41 pages • 1 hour read
Charles SheldonIn His Steps
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1896A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 11-15 Summary
Virginia decides to visit Rachel but is waylaid by three of her old friends who talk Virginia into bringing them down to the Rectangle out of curiosity. Virginia decides that even if their curiosity is ill-founded, perhaps it could do some good if they go under the condition that they completely obey anything that Virginia tells them. While there, Virginia runs into Loreen, the woman whom she met at the revival meeting the last time they were there. Today she is being tossed out of a nearby saloon, drunkenly singing an old gospel song, which catches the attention of Virginia and her companions.
Virginia leaps out of the car to go to her assistance while her three friends shrink back in disgust. Filled with disgust of her own, Virginia orders the three to drive home without her and she begins to help Loreen to her feet. Repelled by the act of kindness, Loreen lashes out: “‘You shall not touch me,’ she exclaimed hoarsely. ‘Leave me. Let me go to hell. That’s where I belong. The devil is waiting for me. See him!’ She turned and pointed with a shaking finger at the saloon-keeper” (119). Virginia is insistent and begins to take her to the home of the evangelists but ends up bringing her all the way to Raymond and putting her up in her very own home. This causes a rift between Virginia and her grandmother who promptly declares her intention to move out of the home if Loreen is to stay.
Virginia is comforted and supported by her brother Rollin who encourages Virginia to continue with the decisions that she has made. Meanwhile at the Daily News Ed Norman is dealing with the repercussions of his decisions regarding the content of the paper. He concludes that it may not be possible in the long run to continue the paper in this manner without a large endowment, which prompts Virginia to make an offer of $500,000 as an endowment for the paper to continue operation in its reformed fashion. Reverend Maxwell reflects on the good that such a paper will do, especially regarding the upcoming election.
At the Rectangle during the following week, the revival meeting is ongoing while the returns for the election come in, and while the election results go against the interests of the Raymond group, the Rectangle erupts into a riot nonetheless. In the mayhem, a bottle strikes and kills Loreen, who dies in Virginia’s arms. Soon afterwards Loreen’s funeral service is held at the tent in the Rectangle, and it proves to be one of the most profound and moving events ever witnessed in that area. Virginia decides that she is going to use more of her inheritance to start an institution for women in the area; she and Rollin determine to buy a large parcel of land in the Rectangle and found a school and refugee house for women who need shelter and education to support themselves and learn valuable skills. The whole Raymond group is in favor of the idea, none more so than Rachel: “Virginia, what miracles we can accomplish for humanity if we have such a lever as consecrated money with which to move things!” (146).
Chapter 14 begins with an intimate discussion between Virginia and her brother Rollin who admits to being in love with Rachel Winslow, and the chapter continues to touch upon different characters and the decisions that they have been making. The next day Virginia goes to oversee operations at the Daily News and meets with Edward Norman who has begun to put together a manifesto for the direction and operation of the paper. For his own part, Rev. Maxwell determines not to take his regular trip abroad, instead using the funds to send a local family on their first summer vacation. Jasper Chase, in contrast, is moving further and further away from the Raymond church community in his sullenness following Rachel’s rejection of his profession of love. Refusing to answer the question of “what would Jesus do” in the same manner as the rest of his former friends, he decides to continue writing only what will make him the most money, motivated not by love or goodwill but by the frustration of his own disappointment.
Chapter 15 provides a clarification by contrast, moving from Jasper’s denial to the reformed decisions of Rollin Page. He and Rachel meet up accidentally, and Rachel questions him as to his summer activities. Rollin replies that he has avoided the Rectangle out of prudence—“I am not fitted to reach the Rectangle people; they would ridicule me” (160)—and has instead attempted to convince his friends and former club-hopping buddies to reform their lives. Finding Rollin to be a completely changed man, Rachel begins to feel her heart warm towards him, even entertaining the idea that she loves him.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
While in the previous few chapters Virginia Page began to see her life circumstances in a new light, Chapter 11 highlights the growing divide within her heart by illustrating the divide between herself and her old friends. Interested in the sights of the Rectangle out of a morbid sense of curiosity and superiority, her old friends demonstrate the exact kind of life and attitude that so repulses Virginia now and which she has explicitly abandoned. The words of Virginia to her shallow-hearted companions might just as well serve as her words to the entire lifestyle they represent: Go home, leave me behind, and don’t come back.
Virginia’s compassion and love for Loreen illustrate the promise truly at work in the Raymond community, a representation of true Christian love lived out in the concrete, rather than abstractly and from a distance. A love truly inspired by Christ requires a radical allegiance to both the person of Jesus and to his methods of preaching and acting. By taking Loreen into her own home, Virginia does precisely what believes Jesus would do in that situation, regardless of the consequences or how it might look to others.
In addition, she is not content with this one act of kindness, but goes on to give vast portions of her wealth to establish an institution to help women just like Loreen. This illustrates Virginia’s deep compassion, for not only is she willing to roll up her sleeves and do some of the dirty work herself, but she is also able to empathize with women so far removed from her own circumstances. Virginia exemplifies the “magnanimous soul” that is revered and honored as far back as Plato and Aristotle, the person able to give to others out of their own surplus and use their wealth and good fortune for the sake of the common good.
Going even further than this, however, Virginia decides that she will personally fund the Daily News as a force for morality, a decision made all the more relevant in the upcoming battle for the elections that will make or break the Rectangle and its reliance on alcohol and the saloons. One of the novel’s great tragedies occurs on election night, when the Rectangle devolves into a riot and Loreen is killed as she attempts to leave the revival meeting and escape to safety. What is meant for ill, however, is soon turned to good, for while Virginia and those close to her mourn the life of Loreen, her funeral service moves many hearts to conversion. In the wake of the elections and Loreen’s death, the community of the Raymond church is convicted; many community members failed to vote at all, and even more had actually voted in favor of the businesses that profited from the sale of alcohol and, thus, the continued degradation of the Rectangle community.
The death of Loreen inspires Virginia to devote another large sum of her inheritance to the establishment of a women’s institution, proving once again that she is going to put her money where her heart is. One could argue that Virginia is a figure of unique power and that no single person makes as large an impact as she does—which flies in the face of some traditional Christian attitudes that equate femininity with submissiveness. In fact, it is quite clear that the community of Raymond is perfectly comfortable allowing women to make large decisions and have lasting, major impact as a result of their resources, their decisions, and their intelligence. Virginia funds the local paper, establishes a house of refuge and education, and becomes personally involved in the lives of those who need help the most. Rachel Winslow abandons a career in order to make her own decisions and do what she feels in her heart will make the most of her gifts.
Finally, a major theme emerges when numerous characters have a realization about their decisions’ ramifications. Ed Norman expresses this realization when speaking of the changes to the Daily News: “[T]he paper will not necessarily be weak because it is good. Good things are more powerful than bad” (153). Good things are more powerful than bad—that is at the heart of the novel and the promise around which the narrative is constructed. Ed Norman learns this lesson in the running and publication of the paper, and Rollin Page learns this lesson after his conversion at the Rectangle. Convinced that good things are indeed more powerful than bad, he devotes his time and efforts to his friends; he attempts to change their hearts and turn them away from their old lifestyle. Ironically, it is Rollin’s refusal to place his affection for Rachel at the center of his life that leads her to begin to love him. This is a stark contrast to the manner in which Jasper approached her.
