The Misfits

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Chapters 21-24

Chapters 25-27

Chapters 28-30

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Quiz

Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 9 Summary

Addie convinces Bobby to be class treasurer and tells Bobby to ask Colin, another student, to be secretary during their last period art class. When Bobby comments that Colin won’t want to be secretary because he’s a boy, Addie accuses Bobby of being sexist. Bobby notes that Colin is one of the nice popular kids, who “acts the same with everybody, so that you end up feeling like an actual person around him” (78). In art class, Bobby sees Joe, who is working hard on an art piece, and Kelsey Scoggins, a new girl who is extremely shy. The art teacher thinks Kelsey is very smart and talented and often shares her work in the front of the class. Bobby doesn’t realize he is staring at Kelsey. When he sees Kelsey smile back at him, Bobby realizes Kelsey is pretty. Nevertheless, he tells himself that there is no way a girl like Kelsey would have a crush on him because, as he puts it, “A boy like me is fat. There, I said it” (80). After class, Bobby approaches Colin and asks if he will be their party’s secretary. Colin says he can’t because he is already running as vice president on the Democratic ticket.

In Ms. Wyman’s class, Bobby tells Addie and DuShawn that Colin said no. Addie says they’ll have to find a new secretary and decide on a platform. DuShawn jokes that their platform could be “Free the Slaves” (83) and Bobby wonders if DuShawn is taking the election seriously. Addie explains that, according to the student council bylaws, students are allowed to create a new political party if they can “prove they serve a purpose not served by the existing parties” (83). As Addie tries to think of what their purpose could be, Bobby makes a joke and DuShawn gives him a high five. Ms. Wyman sees Bobby with his hand in the air and Bobby, thinking quickly, asks to be excused. In the hallway, Bobby waits for enough time to pass before he can reasonably re-enter the classroom. As he waits, he notices Skeezie lurking suspiciously in the hall. Once Bobby is back in the classroom, Addie announces the purpose of their political party. Addie explains, “DuShawn and I worked it all out. We are the party who speaks on behalf of the minority students of Paintbrush Falls Middle School” (87).

Chapter 10 Summary

Chapter 10 is written in the style of Addie’s minutes from the Forum. Addie, Bobby, DuShawn, Joe, and Skeezie are at the Candy Kitchen. Addie says she wants Heather O’Malley, another student, to run as secretary on their ticket. Heather is Chinese American and adopted, so Addie feels she will be a good fit for their party’s goal of representing minorities. DuShawn comments that Heather looks out of place in her family due to her Chinese features, whereas her parents and siblings have freckles and red hair. He uses an offensive word for Irish in the process. Skeezie calls out DuShawn, saying his mom is Irish. DuShawn and Skeezie argue about whether names hold any meaning. Eventually, DuShawn says that he believes Bobby, Addie, Joe, and Skeezie have it worse than himself, Royal, and Tonni. According to DuShawn, “[W]e’re cool. You guys are the ones who have to watch your butts all the time” (91). Eventually, DuShawn apologizes for using the offensive term for Irish. Addie comments that she read in The New York Times that state police tend to pull over drivers with dark skin more frequently. Bobby asks, “What exactly is the Freedom Party going to do for minority students here?” Addie responds, “We’re going to make sure that their voices are heard and that the school administration is sensitive to their needs” (93).

Chapter 11 Summary

The group agrees to meet at Joe’s house on Sunday evening to make campaign posters. Joe’s aunt, Pam, has a lot of art supplies they can use. Bobby decides to ask Kelsey if she would like to come over to Joe’s to make posters. Bobby thinks she says yes, but “[s]he talks so softly I can’t be entirely sure” (97).

That Friday afternoon at work, Mr. Kellerman decides to test Bobby’s fashion sense. Mr. Kellerman asks Bobby to match ties and shirts. At one point, Bobby selects a tie with Daffy Duck on it and Mr. Kellerman scolds him, saying cartoon characters don’t go with anything. Eventually, a woman arrives in the tie section. Mr. Kellerman offers to help the woman but is called away because he has a phone call. Bobby shows the woman some other ties with bold patterns and ends up selling her four ties, including the Daffy Duck tie. When Mr. Kellerman returns, Bobby is ready to brag about the sales, but Mr. Kellerman is clearly upset. Mr. Kellerman leaves suddenly, and another employee comes to the tie section to cover for Mr. Kellerman for the rest of the day. Eventually, Bobby is allowed to head home early.

Chapter 12 Summary

Heather O’Malley says no to being the Freedom Party secretary, so Addie asks Skeezie. Skeezie says yes, assuming the Freedom Party won’t actually win and that he won’t have to do anything.

On Sunday evening, everyone meets at Joe’s house to design campaign posters with Pam’s help. Pam used to live in New York City but left to come live with her sister, Joe’s mom. Joe is grateful Pam lives with them because he feels like “she showed up just at the moment in his life when he needed someone to let him know it was okay to be himself” (108). The group has to come up with a symbol and slogan for their party, and after offering several suggestions, the team votes on Kelsey’s suggestion, “Freedom for One, Freedom for All” (111) with the symbol of the dolphin.

Addie, Kelsey, and DuShawn leave, and Bobby and Skeezie go into Joe’s bedroom to hang out. Skeezie teases Bobby about his crush on Kelsey, and Bobby thinks, “Do I have a crush on Kelsey? I think maybe I do, but then being around Pam tonight I’m not so sure. I decide that I hate hormones” (114). Skeezie observes that Kelsey was talking to Joe all night, and Joe reminds Skeezie that he is gay. Joe explains that he hasn’t come out to his parents yet, but he thinks they know and they are okay with it. He adds, “It was Pam who helped me see that Mom and Dad were letting me be who I was instead of trying to make me into something else’” (117).

Skeezie brings up the dance, and Joe reveals that he does have a crush on Colin. Skeezie reveals that Addie also has a crush on Colin, and Bobby realizes that when he saw Skeezie lurking around in the hallways, it was because he was helping Addie sneak a note into Colin’s locker. Joe reveals that he’d love to one day hold hands with someone he likes. This reminds Skeezie of a time when he and Joe were buddies during a kindergarten field trip and had to hold hands. At the time, a woman commented that it was cute to see two young boys holding hands, but they’d be judged if they held hands now as middle schoolers. Before they leave, Skeezie and Bobby promise Joe they won’t tell anyone about Joe’s crush on Colin.

Chapters 9-12 Analysis

The theme of name-calling continues in these chapters. At the Forum, when DuShawn comments on Heather O’Malley’s Asian features and uses an offensive anti-Irish term, DuShawn defends himself, saying, “Oh, man, I didn’t mean nothin’ by it. It’s just a name” (90). Skeezie responds, “Yeah, so are other words I could think of. They’re just names too. I don’t know what you think about them, but I know what your friend Tonni would say” (90-91). Here, Skeezie is referring to racial slurs, which, even though they are just words, can carry hurtful and dangerous meanings. Later, Bobby reflects, “And then there’s me. Pork Chop, Roly-Poly, Fluff. And I’m thinking there’s a lot more to all of us than the names we’re called or what we show on the outside” (120-121). Bobby is realizing that it’s dangerous to make assumptions about someone just based on their appearance or the names they’re called.

Meanwhile, Addie continues to position herself as a defender of minority rights, even as she struggles to conceptualize what that means at Paintbrush Falls Middle School. Once again, she quotes the New York Times in an attempt to make herself sound like an authority on racial justice, without questioning whether state trooper racial profiling is a particularly relevant issue in the lives of DuShawn and his Black classmates, none of whom can drive. In turn, DuShawn implies that the Gang of Five are worse off than him because they are unpopular, which may be a defensive response to Addie’s arguably infantilizing tendency to view DuShawn as either a token or a statistic.

Joe also reveals in these chapters that he is gay, expanding upon the book’s LGBTQIA+ themes. Joe is grateful that his aunt Pam lives with his family because she helped Joe realize he can be himself. Even though Joe hasn’t officially come out to his family, he observes, “‘It was Pam who helped me see that Mom and Dad were letting me be who I was instead of trying to make me into something else. She told me that was just about the best kind of love anybody could give anybody’” (117). Instead of expecting people to act a certain way, it is much better to allow people to be themselves. This is how a person can show love and support to the people they care about. This idea is furthered when Skeezie thinks about how he and Joe held hands as kindergarten field trip buddies, but they’d be harassed or called homophobic slurs if they were to hold hands as middle school boys. Joe, Skeezie, and Bobby all agree that this is an unfair double standard. It is difficult to be different or to stand out, something that Bobby and his friends, as school outcasts who are often bullied, experience throughout the novel.