66 pages • 2 hours read
Jasmine WargaA Rover's Story
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaPart 1, Chapters 1-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Preparing”
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “The First Day”
In this introductory chapter, Resilience becomes aware for the first time as humans in hazmat suits cheer. Resilience is built for learning and, upon recognizing the significance of a scientist’s smile, thinks, “My mission has begun” (1).
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Learning”
Resilience, given male pronouns by the scientists, continues to learn about humans and himself. The second part of this chapter is a letter to Resilience from a girl named Sophie, the daughter of Rania—one of the lead scientists who works on Resilience. Sophie wrote the letter because her teacher assigned it, but since she’s heard so much about Resilience from her mom, she’s “already sick and tired of hearing about [Resilience] all the time” (3).
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Someday”
Resilience is taken apart so the scientists can run tests on his different parts. Resilience doesn’t like being in pieces because he can’t move, and his least favorite condition is having his cameras turned off. In that state, he is left in darkness. From listening to the scientists, though, Resilience gathers that he will be put back together soon. Resilience just needs to wait. However, waiting is hard, and he concludes, “I am starting to think that I was not built for waiting” (7).
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “Rania”
Resilience wonders if his code is flawed because he isn’t supposed to prefer any scientists over others, but he does—Rania being one of them. When Resilience’s camera is turned on, he has learned to associate an appearance with Rania, but even when the camera is off, Resilience can tell Rania apart from the other scientists by her behavior, which, like her code, is “elegantly written […] without any of the problems that hazmats call bugs” (9). Resilience learns the concepts of time and frustration from Rania, associating frustration with waiting to be put back together.
This chapter contains another letter from Sophie. Sophie’s teacher didn’t assign this letter, but Sophie writes it because she misses her mom, who works a lot, and hopes Resilience is enjoying time with Rania.
Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary: “Xander”
Xander is another scientist Resilience likes. Whereas Rania is all business, Xander is more laid back, often making jokes that Resilience doesn’t understand. Xander tells the rover its name will be Resilience, a name chosen by a middle school student in a place called Ohio. Xander decides to call Resilience “Res” for short because they are buddies, which Resilience doesn’t quite understand yet but feels to be true: “You are given a nickname when you have a buddy” (16).
Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary: “Journey”
When Resilience’s cameras are reconnected to his brain, he sees another rover in the next room that is in one piece. Xander introduces this rover as Journey and explains that Journey is like Resilience’s sibling. Rania tells him to “[s]top anthropomorphizing. It’s not professional” (17). From observing the close relationship between Xander and Rania, Resilience learns what trust means and begins, in turn, to trust both scientists with his future.
Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary: “Talking”
Resilience talks to Journey in the language of machines, which makes Resilience feel like the two rovers have a connection. Journey exhibits far fewer emotions, and she corrects Resilience often. Resilience likes the other rover anyway. He tells Journey he enjoys their talks, to which Journey replies, “[E]njoy is not a concept in our programming” (22).
Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary: “Backup”
Resilience is still in pieces, and he experiences jealousy watching Journey move around. Journey suggests that Resilience is a backup rover—meaning that if Journey fails, then Resilience will be needed. Resilience rejects this possibility, though he has no evidence to the contrary. He asserts that he knows it’s false because he “just do[es],” to which Journey says, “That’s very unscientific reasoning” (25).
This chapter ends with another letter from Sophie, who tells Resilience that Sophie is a nickname for Sophia. Sophie is excited that Resilience has a name and thinks it’s awesome that the scientists call him Res, even though her mom doesn’t understand why a machine needs a nickname.
Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary: “Environments”
Resilience uses Journey’s term “beeps and boops” when thinking about how Journey would respond to things. In this chapter, Resilience continues to be jealous that Journey gets to move around and do things, but Resilience also recognizes that the two rovers have been exposed to very different environments. Resilience thinks this difference is very important, but he is sure Journey would dismiss it: “[b]eeps and boops” (30).
Part 1, Chapter 10 Summary: “Successful”
From listening to the scientists, Resilience concludes that there have been many Mars rovers, some successful and some not. It’s easy for Resilience to understand what makes a rover unsuccessful, but he struggles with knowing what makes a rover successful. Resilience wants to understand, and when Journey says they aren’t programmed to want, Resilience dismisses her assertion “because [he does] want” (31).
Resilience learns about different human emotions from listening to Rania’s phone calls. When Rania talks to her mother, her tone is crisp and frustrated, but when Rania talks to Sophie, her voice becomes soft and caring. Rania is afraid of the rover failing; Resilience wants to console her but cannot.
Part 1, Chapters 1-10 Analysis
This first section of the novel introduces Resilience, as well as his environment and his transformation from computer to something far more human. As Resilience grapples with the differences between himself and his fellow rover, Journey, he primarily struggles with Balancing Emotion and Logic. Resilience knows what he is supposed to be—a computer-based rover—but he simultaneously experiences human emotions. Journey’s insistence that emotions are a weakness does ultimately affect Resilience’s confidence. However, in these chapters, rather than viewing his grasp of emotions as a flaw, he believes his budding emotions are an asset because they let him care more about his mission.
Rania and Xander play important roles in Resilience’s growth and development. The two scientists (who Resilience thinks of as “hazmats” because of the suits they wear) have very different views of the rovers. To Rania, Resilience is a machine built to perform a specific function, and as one of the primary scientists working on him, she associates Resilience with her own success and reputation. The idea of Resilience failing after how hard she has worked is frightening, and as a result, she keeps Resilience at an emotional distance. By contrast, Xander is more relaxed and treats Resilience like a friend. Resilience also represents professional success for Xander, but whereas Rania lets this fact create stress, Xander recognizes that he can only do his best and then let Resilience do the rest. Xander’s attitude, both in general and toward Resilience, speaks to the importance of teamwork within The Pursuit of Knowledge.
The differences between Xander and Rania and how they treat Resilience also inform Resilience’s growing understanding of humans. Together, the two scientists teach Resilience that no two humans are the same and that humans may view the same thing (in this case, himself) differently. Each scientist furthers Resilience’s development of certain emotions. Xander’s buddy-buddy relationship with Resilience makes Resilience feel cared for and like he’s part of a team. As a result, he wants to do his best and make his team proud. At first, Rania’s emotional distance makes Resilience wonder if she likes him less or if he’s done something to make her upset. Through the phone call in Chapter 10, though, Resilience learns how humans are affected by all aspects of their life and how they cannot completely separate these aspects. Rania is stressed by the pressure her mother puts on her and by the pressure she puts on herself because her work takes her away from Sophie, her daughter. This stress has contributed to the emotional distance she keeps from Resilience. Learning about Rania’s stress, in turn, makes Resilience want to do well to help Rania, which he hopes would also bring them closer.
The first of Sophie’s letters also appears in these chapters, introducing the coming-of-age narrative that the author uses to parallel Resilience’s journey. In practical terms, Sophie’s letters offer an outsider’s perspective of Resilience and the Mars rover program. In a more metaphorical sense, though, Resilience’s and Sophie’s respective character arcs add meaning to each other. The journey of growing into one’s emotions must be undertaken, to an extent, alone. While companions and teamwork are key to overcoming difficulties and gaining knowledge, learning to name and cope with big feelings is ultimately a solitary experience. The isolating nature of this kind of journey is captured in Resilience’s limited communication abilities (he cannot talk to the humans) and in Sophie’s mode of communication (letters, specifically letters that never seem to reach their target).
These opening chapters lay the foundation for the novel’s eventual exploration of the challenge of learning to cope with Grief and Loss as Part of Life. By juxtaposing these two narratives, the author uses each character’s experiences to illustrate the depths of the other character’s struggles. In these chapters, for example, while Resilience is helpless and reduced to pieces, awaiting his reconstruction, Sophie is an awkward 12-year-old girl struggling with missing her mother. Resilience’s very physical predicament lends a poignant visual to Sophie’s feelings. In turn, Sophie’s turbulent feelings help contextualize and humanize Resilience’s experience.
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