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Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Jordie Duros”
Since Jordie’s father tars and repairs rooves and the second swastika was “painted in roofing tar,” the police question Jordie (34). He feels paranoid that many townspeople suspect him. A story in the local paper covers the second swastika, noting that the paleontologists and their families account for the majority of the town’s “ethnic diversity” (34). The story quotes Link’s father saying the swastikas are unprecedented and then includes a report of the 1978 “Night of a Thousand Flames,” when KKK groups from across the West “ringed the foothills around Chokecherry with burning crosses” (35).
Walking to school with Link and Pouncey, Jordie discusses the news article. Link calls it “[f]ake news” by overenthusiastic journalists “thrilled to finally have something to write about” (36). But Pouncey quietly admits that his grandfather and father, who was five years old at the time, were both there. Jordie asks if his father is in the Klan now, and Pouncey is noncommittal, noting that he has as little to do with his family as possible and that he does not believe the Klan is active anymore. At school, Link points out to his friends that tolerance education will probably resume. As a delivery truck “pulls away from the school’s receiving dock” (39), another swastika is revealed, painted white on a dark metal dumpster.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Lincoln Rowley”
Link’s father is thrilled that the paleontologists have discovered a fragment of a Camptosaurus skull but frustrated that he cannot find a single story covering the find. The swastikas are dominating the news. Link shows his father a clip of popular video vlogger, Adam Tok, mocking Chokecherry, and his father leaves the house in frustration.
Link finds his mother fretting over the swastikas. When he tries to comfort her by pointing out that “it wouldn’t be a threat to our family” (43), she breaks down in tears and reveals that her mother recently discovered that she is Jewish. In 1941, before her parents were shipped to a concentration camp, they gave their baby daughter—Link’s grandmother—to nuns to protect. She grew up in an orphanage and was raised Catholic, but her ancestry is Jewish. Everyone else in her family died in the Holocaust. Link’s mother reveals that his father’s distress is not really about his dream of drawing tourists to a dinosaur attraction but fear for her and Link.
Link is stunned and angry that his mother did not tell him sooner. His mother insists that nothing about his identity has changed, but he feels everything has shifted. Talking about it with his friends is unimaginable, and he wonders if anyone he knows would understand.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Dana Levinson”
Dana develops “swastika anxiety” (49), seeing them everywhere, even in her food. Eight have now appeared, and no one knows who is doing it or why. Like her parents, Dana suspects the culprit is “some juvenile delinquent trying to freak everybody out” (50), but she still wonders if her family could be targeted. Her parents check in daily with her and her seven-year-old brother, Ryan, to see how they are feeling. On the way to school, Dana asks her father if the university might transfer him and her mother, but he is confident the school is being proactive. If, however, she and her brother are in any way unsafe, they will leave.
At school, Dana is surprised to be confronted by Link, who reveals that he is Jewish. At first, she thinks he is pulling a prank, but when he tells her the whole story, she believes him. He admits that his parents want “to ignore the whole thing” (53), but he wants to explore his Jewish identity and asks Dana for information. She tells him that he would be considered Jewish since, traditionally, “it goes by the female line” (53), and 13-year-old Jewish boys would be preparing for their bar mitzvahs.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Lincoln Rowley”
Link announces to his parents that he wants to have a bar mitzvah. While his mother seems apprehensive, his father is completely against it. Link tells him that he has spoken to Rabbi Gold at the closest synagogue, which is 100 miles away. The rabbi there is willing to design a “crash course” for him, allowing Link to learn Hebrew in phonetic English and to work with him on Zoom, but first he would like to speak to Link’s parents. His father asks him what this is “really about” (57-58). Link does not know exactly, but he wants his life to be about something. Having a bar mitzvah would be a way to honor his grandmother’s relatives “who never got the chance to be born” (58). His mother is deeply moved, and his father relents.
During lunch, Link invites Dana to his bar mitzvah. She is shocked, telling him that she had been joking, but Link assures her he is serious. He hopes she will help him prepare, and he then follows her to her lunch table, where Caroline, Andrew, and Michael are talking about student council. Caroline wants to organize a response to the swastika. She wants Dana to attend since she is “the only Jewish kid in the whole school” (61). Link reveals that he recently learned he is Jewish and promises he and Dana will be at the meeting.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Caroline McNutt”
Throughout the day, Caroline passes on the word that Link will be at the student council meeting and is pleased when 40 students turn up. Students uniting to tackle problems is the point of student government, and at the previous meeting, she had been the only attendee. All of Link’s friends are in attendance, but Link himself is absent. Students are clearly looking for him, and Caroline begins to worry that everyone will leave if Link does not turn up. Just then, he strolls in.
Students quickly grow bored by a debate about Wi-Fi on the mathletes’ tournament minibus, and Caroline moves to table the topic in favor of discussing what to do about the swastikas. Tolerance education has not made them go away. Students become engaged, offering different opinions. Some admit that they never expected something like this to happen in their town; others are fretful because it makes Chokecherry residents “look like idiots” and “Nazis” to the rest of the world (65). When it comes to what to do about it, the students become quiet again. Dana says there is nothing they can do, but Link says, “That’s not good enough” (65). Long after the paleontologists leave, the rest of them will still have to live in Chokecherry. They should take their inspiration from the students in Tennessee, who “didn’t just let it go” (65).
The students want to come up with a unique idea. Michael suggests a paper chain with six million links, and Caroline immediately “knows it’s right” (66). Everyone loves it, but Mr. Brademas challenges the feasibility of a school of 600 students constructing six million links. Revealing that his grandmother was the only Holocaust survivor in her family, Link points out that it “isn’t supposed to be easy” (67), and just by trying, they will grasp the enormity of the tragedy. Mr. Brademas agrees to the project, and the students cheer. Everyone congratulates Link, though, Caroline notes, the idea was Michael’s.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
Four points of view are narrated in this section: Jordie’s, Link’s, Dana’s, and Caroline’s. Two events in this section provide breadcrumbs for future developments. In Jordie’s chapter, it’s revealed that the second swastika was painted in roofing tar; this becomes relevant when it’s revealed that Pamela is responsible, as Jordie is Pamela’s boyfriend. His father’s profession links Jordie and Pamela to roofing tar in a subtle enough way to maintain the mystery of the culprit’s identity. In Link’s first chapter, he shows his father a video by Adam Tok, or “ReelTok,” that establishes his character as condescending and self-serving and anticipates his arrival in Chokecherry later. “ReelTok” is a clear reference to TikTok, the popular real-life social media app, which lines up with Adam’s career as a YouTube creator. Just as the entire story is a representation of the real-life lack of Holocaust education in the United States, Adam is a representation of social media personalities who capitalize off of sensationalizing serious events. Similar content creators, such as true crime enthusiasts, have been criticized in real life for their tactless approaches and romanticization of tragedies, often without the consent of the people involved.
Jordie’s chapter builds on the conversation that began with Link’s parents regarding the history of Chokecherry. This chapter establishes that there was a Night of a Thousand Flames via Jordie, Link, and Pouncey’s conversation. This contributes to the complexity of Korman’s characters: They cannot be easily categorized as villains and heroes. Pouncey does not respect or wish to be associated with his family, calling his dad and grandfather “jerk[s],” but he is also unwilling to openly condemn them and brushes off the possibility of his father being involved in the KKK. Like his other peers, he makes jokes and downplays the situation, showing a lack of understanding as to the seriousness of the swastika problem. As an adolescent, Pouncey is still exploring his identity and contextualizing his family history with his generation’s understanding of racism; he is also still dependent on his family. As a result, he chooses to remain neutral—a luxury that students like Dana, and now Link, do not have.
Link’s arc in the novel ushers him from a stage of blissful ignorance, in which he breezed through life as a popular troublemaker, to one in which he realizes the need for his life to be “about” something. A turning point for Link in this section is that he learns he is Jewish. Before his mother’s revelation, he was content to see the swastikas as a problem outside of him. Learning his heritage makes that impossible. Suddenly, something that only seemed relevant to Dana—and his father, in a different way—now personally affects him. This eye-opening moment helps Link understand how little he truly grasps about the Holocaust and the struggles of the Jewish people. His response emphasizes The Importance of Collective Memory as it highlights the need to connect to social problems on a personal level, as well as the importance of seeing oneself as part of a large social unit. As long as people believe that a problem lies outside of themselves, they can relinquish responsibility to create change. In Chapter 10, Link emphasizes The Power of Individual and Community Action in pushing for the paper chain project; however, the way everyone congratulates Link, not Michael, shows an ongoing lack of awareness that speaks to the lack of diversity awareness in Chokecherry.
While Link is just beginning his journey into understanding his Jewishness, Dana’s chapter shows the full effects of the situation. Against Link’s initial indifference about the swastikas, Dana feels so much anxiety about them that she hopes to be able to leave Chokecherry. At the student council meeting, she expresses hopelessness, feeling that there is nothing the students can do. She does not see how others can connect to what she is feeling. Their attention grates on her, and she notes that no one pays special attention to the Black, Latino, or Asian students, even though they are likely worried and uncomfortable too. Rather than feeling supported, Dana feels “othered”—set apart from the rest of her peers. Initially, she does not want to attend the student council meeting. It is only after Link insists that she agrees to attend. Link provides a “link” between Dana and the Chokecherry community, while Dana helps Link begin to understand his heritage. This enables both to feel responsible to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.
Dana suspects the swastikas are being drawn by a “juvenile delinquent trying to freak everybody out” (50). This is later proven both correct and not. Link did the first one because he did not fully understand what they represent, while Pamela’s motive, the narrative suggests, is bigotry. This shows The Complexity of Motives: Some can come from ignorance, others from hatred. This, in turn, demonstrates the importance of remembering the past and creating opportunities to engage with it personally and communally.
Discovering he is Jewish also forces Link to confront that his interpretation of his father was misguided. Link lacked sufficient information to understand why his father has been so adamant about burying the past; now, he understands that his father is attempting to protect his family. This adds complexity to a man who previously seemed wholly insensitive; however, it does not change the fact that his approach to the problem does more harm than good. In contrast to his father, Link wants to learn more about history; the outpouring of community support proves that widespread education is the better way to combat bigotry and ignorance.
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