50 pages • 1 hour read
John Corey WhaleyHighly Illogical Behavior
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A 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 27-30
Part 2: “Summer—One Month Later”
Chapter 27 Summary: “Solomon Reed”
Solomon is inconsolable and unable to go back outside for days. To him, Clark and Lisa “had felt so real that he’d never stopped to question why it was happening—why they’d waste their time on someone like him in the first place” (216). Solomon feels guilty for slapping himself in front of his parents. He’s done it before, but completely alone, an extreme method of coping with the tension building inside of him. Solomon hopes that one day he’ll “pretend them away” (217), but he is unsure if he’ll ever go back outside again.
Solomon attempts to go outside for his father, but crumbles into anxiety. When his grandmother comes over, Solomon tells her that one day he’ll try to go outside again, but his grandmother is more concerned about the loss of his friends. Both his father and his grandmother remind Solomon how much more to him they are than just this one problem, and that everyone makes mistakes. They all know that Solomon will miss them, but they don’t want him to give up on people. The issue is that Solomon’s trust has been broken, and he no longer knows what to believe.
Solomon musters up the courage to call Clark, and after a quick but productive discussion, Solomon realizes that he doesn’t blame Clark and will forgive him in time. He is unsure how to feel about Lisa, but “it made him sad to think of his life without her. She’d be like that one missing game piece that you try to forget about or replace but can never quite shake the memory of” (224-25). Solomon truly doesn’t know how to navigate this new sense of betrayal, because he knows how happy he was to have Lisa in his life and how helpful she truly was, despite her hidden intentions.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Lisa Praytor”
Lisa is in a new troubled existence she hasn’t experienced before as “two weeks of radio silence from Clark and Solomon had driven Lisa to a very lonely, strange place” (226). She decides she must try to make amends and starts with Clark.
They speak at his house about how wrong she was, not just about the situation but in her interpretation of Clark. Lisa still doesn’t admit she shouldn’t have started the experiment, which angers Clark so much so that “it actually frightened her a little to see this side of him she didn’t know was there” (228). Clark again tells her that he is not eager to leave Upland like her, that he genuinely is happy doing things for the sake of doing them, not for how far it’ll advance him.
They decide to confront the rest of the issues of their relationship later in order to focus on regaining Solomon’s trust, desperate to make sure he doesn’t continue hurting himself. Clark calls Solomon and Lisa and Clark hear Solomon frantically tell them to come over immediately. When they arrive at Solomon’s house, he takes “a couple of steps forward and collapsed into Lisa’s arms, burying his face in her shoulder.” Clark and Lisa aren’t sure what’s going on, but Solomon looks more desperately fragile than ever.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Solomon Reed”
Solomon is in distress because his grandmother has been in a car accident and has been rushed to the hospital. He realizes that this may be his last moment to see her, and he needs to get out of the house. He is too distracted by the worry about his grandmother to think too deeply about having Clark and Lisa there to help him and realizes “they were there. He knew that much, and they didn’t have to be” (237). Clark and Lisa reveal their secret project: They have turned the trunk of Clark’s van into a holodeck identical to the one in Solomon’s garage. They help him into the holodeck and Lisa holds his hand and helps him count as Clark drives them to the hospital.
In the van, in his panic, Solomon catches Lisa’s eye and “smiled, but just for a second, and then he thought about the air between them—how he could see right through it and how she was seeing him, too” (241). They get to the hospital, but Solomon can’t get out of the van. Lisa runs up to find his mother, and Valerie calls Solomon to assure him that his grandmother is going into surgery and will be okay. She comes out to comfort Solomon more, and his friends bring him back home. The moment he is home, he goes directly outside and into his pool, clothes and all.
Lisa and Clark follow him into the pool and Solomon reaches a new level of happiness. He realizes the enormity of what has happened, that “he’d left the house. He’d survived it. But damn it felt good to be home, to be in the water, to be with them […] It was safe here. It was predictable. It was just a tiny little square on the side of the world” (244-45). Solomon’s grandmother will be alright, his friends are back, and he has left the house. He can now take a deep breath in the water and enjoy the moment.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Lisa Praytor”
Lisa Praytor writes her scholarship essay. She tells the story of her experience with Solomon; how wrong she was in assuming she could insert herself into his life and cure him. She writes that she now realizes that the real issue she should have been trying to fix is how many people like Solomon are out there, all alone. She has learned that “It’s not too hard to disappear when no one’s looking for you” (247). Instead of curing Solomon, she realizes now that she needs to find a way to make the world better for him. The problem is not Solomon, and it never has been—the problem is the world that rejected him in the first place and forced him to withdraw completely. She acknowledges that she is unlikely now to win the scholarship but knows that the experiment was worth the experience because she has learned that “the world is big and scary and unforgiving. But we can survive out here” (249). She is still Clark’s girlfriend and still best friends with Solomon. Lisa discovers that the escape she always needed has been with the people who support and love her the most.
Chapters 27-30 Analysis
The conclusion of the novel is rich with major character and plot development. Solomon has promised his grandmother that he would go outside again before she dies, but when she gets into a critical car accident, he realizes that he has wasted time. Some things are bigger than fights and betrayals, so when Lisa and Clark go to help him, the issue of Lisa’s dishonesty dissolves with her ability to help Solomon when he needs her the most. Solomon sees that Lisa will help him even when it’s not for her experiment—a true friendship despite the original intentions.
It is poetically apt that it is because of Solomon’s grandmother that he must leave the house. She has always been the character that motivates and inspires him the most, and it would unfortunately take something drastic to force Solomon to deal with the reality of the outside world. The accident proves to Solomon and to the reader that the world is indeed full of chaos—Solomon’s fears have been justified all along. However, that world of chaos is where Solomon’s loved ones exist, and so if they have to deal with the chaos, then Solomon does too.
Lisa and Clark understand Solomon’s survival skills in imagination, so even before they find out about his grandmother, they create a holodeck to create a new solution for Solomon. They intuit that the best way to help Solomon get out of the house is to create a transition space where he can play pretend. This thoughtful idea demonstrates how far Clark and Lisa will go to help Solomon—not for a potential scholarship, but for Solomon’s own wellbeing. The timing is perfect as Solomon needs to get out of the house to see his grandmother.
In the back of the van, Solomon tries to calm himself down by thinking about water, and when Lisa explains the science of the calming oxygen, Solomon realizes that the intimate space created between he and Lisa feels just like the calm warmth of the swimming pool. Thus, Lisa is in fact the person who has helped Solomon find a sense of security in the chaos of the world that scares him so. When the friends return home from the hospital, Solomon’s fully clothed leap into the pool is representative of his final catharsis: He has left the house and not just to go to his backyard. His life is not perfect, but he has achieved the goal and even gets to keep his friends.
This catharsis is also true of Lisa. Lisa’s essay for the scholarship reveals a major final character development: Just as Solomon had to learn how to trust people, Lisa has learned how to rely on others for her happiness. She still has ambition and drive, but she realizes how much she needs people. Her revelation that the problem has been the world and not Solomon shines a more positive light on mental health, the ultimate message Whaley wants to send to his readers. It is easy for the world to dismiss Solomon, but through this narrative the reader sees how kind, interesting, and lovable he is.
Lisa’s final acknowledgement that it is the world that needs curing and not Solomon is Whaley’s overarching message about the empathy people with mental illness deserve from the rest of society. The character of Lisa is Whaley’s reflection of that society that is so quick to judge and assume. Lisa’s development and the lessons she learns along the way indicate that it takes conscientious decisions to look at people differently, and to really hear what people are saying when they speak their truth. Whaley ends his novel with Lisa’s essay to show the happy ending: Lisa and Clark are still together, and the three remain best friends. By the end of the novel, Lisa and Clark need Solomon just as much as he needs them, reflecting the theme of community and the vital importance of friendship.
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By John Corey Whaley
