The Rock and The River

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2009

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-9

Chapters 10-11

Chapters 12-14

Chapters 15-16

Chapters 17-19

Chapters 20-21

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 15-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 15 Summary

Sam and Mama stay at the hospital overnight. They are allowed to see Father the next morning. Stick comes by the hospital to make Mama go home to rest and to take Sam to see Leroy. At the Panther apartment, Sam joins the others in preparing. They ask Sam if he wants to testify at Bucky’s trial. Father had said no when asked, but Sam wants to. Sam says there were others who saw what happened, and he doesn’t understand why they won’t testify. Stick explains how dangerous it is to testify against the police officers. Sam returns to the hospital and tells Father he wants to testify. Father agrees under the condition that Stick comes back home and makes Sam promise to never pick up a gun again. Sam promises that Stick will come home when Bucky can go home.

Chapter 16 Summary

Stick takes Sam back to the Panther apartment to meet with Bucky’s lawyers. The lawyers prepare Sam for what to expect. They explain, “They may ask you about the Panthers, Sam, and we don’t want to let it go there” (227). When Sam is surprised to find out that Father has been helping the Panthers and Bucky’s defense, Stick pulls him aside and criticizes him for avoiding the complexities of the world. Stick says, “I’m trying to talk to you, and you don’t like what you hear, so you want out. It’s that way with everything. Things get a little rough, or boring, or don’t go the way you want and you walk away” (229-230). Stick explains what the Black Panther movement is in contrast to passive resistance. Stick explains, “It’s the difference between demonstrating and organizing…Between waiting for handouts that aren’t coming, or taking care of each other the way we have to” (233).

Chapters 15-16 Analysis

As the size of the world Sam knows expands, his youthful quest for righteousness (i.e., black and white thinking) clashes with his newly formed adult acceptance of nuance and complexity. His changing worldview is mirrored in the view of the lake he sees from the hospital. He explains, “I wished we could see the shore over the tops of the other buildings, to find comfort in the gentle surge of water onto the sand. But our view was of the lake’s heart, where whitecapped waves churned in the deep” (212). This quote demonstrates where Sam and the others are: in the middle of a tumultuous movement with no end in sight.

Sam still struggles to find his place outside the shadows of Father and Stick. When Stick returns to the hospital and convinces Mama to go home and rest, Sam remarks, “I already hated it, that he could come back and in a minute put right everything I couldn’t manage in his absence. His shadow seemed as big as Father’s, and I was lost in the whole mess of gray” (215). Sam recognizes his childishness here and longs for the maturity to bring order to chaos rather than to escape chaos. Stick points out Sam’s tendency to run from conflict and complications in this section as well.

Sam finds his way out of Father’s and Stick’s shadows by testifying in Bucky’s trial. He notes, “Finally, something I could do that Father and Stick could not” (221). His agreement to testify also marks a new approach to action for Sam, who has thus far only tested the extremes of action and inaction. Sam also begins to form a more nuanced view of the overlap between passive resistance and the Panther movement, with Stick explaining, “It’s the rock and the river, you know? They serve each other, but they’re not the same thing” (233).