46 pages • 1 hour read
Wendy MassJeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006A 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 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Plan F”
Lizzy is confident the keys aren’t lost—just misplaced in the lawyer’s office. The kids make a plan to use candy to bribe their way past the security guard to search the office on Monday. On Sunday, Jeremy’s grandmother emails to remind Lizzy and him about the state fair and that they will enter the young talent contest with a hula hoop act this year. Both kids are mortified at the idea, but the prize is $50, so they don’t object.
On their way out of the building on Monday, they meet the kids of the new neighbors who moved in over the weekend—a boy and a girl about their age. Lizzy blushes at something the boy says and prattles on about how cool the girl seems. When Jeremy asks why Lizzy cares so much, Lizzy huffs and tells him to forget it because “you don’t understand girls at all” (74).
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Office”
Jeremy and Lizzy go to Jeremy’s uncle’s store to buy the bribe candy as one of the employees is opening the place. The kids notice the employee’s giant ring of keys and resolve to try those before visiting the lawyer’s office. None of them work, so they head out, missing their bus stop so they have to backtrack. In the process, Lizzy finds a playing card for her collection, and Jeremy notes in amazement that they wouldn’t have found the card if they hadn’t missed their stop.
At the office building, the security guard signs them in, and the kids give fake names. In the lawyer’s old office space, they search the remaining furniture and under the rug, finding nothing. Jeremy climbs on the desk to look above the drop ceiling, still finding nothing. When he looks down, he sees “A very round and red-faced policeman” standing beside Lizzy (89).
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Job”
The policeman lets Jeremy and Lizzy off with community service, assigning them to help a gentleman named Mr. Oswald pack up his pawnshop in preparation for moving. At home, Jeremy’s mom grounds him for a week, telling him he needs to focus on his community service above looking for the keys. When Jeremy says it seems like she doesn’t want him to find them, she remarks that “it will all happen the only way it happens” (98).
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Old Man”
The next morning, Jeremy and Lizzy run into the new neighbor’s kids again. Lizzy invites the girl to hang out, which bothers Jeremy for reasons he doesn’t understand. In addition to owning the pawnshop, Mr. Oswald also deals with antiques, which has made him rich. He sends a limo to pick up Jeremy and Lizzy, who are amazed by the car. The kids are equally amazed by Mr. Oswald’s home, which is full of all sorts of antiques and collectibles. Lizzy is enthralled by a doll, which confuses Jeremy, and Jeremy looks at stamps because his dad used to collect them.
For their community service, the kids will make deliveries for Mr. Oswald, and their first assignment is to deliver a book about woodland creatures. Mr. Oswald wishes the kids luck. Lizzy asks why they’ll need it if they’re just making a delivery, and Mr. Oswald ominously tells them, “[D]on’t worry, we’ll talk tomorrow” (113).
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
Chapter 5 offers further characterization of Lizzy, showing her risk-taking personality and the elaborate schemes she undertakes to accomplish her goals. She realizes that searching the lawyer’s old office could be a crime, but she is willing to overlook this risk to help Jeremy. Her candy bribery plan and the fake names the kids give are both her ideas, showing her commitment. Once Lizzy decides to do something, she’s all-in, which is what makes her and Jeremy’s friendship so strong. The state fair talent contest is another example of how steadfast Jeremy and Lizzy’s friendship is. Neither wants to participate, but they both agree to do it and practice together because neither is willing to leave the other in the lurch. These examples of their friendship continue alongside instances where the two start to grow apart. Lizzy’s interest in the neighbors directly contrasts Jeremy’s instant dislike of the new kids, and this shows how the two friends don’t always agree, nor do they always have to agree. As the story progresses, Jeremy and Lizzy see how they are changing and staying the same as they get older. Rather than let this come between them, they both resolve to support the other even if they don’t understand how they feel.
Jeremy’s father continues to exert his posthumous influence from behind the scenes: When the police officer assigns Jeremy and Lizzy community service (something that, in reality, only a judge can do), neither Jeremy nor Lizzy realizes that this is part of his father’s plan. Mr. Oswald’s ability to get a building security guard and a police officer in on the plan shows how much influence Mr. Oswald has, as well as how many moving parts the plan requires. Jeremy’s dad left behind an enormous mission, and completing it involves collaboration among many people. This communal spirit is later revealed to be a substantial part of the “meaning of life” that Jeremy’s dad wants to give him—an example of Finding Value in Relationships.
Stepping into Mr. Oswald’s world in Chapter 8 is an eye-opening experience for Jeremy and Lizzy. The kids have never ridden in a limo or seen a home as extravagant as Mr. Oswald’s, and this is the next step in their journeys out of their comfort zones. This also shows that stepping out of comfort doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. Here as elsewhere, the novel uses objects to symbolize internal changes within the characters. Lizzy’s interest in the doll shows an embrace of symbols of femininity that she previously rejected, a shift in her sense of identity that intensifies with the arrival of her period in Chapter 17. By contrast, Jeremy looks at Mr. Oswald’s stamp collection because he wants to find the single stamp his father spent his life searching for. Jeremy doesn’t find it until Mr. Oswald gives it to him at the end of the book, but Jeremy’s search shows how he is still looking to the past instead of his future. Jeremy’s connection to his dad helps him grow. At first, this is because Jeremy wants to become the person his dad would have wanted him to be, but as the story progresses, Jeremy develops his own agency, using what he learns from his father’s legacy to inform who he will become. Taken together, Jeremy and Lizzy’s diverging paths show that Life as a Journey of Discovery doesn’t have to mean the end of long-standing relationships. The two can have different interests but still be friends, and while this has always been at the core of their relationship, it takes seeing each other grow and change for them to realize this is the case.
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By Wendy Mass
