108 pages • 3 hours read
Barbara Haworth-AttardTheories of Relativity
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003A 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 19-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
Miriam wakes Dylan on Christmas morning. She brings him breakfast and tells him he can wash up in his grandfather’s washroom. When Dylan finishes breakfast, he checks the card on a poinsettia plant sitting on the windowsill; it’s from Jack and his wife. Dylan pulls the curtains to look out the window; snow covers everything.
In the light, Dylan takes a better look at his grandfather and smooths down his hair. His grandfather stirs but does not wake. Miriam returns, and Dylan asks if she’s sure this is his grandfather. She tells him it is and that she’s known his grandfather all her life.
While she’s attending to the medical chart, she nonchalantly informs Dylan that his father, Phil, arrived at the farm the week before “out of the blue” (162). She compares Phil’s abrupt arrival to Dylan’s. Dylan is taken aback by this information. Miriam offers to give Dylan a ride to the farmhouse when she finishes her shift in an hour. Dylan doesn’t accept or reject.
Dylan asks if his grandfather can hear him, and Miriam says it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him. She leaves, but Dylan can’t find words, so he reads his Einstein book instead. Dylan learns about black holes and that nothing can escape their gravitational pull.
When Miriam returns, Dylan decides to go with her to see his dad. On the drive, Dylan asks if she knew his mom’s parents. She did, but not very well. They keep to themselves because they’re very religious. She stops in front of the lane leading to Dylan’s grandfather’s house, saying she can’t go further because her car will get stuck in the snow. As he trudges through the snow, Dylan thinks about how everything seems smaller now. He stops to dig out a tree stump where he remembered a large maple tree standing before.
Dylan can’t hear any sound coming from the house, so he’s nervous that his father has already left. He knocks, but no one answers. He notices tire tracks leading to the shed, so he checks and finds an old Ford inside. Concluding that his father is still there, Dylan enters through the back door.
The house is freezing, and beer bottles litter the surfaces. Dylan calls out as he walks in and hears crashing and cursing before a man, his father, stumbles into the kitchen. Dylan’s father, Phil, stares at him with bloodshot eyes and asks who Dylan is. Before waiting for an answer, Phil shakes an empty bottle, searching for more alcohol, and tells Dylan to leave. Dylan tells Phil his full name. Phil sits quietly for a moment, then drains a beer bottle. He finally speaks, telling Dylan to get firewood because Dylan’s grandfather ran out of oil for the furnace.
Chapter 20 Summary
Dylan is disappointed that his father didn’t acknowledge him as a son but goes to get the firewood. He resolves to refer to his father as Phil, as he has no reason to see him as a father. He retrieves the wood, not because he was told to do so but because he is cold and needs to warm the house.
Once the heat is going, Dylan cleans up beer bottles and dishes. Phil stops him to check if any of the bottles have anything left. Dylan is angry that Phil has pulled on clothes that belonged to Dylan’s grandfather. Phil asks if Dylan has money, and when Dylan says no, Phil says he can tell Dylan isn’t lying based on the way he looks.
Phil rummages through cabinets for spare money and finds the change jar on top of the refrigerator. After counting it, he gets ready to head to the store, but Dylan informs him that it’s Christmas Day and stores are closed. Dylan continues to clean, and Phil tells him to stop because it’s making him nervous. Dylan says he’s trying to keep it the way his grandmother kept it, but Phil gets defensive, saying he knew his parents better than Dylan did. Dylan calls him a jerk for wrecking the place, angering Phil. Phil asks why Dylan came, and Dylan says he came to see his grandfather, then asks Phil the same question. Phil is between jobs and needed a place to stay. The way he sees it, the house will be his soon anyway. Dylan tells Phil that he’s never known the stability of a long-term home the way Phil has.
Dylan searches the fridge and freezer for food but finds they’ve been cleaned out. He remembers that his grandmother used to store extra canned goods in a cupboard and finds a can of soup in there. Dylan heats the soup on the stove after washing a pot. Phil mocks Dylan for being responsible.
Phil says it’s not his fault that Dylan exists; Dylan’s mom could’ve chosen not to have him. Dylan ignores him and sits down with a bowl of soup. Phil grabs the pot from the stove and eats the rest of the soup directly from it. After, Dylan wanders the house, looking at photos and reminiscing.
Phil asks Dylan about his mom and school, but Dylan gives short answers. Dylan asks if Phil saw Granddad. Phil says he did, but all his visit did was get the town talking. Dylan, trying not to get physical with Phil, puts his energy into mopping, then goes upstairs.
Dylan takes a hot bath then naps in his grandparents’ bed. When he wakes, it’s dark out, and he can hear Phil banging around, breaking things. The house has grown cold again. Dylan goes downstairs to find Phil searching for alcohol. Dylan begins to throw fists at Phil, who asks what Dylan’s problem is.
Dylan says Phil is an asshole and that he hopes to never be like him. Dylan lands a punch on Phil, and Phil punches Dylan across the face, putting Dylan on the floor. Phil stands over Dylan and tells him, “You’re a loser. Just like me” (175). He tells Dylan that he’s nothing and will never find a father figure in Phil.
Chapter 21 Summary
Dylan rushes out of the house, grabbing Phil’s keys. Phil is not following him, so Dylan makes his way to the shed. He starts up Phil’s car, then notices Phil watching through the window. Dylan quickly backs out, breaking one of the doors off the shed. He has never driven before but knows this is his only option.
Phil barrels out of the house to the car and tries to yank open the passenger side door, but Dylan pulls away quickly. In the dark and snow, Dylan can barely see where he’s going. He can’t figure out the headlights or the windshield wipers. Once he sees the main road, he turns and drives as fast as he can. The car skids all over, and Dylan, attempting to stop quickly, crashes the car into a ditch full of snow.
Dylan ponders his options and decides that death by snow is better than being beaten to death by Phil. He walks up the road, theorizing that life tends to kick people when they’re already down. Jack drives up and stops when he sees Dylan. Dylan says he’s walking to town, and Jack tells Dylan to get in the truck. On the way, Jack asks about the crashed car, then deduces from Dylan’s damaged face that things didn’t go well with Phil. Dylan tells Jack he’s planning to catch the first bus out, but Jack informs Dylan that the next bus isn’t until the morning. He takes Dylan back to the nursing home and lets Amy, the nurse in charge, know about Dylan’s situation.
Before he leaves, Jack tells Dylan that his grandfather loved him and tried to get custody of him. However, the proceedings took a long time, and the death of Dylan’s grandmother took the life out of his grandfather. Dylan feels broken at this information.
Amy leads Dylan to his grandfather’s room and brings him a turkey dinner. Dylan feels glad he’s spending Christmas night with his grandfather, even if the circumstances aren’t ideal. Amy asks if Dylan wants to press charges against Phil, but Dylan declines. She brings him some ice for his face, then leaves for the evening. Dylan dozes off in the chair and wakes up later in the night. He opens the window to let the moonlight in. The sky has cleared, and the snow outside is calm and still. Dylan falls back asleep holding his grandfather’s hand.
In the morning, Amy brings Dylan breakfast as well as a scarf, some gloves, and a hat that belonged to his grandfather. She asks if there’s a way to reach Dylan, and Dylan gives her Glen’s phone number. Before they leave for the bus station, Dylan takes one last look at his grandfather, wishing he had the chance to speak with him.
Chapters 19-21 Analysis
In these chapters, the weather continues to work in tandem with Dylan’s emotions, acting as both foreshadowing and metaphor. When Dylan arrives at his grandfather’s house, the interior is cold, mirroring his first interaction with his father. Dylan expected the home to be warm and expected his father to at least acknowledge him as a son. However, Dylan receives a chilly welcome and must work to warm the house up. Later, Dylan and Phil share some conversation, but these interactions only anger Dylan more. When Dylan wakes up from his nap and looks outside to see snow coming down again, he remarks, “It puts me on edge, the snow and the approaching dark” (174). The weather and time of day foreshadow Dylan’s fight with Phil that follows shortly after. Later, when Dylan wakes up in the middle of the night at the nursing home, the weather is calm; the sky is clear, and snow has stopped falling. Dylan is with his grandfather again and feels a peace he did not feel when he was with Phil.
Dylan’s trip to Murdock leaves him heartbroken. When he learns that his grandfather sent him many letters and attempted to get custody of him, this leaves him shattered. He uses a simile to compare himself to his grandmother’s china, which Phil broke in his rage. This comparison fits not only Dylan’s mental state but also his physical state. Phil smashed the china and shortly after smashed Dylan’s face with his fist, leaving Dylan with a noticeable head injury.
The comparison between Dylan and his father is revisited in these chapters. Miriam compares Phil’s surprise appearance in town to Dylan’s unexpected arrival. This comparison lingers at the back of Dylan’s mind, as he indicated previously when recalling his mom comparing them. By cleaning up after Phil and telling him to stop making a mess, Dylan makes a pointed effort to be nothing like his father while they both occupy the house. The comparison comes up again, however, when Dylan violently declares that he will never be like Phil, but Phil asserts that Dylan is just like him, calling him a loser before putting him on the ground with a punch. The irony of this situation is presented through their mirrored physical violence, which reveals that Dylan and his father share a tendency to fight when emotions run high.
While trudging through the snow after crashing Phil’s car, Dylan presents another theory, which contributes to the overall theme of his theories revealing his mindset. Dylan narrates, “I have a theory, which my experiences have proven, that when you’re down, life takes a giant boot and stomps on you for good measure” (178). This theory reveals the hopelessness that Dylan feels. His situation has only grown worse the longer he’s been in Murdock, despite his efforts to find family and love in the small town. He also believes he’ll freeze to death before he makes it back into town. His theories are all he has, and by mentioning that his experiences have proven this theory, he indicates his bleak outlook on the next few hours of his life.
