56 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer NivenHolding Up The Universe
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.
Pages 499-525Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 499-525 Summary
When Libby gets home, she finds her father waiting for her. He asks her what happened at the party, and she spills the whole story. The moment leads Libby to an epiphany: while she has been focused on her own suffering, she has ignored her father’s. He, too, has taken the brunt of grief and judgement, especially from those who felt he was responsible for Libby’s obesity. She apologizes for “everything” she “put him through,” and they agree to transparency (500). That is when her father confesses that he has been seeing a woman named Kerry but was too afraid to tell Libby. Libby remarks that she is the only person who has not moved on from her mother’s death, and her father responds, “It’s not moving on, Libbs. It’s moving differently” (501).
After the party, Jack gets a text from Kam, who is unexpectedly—and legitimately—sympathetic about Jack’s prosopagnosia. Kam’s acceptance prompts Jack to tell his family about the prosopagnosia, which seems to lift a tremendous weight off of him. Jack says, “I feel full, and also empty, but not in a bad way. Maybe empty’s not the right word. I feel light” (508). As he lies awake on his bed, he begins to realize why he can recognize Libby so well, thinking, “It’s not her weight at all. It’s her” (510). He starts thinking about her and realizes that he can picture Libby’s face—all of it, not just her weight. Jack concludes that this means he “may love Libby Strout”(508).
The next day, Libby meets Rachel in the park to talk about Jack and the reason that she hit him. While Libby has been coming out of her house, her body, and her shell, she “felt like [Jack] was trying to single-handedly pick me up and stuff me back into that house and lock me in” (513). Rachel reminds her that “no one can lock you back in,” and as they leave the park, Libby leaves her only remaining copy of We Have Always Lived in the Castle on the park bench for someone else to find along with a note saying, “Don’t be afraid to leave the castle” (515).
As the novel concludes, Jack begins to embrace his prosopagnosia as part of his identity, even finding that it makes him feel a bit “special” (517). He surprises Libby at the park, which initially upsets her. Jack apologies for everything and quickly explains to Libby what makes her different from everyone else and why he can “see” her in a way that he cannot see most people: he realized that it was not Libby’s weight that served as her “identifier” but rather her—her smiles, expressions, and eyes. The two share a passionate kiss and confess their love for each other as Libby thinks, “We are meeting and changing the world, his world and mine”(523).
Pages 499-525 Analysis
The closing pages of the novel reiterate the novel’s theme of weight as well as the argument that it is okay to acknowledge when the weight—physical, metaphorical, or otherwise—is too heavy. For instance, when Jack announces his prosopagnosia, he feels “light” (508), as if a tremendous weight has been lifted after having finally accepted that the weight of keeping his face blindness secret is too much. Disclosing his condition is a hugerelief.
Likewise, in reflecting on her mother, Libby understands that loss itself has weight. Sherealizes that “for something that isn’t there anymore, [grief] weighs a ton” (507), and in a final development of her character, she also acknowledges that “sometimes you have to set some of [the weight] down. You can’t carry all of it forever” (507). Like the title of the novel, Libby alludes to the Greek myth of Atlas: “By the time I started eating—really eating—the loss was already so big it felt like I was carrying around the world” (507). In this moment of reflection, Libby realizes that, while she wants to continue to embrace her mother’s guidance to keep going in the face of opposition, it is only human to admit when one cannot bear the weight alone. Libby’s leaving her copy of We Have Always Lived in the Castle on the park bench represents another final development in her character: she knows that she is fully ready to “leave the castle.” Just as Rachel has come out in terms of her sexuality, Libby has come out in terms of her own identity: she has embraced who she is, and she feels ready to pass on that advice to whoever next picks up the book.
Speaking of weight, Jack has an epiphany of his own when he realizes that he loves Libby. He says, “I love the hugeness of her, and I don’t mean her actual physical weight” (508). Finally, Jack realizes that the reason he can so easily recognize Libby’s face has nothing to do with her physical features—including her most prominent physical feature, her weight—but rather her inner identity: things like her laugh, her confidence, and her warmth. Jack, who has so far still clung to his definition of identity as external qualities, now realizes that one’s true identity must come from within. This is not only important for his relationship with Libby but for his relationship with himself, as he is finally able to see his prosopagnosia as a part of who he is, even going so far as to say it makes him “special” (517).
