46 pages • 1 hour read
Wendy MassJeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006A 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 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Book”
The book goes to an older woman who lives in a fancy apartment building with a doorman and security guard. The woman doesn’t know what’s being delivered, which confuses Jeremy and Lizzy. The book is a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh, signed by A.A. Milne to the woman and her childhood best friend. Long ago, the woman sold the book to pay for a dress and lied to her friend about it, which ended their friendship. She is grateful to have the book back and gives Jeremy a letter that came from inside it, telling him to read it later. Then she shows the kids out, with Lizzy stating that “Mr. Oswald has a lot of explaining to do tomorrow” (124).
Chapter 10 Summary: “Oswald Oswald”
At home, Jeremy reads the letter and looks up the woman’s friend online, finding that she has passed away. Before she died, she started a foundation in honor of a childhood friend who ignited her love of reading, whom Jeremy realizes is the woman they visited today. He goes to bed thinking about how every choice leads to consequences and that “sometimes the Internet tells you more than you want to know” (131).
The next morning, Lizzy is late getting to the limo because she poked her eye applying makeup. The night before, the new neighbor girl came over, and the two did “girl stuff,” which made Jeremy feel jealous. At Mr. Oswald’s, the kids demand an explanation, especially after learning from the letter that the book was pawned by a child, which is illegal. Mr. Oswald explains that the 1930s and 40s were difficult times and that his grandfather (Oswald Oswald) made a deal with the neighborhood kids. He would let them pawn their things if they wrote down their reasons. Mr. Oswald’s grandfather kept these pawned objects instead of reselling them, and Mr. Oswald is now giving them back to their owners.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Lamp”
The second delivery is a lamp. Lizzy and Jeremy open the letter for the lamp’s owner in the limo. The owner sold it when he was 14 because he wanted a watch and his mother was too busy buying herself things to notice he wanted one. Jeremy and Lizzy conclude the guy is spoiled and arrogant, so they are surprised when they meet a chipper man who looks young for his age. The man is amazed to see the lamp and admits he got rid of the watch when he realized he was too attached to material things. Now, he is content to live simply and be happy with what he has. The man gives the lamp to Lizzy because he already has a perfectly good lamp.
Jeremy asks the man if he knows the meaning of life, since he clearly understands things Jeremy doesn’t. The man asks the kids what they see when they look at a picture of a sunset, and they each feel different emotions. The man similarly sees the picture in his own way and concludes that there is no definitive answer to the meaning of life because “there can be no answer that will apply to everyone and everything” (154). By way of goodbye, the man tells Jeremy life is about potential and that he’s sure Jeremy will find what he seeks, no matter what it truly is.
Chapter 12 Summary: “The Existential Crisis”
The next day, Jeremy is despondent and refuses to get out of bed. When Lizzy presses to know what’s wrong, he admits that everything the man said the day before made him feel like he has no purpose, and he tells her, “I can’t face the world until I know why I’m here” (159). Lizzy reports this to Jeremy’s mother, who argues that Jeremy can have an existential crisis out of bed too. This combined with Lizzy telling the new kids about the box gets Jeremy out of bed, and the two go to their new friends’ apartment to hold a séance and talk to Jeremy’s dad. The séance yields nothing. Jeremy appreciates the effort and leaves while Lizzy and the girl laugh and have fun together.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
In the course of their journey, Jeremy and Lizzy meet people who teach them lessons about the world and themselves. While delivering objects to strangers as part of their community service, they learn about Finding Value in Relationships: The objects they deliver hold emotional value for the recipients, and the recipients’ stories show how that value changes over time. The Winnie-the-Pooh book began as very important to the woman, but its importance faded as she became interested in boys and her future. Years later, she looks back on what choosing to sell the book truly cost her—a friend—symbolizing how the monetary value of an object can easily be eclipsed by its emotional value. The woman’s story is also a cautionary tale for Jeremy and Lizzy. As the kids start to notice the differences between them, and as Lizzy begins to spend time with other people, the woman’s story of losing her best friend helps them remember how much they mean to one another and how much they don’t want to lose that. Jeremy’s confusion and jealousy about Lizzy’s relationship with the new girl in their building ultimately isn’t stronger than the years of friendship he has with Lizzy, and the woman’s story teaches him not to let his negative emotions get in the way of keeping Lizzy in his life.
Where Winnie-the-Pooh holds great emotional significance to its owner, the lamp is little more than a reminder for the man in Chapter 11. When he was a child, that lamp symbolized his anger and frustration, but now that he has grown and changed his outlook, the lamp no longer causes him the emotional pain it once did. In this way, the lamp serves as a metaphor for Jeremy’s relationship with the box. While the box is far more important to Jeremy than the lamp is to the man, he would happily trade it to have his father back. When the man let go of his anger for the lamp, he was really letting go of the anger he felt toward his mother. Similarly, Jeremy’s quest to open the box isn’t about the box itself but about what he learns about love and his dad along the way. Coming to this realization directly informs Jeremy’s existential crisis in Chapter 12. Up until this point, Jeremy focused on living his life without thinking about why he was alive. The quest to open the box gives him a sense of purpose he hasn’t felt before, and this drives him to find an even greater purpose. The possibility that no such purpose exists terrifies him, and overcoming this existential terror becomes a major step in Life as a Journey of Discovery.
In these chapters, Jeremy and Lizzy start to find meaning in what they are doing and in the service they are providing others, regardless of whether they find the keys to the box. At first, they are confused about Mr. Oswald’s assignment because it doesn’t make sense. After their first delivery, though, they begin to see that the deliveries aren’t about finding answers. Instead, they are about making connections along their journeys and seeing the change those connections bring, even if those changes are small. These chapters also show Jeremy searching for the meaning of life outside the box. At the moment, this search is driven more by fear than by any new insight. Only after opening the box will he understand the meaning of life was always to be found in the world and his relationships with others. For now, with the deadline looming and without the keys, he desperately searches for another way to learn the message his dad left for him. This desperation only makes Jeremy scared, showing how lessons and understanding can’t be forced. The woman’s choices and the man’s knowledge offer guidance, but neither can replace Jeremy finding his own answers.
Related Titles
By Wendy Mass
