logo

48 pages 1 hour read

Kristin Hannah

Fly Away

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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.

Chapters 23-29Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 23 Summary

The narrative switches to Marah’s point of view. Tully has flatlined but is still alive. Doctors will try taking her out of the induced coma to see if her body can function on its own. Marah suggests hearing the songs that were special to Tully and her mom might help Tully, and Johnny agrees.

Marah and Paxton head to Tully’s condo to retrieve her iPod, but Paxton complains that they need not be doing any “favors” for Marah’s family, as he insists they do not care for her. At the condo, Marah thinks back over her time with Paxton during which he has not worked, and she has supported him with her job. She recalls coming back to Tully’s condo one day to ask for money and finding her high. When Tully refused to help Marah financially, Marah sold the story of Tully’s substance use disorder to the celebrity magazine.

Marah realizes that she does not truly love Paxton, then goes to her former home on Bainbridge Island where her brothers welcome her return.

Chapter 24 Summary

The narrative shifts to Tully’s perspective; she is still speaking to Kate but can hear Dorothy too. She recounts the series of events that led to her car accident, including Marah coming to ask for money and her refusal to help her if she remained with Paxton. The novel’s opening chapter—a movie premier—is recounted, this time with the context that Tully’s presence there could aid her career comeback. Tully recalls, however, that she passed out in the bathroom and missed the film viewing. Having read the magazine article about her addiction later that night, she decided to drive, realizing that she could end her life with a swerve of her car.

Chapter 25 Summary

Tully remains in a comatose state and speaks with Kate, who tells her she must choose whether to remain with Kate or return to her family. Tully chooses to say goodbye to Kate forever.

The narrative shifts to Marah’s point of view as the doctor removes Tully from the life support, allowing her to breathe on her own. Eight days pass, but Tully remains comatose. On the eighth day, the narrative switches to Dorothy’s point of view as the doctor explains that Tully must be moved to a nursing home. Dorothy wants to care for Tully at home and Johnny and others begin to make the needed arrangements.

The following day, the narrative follows Johnny’s point of view. He has been reviewing Tully’s finances and begins to blame himself for not paying closer attention to her, as he promised Kate he would. Back at home, Marah asks to talk to him. She confesses that she sold the story about Tully’s addiction to the magazine and that she blames herself for Tully’s car accident. Johnny, too, accepts responsibility for driving Tully away and for overreacting to Marah’s relationship with Paxton. They exchange loving words and Marah asks to meet with Dr. Bloom.

Chapter 26 Summary

Tully is moved to Dorothy’s home on Firefly Lane. Dorothy has discovered that Desmond Grant—the doctor who initially treated Tully for her panic attacks—has been reading to Tully; she invites him to visit Tully once she is moved.

Dorothy learns to care for Tully, talking to her all the while as the nurses have instructed her to do. Meanwhile, Marah returns to Dr. Bloom, confessing that she has been running away from the hurt over her mother’s death.

Weeks pass and Christmastime approaches. Dorothy decides to search the house for holiday decorations and comes across mementos from Tully’s storage unit that Johnny had brought over. Inside the scrapbook are letters that a young Tully wrote to Dorothy. Dorothy reads them aloud to Tully. She then discovers a letter from her own mother at the end of the scrapbook. In the letter, she apologizes to Dorothy for not defending her against her husband, Dorothy’s father.

Chapter 27 Summary

Time passes and Tully remains in the coma, occasionally opening her eyes slightly. In July 2011, Marah decides she is ready to read the journal that Kate has left for her. She reads it aloud at Tully’s bedside and learns of her mother’s friendship with Tully and of her thoughts on their own relationship. Kate forgives Marah for the petty fights they had prior to Kate’s cancer, stressing, instead, the love that they have for each other. Marah finally feels close to Kate once more.

Tully has a vague sense of Marah’s presence but wants to remain with Kate in the afterlife for a little longer. Marah notices that Tully seems to be coming out of the coma.

Chapter 28 Summary

Tully is moved back to the hospital as doctors are certain that she is slowly coming out of the coma. Dorothy is skeptical and cautious.

Tully awakens but is unable to speak and returns quickly to sleep. She learns briefly of the car accident and brain damage from Johnny.

Chapter 29 Summary

Tully undergoes tests in the following days and can be discharged in August. Johnny tells her that fans have gathered in support outside of the hospital; Tully is in disbelief until he shows her. Tully is further shocked to learn that not only is she headed to her mother’s house on Firefly Lane, but that her mother was the one who cared for her during the year of her coma. She tells Johnny that she spoke with Kate during the coma.

A “welcome home” party of the Ryans and Mularkeys greets Tully at her mother’s house. Marah asks forgiveness for the magazine article and Tully says the incident is long forgotten. Dorothy, however, too nervous to attend the party, goes to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. She returns after everyone has left her house except for Kate’s mother, Margie, who thanks Dorothy for her support and urges her to go in to see Tully.

Tully learns of Dorothy’s sobriety and Dorothy begins to tell Tully of her father, showing her a photograph of him with Tully as a baby.

At the end of the chapter, Kate watches as Tully’s new life with Dorothy blooms.

Chapters 22-29 Analysis

The final section reveals growth and positive transformation for many characters. Throughout her coma, Tully has been speaking with Kate. It seems her spirit is in a kind of limbo between life and death—one where she both see and can communicate with Kate, but also maintain an awareness of what is going on around her body and in the hospital room. Kate has walked Tully through various points of her past, allowing her to view her former self from outside as if she is watching a film of her life, forcing her into a state of Confronting the Past. As the novel ends, Tully is forced by Kate to choose whether to remain with Kate (presumably, in the afterlife) or whether to ‘return’ to her life. Though Tully hesitates—initially certain that she is not strong enough to live without Kate’s presence in her life—she ultimately chooses to live. This suggests Tully has gained confidence in her ability to cope with Kate’s death. Realizing that she is truly loved by the Ryan and Mularkey families is key to this newly recovered confidence.

Likewise, Marah’s return home allows her to realize Paxton’s true self. She comes to understand that his love is not genuine and that he is not helping her grow into a better person. Instead, he attempts to poison Marah into believing that her family does not truly care about her. As Marah realizes that she has been wrong about Paxton, she seeks forgiveness from Johnny. In many ways, Marah is maturing and recognizing the ways she has behaved selfishly. She regrets this behavior and wants to repair the relationships she has damaged. Fortunately, Johnny and others receive Marah with open arms and the damage proves to have been temporary. Importantly, though, Marah must now address the grief and the sadness she has suppressed if she is to continue to work toward healing. She achieves this not only by allowing herself to remember her mother—via her journal—but by fully committing to therapy as well. Instrumental, too, in Marah’s growth is her asking forgiveness of Tully for hurting her via the magazine article. Tully, though she was initially hurt by Marah’s actions, has moved past this incident, and forgives Marah quite easily.

Dorothy, too, undergoes important transformations in this section. As Tully struggles to come out of the coma, Dorothy takes on the role of Tully’s mother more fully than she ever has, furthering the theme of Models of Motherhood. She is nervous about her ability to give Tully the care she needs. This concern extends beyond the medical attention Tully will need to the emotional effort on Dorothy’s part that that care will require. Yet, Kate’s mother, Margie, along with Johnny and Marah, encourage and support Dorothy. In a sense, they provide the support system Dorothy needs and has never had, which instills in her the confidence to know that she can at last become a good mother. Indeed, she proves that she is capable of this by relentlessly attending to Tully’s physical needs.

Perhaps most importantly, the emotional scars between Tully and Dorothy begin to heal. Dorothy has realized that the information she has withheld from Tully—including details of her own dark past and the identity of Tully’s father—has hurt Tully. Sharing this information at last is Dorothy’s way of apologizing for and righting her past wrongdoings. Likewise, reading the letters that Tully wrote to Dorothy as a child conveys to Dorothy not only how greatly Tully needed her as a child, but how much love Tully had for her. Dorothy hopes to be able to build on this foundation to establish a new connection with Tully in the future. Just as importantly, the letter Dorothy discovers from her own mother is instrumental in repairing some of the damage done to Dorothy in the past. To know that her mother regrets the way she did not defend nor protect Dorothy from the abuse of her father is vastly meaningful to Dorothy, undoubtedly allowing her to heal even more fully from her past trauma.

Indeed, though Kate is gone, readers are presented with hopeful signs that Tully can establish a new support system that will sustain her the way Kate once did.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text