The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Part 1, Chapters 14-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “A Stain on the Carpet”

Part 1, Chapters 14-20 Summary

When Sam and his mother arrive at the school, Dan is there to report for the news on the event (Sam will later keep the newspaper story in his scrapbook). The nuns do not allow Madeline to escort Sam into school, and Sister Beatrice greets him with a stern warning—“Arrogance is a sin, Mr. Hill. God punishes the arrogant. Humility will be taught, and it will be a hard lesson learned” (44). Sam’s first week in Sister Kathleen’s class passes quietly. The other students stare, but no one speaks to him. He eats lunch alone. Each night, he lies to his parents, telling them he has made new friends playing kickball. Sam does not worry about the lies, because it makes his parents so happy to believe he is thriving at school.

Sam invents ways to eat his lunch as slowly as possible so he won’t have to interact with others. One day, a boy named Ernie Cantwell sits near him and strikes up a conversation about the way Sam eats his Twinkie. Ernie, who is from Detroit, is the only Black kid at the school and the first Sam has ever met. As the two are getting acquainted, however, the school bully David Bateman throws a ball at Sam, hitting him in the face. David also calls him “Sam Hell” and “Devil Boy,” and he spits a racial slur at Ernie. David goes to punch Ernie, but Ernie ducks quickly and races across the playground. Everyone is amazed at his speed and agility. David punches him from behind, but Sam tackles David, choking him. Sister Beatrice breaks up the fight.

The school suspends Sam, and Madeline is called to Sister Beatrice’s office. She is angry when she sees his face and learns Sister Beatrice did not fully investigate the situation, and when David’s mother arrives, she is also visibly upset. Sister Kathleen defends Sam, but Sister Beatrice will not listen until Sister Kathleen brings in Ernie, who tells the entire story, including the racist garbage David spewed. David’s mother beats him, and Sister Beatrice allows Ernie and Sam to return to class.

Ernie and Sam agree to be friends. The classroom cheers when Ernie returns. Sam is worried they will think differently of him now: “[I]f the other kids had been afraid of me because of the color of my eyes, what were they now to think of me, the whirling dervish who had attacked not just another student but the monster himself?” (59) The classroom, however, is silent when he enters.

That night as he sits alone in his room, Sam overhears his parents debating his school situation: Madeline is concerned David will attack Sam again; Ms. Bateman is on the school board; Sister Kathleen told Madeline that Sam sits alone at lunch and does not speak in class; his scores on the placement tests reveal he is gifted. Madeline takes Sam to school the next day in the Falcon, but he wants to walk inside by himself. Ernie is waiting for him, but so is David, who slams into Sam, causing his lunch to spill. David smashes Sam’s sandwich with his foot.

Part 1, Chapters 14-20 Analysis

The mystery of providence looms in the narrative’s background, gradually complicating the protagonist’s view toward God. Madeline’s claim—that Sam’s ocular albinism makes him extraordinary and that the disorder is God’s will—takes on new significance in these chapters; if he is to believe his condition is God’s will, Sam also may wonder if God wants him to suffer, since alienation and bullying seem to be the most “extraordinary” ramifications of the condition so far. Indeed, Sam’s first week at school passes by in lonely silence. His mother’s advocacy for her son is noble, but it sets him at odds with the stolid Sister Beatrice from the beginning.

School life and rhythms are a new world to Sam, and he finds ways to cope with the alienation, such as creatively nibbling his food, thus delaying any unpleasant interaction with his classmates at recess. Sam feels the need to protect his parents from the truth of his friendlessness, a trait common among kids experiencing trauma. Suffering children will often go to great lengths to shield adults from the burden of the truth. Fortunately, Sam finds an ally in Ernie, and it could not have come too soon as school bully David begins his swift, brutal torture. Without warning, the bully lashes out in violence following with insults and abhorrent racial slurs. The author imparts pathos to both children in this scene. Bullies often take advantage of unsupervised situations like lunchtime or class changes to exact their terror, and David and his crew attack Sam and Ernie with no adult help nearby. However, the two boys are brave in the face of danger and defend themselves and each other valiantly against the inhumanity of the situation.

Ernie’s character introduces the novel’s theme of The Formative and Transformative Impact of Friendship, and because Ernie was among the first names mentioned in the Foreword, the reader knows in advance how important he will be. Sam and Ernie are both outcasts, Sam for his eye color and Ernie for his skin color. Ernie’s personal story of moving from Detroit hints that his family has hit tough times economically. Detroit was once a thriving city built on the automobile industry. The movement of car production overseas left residents without jobs, and the city plunged into economic despair, a condition from which it has never recovered. Most people, like Ernie’s family, moved out of Detroit in search of work. The boys bond quickly and come together to fend off discrimination, and Sister Kathleen emerges as an ally in standing up for them and revealing the truth of what happened on the playground. As the classic school bully, David represents the oppression of bigotry and intolerance, but the author humanizes even him. David’s mother is abusive, and he likely acts out due to his home life. His mother’s reactions stand in stark contrast to the strong yet calm and mannerly way Madeline defends her son.