51 pages • 1 hour read
Jodi PicoultThe Book of Two Ways
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A 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 13-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Cairo to Boston”
Dawn is on an airplane, and when she comes out of the bathroom, a flight attendant asks her to take her seat. An announcement reveals that they are going to crash in a planned emergency, and to brace themselves. Wyatt, sitting next to her, holds her hand.
At first, when Dawn told Wyatt about Meret, he couldn’t believe that she did not consider that the baby might have been his. After the revelation, he is angry, and leaves her in the tomb they are visiting. However, after an hour, he returns, and they talk about when Dawn had left her Boston home the first time. Wyatt tells her that he wants to meet Meret.
When the plane crashes, it splits apart and catches fire. Dawn is evacuated, and cannot locate Wyatt. Finally, they find each other.
Chapter 14 Summary: “After”
Dawn wakes up in the hospital after the crash. Brian tells her that she has had brain surgery, and she wonders if Wyatt and Egypt were a dream. The plane crashed in North Carolina, and Brian left Meret in Boston with Kieran, unsure of Dawn’s condition. They hear a commotion in the hallway; Wyatt gets past the nurses and enters her room. Brian and Wyatt meet for the first time, and Dawn tells Brian that, after London, she had gone to Cairo to tell Wyatt about Meret. Dawn asks Wyatt to step out so that she can talk to Brian, but instead they call Meret so that Dawn can talk to her.
After Dawn hangs up, Brian tells her that Meret figured out the truth of her paternity on her own. Dawn confesses that she slept with Wyatt recently, while in Egypt, and that she never stopped loving him. They decide that Brian will go home to be with Meret, and Dawn and Wyatt will fly to Boston when she is released from the hospital. While Dawn is still in the hospital, she and Wyatt talk about their future together. They are both worried about Meret meeting Wyatt, and are unable to come up with a practical solution for their living arrangements.
Four days after the crash, Dawn and Wyatt fly to Boston. He checks into a hotel room, and then drops her off at her home alone. She and Brian argue, but finally they are both able to release much of their anger. When she goes upstairs to Meret’s room, her daughter hugs her, but is angry about how she left without saying goodbye. She tells Meret about her biological father, Wyatt, and Meret decides she wants to meet him.
When Wyatt returns to the house, he and Meret sit outside together, with Dawn in the background. Although Meret is at first angry and reserved, she and Wyatt find some common ground. When he shows her a picture of himself as a child, they all realize that Meret inherited her body type from Wyatt. Meret feels both more connected to Wyatt and relieved to understand her body better. That night, Dawn decides to stay at the house, and Wyatt returns to his hotel. Later, Dawn goes down to the kitchen and finds Brian there, drinking, which is completely out of character. They talk again, and come to an uneasy peace.
Over the next few days, Wyatt and Meret get to know each other. Dawn gets an email from her friend Abigail, who tells her that Win is still alive, but unresponsive and declining. Dawn goes to Win’s house immediately, and although Win is unresponsive, Dawn tells her that she did not deliver the letter to Thane. She doesn’t believe that Win would have wanted to hurt him and his family. She calls Felix into the room, and Win dies holding his hand.
When Dawn returns home, she finds Wyatt, Meret, and Brian eating pizza in the kitchen. It is awkward, but surprisingly not completely strange. Brian and Wyatt connect over their feelings for Meret, and Brian offers to bow out of attending her next tennis match, so that Dawn and Wyatt can go. After Wyatt leaves, Dawn thanks him for the gesture. She also tells him that she did not deliver Win’s letter.
Days later, Dawn attends Win’s funeral. Afterward, Wyatt asks her about the future, but she cannot come to any conclusions yet. She will not leave Meret, and yet does not want him to give up Egypt. She realizes that no matter what she chooses, she will lose something.
Meret takes her to the stylist to get her hair evened out, and then has the same thing done to her own hair. Afterward, she and Meret take a walk, and Meret asks her what she is going to do. Dawn opens her mouth to answer, but the book ends before she can.
Chapters 13-14 Analysis
The story has come full circle. In Chapters 12 and 13, Picoult uses specific details to show the reader that passages echo the Prologue. For example, Dawn gets up to “carefully crawl over the woman to [her] right without disturbing her—air traveler’s yoga—to make [her] way to the bathroom in the rear of the plane” (350). Such a specific image, with a hint of humor, signals that the narrative is back at the beginning, at the scene featured in the Prologue. However, there are differences. When Dawn returns to her seat, Wyatt is next to her, a detail not revealed in the first portrayal of the scene.
This chapter is short and chaotic, again echoing the style of the Prologue, but it goes further. While the Prologue took the reader through the beginning of the crash, then gave a summary of events, Chapter 13 delves into the crash itself. In her confusion after the crash, Dawn sees the fire as the lake of fire from the Book of Two Ways, and herself as navigating between the two safe paths to the Netherworld. She is determined to find Wyatt, and when they are reunited, she believes that she sees a way forward to the next world, her future.
When Win dies in Chapter 14, Dawn experiences loss in a new way. Although she has lost clients before, she and Win connected on a deeper level, on top of which, Dawn saw many parallels between her own life and Win’s. Dawn is Living With Death in a new way after Win dies. This is reflected by her new understanding of the word “died;” she reflects that “for the first time the word is not a statement or a fact but something as delicate as an egg that I have to deliver over rough terrain” (394). Dawn sees anew The Power of Words, but at the same time, recognizes their limitations when reading Win’s obituary: “It is a pale imitation of the friend I know, but words are like that. They never quite capture what you need them to” (400). As Dawn’s foil, Win’s death shows Dawn that she cannot wait, as Win did, to be honest about her needs.
With Dawn’s haircut, Picoult illustrates that Dawn’s two selves and worlds have come together. Although practically speaking, it is the result of having her head shaved for brain surgery, Dawn also sees the duality of her new look: “If you approached me from the right, you might mistake me for an Ancient Egyptian. [...] But if you approach me from the left, I am buzzed, punk, cyborg. I am history and I am the future, all at once, depending on where you look” (404). With this image, Picoult shows that Dawn has managed to incorporate her two selves, her past and future, into her present.
The haircut scene is notable for another reason, as Meret takes the initiative to help Dawn, and even goes so far as to get her own hair cut in the same style. Meret seems more adult, more confident, and shows great insight into Dawn’s state of mind and needs. Meret has matured from the beginning of the novel to the end, and Dawn has changed by becoming more supportive and direct. After the haircut, when they go for a walk, Dawn speaks frankly with Meret for the first time about love. She has decided: “This is how I want her to remember me: as someone who told her the truth, even when it was a razor” (405). Dawn’s parenting style has evolved thoroughly, and her relationship with Meret has developed in strong, new ways as a result.
At the end of the final chapter, Meret asks Dawn what she is going to do, and Picoult leaves things ambiguous rather than tying up the characters and conflict neatly. This mirrors the beginning of the novel, and shows the ongoing nature of Dawn’s decision-making. Picoult uses this moment to pull the camera back, away from Dawn’s personal journey, and relate her process to those that humans universally experience—decision-making is rarely finite, but constantly evolving.
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