63 pages • 2 hours read

11.22.63

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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Part 6, Chapters 32-33Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 6: “The Green Card Man”

Part 6, Chapter 32 Summary: “Final Notes”

Jake desperately wants to return to Sadie and spend his life with her, but Zack has frightened him. He avoids creating new strings as best he can while he struggles with his decision. Finally, he writes down his experiences, places them in a locked box, and buries them. He returns to 2011.

Part 6, Chapter 33 Summary: “Citizen of the Century (2012)”

Jake leaves Maine the same day he returns to 2011, settling in Westborough, Massachusetts. He uses the internet to learn Sadie survived the attack by Johnny Clayton but won’t allow himself to research Sadie anymore. However, when a new student moves into his class with connections to Texas, he believes it is a final harmony and decides to find out more about Sadie. He discovers she is to be celebrated as the Jodie Citizen of the Century, and he drives down to Texas. When he introduces himself to Sadie, she seems to know him without knowing him. They speak for a few minutes and then move together “naturally” (1080) to dance once more to “In the Mood.”

Part 6, Chapters 32-33 Analysis

Jake has seen what changing the past can do and he is frightened. He knows that simply by existing in 1958 he is causing damage to the fabric of reality. He wants to remain in that time period, find Sadie and marry her, and have a couple of kids, but he knows that will cause too many time strings. He cannot risk it. For that reason, Jake makes the tough choice to return to 2011 and put his time traveling days behind him. It is a difficult sacrifice, but he does it because, in the end, he is the hero Sadie always thought he was.

Jake has the means to learn about Sadie’s life, but he refuses himself the luxury of it for more than a year. However, one more harmony happens when a new student comes into his class from Killeen, Texas, a town near Jodie. He finally gives in to curiosity and is thrilled to learn that Sadie is still alive at the age of 80—a full thirty-nine years older than him. Afraid of what might happen, Jake drives to Jodie and dances with Sadie. Touching one last time on the motif of the lindy and the song, “In the Mood,” King gives Jake the only happy ending he can possibly experience: a few final moments with the woman he loves.