110 pages • 3 hours read
Varian JohnsonThe Parker Inheritance
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A 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 7-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
As she thinks about the possibilities contained in the letter’s mystery, Candice realizes that if she got the inheritance, it might be enough to stop her family from moving. She also thinks she must keep it a secret. Even though she isn’t ready to tell Brandon yet, she still asks him what he knows about the Washington and Allen families. He explains that an anonymous rich man paid to keep the local library from being named “The Allen Library.”
When Brandon offers to leave, Candice is lost in thought, puzzling over this information; she then shoves the letter into his hands. Even though she doesn’t “know if she could trust him… she wanted to” (35). Brandon picks up on a clue that the letter refers directly to Abigail Caldwell’s grandchild, rather than grandchildren, implying that the letter writer knew about Candice’s existence.
Chapter 8 Summary
Brandon brings Candice to his house so that they can try to talk to his grandfather about the Allen and Washington families. Before they get a chance, Brandon’s sister Tori comes into the kitchen; Candice thinks she looks “amazing” (37). Tori asks Brandon about the scratches on his face and says that she’ll talk to the lead bully Milo’s older sister. Before heading to her job at a clothing store, Tori also offers to take Candice shopping for new outfits.
When Brandon’s grandfather, Mr. Gibbs, comes in, he immediately asks Brandon about “what in the world” (39) happened to Brandon’s face. Candice covers for Brandon by saying that she tripped him. Candice begins asking Mr. Gibbs questions about her grandmother. Mr. Gibb’s mainly repeats the same information that Candice has already learned, so Brandon asks about the other families. Mr. Gibbs explains that “the Allens were a whole different type of white people” (43), implying that they weren’t friendly towards any Black people in Lambert. Though Mr. Gibbs doesn’t volunteer much information about the Washingtons, he does explain that Marion Allen, the oldest son, was the one who ran Enoch Washington out of the city. Enoch, who also went by the name Big Dub, worked at Perkins High and helped upgrade the building since it was one of the first “colored schools” in the region (45).
Chapter 9 Summary
In this chapter, the narrative breaks from Candice’s efforts to solve the mystery to the perspective of Enoch Washington’s childhood in March 1914, when he was born and raised in Luling, Texas. Enoch grew up in the Jim Crow era, meaning that his family’s life was shaped by institutionalized legal racism that limited their rights and opportunities. At six years old, Enoch was old enough to be told by an outsider that he was “gonna end up in the field” (48).
Chapter 10 Summary
As part of their search, Brandon enlists the help of Ms. Patrice McMillan, Tori’s AP History teacher, who also curates the Perkins Memorial Room at the high school. Ms. McMillan agrees to meet Candice and Brandon on Friday morning and lets them look through the exhibits in the Memorial Room; she explains key aspects of Perkin’s history, including that the school “started as a one-room grade school for freed slaves” (50).
Candice and Brandon begin asking Ms. McMillan for information about Enoch Washington. She introduces the story of the tennis match between Perkins and Wallace (the school for white students) that took place privately in 1957. The day after that game, Big Dub and his family left town forever. After looking at the date inscribed on a photo of the tennis match, Candice realizes that “the letter was dated exactly fifty years after the tennis game” (53). As Candice and Brandon look closer at the photo, trying to see if a tall girl is Siobhan Washington, Ms. McMillan finds them a DVD of tribute videos for past coaches.
Before they leave the Memorial Room, Candice and Brandon also discover the name of the benefactor who made the exhibit possible: Mr. James Parker. Since Ms. McMillan must leave, the two children ask to borrow a yearbook to take with them. When Candice makes a final request for James Parker’s contact information, Ms. McMillan apologizes and explains that he’s “been missing for more than ten years” (55).
Chapter 11 Summary
Candice and Brandon leave Perkins High School with excitement about the next steps in the puzzle. Candice asks about whether Brandon has internet and a computer, two things she must live without this summer. Luckily, he does. Brandon asks if she wants to stop and get hot dogs at Sam’s Superette, but Candice is worried about getting home because her dad is coming to visit. When the two get closer to home, Brandon sees the three boys on bikes who always bully him, and Candice realizes “why Brandon had wanted to delay coming back home… he had been trying to avoid Milo” (58).
Candice and Brandon ride up a little closer and then wait for the taunting to begin. Milo rudely says that “Brandon doesn’t like girls… it ain’t hard to tell” (59). Before anything worse can happen, an older woman comes out on the porch and intervenes. When she goes back inside, Milo rides close enough to make Brandon lean over on his bike and fall. Candice feels bad for having made him ride to the Memorial in the first place.
Chapters 7-11 Analysis
One of the core tensions explored in The Parker Inheritance is the changes in American society over the course of the 20th century, especially regarding race. Since the mystery that Candice and Brandon are trying to solve is mostly located in past events, the two children must begin understanding the social dynamics at play for the people they learn about. Johnson highlights this theme by including chapters that share the perspective of characters living in the past, like Enoch Washington. At the beginning of Chapter 9, Johnson connects the present to the past by remarking on the fact that Brandon “had only referred to his race in two ways—as African American and black” (46), while Enoch Washington was referred to as “colored” (46). This difference came about through the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, a long time after Enoch Washington was eleven or twelve years old. Understanding how race and racism were different in the past is an important part of Candice and Brandon solving the mystery of the inheritance, although they don’t have all the answers yet.
The exhibit at the Perkins High School also memorializes the tension between the present and the past. While Candice and Brandon live in a time period where most schools are integrated, Perkins High School, like many others, was originally all-Black. As Candice and Brandon begin to understand this aspect of history, they begin to ask questions about the layout of Lambert as a whole as well as how the people they are investigating would have interacted with one another. Candice and Brandon also must deal with the different ways the adults around them respond to this history. Some adults, like Ms. McMillan, are excited to share with the two children and give them lots of explanations. Other adults are less forthcoming, like Mr. Gibbs, who seems more prone to leaving the past in the past.
Although the novel focuses on more characters than Candice, her thoughts and feelings are most frequently narrated. This gives depth to Candice’s character and illustrates how a young person might moderate their behaviors in different situations. Johnson often inserts short explanations of how Candice is feeling and why she chooses to say something or to do something. For example, when Candice and Brandon encounter the three bullies, she begins wondering if she should “call home” (59), then decides against it. Similarly, when Brandon’s grandfather asks him about the scratches on his face, Candice chooses to lie for him, understanding that “this was part of her duties in ‘looking after’ Brandon” (40) according to Tori. By illustrating for readers what Candice is thinking when she makes different decisions about her behavior, Johnson helps illuminate the internal factors that go into young people’s actions based on their emotions and ideas. Johnson also shows Candice sometimes having trouble making these decisions, allowing her problem-solving process (or mistakes) to show her learning and growing in her social interactions.
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