77 pages • 2 hours read
April HenryGirl, Stolen
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A 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 17-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Working in the Dark”
Griffin brings pizza and orange juice for Cheyenne and asks her what it is like to be blind. She explains that she often prefers to interact with people over the phone or over the internet because it puts her on equal footing, i.e. they “know the exact same amount of information” (109). She tells Griffin about her accident. She was 13 on a visit to her grandmother and she, her mother, and dog Spencer were walking on the side of the road. Two kids were racing cars, and an oncoming car swerved into the three of them in order to avoid the racing cars. The impact killed both mother and dog, but the impact threw Cheyenne into a speed limit sign.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Big Words Scare Me”
Griffin is trying to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor, but by Cheyenne’s restlessness and moaning keeps him awake. He tries to determine whether she has a fever, waking her up in the process. He goes to the bathroom to the cupboard under the sink to see if he can find anything to help and finds cough mixture, Advil, and Cipro, an antibiotic. The Cipro belonged to his mother, Janie Sawyer, and is over six years old. He goes back to Cheyenne, and they discuss whether she should take the Cipro. She lets him know she has been studying antibiotic resistance in biology, and he asks her whether she goes to a school for the blind. She replies that she is mainstreamed in a private school and that her blindness means that she must take extra classes using assistive technology on top of the regular classes. She misses reading books the way she did previously and confesses that she is a slow braille reader. She prefers CDs and books on tape. Griffins tells her that he has trouble reading as well, and she asks him whether he’s taken a test for dyslexia, which he has not. She explains that he could also requests tapes just as she does.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Nothing but Ifs”
Cheyenne realizes that it is unlikely that Roy will release her, since she can help the police find them. She believes the two older men do not view her as a person, but rather as a thing, and that Griffin is the only sympathetic one. She also realizes that she might have to hurt someone in order to escape. Griffin asks her why she thinks he is not like the other men, and she responds that he is kind and smarter than them. He remonstrates that he isn’t smart because he dropped out of school, and she reassures him that having difficulties reading does not mean he isn’t smart. He insists that she needs to face facts: that they are both limited. He describes the terrain around them, including information that there is a road about four miles to the east. He adds that it is likely she would die from the cold before getting to the road. Her fever has gone down, and Griffin suggests that they get some sleep. Cheyenne lies awake as he falls asleep.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Let’s Send Him a Finger”
Griffin wakes up while Cheyenne sleeps. He leaves the room to find Roy drinking coffee. TJ and Jimbo join them, and Roy explains that Cheyenne’s parents have said they need more time to get the money. Jimbo suggests they can speed up the process by sending them Cheyenne’s finger. Roy explains that Wilder’s have offered a million. Griffin says that it is still a lot, a quarter million each, but Roy makes it clear that he will be looking after Griffin’s share. TJ and Jimbo argue about whether Roy getting a half million versus their quarter million each is fair. Roy explains he is the one who is taking all of the risk and that he will tell the family to leave the money in a deserted area at three in the morning. When Griffin suggests a plan for how to let Cheyenne go, Roy responds “of course,” but Griffin doesn’t believe him.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Intelligent Disobedience”
Griffin gives Cheyenne some more medication and reminds her not to reveal that she knows their names. She makes Griffin promise that he will let her go. He changes the subject and asks whether she gets to school in a limo. She responds that Danielle usually takes her and that her father does not like to flaunt his wealth. They begin talking about her guide dog, Phantom, who she has had for just three months. She describes how Phantom saved her life at an intersection when he stopped her from crossing in front of a car that failed to stop before turning right. She explains that a guide dog is much better than a cane, that the dog means she can get around much more smoothly. Phantom has special training in intelligent disobedience, which means he will disobey a command if the command is unsafe.
Chapter 22 Summary: “A Big Mistake”
Griffin is making food for Cheyenne when TJ asks him for some as well. A while later, he realizes that TJ is alone with Cheyenne and rushes into the bedroom. TJ has pinned Cheyenne to the wall and is trying to assault her. Griffin punches him and orders him out of the room. Cheyenne notices with her hands that Griffin has a scar on his throat. Griffin tells Cheyenne that he sustained burns in a meth accident. His mother took him to the hospital afterward, where he spent a month in the burn unit. Just before his release, his mother stopped coming to see him, and Roy told him that she had left him and gone back to Chicago.
Chapters 17-22 Analysis
Cheyenne and Griffin connect through their traumatic experiences and through what Griffin calls their “limitations.” Cheyenne’s blindness has forced her to adapt to a new way of living and learning. She needs assistive technologies to learn in school, and she acknowledges that the pace of her Braille reading is slow. Griffin has attributed his reading difficulties to a lack of intelligence, but when he describes what reading is like for him, Cheyenne suggests that he may well have a learning disability, dyslexia.
Their psychological trauma is similarly paralleled. Both characters have dealt with physical and psychological damage due to an accident and the subsequent loss of a parent. Later chapters reveal that Roy killed Janie, Griffin’s mother, not long after she took Griffin to the hospital against Roy’s wishes.
Their similar experiences also reinforce their emotional connection, but Griffin points out how the difference in their resources has affected their ability to recover. Cheyenne has access to a support system with many resources: a private nurse, extensive rehabilitation services, a guide dog, etc. Lacking any financial or emotional support, Griffin has dropped out of school. This lack of support has left Griffin feeling resigned and dejected. He has no hope that his circumstances will improve, feeling that there are no good choices or opportunities available to him, as suggested by this passage:
You really think I could be anyone I wanted to, even president of the United States? You’ve got to face facts, Cheyenne. You’re blind, which means you’re never going to be able to do a million things. And the facts of my life mean I don’t have many choices, either. I don’t have many choices at all (125).
While Griffin may be referring specifically to a learning disability, he implicitly compares his socioeconomic disadvantages to Cheyenne’s blindness. The novel thus defines limited ability more broadly than physical disadvantage. Overcoming a disability involves physical adaptation, as represented by Cheyenne’s many strategies for interacting with the world, but overcoming any obstacle requires mental adaptation, or the ability to change a mindset.
This physical/emotional motif is also reflected in Cheyenne and Griffin’s relationship. Their discussion about dyslexia reveals a reciprocity in the complexity of their caretaking roles. Griffin has not yet let Cheyenne go, but he takes care of her physical needs by providing food, drink, and medication. In turn, Cheyenne gives him emotional support by reassuring him that he is smart and kind, and that he does have options.
The concept of intelligent disobedience and the relationship between Cheyenne and her guide dog Phantom is key to both teenage characters. Phantom is trained to obey Cheyenne’s commands except when the command is deemed unsafe. The story of Phantom’s intelligent disobedience and subsequent saving of Cheyenne’s life prompts Griffin to wrestle more seriously with his own conscience and gather the courage to defy his father, especially once he no longer believes Roy will let Cheyenne go.
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