threat.
The resolution of the story unfolds over the final chapter, in which Robbie and Gloria travel to Chicago and reunite with their father. Due provides a brief glimpse into the future that ties together all the remaining character arcs in a way that mirrors Gloria’s premonitions. While Gloria only ever sees visions of destruction and suffering, the novel allows the reader to see hope in the characters’ futures. This hope resonates with the final moment of the novel, which gives Robbie what he wanted at the very start of the novel. He not only sees his mother but also feels peace when she disappears.
