63 pages • 2 hours read

11.22.63

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Part 3, Chapters 9-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “Living in the Past”

Part 3, Chapter 9 Summary

As Al treats Jake's wound, Jake notices a picture of Harry that was once on the diner wall but is no longer there. He also asks Al why the sewer pipe warning at the Worumbo Mill and Weaving never changes, and they both wonder if that means someone is trying to protect the rabbit-hole.

Jake researches the Dunning family and learns that Ellen is still alive and living a good life, but that Harry died in Vietnam. Jake goes to see Al only to discover he has died by suicide. He left a note reiterating his desire for Jake to save President Kennedy.

Jake returns home to repack his briefcase. He goes to Al’s Diner, feeling weird being there without Al, and steps through the rabbit-hole for the third time. Jake slips a dollar in his front pocket for the Yellow Card Man, but once back in 1958 he discovers that the Yellow Card Man has taken his own life by slicing his neck with a broken bottle. His card is “now dead black” (313).

Part 3, Chapter 10 Summary

Jake repeats his actions from his last trip, settling in to wait for his opportunity to stop Frank Dunning. To earn some more money, Jake makes a bet with Chaz Frati.

On the morning of October 5, 1958, Jake wakes with a debilitating headache and runs into multiple car issues; he believes the past is trying to stop him from making changes. Jake drives out to the cemetery where, on his last visit to 1958, he observed Frank visiting the graves of his parents. Jake shoots Frank twice and places the body inside a mausoleum. Jake collects his winnings from the bet he made with Chaz and leaves Derry.

Part 3, Chapter 11 Summary

Jake goes to Durham and rents a small cabin. He visits Andy Callum, the hunter who is destined to accidentally shoot Carolyn Poulin. Jake hires Andy to teach him how to play cribbage. They spend a pleasant day together. As Jake leaves, Andy's wife follows him outside and asks him what he just saved Andy from. Jake refuses to tell. From there, he moves south, settling once more in Florida.

Part 3, Chapters 9-11 Analysis

The idea that someone is trying to protect the rabbit-hole comes up in these chapters when Jake questions the sign noting a broken sewer pipe behind Worumbo Mills and Weaving. It is interesting that Jake makes this connection but never connects it to the Yellow Card Man. The two appear related because of their location, but Jake dismisses the Yellow Card Man as a wino, a fact that allows him to continue with Al’s plan. The foreshadowing here warns the reader that they are actually related, and Jake will learn the truth eventually.

Jake does research and discovers that changing the Dunning family’s fate has not adversely impacted the future. Jake feels good about what he has done and decides that he can continue. However, when he reaches Al's home, he finds the older man has died. Al has achieved what he wanted: a replacement for his mission. Jake goes forward, feeling time is running out. When he steps through the rabbit-hole, he discovers the Yellow Card Man has also died by suicide. The two events could be a coincidence, but with the harmonies Jake has already begun to notice, this seems unlikely.

When Jake enters 1958 for this third time, he resets the past. Once again, he stops Frank Dunning from murdering his family, but this time he kills Frank in cold blood several weeks before the Halloween massacre because he knows without a doubt that Frank will kills his family. This foreshadows an opportunity for Jake to end Lee Harvey's life long before the assassination of President Kennedy. All he has to do is prove Lee Harvey acted alone—a fact that is hotly debated in history despite the results of the Warren Commission investigation.