50 pages • 1 hour read
Lisa GraffLost in the Sun
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015A 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 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Trent is good in Ms. Emerson’s class, worried that detention will prevent him from joining intramural baseball. At lunch, Jeremiah, Noah, and another boy, Stig, take Trent and Fallon’s usual table. Fallon takes a seat, even though Jeremiah makes it clear that she and Trent aren’t welcome. Jeremiah puts mashed potatoes in Fallon’s chair and bullies her throughout lunch. Trent feels fire in his chest and wants to beat up Jeremiah, but he holds back and makes sure that Fallon is fine.
Trent tries to sneakily dump his lunch tray on Jeremiah while everyone is distracted, but Fallon sees him and drags him away from the table. She doesn’t want Trent to insert himself in the conflict. She doesn’t want to wash off in the girls’ bathroom because the girls in there during lunch are mean, so they go to use Ms. Emerson’s sink instead. Unlike Trent, Fallon likes Ms. Emerson. When Fallon is done, Trent tells her an absurd story about how she possibly got her scar.
Trent is surprised to learn that Mr. Gorman is coaching intramural baseball and that Noah appears to be joining the team. The sound of a bat hitting a baseball sends Trent into a panic again, and he goes to movie club instead. Fallon isn’t surprised to see Trent, and she doesn’t ask why he is there.
Chapter 12 Summary
Trent and Fallon keep up movie club for a month. Trent doesn’t see his dad during this time because he’s busy with the new baby, Jewel. Trent is happy that his dad has a baby that can’t disappoint him.
He and his brothers finally return to their dad’s place the weekend before Halloween. Kari is extra protective of Jewel, but when Kari goes to nap and Trent’s dad goes on a diaper run, Aaron lets Trent hold her. Trent enjoys it for a moment before Kari wakes up, spots him, and frantically reclaims Jewel. Later, Kari invites Trent on a walk to the store and says that she understands that he’s going through a tough time and dealing with a lot of anger. She tells Trent that everyone is rooting for him, but he doesn’t understand what she means.
When they get back, Doug is holding Jewel. Trent asks if he can hold her, but as Doug passes her to Trent, Kari intercepts her, suggesting it’s nap time. Trent pushes the issue, wondering why he can’t hold Jewel. He feels the fire in his chest again, and when Kari tries to calm him down, the fire grows stronger. Jewel begins to cry, and Trent’s dad yells at him for upsetting her. He says that Trent will never hold Jewel and never get a second chance. Trent smashes a milk carton as he storms out.
Trent sits on the street corner for over an hour. Eventually, his mom pulls up and takes him home. She heard what happened and is disappointed. Trent is sorry that she had to come get him, but he’s not sorry for his actions.
Chapter 13 Summary
Ms. Emerson asks Trent to stay after class to discuss his grades; he must start participating in PE or else he’ll fail the sixth grade. She gives him two options for earning his PE credit: He can join the intramural baseball team even though it’s late in the season, or he can volunteer at a community program, teaching younger kids to play basketball. To avoid Mr. Gorman, Trent chooses the basketball program.
Ms. Emerson tells Trent that budget cuts have eliminated a lot of positions in the school, including her home economics classes and the school counselor. She encourages Trent to speak to any teacher he feels comfortable with, saying that many teachers in the school would be willing to listen to him.
Trent feels fire as he meets up with Fallon after school. They watch Iron Man, but he can’t focus because he’s anxious about how everyone thinks he’s a “screw-up.” Afterward, he goes to the kitchen store to hang out with his mom, but when he gets there, he sees her and Ray, her boss, kissing. He leaves before they see him. Trent approves of them as a couple, but he can’t get past his anger that they didn’t tell him.
Chapter 14 Summary
When Trent’s mom gets home, she lectures him about failing PE. Trent doesn’t mention what he saw. The following day is Halloween, so as punishment, Trent’s mom brings him to work at the store and hand out candy. Fallon invites Trent to see a horror film at the movie theater across the street, and Trent’s mom agrees if he comes straight back after.
Jeremiah Jacobson’s dad runs the ticket booth, and Jeremiah sometimes works there. Trent runs into Jeremiah tending the men’s room, and they exchange tense words. Trent intentionally bumps into Jeremiah again on the way out. Jeremiah follows, but Trent maintains his cool until Jeremiah insults Fallon. He loses his temper and beats up Jeremiah. Fallon’s voice snaps Trent out of his rage. When he spots her watching, she drops her popcorn and runs out of the theater.
Before Trent can chase her, Mr. Jacobson grabs Trent and screams at him for beating up Jeremiah. Trent knows what he’s thinking: “You killed one kid already […] I’m not going to let you do it again” (182). The fire rages inside Trent. He breaks away from Mr. Jacobson and runs outside, looking for Fallon.
Chapter 15 Summary
Trent goes to the shop, where Fallon has locked herself in the stockroom and won’t come out. She tries to make Trent go away, but he refuses. He tells her a bad joke, and she lets him into the stockroom. She tells Trent about a recurring nightmare in which she’s being chased. In these dreams, she can’t scream. Trent has never seen her look as scared as she looks telling him this. She has these nightmares so often that she’s begun to worry that she really can’t scream.
Trent apologizes for Jeremiah being a jerk, but Fallon says that Trent can be a jerk, too. She doesn’t want him trying to protect her or getting into fights. Trent thinks that Fallon should be angrier about how people treat her, but she disagrees.
When Trent and his mom get home, she suggests that Trent stay with his dad for a while because she doesn’t know how to help him. They talk about why Trent fought Jeremiah, and she tells Trent that it isn’t his place to punish every mean comment. Trent mentions that he knows about Ray, but his mom is already angry and sends Trent to his room.
Trent fears that his mom doesn’t want him anymore. He hears his parents talking on the phone and hears that his dad doesn’t want Trent to stay with him either. Trent feels terrible, even though he feels the same about his dad.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
Trent’s fire as a symbol of his rage is present in every chapter in this section, emphasizing how his anger is becoming more explosive and uncontrollable. In Chapter 11, the fire is sparked when Jeremiah puts mashed potatoes in Fallon’s seat and continues to bully her throughout lunch. While Trent’s fire makes him want to hit Jeremiah, Fallon makes it clear that she disapproves of Trent’s retaliation toward Jeremiah. These interactions foreshadow both Trent and Jeremiah’s fight in Chapter 14 and Fallon’s intense reaction to this violence. By the time that Jeremiah antagonizes Trent in the movie theater, Trent reflects, “It didn’t take longer than a blink for all the rage I’d been carrying around to boil over” (180). This illustrates how Trent is trapped in a cycle with his negative emotions—they dominate his self-perception, and when he copes through violence, he feels his negative sense of self is confirmed. This highlights the theme of Guilt and Self-Forgiveness.
Trent’s situation is worsened in these chapters by his strained relationships, particularly with his dad and stepmother. Where his mom is a nurturing though stern parental figure, his dad holds his son at a distance. Trent’s reflections on his dad’s dismissive reaction to Jared’s death hints at the underlying cause of their rift—his dad does not make himself emotionally available to his son. Now that Trent is prone to angry outbursts, the rift deepens, and Trent’s dad treats him differently than his brothers. Trent’s fire erupts when his dad and Kari refuse to let him hold his new baby sister, and his dad alienates him, telling him, “You don’t come into my house, and upset my kid” (160-61). This language indicates how Trent’s dad excludes him from his family, building on Trent’s poor self-esteem. This combines with Trent’s conflicts at school, deepening his cycle of anger and sadness.
With few other positive relationships, Fallon’s support in these chapters emphasizes The Healing Nature of Friendship. When Trent is triggered by baseball tryouts, he finds solace in movie club. However, when Trent fights Jeremiah, Fallon is upset by his violence and insists that he shouldn’t fight others, especially not on her behalf. This also leads to a moment of emotional intimacy when she tells Trent about her nightmares, in which she cannot scream for help while being chased or attacked. Fallon has had these dreams since she got her scar, hinting at the source of her trauma. Likewise, her instinct to flee when Trent fights hints that she has experienced violence before. Fallon’s dreams represent the way she feels helpless because of what she’s experienced, and her conversation with Trent develops the idea of The Invisible Struggles of Others. This forces Trent to consider the problems that other people face rather than just his own.
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By Lisa Graff
