57 pages • 1 hour read
Kent HarufPlainsong
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A 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 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “Ike and Bobby”
Ike and Bobby investigate the “little pale stucco house” (90) where their mother lives. She looks “completely worn out” (90) and eventually invites the boys inside. The boys miss her and want her to come home, but their father no longer wants her to return home. She insists that she isn’t “crazy” yet, but needs more time before she can think about returning. The boys offer to bring her things, and she asks for coffee. Bobby and Ike leave. They purchase the coffee and then buy their mother a bottle of perfume using their own money. They take the gifts back to the house; their mother opens the presents and cries.
Chapter 17 Summary: “McPherons”
Maggie drives out to meet the McPherons. She knocks on the door and receives no answer but can see into the messy house. In the distance, she hears a tractor. Raymond and Harold spot her and approach slowly. After they invite her into the house, Maggie asks if Victoria can stay with them. They know the girl’s family but are “dumbfounded” (98) by the request. Maggie leaves, telling the brothers to call her if they change their minds. They return to their work around the farm, though they are quieter than usual. Eventually, they agree to take Victoria in, even if it “ain’t going to be no goddamn Sunday school picnic” (101).
Chapter 18 Summary: “Ella”
Ella calls Guthrie at school and asks him to visit. When he arrives, she has already packed up her possessions and cleaned the house. They sit down to talk. Ella has decided to stay with her sister in Denver “for as long as it takes” (103). They argue about the collapse of their marriage: neither of them got what they wanted from the relationship. They split the money and make arrangements regarding Ike and Bobby. Guthrie leaves and, later that evening, takes the boys back to stay with their mother for her last night in Holt.
They eat supper and play cards as Ella assures her sons that this will be “better for everyone, even if they couldn’t see it yet” (106). At bedtime, the boys ask to sleep in her bed. As they fall asleep, Ike asks whether she will be “all right in Denver” (107), and she assures them that she will be. The next morning, she drops them at Guthrie’s house in time for their newspaper deliveries. She leaves for Denver.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Victoria Roubideaux”
Maggie drives Victoria out to the McPheron farm. Halfway there, Victoria asks Maggie to stop the car. She is having doubts, but Maggie tells her to “regard this as an opportunity” (110). After a long discussion, Victoria agrees to give it a try. Raymond and Harold are waiting on the porch when Maggie and Victoria arrive. The introductions are stilted and they move inside, where the brothers have made an effort to clean up their home. Victoria is given a tour and shown her bedroom, which once belonged to the McPherons’ dead parents. Victoria moves her possessions into the room while the brothers talk to Maggie. Maggie leaves to let “you three souls get acquainted” (114). Victoria and the brothers are left alone on the porch, watching her go. Raymond and Harold feed the “mother cows and heifers” (115) while Victoria unpacks.
Chapter 20 Summary: “McPherons”
The McPherons make supper for Victoria. Afterward, Raymond reads the newspaper while Harold oils a boot. Victoria is in her bedroom alone, and the brothers are unsure whether “all seventeen-year-old girls disappeared after eating supper” (116). Harold knocks and enters her room, which she has already made her own. Victoria is doing homework and tells Harold that everything is fine, thanking him again.
Harold returns to his brother, and they worry whether they have done everything correctly. They fuss about the temperature and the steak they cooked her for dinner. Later, Raymond fetches old blankets from upstairs and quietly arranges them on Victoria’s bed while she sleeps. Victoria wakes up in the middle of the night, sweating, and shoves the blankets aside.
Chapters 16-20 Analysis
Victoria’s move to the McPherons’ home is a key moment in the development of all three characters. When Maggie tells the brothers that their situation is “too lonesome” (99), she identifies an emotional vacuum in their lives and proposes to fill it, though in a strange way. The brothers’ reaction is telling. Until this point, their chief role in the book is to help vaccinate pregnant cattle with Guthrie’s help. Now, Maggie is presenting them with a similar situation: they are to help a pregnant, scared young girl navigate her way through life toward the birth of her first child. As Maggie notes, the suggestion “robbed [the McPheron brothers] of speech” (99). However, the brothers quickly shift from shock to intrigue. By the time Victoria arrives, they are enthusiastic and almost excited about the potential change in their living arrangements.
The best evidence of the brothers’ excitement is the transformation of their house. The farmhouse, the place where they have lived and worked for decades, is a reflection of their lives. When Maggie first enters the house, there are “dishes laid in the sink […] stacks of Farm Journals and newspapers […] and greasy pieces of machinery” (95) scattered throughout the kitchen and living room. When Victoria arrives, the McPherons have made an effort to clean up. They are “dressed for the occasion” (111) and “the sink was empty of dishes, the table was scrubbed clean, the kitchen chairs were free of mechanics’ rags […] and the floor looked as hard-swept as if an immigrant woman had used her broom on it” (112). Victoria’s arrival prompts a metamorphosis in the brothers, who are determined to make sure she feels at home. They are aware of their situation—two lonely bachelors living out in the country—and are keen to break free from its endless cycle. The introduction of Victoria represents so much more for them; it is a chance to better themselves and offer something more than just rearing cattle and visiting the bar. Victoria offers the men a chance to make a lasting impact on the world and affect a positive change in a person’s life. They clean their home and wear their best clothes, not only to impress Victoria, but because they hope to convince themselves that they are capable of offering something better to society.
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By Kent Haruf
