48 pages • 1 hour read
James Ramsey UllmanBanner In The Sky
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1954A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Trial”
As he often does, Rudi dreams that night of climbing the Citadel. However, this dream is different: Instead of picturing himself alone, he sees Winter, his uncle, and a shadowy figure in the back. He pictures himself tying his father’s red shirt to his climbing pole and putting it into the ground like a flag. When Rudi awakens, he takes the red shirt out of his wooden chest. It’s tattered, but his father’s name is just visible inside it.
At work, Rudi receives a note from Winter telling him to go to the mountaineering shop to retrieve a gift from his “friend and fellow climber” (53). Teo insists that Rudi goes right away. Rudi is shocked by the gift: an ice ax, a knapsack, and boots. His mother says the gift is excessive since Rudi “will be using them only once” (55), on the climb tomorrow. Franz again assures Ilse that Rudi will be safe on the Wunderhorn. Franz and Rudi meet Winter at the hotel, and the three of them make their way toward the mountains. Rudi is pleased when a boy who usually calls him “angel-face” merely watches in admiration. They climb to a hut at the base of the Wunderhorn, where they eat dinner and prepare for the morning’s climb. Rudi feels a “warm glow” because he is “where he belonged” (59).
Chapter 5 Summary: “And Error”
While it is still dark, the climbers wake up and eat a quick breakfast. Rudi has “no trouble at all in keeping up with them” (61). They slowly climb the mountain for a few hours, until they reach the “main southern buttress” of the Wunderhorn and rope up for the “real climbing” (61). They ascend without any real danger. The sun grows more intense as the climbers continue. While Franz is slow and deliberate, Winter is “all quickness, lightness, and grace” (62). Although Rudi often thinks that he sees better stances or hand holds, he keeps these ideas to himself. Finally, they get a view of the Citadel in the distance, towering over them, and Rudi realizes Winter’s true reason for wanting to climb the Wunderhorn was the desire to get a better view of the Citadel’s southeastern peak. His uncle insists the Citadel “is an evil mountain” (65), and they sit in silence as the captain sketches drawings of it with a pad and pencil. Rudi is convinced he can find a better way down. He ventures along a rim, lowering himself down a chimney and climbing out a platform. Rudi navigates from one platform of rock to another, not pausing to look back. Suddenly, he is stuck without a way backward or forward, and for the first time in his life, he is dizzy. When Winter and Franz find him, “their experienced eyes told them what had happened” (68). Although Winter offers to go out to get Rudi, Franz insists that he is his responsibility, and he brings him back safely. While Winter exclaims how impressed he is with Franz’s maneuver, Franz is silent. As they approach the hut, Winter tells Rudi that “all of us make mistakes” (71), but Rudi knows he won’t be allowed to climb again. He is filled with shame for committing the mountain climber’s worst sin, making “others risk their lives to save his” (72).
Chapter 6 Summary: “Master and Pupil”
When they return to Kurtal, it rains for three days. Franz doesn’t tell Ilse about the foolish risk Rudi took. Winter leaves for Geneva, asking Franz to reconsider climbing the Citadel. At work, Old Teo can tell that Rudi is upset about something, and he spills the whole story. Teo shakes his head, commenting that once young people “have learned a little, then you think you know it all” (75). On their day off, Teo takes Rudi to a practice mountain where he will determine if Rudi is a “climber or a dishwasher” (76). He climbs well, but Teo jokes that even a cow with three legs could have done it. He fills a pack with stones to challenge Rudi’s balance, insisting that it is more like the climb of a “real guide.” They then practice tying knots. Teo says that becoming a real climber can be taught only through experience.
Teo shares that Rudi’s father was the best not just because of his mountaineering skills but also because he “had a flame in him” (80). He believed that all the mountains could be climbed and he could do it. He would take his red shirt off and tie it to his climbing pole, wanting it to be seen across Switzerland. Teo tells the story that Rudi already knows: His father set off to climb the Citadel with Sir Edward Stephenson. Teo was the other guide. After Stephenson was injured in a rockslide, Josef stayed with him while Teo went for help. Tragically, Teo fell 30 feet, and by the time he crawled for help, the other men were frozen in the fortress of the Citadel.
Teo and Rudi continue to climb together. Rudi is impressed by how much Teo can do after his leg was injured in the accident. Teo trusts his life to Rudi and remains calm the entire time. As they walk back to town, Rudi is encouraged by his progress, hoping to climb with Winter one day. When they arrive in town, the Gretchen tells him Winter was looking for him earlier and left Kurtal.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
This section begins with foreshadowing as Rudi dreams about climbing the Citadel with Winter, his uncle, and a “shadowy figure” who will eventually be revealed as Emil Saxo. When Rudi wakes, “the dream [is] still with him” (52), and it is clear that his path will lead to the Citadel. Saxo’s presence as a “shadowy figure” hints that he will be Rudi’s biggest threat on the mountain. In addition, Rudi’s clinging to his father’s red shirt not only represents his longing for his father but also hints at the important role that this piece of clothing will have in the end of the novel as Rudi’s “banner in the sky.”
Rudi’s first encounter on the mountain adds complexity to the theme of The Relationship Between Humans and Nature. In the first section, nature is a place of escape and peace, but it becomes more threatening in this section. Rudi dreams of and admires the Citadel, but when he gets closer to it, he realizes it is a “monster of rock and ice” (63). When he gets stuck on a ledge and his life is at risk, he truly fears and respects nature for the first time: “[S]ky and mountain spun, and a reeling sickening darkness closed in on his mind and body” (68).
In this section, Rudi begins learning lessons about the theme of Maturity and Masculinity that continue to develop throughout the story. Being included by Winter is more than a fun adventure; it is also a symbol of Rudi’s masculine triumph. As he climbs, he realizes that “it was enough to know that where they could go, he could go” (63). Rudi is elated knowing that the other boys see him with the great climbers and have a new sense of respect for him as more than just a skinny kid. This shows that his sense of limitation as a dishwasher is tied not only to his boredom but also to his search for agency and identity. He feels that he is truly himself only when in the mountains.
However, because of Rudi’s need to prove himself, he allows risk and ambition to overtake wisdom. Banner in the Sky shows The Balance of Risk and Courage. Rudi wanders off on his own, convinced that finding a better route is his way to “contribute” to the climb. He “grinned with satisfaction” (66) at the thought of running back a hero for finding a route, but he gets stuck on a ledge. Instead of being a hero, Rudi forces the others to risk their lives for him. In this moment, Franz exemplifies maturity by quietly taking ownership of the situation and assuming the risk associated with saving him. He insists, “[H]e is my nephew, sir—not yours. And my responsibility” (69); he doesn’t make a show of his feat that amazes Winter. Franz shows that being showy and boastful doesn’t demonstrate true courage but risking oneself to save someone else does.
Rudi learns that his father made a similar choice with permanent consequences when climbing the Citadel. While he could have saved himself, Josef demonstrated heroism and courage by staying with his client. Teo recounts, “While he himself was freezing to death, your father had taken it from his own back to try and keep another man warm” (84). Therefore, Josef’s shirt is a symbol not only of his strength but also of his honor and courage.
Rudi learns similar lessons. Unlike Franz and Ilse, who are blinded by their desire to keep him safe, Teo knows that Rudi needs slow exposure to risk-taking to become wise. He points out that Rudi’s folly came from his self-centered desire to prove himself: “Was it not, perhaps, because you had not yet learned this? Because you were thinking, not of others, but only of yourself?” (80). Teo also models The Balance of Risk and Courage when he goes climbing with Rudi, putting his own security on the line for him. Rudi realizes, “Old Teo, struggling and dangling below, was trusting his life to him without a murmur?” (87).
