59 pages • 1 hour read
Randa Abdel-FattahThe Lines We Cross
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A 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 25-37Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary: “Michael”
Michael’s father receives a warm welcome home from his family and friends, who treat him like a hero. Alan feels worn and haggard after visiting refugee camps, but he maintains that there should be strict limits on immigration and that immigrants should be assimilated into Australian society. Michael does some online research about refugees and engages his father in a discussion, but the teenager struggles to articulate his questions and misgivings. The boy points out Western nations’ involvement in the wars that refugees are attempting to flee, asking: “Isn’t it like starting a fire in a building, walking away, and then being surprised when people try to escape the flames?” (166). Alan argues that Western countries aren’t responsible for the violence, and he says that his time abroad has made him even more determined to ensure the success of Aussie Values.
Late into the night, Michael spends hours researching Western countries’ involvement in the Middle East and Central Asia. He feels both overwhelmed by what he learns and angry at himself for going along with what his parents told him without forming his own opinions.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Mina”
Michael apologizes to Mina about how Aussie Values has hurt her family and warns her that he will appear in his father’s upcoming TV program, Don’t Jump the Queue. When Michael claims that the situation with his family is complicated, Mina tells him how her stepfather was tortured and her father murdered by the Taliban. Michael absorbs this information, horrified into silence, and Mina takes her leave.
That night, Mina has a nightmare about her father’s death—something that’s become rare since she left Villawood Detention Center. She recalls how some Australians seem to think all refugees “should be walking around depressed and broken” (174), and she wonders if groups like Aussie Values exist to punish immigrants who forget those they’ve left behind.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Michael”
Chapter 28 Summary: “Mina”
Mina tells her parents that she’s working on a school project with Paula when the girls are actually going to Sienna’s party. Paula tries to cheer up Jane, who’s still nursing an unrequited crush on Terrence, and Mina, who’s brooding about Michael.
During Easter vacation, Mina attends a slam poetry event with Paula, who performs a piece about how her parents’ devotion to their careers leaves her feeling invisible to them. Mina is moved by her friend’s vulnerability, and Paula thanks Mina for giving her the courage to share her poem. Mina senses that the two of them have reached “that wonderful, intense, and slightly terrifying place only true friends can enter” (192).
Chapter 29 Summary: “Michael”
The promotional material for Don’t Jump the Queue claims that Alan wants to see the return of the White Australia Policy—a suggestion Alan himself balks at. Michael’s father says he celebrates diversity and doesn’t “have a problem with different foods and festivals” (193), he just believes that assimilation makes immigrants’ lives easier. Michael grows increasingly uneasy, suspecting a deep wrongness in his parents’ worldview. He spends much of his Easter break alone working on school assignments and thinking about Mina.
Nathan tags along when Michael drives to Auburn and visits a mosque. Nathan requests a tour, but Michael hurries away with his little brother because he feels like a fraud and an intruder. The brothers visit a neighborhood in Auburn where they see people from many countries and cultures. Michael berates himself for believing that this area is dangerous. Standing in Mina’s old neighborhood, Michael realizes that he has “crossed the line from thinking about Mina to crushing hard” (202).
Chapter 30 Summary: “Mina”
While Mina’s stepfather is only 39 years old, he suffers chronic pain as a result of torture by the Taliban. His stress over the recent media attention on the restaurant makes his pain worse. When Mina asks him if he is happy in Australia, he answers, “When you don’t have what you want, you have to want what you have” (204). He longs for Afghanistan to achieve peace so he can return but doubts this will ever be possible. Mina tries to reassure him that the media has moved on from the story on the restaurant and things will go back to normal.
During Easter break, Mina and Paula look at their classmates’ social media profiles, including Michael’s. Mina notes that he has cleaned up his online persona since she last saw it: “No more Aussie Values; no more offensive memes” (206). When school resumes, Mina feels an awkward tension between her and Michael.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Michael”
Since Alan’s return home, the members of Aussie Values spend more and more time at the Blaineys’ home. The group hopes that the TV program will bring them national attention and perhaps even the numbers they need to become an official political party. Alan asks Michael to work with Andrew to update the organization’s Facebook page. Although pleased by his father’s praise of his skills with technology, Michael feels “conflicted and dirty” when he sees the types of messages Andrew wants on the page (212). He avoids completing the group’s request by pretending that the program crashes. The organization's members stay for dinner multiple times a week, and Michael feels as though they’re competing to see who can demonstrate the most passionate anxiety for their country. One of their latest topics of conversation is “a new Islamic school opening out in Jordan Springs” (214).
Chapter 32 Summary: “Mina”
Despite the news story about Kabul Kitchen, the restaurant remains busy and Mina stays up late to help her stepfather. Michael talks to her after school the next day, and she challenges his assumption that they can be friends when she represents “everything and everyone [he] and [his] parents stand against” (218). He maintains that his parents aren’t racist and angrily accuses her of being condescending towards him. Mina retorts, “Sorry, Michael, I don’t have time to babysit you through your enlightenment” (219). She hurries off on the verge of tears, upset with herself for being so deeply affected by him.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Michael”
On the evening of Don’t Jump the Queue’s premiere, the Blaineys’ home fills with Aussie Values members. Michael stares at his reflection and feels lost because he no longer knows what he believes. He cringes at the footage of his rehearsed responses during the family interview: “There are wars all over the world. More and more refugees. There has to be a limit, or we’ll be flooded” (223). Some of Michael’s friends praise his answer while others criticize it. Seeing footage of his father staying composed while visiting refugee camps and while explaining his views fills Michael with a sense of pride even though he doesn’t agree with his father’s politics. Watching the program and hearing different perspectives makes Michael realize that he still knows very little about the world—a thought that gives him hope.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Mina”
As Mina watches Don’t Jump the Queue, she notes the closeness of the Blainey family, Michael’s clear desire for his father’s approval, and the way that the program presents Alan as “the reasonable, rational conservative” (226). Memories of her time as a refugee come rushing back, including the death of her infant brother, and each memory feels like “a nail inside [her] head” (226).
Chapter 35 Summary: “Michael”
Michael and Mina’s classmates discuss Don’t Jump the Queue the next day. Some are horrified by Alan’s lack of empathy for refugees while others, including Terrence, defend Aussie Values’ claims that the country is suffering from a clash of cultures. Mina enters the fray and mocks the idea that “asylum seekers and the Muslim two point five percent of the Australian population” want to turn the nation into “an Islamic state” (228). Admiring her courage, Michael seeks to distance himself from his father’s views by claiming that he is his own person. Later that day, Mina asks Michael if he meant what he said on Don’t Jump the Queue. Miserably, He replies that he doesn’t know and walks away.
Chapter 36 Summary: “Mina”
During their encounter in the library, Michael’s expression reveals to Mina that he’s waging an inner battle, and she senses that his internal conflict is somehow connected to her. Mina tries to watch the second episode of Don’t Jump the Queue, but grows frustrated and turns it off. She fears that nothing will change for the people suffering in refugee camps and that the world will remain a “lottery of winners and losers” (234). To cheer herself up, Mina calls one of her friends from Auburn, a girl named Maha, and tells her about Michael.
Chapter 37 Summary: “Michael”
Mina and Michael avoid one another for the rest of the school term, and he spends most of his time working on assignments rather than with his friends. When the state election is scheduled earlier than expected, Michael is surprised to realize that he doesn’t want his father to win.
Michael drives to Auburn and sketches a group of refugees from Sudan for a school assignment. A man working at a cafe compliments his artistic skills and cheerfully asks him how he’d feel if he “came to [Michael’s] side of Sydney and started sketching the natives there [....] A group of white women wearing matching Lululemon outfits and sipping soy quinoa protein shakes. In watercolor” (241). Michael says that he didn’t mean to offend anyone, and the man affably replies, “People usually don’t” (241). Michael returns home and starts the assignment over.
Chapters 25-37 Analysis
In the novel’s third section, Abdel-Fattah centers The Struggle of Finding and Following One’s Personal Convictions as Michael’s reckoning with his parents’ harmful beliefs nears the tipping point. Despite Michael’s desire to be close to Mina, the two main characters spend most of these chapters apart due to the fallout of the news segment about the restaurant and his continued efforts to defend his parents. In addition, Don’t Jump the Queue places further strain on the teenagers’ relationship, but also helps Michael and Mina understand one another better. The program pushes Michael to see refugee camps for himself and hear from more people who oppose his father’s views. For her part, Mina gains insight into the Blaineys’ family dynamics, observing: “[H]is eyes instantly dart to his father, Alan, as though he’s seeking his approval [...] There’s genuine admiration in the way Michael looks at his dad” (225). Although his father’s role in spreading xenophobia comes between Mina and Michael, the TV program helps the main characters better understand one another’s backgrounds and perspectives.
Abdel-Fattah highlights the importance of self-education and unlearning in Michael’s character arc as he begins to move from a place of complacency to one of active anti-racist resistance. In Chapter 25, he conducts hours of research on immigration and related issues, which is the exact sort of self-education that Mina said he needed to do the day they first spoke. He also seeks to educate himself through firsthand experience, such as his trips to Auburn. Michael’s realization that he has a crush on Mina is a plot point emphasizing The Importance of Love and Connection. Michael’s romantic feelings increase his motivation to challenge his family’s biases, but his growth in this section comes at a cost. As he begins to understand that his parents may “have things drastically wrong” (194), his comfortable sense of safety and certainty is replaced by doubt and a loss of identity: “I’m a dutiful son, a good big brother. But suddenly it all feels like a character profile of somebody else. I feel shallow. Because I have no idea who I am or what I believe in anymore” (222). Michael’s doubts prevent him from openly embracing antiracism, but his growth is reflected in his changing perspective on his father’s leadership, distancing himself from Terrence’s toxicity, and restarting his art assignment after his conversation with the man at the cafe. In the novel’s next section, Michael’s art leads to important advances in his relationship with Mina and the theme of Finding and Following One’s Personal Convictions.
Abdel-Fattah reveals Michael’s character development and emerging anti-racist convictions in moments of concrete action. For example, in Chapter 31 when he decides not to help with the Aussie Values Facebook page: “A sick feeling lodges in the pit of [his] stomach. [He realizes] that [he’s] seeing the memes from the point of view of somebody like Mina” (211). This scene demonstrates Michael’s growing awareness of The Impact of Xenophobia and Racism on Individuals and Communities as well as online media’s ability to spread harmful ideas. The use of music as a motif of connection also appears in this section. In Chapter 27, Michael asks the DJ to play “Together” by The xx—a love song that reflects his desire to be with Mina. However, Mina pointedly ignores him, emphasizing that she requires concrete action, not symbolic gestures, to prove that she can trust Michael.
Abdel-Fattah employs a number of literary devices to add context and interest to the narrative. In Chapter 29, Don’t Jump the Queue describes Alan as “the man who wouldn’t mind a return of the White Australia Policy” (193). This historical allusion refers to a piece of legislation that effectively ended all non-European immigration to Australia from 1901 to 1950. Alan rejects the epithet, but his denial doesn’t negate the inherent white supremacy of his ideology and that of the other members of Aussie Values—many of who actively want to see this policy return—or the group’s ambition to become a political party and shape public policy. In Chapter 28, the poetry slam that deepens Mina and Paula’s friendship foreshadows the poetry slam at the novel’s resolution. In Chapter 35, Mina offers a metaphor for Michael’s character development: “If I stared at a plant for days I would never notice it growing” (232). Her comparison recognizes that the young man’s progress is gradual but concrete and offers hope that the main characters can become closer as a result.
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