64 pages • 2 hours read
Michael NorthropTrapped
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011A 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 23-25
Chapter 23 Summary
The group reconvenes to stare at the snow. After a while, Elijah tells a funny story about one of their classmates, and the group “ended the day laughing” (153).
Later, the group settles down to sleep. Weems and Jason pray again. Krista joins them, which initially surprises Weems. Weems finds he falls asleep easier and sleeps better after praying. He wakes up once during the night to “a deep rumbling sound” (156). He doesn’t hear it again, thinks he imagined it, and falls back to sleep.
Chapter 24 Summary
The next morning, Weems wakes up to someone sneezing. It’s much colder now, and he goes to the fire room, where he builds the blaze back up. Elijah comes in a bit later. Weems confronts him about saying they were all going to die, and Elijah says he didn’t mean it literally. It’s just that the group is in trouble because “No one knows we’re here” (161). This terrifies Weems, but he can’t argue the truth.
Chapter 25 Summary
After identifying Julie as the sneezer, Weems goes with Jason to the shop, where he starts working on a pair of snowshoes. When he rejoins the others upstairs, he hears the rumbling noise from the other night again. This time, everyone hears it, and Elijah identifies it as snow "Pressing down on the roof” (166).
Chapters 23-25 Analysis
In Chapter 23, Weems’s categorization system starts to break down. Elijah makes the group laugh, which goes against everything Weems has thought about him so far. Weems realizes Elijah isn’t just some weird kid. In Chapter 24, Weems engages in conversation with Elijah (something he’s avoided until this point). When Elijah explains his rationale for saying they would die in the school, Weems fears the truth, rather than Elijah, showing growth from Weems. Weems also changes his opinion of Krista in these chapters. When Krista joins Weems and Jason in prayer, Weems is surprised she’s religious. Weems realizes how little he actually knows about Krista and that there’s more to her than good looks.
The nor’easter strikes a few times in these chapters. At the end of Chapter 23, Weems hears snow moving on the roof but doesn’t know what the noise is. The noise comes again in Chapter 25, where Elijah identifies it. The storm’s threat mounts. The noises here foreshadow the roof collapsing later and backs up Elijah’s observation that the group’s in real trouble. Julie’s sneeze in Chapter 24 signifies another attack from the storm. As a result of the power outage and temperature drop, sickness has started and will spread.
Weems joins Jason in the shop. In keeping with his category, Jason continues to work on Flammenwerfer. Out of character, Weems starts building snowshoes. While Jason is serious about using Flammenwerfer to go for help, Weems only makes the shoes to keep busy. This becomes irony later when Flammenwerfer fails and the snowshoes allow Weems to find aid.
