85 pages • 2 hours read
Camron WrightThe Rent Collector
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 22-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
Sang and Ki journey to the province, and Sang’s Uncle Keo welcomes them. Keo works for the government, though no one is sure exactly what he does, leading Sang to believe that “his job is very shady or it’s very uncertain” (186). However, he seems to be doing well, as he has a phone and a new home. They learn that the healer will not be home for another two days, so Sang catches up with her family. Her uncle allows her to stay in his old home with his mother-in-law; Ki will work with a local farmer to earn some money while they wait for Bunna Heng’s return.
Uncle Keo’s mother-in-law destroys most of Sang’s book, using it for fuel to start a cooking fire, and Sang is incredibly angry. The next day, Sang’s aunt talks to her, telling her that Lena is worried that Sang and Ki will move away from the dump. Sang tells her aunt that she hates the dump and misses the peacefulness of the province. Her aunt replies that “memory can be such a pernicious monkey” and explains that life in the province is just “as hard and unforgiving” (192) as life in the dump. She continues, arguing that “the province, though beautiful, has its own pockets of ugliness” while the dump, though ugly, “also has pockets of beauty” (193). Sang realizes that living in the dump is not the worst fate because the dump has provided for her family and allows her to be close to Lena.
Chapter 23 Summary
Sang finally gets Nisay to the healer. Bunna Heng does say that she should have come sooner, but it is not like her dream. In her dream, this statement was an “admonition” that was “definitive and certain” (195). However, in reality, “his manner is casual and quiet” (195). Furthermore, he believes he will be able to help Nisay.
The healer treats Nisay with a “coal-like medicine” that he grinds into a mixture like “gummy tar” (196). He coats a series of needles in the mixture and then pierces Nisay’s arms. He has Sang give Nisay the rest of the mixture orally. This treatment upsets both Nisay and Sang. Once the treatment ends, the healer pronounces Nisay better, but Sang is skeptical.
Bunna Heng then tells Sang that he knew her father and was with him while Sang’s mother was in labor. When Sang’s father collapsed, Bunna, who had not yet finished his training, ran to find him, but when they returned, he was already dead. Bunna apologizes to Sang for leaving her father to die alone and for not being friendlier to her family. Sang reassures him that he is not to blame. He then gives her a photograph of her father and tells her that her father would have been proud of her. When Sang reminds him she lives in the dump, he tells her that it “doesn’t matter where” she lives but “how” (201) she lives.
Sang is grateful and says a little prayer to her father, thanking him for helping his friend become the healer who can help her son. She also thanks him for being proud of her. Sang and Ki say their goodbyes to the family members, and Sang even gives the rest of the book to Keo’s mother-in-law, who happily uses it for fuel.
Chapters 22-23 Analysis
One of the story’s central conflicts is Sang’s hatred for the dump. She believes that living there is the cause of every bad thing in her life as well as in the lives of her family members. However, in this section, when Sang returns to her home province, she must confront that people everywhere struggle. When her uncle’s mother-in-law burns Sang’s book, a gift from Sopeap, Sang realizes that there are no books in her village. Indeed, the only use the woman knows of for books are as fuel for fire. If Sang did not live at the dump, she may never have learned to read or to love literature. Her conversation with her aunt reinforces this lesson. She reminds Sang “that the province is no different from the dump. It’s just as hard and unforgiving—in many ways, harder” (192). She even uses an interesting metaphor, comparing the dump to a durian fruit: It is delicious and nutritious, but smells so bad “it’s actually banned at many hotels” (192). The province, however, is like dragon fruit: It looks “pleasing and attractive, and it smells delicious.” Nevertheless, it cannot “provide enough nourishment on its own” (193).
In Chapter 17, Sang dreams about a figure beckoning her to return home, who repeatedly asks her why she “didn’t […] come sooner” (140). This dream fills her with dread and foreshadows an ominous occurrence. When the dream recurs in Chapter 20, Sang identifies the figure as Bunna Heng, the village healer, and fears that it is too late for Nisay. However, when Sang meets the healer in Chapter 23, she realizes she has worried for nothing. Wright repeats this pattern throughout the text and lends the narrative a sense of peace that seems at odds with its often-tragic subject matter. Although the story reveals terrible truths, like the deaths of Sopeap’s husband and child or the threat of child prostitution, none of the main characters are ever seriously harmed. This parallels Sang’s own lesson.
Wright also engages with the ways in which the past affects the present and future. Sang learns that Bunna Heng, who helps Nisay, was also a friend of her father. He was there the night Sang was born and has felt guilty ever since, as he was unable to help her father when he collapsed. However, the death prompted him to continue his studies, telling Sang that after her father’s death, he was determined to “learn all that [his]father could teach about the ancient ways of healing” (200). If it had not been for her father’s death, he would not have been there to help Nisay. In addition to providing Sang with a photo of her father, he too reminds Sang that living at the dump is not what is important: “It doesn’t matter where you live, Sang Ly, it is how you live” (201).
