50 pages • 1 hour read
Marion Dane BauerOn My Honor
Fiction | Novella | Middle Grade | Published in 1986A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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BetaChapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Tony and Joel, two boys who will soon be starting junior high, have been friends their whole lives. Tony’s mother, Mrs. Zabrinsky, began babysitting Joel when he was six months old, so the two boys have grown up together. As the book begins, Tony makes a wild suggestion to his friend Joel: climb the Starved Rock Bluffs, a treacherous, sheer river bluff located at the state park. Joel is adamant that this idea is too dangerous, recalling that someone recently died doing so. Tony remains nonchalant and continues to pressure Joel. To get out of the situation without disappointing Tony or admitting that he is “chicken,” Joel asks his dad if he can ride to the state park, thinking that his overprotective father will likely say no. Joel’s little brother, Bobby, begs to join them. His father seriously considers Joel’s request, asking the boys if they packed lunch and asking Tony if he asked his mother for permission. Tony lies that his mother gave him permission, and Joel’s father surprises them both when he agrees, but he makes them promise not to go anywhere other than the state park. He asks Joel, “On your honor?” (8), and Joel promises that they won’t go anywhere other than the park, knowing that he and Tony plan to make a detour at the dangerous bluffs.
Chapter 1 Summary
Tony and Joel, two boys who will soon be starting junior high, have been friends their whole lives. Tony’s mother, Mrs. Zabrinsky, began babysitting Joel when he was six months old, so the two boys have grown up together. As the book begins, Tony makes a wild suggestion to his friend Joel: climb the Starved Rock Bluffs, a treacherous, sheer river bluff located at the state park. Joel is adamant that this idea is too dangerous, recalling that someone recently died doing so. Tony remains nonchalant and continues to pressure Joel. To get out of the situation without disappointing Tony or admitting that he is “chicken,” Joel asks his dad if he can ride to the state park, thinking that his overprotective father will likely say no. Joel’s little brother, Bobby, begs to join them. His father seriously considers Joel’s request, asking the boys if they packed lunch and asking Tony if he asked his mother for permission. Tony lies that his mother gave him permission, and Joel’s father surprises them both when he agrees, but he makes them promise not to go anywhere other than the state park. He asks Joel, “On your honor?” (8), and Joel promises that they won’t go anywhere other than the park, knowing that he and Tony plan to make a detour at the dangerous bluffs.
Chapter 2 Summary
Shocked that his father gave him permission, Joel goes along with Tony’s plan. They ride side-by-side on an empty highway under a blue sky, “so blue it could have been created out of a paint can” (11). Tony falls behind Joel as they ride. Joel stops at the top of the bridge and looks back to see Tony leaning dangerously over the bridge’s railing as he peers at the Vermillion River. Tony proposes that, instead of climbing the bluffs, they swim in the river. Joel says the river is dangerous, mentioning that someone drowned there and that it’s “like swimming in a toilet” (15). Joel thinks of the promise he made to his dad. As a last attempt to dissuade Tony from his idea, he tells him that the river has “sinkholes and currents. Whirlpools, sometimes!” (16). Tony jokes that the river is reddened by the blood of alligators’ victims. Joel informs him that the river is called Vermillion due to the reddish tone from the earth’s clay. With his fears dispelled, Tony runs to the riverbank and jumps in.
Chapter 3 Summary
Joel hesitantly joins Tony in the river. When he gets in, he is taken aback by how fast the current is but also revels in the feeling of the fresh, cool water against his skin. He warns Tony to watch out for the current, and Tony pretends to struggle. Joel brings up swimming at the pool instead, but Tony says, “Who needs a sliding board…or other kids?” (20). Joel suspects that Tony doesn’t know how to swim based on his awkward and ungraceful movements. He notices the river’s strong scent of decaying fish. Tony asks Joel if they can come here every day to prepare for junior high swim team tryouts next year. Joel says they’ll get caught, and Tony says Joel sounds like his father, angering Joel. Joel says that at least his father doesn’t hit his children with a belt, and Tony is offended and tries to punch Joel. They argue, with Joel telling Tony, “you’re the one who’s scared” (23). He dares Tony to swim to a sandbar about 100 feet away. In relatively shallow water, Tony says he bets the water doesn’t get deeper, but Joel says river bottoms aren’t smooth. Tony accepts the dare.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
Joel has always been the responsible one, a worry wart who frets over everything that could go wrong, while Tony is a carefree boy who follows every wild impulse he has. Despite Joel’s better judgment, he wants to please Tony and gives in to him frequently. This pattern provides insight into Joel’s and Tony’s conflicting natures: While Joel is passive and seeks compromise, Tony is stubborn and assertive. Joel tries to shift the responsibility of saying no to his father when he asks for permission to bike to the park. Joel’s father asks many questions as he decides if Joel can go, showing that he is a caring and protective father. True to his quick tongue, Tony is ready with an answer to every one of Joel’s father’s questions.
Foreshadowing provides a sense of growing tension throughout this section. The author spends time describing Joel’s sense of foreboding as they start on their doomed trip. Joel is deeply concerned about the trip and has a bad feeling about trying to scale the bluffs, thinking to himself that he is going to “get killed on the bluffs” (8). There are clues that Tony is not as athletic as Joel, such as when he mentions that he wants to “build muscle” and rides more slowly than Joel.
When they ride by the school, Tony sticks out his tongue “in the direction of the sixth grade classroom where they had spent last year” (11), revealing his negative feelings toward school; Joel, in contrast, “liked school well enough” (11), but he does the same anyway. Tony and Joel are as deeply connected as they are conflicting, and the complex nature of their relationship becomes more evident as the story progresses.
On the way to Starved Rock State Park, Joel surpasses Tony on the winding, hilly road. He checks back to see that Tony is behind him, but looking back endangers him. When Joel spots Tony leaning far over the bridge “carelessly against the fat iron railing” (13), there is foreshadowing that the tragedy will occur not at the bluffs, but in the river.
When Tony suggests swimming rather than going to the bluffs, Joel “can’t believe his luck” because he thinks Tony wants to go to the community swimming pool (15). When he realizes Tony wants to swim in the river, he again acts as the responsible, mature one who must warn Tony not to do something. Just as Tony responded quickly and confidently to Joel’s father’s concerned questions about the trip to the state park, Tony easily defeats Joel’s concerns about the river with humorous quips.
Tony becomes a more sympathetic character as this section progresses. The author shows that he is not the confident, rakish boy that he seems to be initially. Tony is naïve, for example running through “a patch of shiny green leaves” that Joel recognizes as poison ivy (17). Tony wants to learn to swim so that he can keep up with Joel. Joel’s thought that Tony should take care of his bike because if it is stolen “he might never get another” give the sense that Joel’s home life is more secure and financially stable than Tony’s (17). Joel is sensitive about Tony mocking his father, and when Joel attacks Tony by mentioning that Mr. Zabrinsky hits him with a belt, Tony is visibly hurt, his strong reaction implying that Tony’s father might have hit him more than once. Tony thus becomes a sympathetic figure: While Joel’s father is protective and caring, Tony’s father is temperamental and physically threatening. The boys know each other well, so they know each other’s weak spots and vulnerabilities. When Joel says, “we’ll see who is chicken” (24), Tony is trying to defend his honor.
