51 pages • 1 hour read
Susan Beth PfefferThis World We Live In
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “July”
Part 4, Chapter 15 Summary
Miranda is distraught over the loss of Horton; Jon is so upset that he has decided to stay over at the Nesbitt house. They are both refusing to speak to Syl, who let Horton out of the house to die in the nearby woods. The family discovered his body a mere hundred feet from the house. While Syl tries to explain that she did it out of respect for the cat’s dignity, the grieving family refuses to forgive her. Miranda feels guilty talking about her grief with Alex, who she knows has suffered greater losses than hers—even though he does not speak of it specifically.
Alex, for his part, simply tells Miranda that he wants to be with her. He also wants Miranda to persuade Jon to return to his home; he is worried about how much time he spends with Julie. Miranda suddenly realizes that Jon and Julie are actually young teenagers, maturing and possibly exploring intimacy in ways that Alex finds uncomfortable. When they enter the house, however, Dad and Jon are in the middle of an argument. Jon says that he will take Julie to a safe town; she has told Jon that Alex has passes to get in. Dad erupts in anger and insists that Jon go home.
Miranda asks Alex about the passes, and Alex admits that he has three. He finally breaks down and asks Miranda to go with him and Julie; the three would become officially a family after he and Miranda get married. The problem remains that they do not know where any of the safe towns are located. Miranda decides to ask Syl, as casually as possible, if she encountered any such knowledge back when she was on the road. Syl relays a story that she heard from one of the guards of the evacuation camps about clearing out a college campus, Sexton University, in order to set up a safe town.
Miranda does not know what to do with this information. She is concerned that, should she tell Alex, he would leave immediately. If she does not tell him, then he will inevitably despise her when he finds out that she knew. She decides to find out where Sexton University is, at least. She returns to town and heads toward the library. She finds a directory to American colleges and universities and locates Sexton in McKinley, Tennessee. She also finds a road atlas and tears out all the pages concerning Tennessee. She remains uncertain about whether to tell Alex what she has found.
Part 4, Chapter 16 Summary
Miranda has a recurring nightmare about being the only one left alive, alone in the house. She decides that, despite her fears, she must tell Alex. Alex insists that she come with him and Julie. Miranda agrees.
When she tells Mom, however, the argument is intense. Mom is understandably alarmed and tells Miranda that she does not truly love Alex; she merely pities him. Mom does not think that Miranda is mature enough to leave her care. However, Miranda will not budge; Mom still thinks of the world as it used to be, not as it is. Hard decisions must be made.
Part 4, Chapter 17 Summary
After everyone else knows that Miranda intends to leave, the arguments get worse. Matt is angry, Jon and Mom have a fight, and Charlie comes over to warn Miranda not to go with Alex. The next day, everyone is tense, so Mom sends Jon and Julie to pick up the food, allowing them a chance to talk. Alex and Miranda return to the neighborhood, scouring for bikes and supplies. Matt and Dad are chopping wood.
Alex and Miranda enjoy their time alone, stopping to engage in passionate embraces and kissing as they conduct their search. Alex repeats his desire to marry Miranda. They finally find two bikes and are headed home when Miranda spies an enormous tornado in the distance. It is headed directly toward them and their homes. Alex yells at Miranda to retrieve his prayer missal—hidden inside are the tickets to the safe town—while he goes to warn Jon and Julie.
Miranda arrives at the Nesbitt house in time to get Charlie, Lisa, and the baby into the cellar. She finds the missal just as the tornado starts ripping into the house. She climbs into the storage closet underneath the staircase and listens to the sounds of the house crumpling around her. After it passes, Miranda is unharmed but trapped. There is too much rubble blocking the door. Charlie, Lisa, and the baby are also trapped beneath rubble in the cellar. Jon and Julie are still unaccounted for, as is Alex.
Dad and Matt run in, and Dad reassures Miranda that they will get her out. Once she is out, however, they must focus on getting Charlie, Lisa, and Gabriel out of the cellar—the roof could collapse at any time. She goes to get Mom and Syl for help, but Mom refuses to leave. Syl admonishes her, reminding her that the baby needs help. Mom is persuaded.
The rubble is piled so high that they must retrieve ladders to work. Finally, Syl sees Jon walking toward them, and Mom is relieved. However, Jon reports that Julie is hurt: She cannot move and has lost feeling in her body after being tossed about in the strong winds. Dad and Matt follow Jon with a makeshift stretcher to retrieve Julie. Mom, Miranda, and Syl keep working.
When they return, it is clear that Julie has been grievously injured. She is paralyzed; there is no hope for her survival. Mom goes home to watch over Julie while the others work into the dark of night. They finally clear enough for the small window to be breached; they can at least speak to Lisa now. Charlie is dead. In trying to push open the cellar door, he apparently suffered a heart attack. The others agree not to tell Lisa that Julie is mortally injured and that Alex is still missing until they can free her and the baby.
Part 4, Chapter 18 Summary
Miranda’s diary turns ominous: She notes that she must record the truth, at least here, or else she will be trapped in a lie. She acknowledges that most of their food supplies are gone and that it is possible that no more will be coming if the town has been damaged or destroyed. She realizes that there will be no more electricity, not here. Mom has the unpleasant task of ensuring that Jon understands the truth about Julie: She will never recover.
Alex has still not returned, and Miranda knows that he would never want Julie to suffer: He has already told Miranda of his intention to dose Julie with sleeping pills and kill her rather than let her suffer. Miranda believes that Julie is now her responsibility.
The group is still working tirelessly to free Lisa and Gabriel from the cellar while taking turns watching Julie. Mom relieves Miranda that so she can send Matt back, check on Julie, and get some sleep herself. Miranda talks to Julie about how much Alex loves her; they discuss the merits of heaven, where food is plentiful and joy is everywhere, according to Julie. When Julie accidentally soils herself, Miranda goes to get towels, fresh clothes, and sleeping pills. After cleaning and dressing Julie, Miranda gives her two of the pills. When Julie falls asleep, Miranda places the pillow over Julie’s face until she is no longer breathing.
Miranda is awakened by Syl, who tells Miranda that Julie has died. They must hurry back to the Nesbitt house; the cellar is now filling with water. The remaining members of the group are finally able to clear enough debris to free Lisa and the baby. Dad, weeping, informs Lisa about Julie’s death and Alex’s absence.
Part 4, Chapter 19 Summary
Even though Miranda’s house, unlike the Nesbitt house, was spared complete destruction, it has still been damaged: Part of the roof collapses in the night. Miranda is distraught over the death and destruction—but Alex has returned, unharmed. He had gotten lost in the woods for three days. Miranda has to deliver the tragic news about Charlie and Julie. Alex sobs and sits in the room with his sister’s body for hours.
It is clear that the group must leave. They will go in the morning, once they pay their respect to the many loved ones who did not survive. Miranda knows that one day, she will have to tell Alex the full truth about Julie’s death. She only hopes that he will understand and not hate her for her actions. She realizes that she needs his forgiveness in order to forgive herself.
Miranda writes for the last time, so she claims, in her diaries. She will not, however, destroy them because they tell the story of this particular group of people during this extraordinary period of time. Someone else can pick up the story from there.
Part 4 Analysis
The final part of the book emphasizes The Challenge of Accepting a New Reality. From the very beginning, the old rules of society and the traditional moralities have little valence when survival becomes paramount. The children take items from empty houses; Dad lies about his identity to procure food; and Miranda commits an act that, under ordinary circumstances, would certainly be considered murder. Early in Chapter 15, Alex breaks down, wanting so much to be a good person. When he says that he does not know how to be good, Miranda replies, “None of us know anymore” (191). In this world, the rules that define ordinary or acceptable behavior shift and transform with each new (and more challenging) trial.
When Miranda informs Mom that she intends to leave with Alex and Julie, prior to the tornado that forever changes their plans and their lives, Mom relies on her visions of what should be rather than her knowledge of what is. She tells Miranda, “This wasn’t how things were supposed be […] You should be in high school, your future ahead of you. Not this” (207). Miranda, however, understands that this world has a different future in store for her—and for Alex, Matt, and Jon. She understands that in this world, one has “to fight for happiness” (207), and that is what she intends to do. Mom’s anxieties are put on full display in the aftermath of the tornado: She does not want to leave her house, even though Lisa and the baby are in danger; she fears that everything will collapse if she is not there to hold it all in place.
True to character, though, when Mom decides to confront her changed reality, she does so with aplomb, Finding Hope Amid Scarcity and Loss. Admonishing her former husband, who seems to buckle under the weight of despair, Mom says, “No, Hal […] We can still hope for our children, for their future. That’s all that matters, their future” (228). This echoes the encouragement that Alex expresses to Miranda: “Alex told me to trust in tomorrow,” she writes (200). This is a kind of hope that transcends—or at least sidesteps—the religious faith in which Miranda does not believe. Alex, too, decides that the monastery, and a life of penance, is not for him. His experience after the tornado, lost and wandering in the woods for three days, can be read as a symbolic search for faith. His return indicates that he puts his faith into his found family.
Miranda’s final diary entries can also be read as a kind of confession—the expression of her need for forgiveness. She begins the penultimate chapter with what, at first, seems like a cryptic revelation. After writing that she will reveal what has happened to Julie, she amends this to admit that what happened is what she made happen: “If I don’t admit that here, now, then I’ll be lying to myself just as I’ll be lying to everyone else every day of my life” (226). Merciful though her actions might have been, they present a challenge to Miranda’s sense of morality.
In the final chapter, Miranda’s voice becomes muted, almost rote. She is traumatized by the many losses she has suffered, as well as by what she herself has done. Still, her insistence that her diaries be left as a record of her and her family’s existence indicates resilience. Alex taught her “to trust in tomorrow” (239), and that is what she will do.
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