45 pages • 1 hour read
Tara SullivanThe Bitter Side of Sweet
Tara SullivanFiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A 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 18-20
Chapter 18 Summary
They are out of food but only have a little money left of what they stole from the bosses, so Amadou asks Khadija if she has practice haggling at the market. She admits she had a maid who did the shopping, and Amadou and Seydou are again shocked at how rich she is. Seydou claims he can haggle because he used to go to the market with Auntie, but Amadou hesitates to let him try. Eventually, Seydou convinces Amadou to let him do it.
First, he goes to a tough-looking woman selling eggs. Seydou is polite, smiling and joking as he talks to her. He shows her all his money and even lets the vendor hold the money while he puts the eggs in his pocket one by one, with his only arm. As Amadou watches, he’s internally criticizing Seydou’s seemingly foolish choices. There’s no way they will have enough money for food after he paid full price for three eggs. However, Khadija sees Seydou’s cleverness. His politeness and struggle to use just one arm has endeared him to the other vendors, and they all know he has the money to pay. He doesn’t pay full price for anything else and gets more than enough food with a few coins leftover. This victory gives Seydou confidence, and Amadou can see a little bit of the spirited brother he used to know come back.
After eating some of the food, they spot Oumar’s truck headed into a gated compound. They want to find out what all the seeds are used for, so they go to investigate. Khadija cleverly finds out from a guard where the seeds go after they are weighed at the compound: San Pedro, the last place she saw her mother. Khadija proposes they sneak onto one of the big trucks and ride to San Pedro.
Chapter 19 Summary
The large trucks will be too tall for them to board from the ground, so they climb a tree and must jump from the tree into the top of the truck. After a failed first attempt, Khadija makes it onto a truck, and Amadou jumps with Seydou on his back. They barely make it without falling off the truck. When they arrive in San Pedro, it’s already nightfall. They miss their chance to exit the truck before it enters a walled and guarded compound. Once they get out of the truck, they must wait by the gate until it opens. Hours later, when the gate finally opens, they start running, but a guard blocks their exit. Amadou runs straight into the guard, giving Seydou and Khadija a chance to get away.
Chapter 20 Summary
Seydou and Khadija escape, but the guard and an older man, his uncle, pin Amadou’s arms and ask why he was in the compound. Amadou tells only part of the truth, and the uncle guesses he worked on a plantation when he sees Amadou’s scars. The uncle shows Amadou scars of own, and Amadou can tell from his hands that he worked harvesting cacao at some point too. Despite the younger guard’s protests, the uncle lets Amadou go, and Amadou finds Seydou and Khadija waiting for him just outside the gate.
They wander the streets in the dark, searching for the house in which Khadija stayed with her mother before she was kidnapped. Eventually, Seydou is so tired he can hardly walk, so they stop in a vacant lot for the night. They take turns keeping watch during the night, and Amadou sees the younger guard from the compound; he followed them. When Amadou confronts him holding his machete, the young guard takes a photo of him, then leaves. Amadou wakes the others and tells them it’s time to move on. In the morning, they search several more hours for the house and finally find it. Khadija knocks on the door, and a man she doesn’t recognize answers.
Chapters 18-20 Analysis
In these chapters, Sullivan highlights the changing relationship between Amadou and Seydou. Even though he is young, Seydou needs a degree of trust and independence from Amadou, who is reluctant to give it. Amadou protected him for so long and has a difficult time letting go and trusting his little brother. A primary example is when Seydou begs Amadou to trust him to haggle for their food at the market. Amadou eventually relents but doubts that Seydou is up to the task. As he watches Seydou in the market, Amadou internally criticizes his every decision, but Khadija can see how clever he is, using his youth and injury to garner sympathy from the vendors.
Amadou only sees Seydou as foolish and inexperienced because that’s what Amadou is expecting. He’s surprised to find that his initial judgments were wrong when Seydou returns with plenty of food and money to spare. Sullivan shows that part of Seydou’s healing process will include trust and respect from his brother. Similarly, part of Amadou’s healing process will be the acknowledgement that he cannot protect his brother from everything. When Amadou tells Seydou he’s proud of him, Seydou “beams,” and Amadou sees a little bit of the brother he used to know come back into Seydou’s eyes.
Sullivan uses irony to highlight the vicious cycle perpetuated by the cacao industry. No one on the cacao farm, not even the bosses, knows what the cacao seeds are used for. Ironically, they devote their days and lives to harvesting seeds for a product they have never tasted. Curiosity over what the seeds are used for drives Amadou, Seydou, and Khadija to follow Oumar’s truck and spy through the gates of a compound to see what’s happening, but all they see are the seeds being weighed. At this point, they still don’t know how the cacao is being used, and although they are curious, their need to stay safe outweighs their curiosity. This shows how struggling for survival keeps cacao harvesters from knowledge about the product they are producing, including where it goes after it leaves the farm, what it’s used for, and how much they should be paid for it.
Sullivan also uses irony to highlight another reality of the cacao industry. The uncle who helps his nephew capture Amadou at the compound gate was obviously enslaved and beaten on a cacao farm, yet he still is a part of the cacao industry as an adult. He now helps to perpetuate the same industry that gave him the scars on his arms. He releases Amadou, knowing that he was a plantation worker who escaped. Although his actions towards Amadou are kind, his character also shows that he is still somewhat enslaved to the cacao industry. He knows about the use of child labor, having experienced it himself, yet is powerless against it. His survival still depends on slave labor even though he climbed the industrial ladder.
These chapters also contain excitement and adventure that contribute to the novel’s rising action. When Amadou, Khadija, and Seydou must jump into the fast-moving trucks, Sullivan gives a vivid description of Amadou’s fear of jumping, as well as the close call he and Seydou experience trying to get safely inside the truck. Amadou’s willingness to risk his life and his brother’s show his desperation to keep moving forward and make it to safety. More adventure occurs when Amadou sacrificially tackles the compound guard so that Khadija and Seydou can escape. Although Amadou is released, the nephew follows him and takes a picture of him, which builds suspense and excitement that compels the reader to continue the story. Sullivan’s use of dangerous and exciting plot events shows the many hurdles the children must overcome to truly be free and safe, and it keeps the novel advancing towards its climax.
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