Crash

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-18

Chapters 19-31

Chapters 32-49

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

The narrator, John Coogan, introduces himself by explaining that nearly everyone calls him “Crash.” The nickname came about when, as a very young boy, he received a football helmet for Christmas. He crouched down, called out “Hut! Hut!” and hurtled forward, knocking his cousin Bridget clear out the front door and into the snow.

Crash is digging a hole in the front yard when a boy his age comes strolling down the street, looking like a complete dork in his opinion. Crash must stop him. The boy introduces himself: His name is Penn, and he’s just moved here from North Dakota. He was named for the Penn Relays, a famous race. He says his parents are artists. Crash says his dad works 70 hours a week and his mom works and goes to school. Penn says he has a great-grandfather. Crash says that he has a great-great-grandfather who’s 115.

Penn asks Crash’s name and Crash says, “Mergatroid” Penn offers his hand to shake. Crash holds out his shovel and Penn shakes it and bursts out laughing. Penn wears a large button that says, “Hi, I’m a Flickertail”—the state squirrel of North Dakota—and Crash, frustrated by Penn’s laughing, grabs the button, tosses it into the hole he’s digging, pours dirt on it, and stomps it down with his foot. Stunned, Penn walks away.

Chapter 2 Summary

The next day, while burying his mom’s flowers with dirt, Crash feels antsy. He rides his bicycle around the neighborhood, hoping to find Penn and torment him. Penn calls out to him, happy to see Crash. Crash tells him he was kidding about Mergatroid, and that his real name is Humphrey. Penn wears another large button that says “Peace.” Crash promptly takes it away but doesn’t know what to do with it, so he gives it back.

Penn points out his house, a converted garage in their neighborhood. Penn’s father, white-haired, steps outside and waves. Crash thinks it’s Penn’s grandfather, but Penn explains, “I was a late baby” (7). He brings out his pet turtle, which Crash promptly steals. He rides partway down the street, then stops and sets the turtle down on the sidewalk. He shouts to Penn that his real name isn’t Humphrey, either.

Chapter 3 Summary

Crash’s sister Abby tells Penn that her brother’s name is John. Penn asks Crash if he can call him Crash, but Crash refuses. Penn invites Crash to dinner, and this startles Crash, who accepts reluctantly on condition that they have a water pistol shoot-out. He fills two pistols and hands one to Penn. Penn stares at the gun and says he can’t, responding, “I’m a Quaker” (12).

Chapter 4 Summary

Crash has no idea what a Quaker is. He insists, though, that they do the gunfight. He shoots his water pistol repeatedly at Penn, but Penn doesn’t move. When Crash’s pistol is empty, Penn holds out his own. Crash takes it, and, furious, hurls it over his house into the backyard. He stomps around, fuming, then tells Penn he’ll come over for dinner if Penn can beat him at a competition. They wrestle; Penn loses. They throw rocks at a telephone pole; Penn misses it entirely. “We long-jumped. We stood on our heads. We spit for distance. He was hopeless” (15).

Crash asks Penn if he’s good at anything, and Penn says that he’s a good runner. They race, and Penn nearly catches Crash. Penn’s upset, not because he lost, but because now Crash won’t come over for dinner. He walks away and Crash calls to him, “I changed my mind. I’ll come.” Excited, Penn jumps and shouts “Yahoo!” (16).

Chapter 5 Summary

Crash visits Penn’s small house for dinner. Penn solemnly introduces his parents, who are delighted to meet Penn’s new friend. Penn shows Crash his room, which contains only one toy, a rickety scale model of a Conestoga wagon built for him by his great-grandfather. Penn also owns a tin filled with dried Missouri River mud that he claims may have medicinal properties. Crash is seriously unimpressed with Penn’s complete lack of interesting possessions.

Chapter 6 Summary

The Webbs are vegetarians. For dinner, they serve Crash an oatburger, but he can’t stomach it. The vegetable side dishes, though, are tasty. Penn announces that Crash has a 115-year-old great-great-grandfather. Squirming, Crash changes the subject by demonstrating his skills at diving over couches. Everyone applauds.

Crash asks Penn’s folks if they know that their son is a Quaker. They laugh and say that they, too, are Quakers, and that they don’t believe in war. Crash insists that Penn is missing out on some great war toys. Crash asks if they’re poor and Penn’s parents laugh again. Mr. Webb says, “I’m beginning to see why they call you Crash” (24).

Looking around, Crash can’t find the Webb’s TV. He asks about it and Penn says they don’t have one. Crash can’t believe it. He asks what they do on Saturdays and Penn says he plays and reads. Mr. Webb adds that they like to visit interesting places. He invites Crash to come with them on Saturday for a drive through Amish country. Crash declines, saying that his dad will be taking him to a Phillies game.

Chapter 7 Summary

Crash asks his dad to take him to a Phillies game, but his father says he’s swamped with work on his new business. He promises to take Crash to a game sometime in the season.

Saturday morning, Crash watches cartoons. Through the window, he sees the Webbs drive past in a “junk heap” of a car on their way to Amish country. Crash retrieves a meatball from the previous night’s spaghetti meal, puts it in a plastic bag, rides over to the Webb house, and dumps the meatball onto their front steps.

Chapters 1-7 Analysis

Chapters 1-7 set the scene for the rest of the book. They describe how Crash and Penn meet when they’re six, along with Penn’s geniality and resilience in the face of Crash’s failed attempts to bully him.

The book is written in first-person limited perspective: Crash tells the entire story from his point of view. Thus, we see things as he sees them, including his simmering anger—why he’s mad isn’t entirely clear until later in the book, when it becomes obvious that his mom and dad prefer long working hours to parenting. The reader also gets a sense of Crash’s joy at taking out his anger on things and people. His voice as narrator, though, makes it clear from the outset that he’s speaking from a hard-earned wisdom that’s tinged with regret.

In Chapter 1, Crash tells Penn his parents work very hard. This suggests that they’re never home and that he doesn’t get the attention a growing boy needs. It’s a frustration he can’t escape: His idea of fun, as explained in Chapter 2, is to dig holes in the front yard and use the dirt to bury flowers planted by his mother. He also tears the bark off a front-yard tree. Anger seethes beneath the surface, and, as a six-year-old, he has no outlet for it beyond simple destruction.

To a bully, Penn’s awkward nerdiness marks him as a victim, and Crash instantly wants to torment him, but Penn is so cheerful, it’s no fun. Ironically, Penn’s bouncy and innocent personality torments Crash. It’s not deliberate, but Penn’s resilient cheerfulness renders feeble Crash’s bullying. A boy who wants to cause pain to others, if only to relieve his own anguish, is driven crazy by a kid whose feelings can’t be hurt.

Penn accidentally makes things even worse by bonding with Crash and considering him his new best friend. For Crash, who already feels unworthy in the face of his parents’ emotional neglect, to be liked by a geeky neighbor kid, is almost unbearable.

Penn, meanwhile, lives with his parents in a converted garage. His parents are artists and the small living arrangement hints at their relative poverty. Usually, art doesn’t pay off for most who try it as a living, but for deeply committed artisans it doesn’t matter if they’re poor if they can pursue what they love to do. There’s an integrity in that attitude, which explains Penn’s own honesty.

His parents are Quakers, a Protestant Christian sect known for its early anti-slavery beliefs and its ongoing opposition to war. Quakers emphasize simple living. They believe that God is within every person, and that all of us therefore should be loved and respected.

Crash can’t see the value in Penn’s warm family life—Crash has no idea what that looks like, even though he longs for it—so he focuses on the material evidence, and he judges Penn for his lack of toys or TV. He also expresses openly his disgust for the oatburgers at dinner. However, Crash admits something that foretells later shifts in his attitude: He really likes the other dishes Penn’s family eats, especially the breaded mushrooms: “I tried one. It was delicious” (22).

Penn and his family challenge Crash’s view of life with their weird happiness. He can avoid them, but their loving peacefulness haunts him, no matter how far away he tries to get. For a long time, therefore, he’ll keep Penn at bay.