47 pages • 1 hour read
Jesse AndrewsMe and Earl and the Dying Girl
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012A 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 10-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “I Put the ‘Ass’ in Casanova”
As Greg prepares for his encounter with Rachel, he begins to fantasize about how she will react to him since she now believes he’s been in love with her for five years. His fantasies only amplify his anxieties; he wonders if she’ll want to talk about death or get married or have sex. Greg expects Rachel’s room to look like a hospital room, so he is surprised, when he arrives, and it looks like a typical teenage girl’s room, complete with shirtless posters of Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. Greg attempts an inelegant zombie-like hug, which Rachel declines. Nervous, Greg comments on the number of Rachel’s pillows and jokes that his parents would never buy him that many pillows out of fear that he would masturbate on them. This causes Rachel to snort, and Greg sees it as a challenge to keep her laughing, so he improvises more reasons his parents believe him to be an intimate lover of pillows. Greg receives an inappropriate text from Earl, and Greg assures Rachel she does not want to know the details of the message since it has to do with the combination of food and oral sex. Rachel asks how he and Earl became friends, and Greg replies that they are both weird. Rachel agrees.
Chapter 11 Summary: “I, the Wrath of God, Will Marry My Own Daughter, and Together We Shall Start the Purest Dynasty the World Has Ever Seen”
Even though Greg and Earl come from vastly different backgrounds, they connect through their love of video games and obscure films. They meet in kindergarten while decorating boxes and bond over their desire to turn the box into a gun. Earl invites Greg over, and they watch Earl’s brother play “GoldenEye,” establishing itself in Greg’s memory as “the best thing [he] had ever experienced” (79). Over the years, Earl’s home life deteriorates, causing the two friends to hang out more at Greg’s house, even though he does not own any video games. In search of some form of entertainment, the two rifle through Greg’s dad’s DVD collection. Together, they watch Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog’s film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and sense that their lives have changed forever. Greg’s dad helps them with the subtitles and explains the plot of the film, then divulges information about the making of the film, all of which fascinates both Earl and Greg. They share the film with their classmates, but their classmates react to it very differently, finding it “long and boring” (84), thus reinforcing the friendship between Earl and Greg and their belief that they are burgeoning nihilists.
Chapter 12 Summary: “I Put the ‘Idiot’ in Videotape”
Greg states that one of the best ways to find favor with others is to let them talk about themselves, although he cannot seem to apply this tactic to his interactions with Rachel. He blathers on as Rachel listens, eventually realizing that she deftly accomplishes three things. First, because he does most of the talking, Greg acknowledges that he enjoys his time with her. Second, Rachel does not pressure him into a romantic relationship, despite his pretense of a brokenheart, which makes Greg feel comfortable around her. Third, the more Greg talks, the more he reveals, and the more connected to her he becomes. During a discussion about movies, Rachel asks what Greg’s favorite is. He takes her to his house and shows her Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and while explaining the film to her, Rachel mentions that since he knows so much about film, Greg should make his own movies. Greg’s mom overhears and tells Rachel that he does make movies, but he refuses to show them to anyone. Rachel assures Greg that if his films are a secret, he can trust her to keep it that way.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Even More Earl Backstory”
Earl and Greg remake Aguirre, the Wrath of God when they are eleven years old, using Greg’s dad’s video camera and editing software. The task proves impossible because of their lack of knowledge about lighting, sound, editing, directing, props, and costumes. Even though Greg’s parents claim to have liked their film, Greg and Earl feel adamant that it was an embarrassment to the entire industry of film. Novices though they may be, they are not disheartened. Greg and Earl agree they should make their own film and quickly collaborate on their next project, Earl, the Wrath of God II.
Chapter 10-Chapter 13 Analysis
Just as Greg discredits how most stories portray someone with cancer, he also quashes his fantasies about Rachel. He expects her room to look like a hospital, but it does not. He expects her to want something from him now that she assumes Greg has feelings for her, but she does not. And when Rachel learns that Greg makes films, he expects her to pressure him into letting her watch them, but she does not. Rachel challenges every barrier Greg has created to protect himself, just by being herself. She inadvertently turns the tables on Greg by being a great listener, so Greg opens up to her without much hesitation at all. He realizes he enjoys his time with her.
Before he steps too deeply into his emotions, Greg reads an overly sexual text from Earl. Because Greg’s sporadic point of view ascertains itself from the very beginning, these abrupt shifts in the narrative feel in line with his character. Without previous grounding in Greg’s storytelling style, these shifts could appear to be overt attemptsto change the subject. They are disjointed, but not without purpose. Because the changes occur so sharply, what the story is turning from becomes its focus: a budding friendship with Rachel.
