57 pages • 1 hour read
Lois DuncanI Know What You Did Last Summer
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1973A 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 7-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
In the aftermath of Barry’s shooting, the author reveals how several characters hear the news. Ray’s dad tells Ray that a news bulletin interrupted the television program he was watching. The news interviewed a student who did not hear the gunshot over the fireworks and a fraternity brother who mentioned that Barry answered the phone before leaving the frat house. Information about the hospital he was taken to is also part of the bulletin. Ray tries to call Barry’s parents, but they are not home. Then he calls Julie to let her know.
Helen hears the bulletin while working at the station. She manages to give the weather report before breaking down in the bathroom. Collie drives to the television station and asks for Helen. A man leads him to Helen, who is in the lounge and a complete wreck. Collie convinces her to clean up a little and offers to take her to the hospital. In his car, they turn on the radio, hoping for an update, and he mentions that he saw the bulletin while waiting for her news segment.
Helen explains that Barry doesn’t have enemies and doesn’t do drugs beyond smoking the occasional joint. She tells Collie that she and Barry have marriage plans.
When they get to the waiting room, Barry’s mother—Celia—is unhappy to see Helen. After introducing Helen to some friends of hers, the Crawfords, she tells her to leave. Mr. Cox apologizes but also says it would be better if Helen left. Celia blames Helen for Barry getting shot, thinking that she called him. Helen explains that she never reached Barry that evening. Mrs. Crawford also asks Helen to leave. Collie convinces her to go to the lobby, stopping her from arguing further about being Barry’s serious girlfriend, noting that Celia does not think their relationship is serious.
After Julie gets the phone call from Ray, she tells her mother, who is sewing, the news. Julie is in shock, and Mrs. James guesses that the shooting is related to the students protesting the Memorial Day celebration. Julie questions this logic and notices that her mom is sewing a pink dress for her.
Chapter 8 Summary
Helen leaves the hospital at 3:00am after hearing that Barry is out of surgery and in the recovery room. At home, she reflects on her interactions with Barry’s family. Mr. Cox told her the surgeon got the bullet out, and Barry will likely recover. He also encouraged Collie to take Helen home.
After getting some rest, Helen calls the hospital and learns that Barry is resting in a new room. The hospital employee says Barry cannot have visitors who are not immediate family. Helen does not admit to being his girlfriend and thinks that Barry’s mother made the rule to keep her away from Barry. She remembers trying to explain to his parents that she never talked to Barry on the phone and wonders if Barry was seeing another girl.
Helen reassures herself that Barry is faithful to her. Then, she remembers a conversation with her sister, Elsa, on the night of the accident. Helen remembers how the kid suddenly appeared in the road, and she didn’t think Barry could have avoided hitting him. She never blames Barry or anyone else. When she gets home after the accident, Elsa could tell she had been crying and asks if Barry had broken up with her. After learning that he hadn’t, Elsa asserts that Barry will break up with her because he wants to date a richer woman, a more intelligent woman, or a woman with better connections in college. Helen thinks Elsa is jealous but can’t think of a way she can compete with college girls other than through looks. This conversation inspired Helen to enter the Channel Five Future Star Contest, giving Barry a reason to stay with her.
Later, Collie checks on Helen. He notices that she cleans up a bit for him and looks better than she did the night before. Helens gives Collie an update on Barry. Collie asks if Helen will visit Barry, and she admits that she thinks Mrs. Cox is keeping her out of the loop. Collie tries to console her, saying extreme behavior is typical for mothers after something terrible happens to their children. Collie asks Helen if there is anything that would cause someone to come after Barry because the shooting seems planned due to the phone call beforehand. Helen says she can’t come up with any reason for someone to try to kill Barry.
After Collie leaves, Helen deadbolts the door behind him. She looks at a picture of Barry on her dresser and takes out the picture of the boy on the bicycle from a drawer.
Chapter 9 Summary
Ray picks Julie up in his dad’s car after school and tells her how he and Barry sold his car after the accident. Then, he suggests they go to the picnic spot. Julie does not want to go there since it is near the accident scene. She suggests they go to Henry’s Ice Cream Shop. However, it is very busy and loud, so Julie agrees to go to the Silver Springs picnic place in Cibola National Forest.
Ray notes how it still looks the same and begins to reminisce about the moonlight there in the past, but Julie does not want to think about the time around the accident. Ray wants to discuss that night last summer to solve the mystery of who shot Barry. Julie insists that a protester shot Barry, but Ray argues that the protest was peaceful. He tells Julie about the newspaper clipping, and she tells him about Helen getting the picture of a boy on a bike. Helen thinks Barry saw her with Collie and left the picture, but Ray doesn’t agree.
They talk about who could have called Barry the night he was shot, including jealous boyfriends of college women he was dating. They wonder why someone would wait a year after the accident to send messages about it. Ray wants to ask Helen if she called Barry, and Julie agrees, but they have to wait until she gets off work. Julie looks at the newspaper clipping, noting the names of the dead boy’s parents: Michael and Mary Gregg. She wants to go to their house, which is close to the picnic spot. Ray is opposed to this, but Julie insists, saying they can claim they are having car trouble and need to use their phone. Ray thinks they might get shot if the parents also shot Barry. Julie, however, is determined to see them.
Chapter 10 Summary
Julie and Ray go to the Gregg house, leaving the car up the road and walking to it. Julie hesitates, worrying about how Daniel’s parents will react to them. Ray asks if she still wants to talk to them, and she says she does. They ring the doorbell. No one answers at first, and the parts of the house that they can see inside look empty.
A girl around Julie’s age emerges from around the side of the house, explaining that she was hanging laundry on a line because their dryer is broken. Julie tells her the lie about the car, and she leads them inside, showing Ray the phone and phonebook. After realizing she has been staring, Julie asks the girl if they have met before. The girl introduces herself as Megan, a hairdresser. Megan does not react to Julie and Ray’s names and seems happy to have company.
Megan offers some iced tea, and Julie accepts. They go outside, so Megan can continue working on the laundry. She tells Julie that her parents and big brother are gone, leaving her responsible for the domestic chores. At Julie’s prodding, Megan reveals that her mother is in a psychiatric hospital in Las Lunas, and her father moved closer to it. Megan says her mother had a mental health crisis a couple months ago over the death of Daniel.
Julie asks about the accident, and Megan says the police never identified who hit him but believe it may have been teenagers partying in the area. Megan says her mother blamed herself for not picking up Daniel from his friend’s house that night, leaving him to ride his bicycle in the dark. Julie is anxious for Ray to return so they can leave. Megan tells Julie she and her brother were from her mother’s previous marriage; Daniel is Michael Gregg’s only biological son.
Ray comes out to the yard where they are. He lies about someone coming to look at the car and says they should head back to it. Megan invites Julie to become her client at the salon, saying she wants to work with her red hair.
Back in the car, Julie tells Ray that she doesn’t think Megan is involved in the letters and shooting. She also shares that Daniel’s parents are in another town, and she feels guilty for disrupting the entire family’s life. Ray is unsure that Megan is alone because there is evidence of some house repairs that seem out of her reach, such as painting the house’s trim up to the roof and men’s clothing on the clothesline. Julie disagrees, suggesting a neighbor might be helping Megan, and she might be wearing her father’s clothes. Ray is still suspicious of Daniel’s father.
Chapters 7-10 Analysis
Chapter 7 has multiple points of view in one chapter as Ray, Helen, Collie, and Julie hear about Berry being shot. Not only are the teens’ points of view included but also the antagonist’s point of view. Using the limitations of the limited third-person point of view allows Duncan to focus on Collie without revealing he is the antagonist. Furthermore, this section introduces two clues to the setting of the novel. The accident occurs in “Cibola National Forest” (85), and the mother of the little boy who was killed goes to a psychiatric hospital in “Los Lunas” (99)—both are locations in New Mexico. Waiting until Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 to include these clues allows the characters and plot to be envisioned in any small American town away from the coasts.
Something that connects two points of view in Chapter 7 is television news media. While Ray’s “father told him about the news bulletin that had broken into the program” (63), Helen “heard the newscaster, who was seated some six feet away from her, present the bulletin as part of the ten o’clock news” (64). The reader sees television news media behind the scenes and as a medium for disseminating information to people. In other words, people talk about and are involved in news broadcasts, making them a more important news source than the internet in the story. While many things about the book were updated for the revised version, this—alongside print news media—is more indicative of the 1970s when the book was written.
However, the Gender Roles that the book explores are relevant to both the 1970s and the 21st century. Helen’s reaction to hearing that Barry was shot contains some sexist language: She “descended into hysteria” (65). Helen holds it together to give her weather report before breaking down. However, because “hysteria” was once considered a mental illness, it remains a derogatory term used to describe strong emotional reactions in women. Helen is also betrayed by her friends, who do not tell her that Barry is cheating on her. Ray says Barry “plays around enough himself so he wouldn’t have any right to get jealous over Helen” (88), and Julie replies, “But Helen doesn’t know that” (88). Ray and Julie are more loyal to a man—Barry—than Helen because they keep his secret from her.
Julie’s lack of female solidarity with Helen can be contrasted with how she misjudges Megan and Bud—the half-sister and half-brother of the little boy the teens accidentally killed. Megan doesn’t reveal that her brother (Bud/Collie) is around, while Ray picks up on clues that a man is living with her, such as men’s clothing on the clothesline. Megan plays the part of a naive woman, saying, “I don’t know a carburetor from a battery myself, but then I guess most girls don’t, do they?” (97). This stereotype is another element of the theme of Gender Roles. Julie does not suspect Megan.
The competition between Elsa and Helen is one example of the theme of Family and Identity Formation. Elsa insults Helen repeatedly, insinuating that Barry will leave her once he becomes a college student because “college guys are different. They’re looking for quality” (79). Elsa does not believe Helen is a “quality” partner because she lacks intelligence and money; Barry’s mother shares this opinion. Mrs. Celia Cox tells Helen to leave the hospital, saying, “This isn’t a circus, Helen. There’s nothing to see” (69). Helen’s family does not make as much as Barry’s, and Barry’s mother tries to control all aspects of his life, including his romantic life. Both Elsa and Celia are referencing how dating outside of one’s class is difficult because identity is formed by generational class and wealth.
Family also can inform how strongly one feels the effects of guilt. Julie losing her father when she was “just a little girl” (102) influences her consistent opinion that they should take responsibility for the car accident. She is not a stranger to trauma due to a death in the family, which causes her to empathize with Daniel’s family after the accident. Her guilt is described as an “old, familiar sickness rising in her throat” (100). Duncan often uses physical, or tactile, sensations to convey the emotional states of characters. Julie’s reaction can be compared to the reaction that Bud/Collie has about the death of his little half-brother. He goes after the teens because he has experienced the trauma of losing a family member and was further traumatized by his wartime experiences.
This section also has Bud/Collie exhibiting behavior typical of some criminals: involving themselves in their victims’ lives. Having just shot Barry the night before, Bud/Collie checks in on Helen and brings her to the hospital. He feigns concern for her and Barry, even while planning to continue his elaborate revenge scheme against the four teens. He has not yet harmed Helen, but he will threaten her later in the book. This behavior is not uncommon among criminals, so these actions lend an air of authenticity to the story,
While it does not appear in the movie adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer, the novel delves into the horrors of war. While the original edition from the 1970s looks at the Vietnam War, the revised edition uses the Iraq War. Both wars produced veterans with PTSD. Students at Barry’s university are passionate about their anti-war politics. They hold a “war demonstration” (72) on Memorial Day, which Julie’s mother thinks is violent and resulted in Barry getting shot. However, Ray argues that the “demonstration was peaceful” (86). The pacifists use nonviolent tactics to show their dissatisfaction with armed international conflict. Anti-war activists condemned both the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. At the novel’s end, Bud/Collie claims that being a veteran enables him to shoot Barry, attack Helen, and try to kill Julie. His characterization illustrates the horrors of war.
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By Lois Duncan
