56 pages • 1 hour read
Bethany HamiltonSoul Surfer
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2004A 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.
Chapters 10-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “Keeping the Faith”
Chapter 10 is a deep dive into Bethany Hamilton’s faith: how it took root, how it grew, and how it sustains her and motivates her actions. Having just spent the previous chapter inviting the reader into the joy of surfing, in this chapter Hamilton writes, “Being tight with God is even more important to me than surfing” (134). Having faith in God, Hamilton writes, is not something that she feels the need to justify. Rather, she writes: “It’s the same as surfing: you can’t know what it feels like, what it does for you, unless you’re a part of the club” (136).
Included in this chapter is a brief story about a man named Joseph Damien de Veuster, a missionary to Hawaii. Hamilton credits de Veuster, who worked with lepers, as her inspiration and relates several brief stories about how losing her arm has enabled Hamilton to reach out and inspire others to overcome their own handicaps and challenges.
Chapter 11 Summary: “An Outpouring of Aloha”
Aloha, Hamilton writes, is far more than simply a way to say hello and goodbye. Rather, it “means a mutual regard and affection of one person for another without any expectation of something in return” (146). Thus, when people care for one another out of the goodness of their hearts, they are acting in the spirit of aloha.
Aloha is the foundation of Hamilton’s community in Kauai, and she offers several examples of how the community pulled together to help her family after the accident, doing small acts such as cleaning their home and bringing meals, as well as large acts like staging a benefit. At the end of the benefit, Bethany thinks, “if I get the chance to help somebody in the future, I, more than ever before, am really going to do it” (150).
This aloha spirit, however, is not limited to Kauai, or even Hawaii. It comes from all over the world, Hamilton says. Hamilton’s mother attributes this outpouring of love and assistance to Bethany’s faith in God, while her father attributes it to the example of resilience she set.
Chapter 12 Summary: “On Being Kind of Famous”
An unexpected consequence of the shark attack, Hamilton writes, is the immediate attention from all over the world. This attention takes many forms: media personnel waiting outside the hospital, hundreds of cards and letters arriving every day, reporters camped out on the lawn of her family’s home, and numerous requests for interviews. As Bethany struggles to comprehend her instant fame, she agrees to be interviewed, seeing it as an opportunity to talk about her faith in God: “Most of all, I want to use my story as a way to tell people about God’s story” (160). Hamilton gives her readers an inside look at what it is like to do TV and radio interviews and reiterates her motive for agreeing to do so many appearances, which she did not particularly enjoy, writing that she believes God provided the platform for her to help people. She writes, “There’s a greater good here, so if that means I have to make a few sacrifices or give a gazillion interviews, then it’s worth it” (168).
At the end of the chapter, Hamilton tells a story of sitting in first class on an airplane with a famous actor and says that all of the experiences of her fame did not change her, writing, “To my family and friends I’m just Bethany, and nothing much has changed in spite of the loss of an arm and the media frenzy” (171).
Chapter 13 Summary: “Back in the Waves”
The most difficult part of her accident, Hamilton says, was wondering whether she would ever again be able to surf. Hamilton’s accident happened on Halloween; on the day before Thanksgiving, she goes back in the water. With members of her family and her surf community watching, Hamilton gets back on her surfboard. At first, she falls, over and over again. Finally, with her friends and family cheering her on, Hamilton gets up and rides a wave. Then she does it again and again.
Since then, Hamilton has been asked many times whether she is afraid of another shark attack, and she admits that she sometimes has nightmares or sees a shadow in the water that makes her heart pound. However, she writes, she knows that “God is watching out for me, and while I don’t want to do something stupid like paddling out where someone has just seen a shark, in the end, I trust Him to take care of me” (184).
Chapter 13 ends with a glossary of terms related to surfing, or “surfspeak,” as Hamilton calls them.
Chapters 10-13 Analysis
In these chapters, Hamilton attempts to make sense of the shark attack that took her arm, endangered her life, and changed her future. As in the earlier chapters, faith is the primary theme of Chapters 10-13, along with other thematic threads such as resilience, chance, and community.
Underlying Hamilton’s search for meaning is her Christian faith and her deep belief that God is guiding her path. Because of this faith, Hamilton is able to accept her situation, rather than spiral into the paralysis of asking “Why me?” As Hamilton details her faith, she is clearly inviting the reader into her community, not only of surfing, but also of faith. At the end of Chapter 10, the reader is left with several concrete examples of Hamilton’s own sense of mission, as well as examples of the way Hamilton puts her beliefs into action.
Bethany quickly adjusts her vision of the future, figuring that competitive surfing is now out of her reach. She is determined, however, and just over a month after the attack, she is back on the board and surfing. She has also become a celebrity, traveling around the country to tell her story. While Hamilton does not enjoy most of these activities, she believes that she has been given an opportunity to share her faith, and so she pursues media opportunities.
Hamilton understands that her celebrity status has given her experiences that are utterly foreign to the majority of her readers, so she goes to great lengths to describe those experiences and to continually invite the reader to stand on common ground with her and share in her passion for surfing and her understanding of how she handled the shark attack and its aftermath. The glossary of “surfspeak,” along with other special sections in the book, is included to invite the reader into Hamilton’s world and enhance the connection between author and reader.
