The Last Straw

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2009

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Parts 5-6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “March”

Part 3, Chapter 20 Summary: “Saturday”

Dad accidentally throws out Manny’s “Tingy.” Manny takes his anger out on everyone, destroying Dad’s Civil War battlefield and calling Greg “Ploopy.” Greg tries to tell on Manny, but it only emboldens him to call him “Ploopy” more often. Greg thinks back to his younger days when he and Rodrick told on each other so often that Mom made them air their grievances to a stuffed turtle called the “Tattle Turtle” instead of to her.

Part 3, Chapter 21 Summary: “Easter”

On Easter Sunday, Greg accidentally sits on chocolate in the car, staining his church pants. Rodrick takes off his pants and offers them to Greg just as Dad’s boss, Mr. Warren, drives by. Mom refuses to let anyone get out of church and makes Greg tie her pink seater around his waist to hide the stain. Greg spots Holly Hills several pews back. When the offering basket comes around, Greg makes a big show of placing Mom’s money in the basket, hoping that Holly will be impressed. When Greg realizes that Mom gave him a $20 bill, he regrets giving it away. Greg resents how his parents baby Manny and let him play with toys during church, so Greg whispers “Ploopy” at Manny. Manny starts throwing a tantrum, and the whole Heffley family has to leave right in the middle of the service.

Part 3, Chapter 22 Summary: “Wednesday”

After the church debacle, the house is tense. Mom bans the word “Ploopy,” just as she has banned many curse words in the past. Dad makes Greg join a recreational soccer team. At soccer tryouts, Greg gets placed on the worst team with the toughest coach, Mr. Litch. Greg hopes to get cut so that he can return to playing video games.

Part 3, Chapter 23 Summary: “Thursday”

Greg’s new teammates decide to name their team the “Red Socks,” which Greg considers stupid since their uniform is blue. Greg tries to crack jokes between wind sprints but only gets in trouble with Mr. Litch. Greg tries to convince his dad to let him quit, but Dad emphatically refuses.

Part 3, Chapter 24 Summary: “Friday”

Since joining soccer, Greg’s supply of clean clothes has dwindled. He wears a pair of dirty pants to school, and a pair of dirty underwear falls out of the pant leg. Greg feels down in the dumps, but Rowley cheers him up by inviting him to a sleepover near where Holly Hills will be hosting her own sleepover. Greg imagines peeking in the window at Holly and her friends in the middle of a pillow fight. At soccer practice, Greg is assigned the position of the “shag,” which he learns means that he will have to fetch balls that roll out of bounds.

Part 3, Chapter 25 Summary: “Sunday”

The sleepover proves disappointing. Rowley’s other friends are significantly younger, and nobody seems interested in crashing Holly’s sleepover. Greg tries to go to bed early but can’t sleep through the party games and prank attempts. He sneaks into the basement and tries to curl up there, but it’s too cold for him to sleep. In the morning, he discovers that the sliding door was open all night.

After the sleepover, he attends his first soccer game and spends the whole match fetching the ball from a bramble bush. The team celebrates at a fast food restaurant, but Greg does not get along particularly well with his coach or teammates.

Part 3 Analysis

In the third section of The Last Straw, a new tension arises between Greg and his father after an embarrassing incident at church. Greg’s mishaps—arriving in chocolate-covered pants, being unable to do his own laundry, and eventually having to wear his mother’s pink sweater as a makeshift skirt—continue to highlight his lack of responsibility and maturity. His behavior, from goading his little brother to embarrassing his dad in front of his boss, pushes his father to force Greg to make a more significant change. This incident represents a turning point in the novel, as Greg's dad becomes fixated on making Greg “shape up” and conform to his more traditional Ideals of Masculinity. The idealized image of an upstanding young man contrasts sharply with Greg’s slovenly, immature behavior, setting the stage for his father to exert more pressure on Greg to live up to his expectations.

To enforce this change, Greg’s dad forces him to join a recreational soccer team, which becomes another point of tension between them. The soccer experience highlights Greg’s lack of fitness, strength, and discipline, all of which fall short of his dad’s expectations and the expectations of patriarchal ideals more broadly. Greg, however, continues to use humor to deflect from his shortcomings, pointing out the irony in his dad’s statement that “no son of [his] is a quitter” since all three brothers have quit things on multiple occasions (122). Greg tries to use humor at soccer practice to endear him to his teammates and push back on his coach’s authority, but he ends up just getting in trouble.

This section also develops Greg’s issues with maturity and The Trials of Growing Up as he clashes with Rowley over the purpose of a sleepover. This scene highlights the rift between Rowley and Greg, as Rowley enjoys hanging out with younger kids and being playful, while Greg longs to pursue girls in what he perceives as a more “teenage” and “mature” form of behavior. Because Greg and Rowley are so misaligned on what they consider “fun,” Greg withdraws entirely from the party and resigns himself to a miserable night.