51 pages • 1 hour read
Kristin HannahThe Great Alone
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A 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 22-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
Two days later, Matthew moves, but Leni doesn’t think his condition is improving. When rescue finally arrives, they go to a hospital in Anchorage. As soon as Leni wakes up, she sees her mom, who tells her that the doctors are not sure if Matthew will make it. Leni hastens to see him. He is in a coma, breathing through a respirator. Leni stays until her mother pulls her away. Tom comes to visit Leni and informs her that they are taking Matthew off the respirator. Leni goes with Tom, who consoles her, telling her that Matthew would have always gone after her: “He couldn’t do anything else” (306). Alyeska, who is also there, echoes her father. They all encourage Matthew, who manages to breathe independently, but the doctor cautions them that he might never recover.
Days later, the hospital discharges Leni. Tom and Alyeska give Leni encouraging words about Matthew with Tom promising to update her through a channel on the ham radio. When Cora and Leni come home, they find Ernt there. Although Cora went to the police, she never pressed charges. Ernt looks apologetic and tells Leni that he heard Matthew was going to die. As she watches her father, Leni no longer feels fear, but hatred. She resolves to leave her parents once Matthew is better. Leni resumes writing letters to Matthew but refuses to acknowledge her dad, which angers him. Cora tells Leni that Ernt will let her leave, but Leni refuses to change her attitude towards him.
Chapter 23 Summary
September comes and Leni doesn’t go to the university. She listens for news of Matthew’s recovery but hears nothing. One day, she hears a message that Matthew will relocate to a long-term facility and wants to visit him. Ernt initially refuses her, but when Leni remarks that he’ll have to shoot her to keep her away, he grudgingly relents. Days later, she visits Matthew, who is mostly unresponsive and confined to the bed with straps. Tom tells Leni that Matthew is better, and Leni offers to marry him. Tom refuses, admitting that Matthew might never get out of bed or be responsive enough to make an oath, and Leni has her whole life ahead of her. He asks about Cora, and Leni tells him her mother is back with her father. Tom gives her a present that Matthew left for her and expresses his regret at Leni not going to college. Leni stays with Matthew until the administrators ask her to leave, and she sees “the desert of grief that lay before her” (322).
Afterwards, she goes to see Large Marge and tells her she’s feeling terrible. Large Marge gives her a pregnancy test, and Leni discovers she’s pregnant. She confesses the news to her mother once Cora comes home, determined to keep the baby. When Ernt approaches asking if Matthew is “[s]till a vegetable” (325), Leni reacts with rage and spitefully tells him she’s pregnant. Ernt begins to hit her, but Cora shoots him twice in the back, saying, “Not my Leni” (326).
Chapter 24 Summary
Leni and her mom deal with the aftermath of the shooting. Cora warns Leni that the authorities will jail her as a murderer for shooting Ernt twice through the back. She attempts to comfort Leni, telling her that even if she goes to jail, “[i]t was worth it” (328). Leni thinks they should get rid of the body and appeals to her mother not to turn herself in because Leni needs her help raising the child. They take Ernt’s body out to the wilderness and sink it in a lake using the metal traps.
When they return, Leni goes to get Large Marge, telling her that Ernt is dead. Large Marge goes to the cabin and directs Leni to get her things. Large Marge then instructs them to mimic signs of a struggle and leave, which will give the impression that Ernt killed them and went into hiding. Leni is heartbroken at leaving Alaska where she belongs. Large Marge assures them she’ll keep their secret. Leni insists on saying goodbye to Matthew. At the hospital, Matthew wakes up screaming, and Leni rushes out, feeling guilty.
Chapters 22-24 Analysis
The mother-daughter bond undergoes its most intense strain in these chapters once Leni responds with resentment towards her father, showing the consequences of abuse. Ernt has managed to isolate Leni from the community, and his threat of violence indirectly leads to Matthew’s accident. Leni targets her anger at her father over her dashed dreams, but her coldness to her mother suggests Leni’s anger towards her as well. Although Leni treated her father with care before, she now takes to ignoring him and defying him, despite Cora’s warnings. Leni also refuses her mother’s intervention on Ernt’s behalf, rejecting Cora’s excuses for him and lashing out at him with the news of her pregnancy. This is a pivotal moment because it shows Leni reacting without first thinking of her mother as she has always done. When Cora kills Ernt, Leni doesn’t share her feelings of loss. Despite Leni and Cora’s bond, Leni blames Ernt’s violent death on Cora’s inability to leave him. While they were once “peas in a pod” (279), Leni now emotionally breaks from her mother as they must hide Ernt’s body and leave Alaska.
Cora reaches her own limits in what she tolerates from Ernt in these chapters, showing her own strength of character and the enduring nature of the mother-daughter bond in the face of necessity. Before, her bond with Leni wasn’t enough for Cora to fully disentangle herself from Ernt. When Cora sees Ernt hurt Leni, she violently asserts herself and kills Ernt to protect her daughter. Cora tries to assuage any guilt from Leni, telling her that Cora would do it again for her. She is prepared to take responsibility for the crime, but Leni’s plea that she needs Cora’s help raising her baby makes Cora hesitate to do so.
While Leni and Cora’s bond recovers from the earlier strain, circumstances again drive Leni and Matthew apart. Leni, torn between needing her mother and her loyalty to Matthew, feels conflicted over the nature of love. Leni demonstrates her love for Matthew by keeping close watch over his recovery, wanting to stand by him regardless of his condition. She even offers to marry Matthew, even though he is unable to speak or indicate his awareness of her. While leaving Matthew feels like a betrayal of their love, Leni must now do what’s best for herself and their baby.
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By Kristin Hannah
