Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaPart 1, Chapters 13-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Jacko, a man at Gerald’s boxing gym, picks a fight with Gerald. Gerald tells him he will not fight because he knows that when he does, he may end up killing him. Jacko makes physical contact, making a fight impossible to ignore. Gerald spars with Jacko, dodging his punches. Eventually, a trainer steps in to interrupt the fight. Instead of finishing his workout, Gerald leaves.
Chapter 14 Summary
To avoid getting into a deeper conflict with Jacko, Gerald avoids the gym and has his dad install a punching bag in the garage. After school the next day, he heads to work to find Beth in a low mood. Beth tries to get him to switch registers, but he insists on staying, much to her aggravation. Since he likes Beth, he continues to do his job well with help from his crush. Hannah reveals that she does not like to switch registers either. She and Gerald bond momentarily on this shared trait.
Chapter 15 Summary
One day, Nichols comes to antagonize Gerald for beer once again, but Beth steps in to ask for his ID, which scares him away. Throughout the rest of the workday, Gerald catches Hannah glancing at him. He decides to nickname her Register #1 Girl because he is scared that if he calls her by her real name, she risks becoming a potential “trigger” (74) for him one day.
When they get off work, Gerald stays with Hannah as she waits for her father to pick her up. Gerald wants to offer her a ride but tries to heed Roger’s caution about the complications of dating. They watch and discuss a circus being set up before them. Eventually, Hannah’s father picks her up Gerald returns home.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Episode 1, Scene 36, Take 1”
During the last week of filming for Network Nanny, cameras are set up throughout the house to capture the family interacting without the intervention of Nanny. Despite the camera presence, Tasha antagonizes Gerald by pinching his nose and mouth closed until he can’t breathe. When Lisi tries to intervene, Tasha punches Gerald in the testicles. This all takes place beyond the camera view. When Gerald eventually tries fighting back by grabbing a wooden object to hit Tasha, the kids’ dad intervenes.
Chapter 17 Summary
On Saturday morning, Gerald and his parents look at a real estate posting for a house in another neighborhood. Gerald suggests moving so that they can all have a new start. While Gerald’s dad is amenable to the idea, his mother refuses. While they talk, Tasha and Danny have loud sex in the basement. Frustrated, Gerald yells at them, causing Tasha to get louder before coming upstairs to antagonize him. She taunts, “No one wants our fucked-up little crapper” (81), before pinching his nose and mouth as she did many times before. Despite witnessing the scene, their parents do not stop her. Gerald bites Tasha’s hand until she bleeds, freeing himself from her hold. He leaves for work soon after.
Part 1, Chapters 13-17 Analysis
While Gerald tries to make earnest strides towards an emotionally healthy life, he’s unable to avoid events that derail him from his progress. When Jacko starts a fight with him, Gerald’s unable to resist because he knows that Jacko will not relent without a formal confrontation in the ring. He engages, but he utilizes self-defense tactics to avoid escalating the fight. Fortunately, the intervention of a trainer prevents the fight from going further. Knowing that the fight would unleash his violent tendencies, Gerald takes precaution by having a punching bag set up at home to avoid the gym and any potential scenario in which he might have to access his rage. Despite setbacks like the fight with Jacko, Gerald wants to change by acknowledging and addressing his triggers.
Despite Gerald’s attempts to make healthy decisions for his emotional state, however, he still suffers greatly from triggers in his home. While he can avoid the boxing gym, he cannot avoid Tasha, who demonstrates that her abusive behavior extends into Gerald’s teenage years. In Chapters 16 and 17, King juxtaposes Tasha’s past and present-day behaviors to show that she has tried to suffocate Gerald repeatedly since he was a child. Her lack of change over the years is a consequence of inaction from Gerald’s parents, who watched Tasha abuse Gerald as a child and continue to do so now that he’s a teenager—without intervening. When Gerald fought back as a child, he wanted to harm Tasha due to self-preservation instincts, but his parents prevented him from doing so. Annoyingly for him, they didn’t protect him from Tasha’s outbursts. This inequity persists through the years, providing context for Gerald biting Tasha’s hand when she tries to suffocate him in the present. Feeling that his parents cannot protect him, Gerald fights back in the only way he knows he can.
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By A.S. King
