logo

76 pages 2 hours read

Gae Polisner

The Memory of Things

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Parts 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 7, Chapter 34 Summary: “News”

In the novel’s climactic moment, Kyle’s father reveals that Hannah’s father is alive. He was injured as he escaped the Tower but checked out of the hospital Friday morning. He looked all day for Hannah, and he wants to pick her up that night. Hannah is shocked, then filled with relief and joy.

Part 7, Chapter 35 Summary: “Late Friday Night, 9.14.01”

Kyle’s dad explains that police officers he knows from the Westchester precinct will drive Hannah’s father to Brooklyn to get her and take them back home. It hits Kyle hard that Hannah lives in distant Westchester, but he knows it is time for her to go home.

Part 7, Chapter 36 Summary: “Lofty Aspirations”

After Kyle’s father leaves Kyle’s room, Hannah and Kyle sit close together on the bed. Thoughts about dating at a distance fill his head; he does not want to lose the unique quality of their relationship by trying to sustain it once their usual school schedules are reestablished, and realistically, because he doesn’t have a license or car, getting together would be difficult. The subway doesn’t even go that far; he guesses it would be a two-hour commute. So instead of trying to make definite plans, Kyle opts to share the good news about Uncle Matt feeding himself a bite of food. Hannah is genuinely thrilled.

Kyle offers to help his father more frequently with Uncle Matt, and his father is appreciative. Kyle gives Hannah his beloved PopMart Tour tee to take with her. Hannah finds an episode of Cow and Chicken on TV, and they watch it together.

Part 8, Chapter 37 Summary: “What Sustains Us”

Hannah and her father drive with the officers toward Westchester. When he arrived at Kyle’s, her father relayed the story of how he was injured: He was almost out of the building near the bottom of the stairwell when an explosion knocked him unconscious. He awoke in the hospital; once out, he searched for Hannah. He hoped that she had gone to stay with a friend. Hannah sees the resemblance to her mother when she sees her reflection in the dark car windows. Memories of her mother come back, “clear / and welcome, / as if on bird wings, / to / alight / in my heart” (265). Back home in her room, Hannah sees Kyle’s email address on her hand, and she goes to sleep wearing the tee-shirt he gave her.

Kyle tells his father about Uncle Matt’s progress. At first, he is irate that his father does not show more relief or happiness; then, Kyle realizes that his father is trying to avoid disappointment: “Maybe because of something I can see in his expression, or something I feel in his effort to stay silent that I never noticed before: His silence isn’t callous. It’s protective. Not just of me, but of himself” (266). Later, in bed, he thinks of Hannah, still feeling connected to her. Kyle’s mother and sister return home safely before dawn, and he reflects that despite the fear caused by the tragedy, he is grateful for the blessing of togetherness: “[I]t’s kind of amazing to be tethered” (270).

Parts 7-8 Analysis

In this brief concluding section to their story, Kyle and Hannah agree without discussion to avoid definitive future plans or labels on the intense, short-lived romance between them. Kyle realizes the distance and logistics will likely preclude a committed relationship, and he does not want to devalue the feelings between them with cliches about “always be[ing] friends” (256). His analysis is rapidly but confidently formed: Their love existed in a kind of “vacuum” created by the tragedy Tuesday morning, and they may or may not have been fated to meet otherwise. He plans never to convince his friends of the truth of Hannah; it is enough for him to know and remember their connection on his own.

Hannah shows a groundedness new for her character since regaining memories—and especially since learning her father is alive. Now she can turn her attention to the work of her father’s recovery, her own healing from trauma, and the continued grieving from her mother’s death. These very mature responsibilities push aside the odd but apt passion and comfort she felt while with Kyle, and she shows maturity in accepting without question her complex feelings on the matter: She is overjoyed and grateful that her father is alive but “not in any rush” for him to arrive (257), as it means saying goodbye to Kyle; she is happy to go but also wishes she could stay.

These protagonists demonstrate their completed character arcs and newfound maturity through these reactions to their farewell to one another, but readers see proof of their coming-of-age in other ways as well. Kyle makes a point of telling and showing his father how he plans to help more with Uncle Matt; more importantly, Kyle avoids anger when his father shows little emotion toward news of Uncle Matt’s progress. He realizes he would not have understood before the events of the last few days, but now, Kyle intuits that his father is a Protector like him; he wants to prevent disappointment by refusing to allow high hopes to get the better of either of them. Consequently, the two of them show they have something in common after all: the desire to take care of loved ones and try to protect them from pain or heartbreak. Kyle shows growth in this area since his anger was stronger and more difficult to let go of just the day before when his father warned him of falling too deeply for the girl. Now, Kyle gets a quick grip on his bitterness and manages to let it go through empathy.

For her part, Hannah begins to show that although the first wave of memories of her mother caused tears and the weighty pain of missing her, as exemplified by her strong emotions while showing Kyle her mother’s photos online, she realizes in the car on the way home that she can think of her mother and associated memories with a more welcoming spirit. This foretells Hannah’s eventual growth and recovery through grief.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text