46 pages • 1 hour read
Wendy MassJeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006A 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 17-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Milestones”
After sorting everything in the suitcase, Jeremy and Lizzy find about 200 keys and agree to start trying them tomorrow. That night, Lizzy comes over and announces she got her period for the first time, which makes Jeremy feel awkward. The next day, they find three keys for three of the box’s locks in the suitcase, having no luck with the fourth lock. They leave for Jeremy’s grandmother’s the next day, and staring at the box, Jeremy thinks that “to be one key short, the day before we leave, is almost worse than being four keys short” (241).
The next day, they go to Jeremy’s grandmother’s place in New Jersey. Lizzy is still tired from her period and rests while Jeremy messes around with the hula hoop. He’s actually good and is shocked to find everyone watching him, including Lizzy.
Chapter 18 Summary: “The State Fair”
Despite how much they’ve been dreading it, Jeremy and Lizzy have fun at the fair. When it’s their turn to perform at the talent show, Lizzy says she can’t hula because of cramps and begs Jeremy to take her place. Reluctantly, he agrees, finding that he enjoys the performance more than he thought he would. They win second place, and Lizzy hands the trophy and reward money to Jeremy, saying, “[I]t’s the least I can do” (257).
Chapter 19 Summary: “Happy Birthday”
For Jeremy’s birthday, he, Lizzy, his mom, and his grandma have a picnic at the lake where Jeremy and his dad used to fish. Among other gifts, Lizzy gives Jeremy the fourth key to the box. She found it in the suitcase while Jeremy was in the bathroom and hid it to give him as a present. Lizzy secretly brought the box and the other keys to the picnic, and the two row out to the rock described in the preface to open the box. On the way, Jeremy thinks about everything that’s happened this summer on the search for the keys and how those things have changed him, concluding that “no matter what’s in this box, I am already grateful to my father for leaving it to me” (268).
The box contains a letter from Jeremy’s dad and a wrapped package. The letter explains how his dad took the fortune-teller’s words as a message to live in the moment because, even if he didn’t die at age 40, he didn’t know how much time he would have to do the things he wanted to do. According to him, the meaning of life is life itself—just living. After Jeremy reads the letter, he opens the package, which contains a pile of rocks.
Chapter 20 Summary: “The String”
Among the rocks is a list of where and when Jeremy’s dad got each one. There’s also one of the few remaining playing cards Lizzy needs for her collection, and the kids are unable to explain how Jeremy’s dad managed this. After puzzling it over, Jeremy finally concludes that “maybe some things aren’t meant to be known. Maybe they’re just meant to be accepted” (277). Shortly after thinking this, though, Jeremy realizes that Mr. Oswald was in on the entire thing. He visits the man, who explains that the entire setup—from the lawyer’s office to community service—was carefully orchestrated. Jeremy’s dad even bought the box from Mr. Oswald at a flea market. As he leaves, Jeremy feels a sense of peace come over him because all he has to do is keep making choices based on who he is and what he wants. The rest of life will fall into place, and he marks this moment by picking up his first rock on his own string of events.
Chapters 17-20 Analysis
Chapter 20 reveals all the secrets of the mission and Mr. Oswald’s involvement, making clear the degree to which apparently random occurrences have been orchestrated by Mr. Oswald, following the plan that he and Jeremy’s father created. Learning the truth of the search for the keys helps Jeremy understand The Interplay of Chance and Choice. While the mission to open the box was carefully planned, many of its most significant events occurred by chance, and even the planned events looked like chance from Jeremy’s perspective. Despite having little control over whom he met and what circumstances he encountered along the way, Jeremy chose how to respond to the circumstances he found, and his choices shaped his experience and allowed him to grow. Jeremy learns this lesson during the state fair, when Lizzy suddenly has to bow out of the hula competition, leaving an unprepared Jeremy to hula in her place. Lizzy’s request comes as a shock, and Jeremy must choose to face his fear in order to help his friend. After the competition, Jeremy is amazed at his own courage: “Never in a million years did I think I could have hula-hooped in a grass skirt in a talent show. I wonder what else I could do that I never thought I could” (257). Accepting this challenge shows that he is no longer the boy he was at the beginning of the novel—one who depended on routine and hated surprises. He has learned that he doesn’t need full control or understanding to be happy, evidence of Life as a Journey of Discovery.
The process with the keys in these final chapters solidifies the importance of Finding Value in Relationships, as Jeremy and Lizzy’s teamwork deepens their friendship and gives additional value to the keys and the contents of the box. When Lizzy gives Jeremy the fourth and final key for his birthday, the gesture becomes part of the key’s value, symbolizing their bond and the way they’ve worked together and supported each other throughout the journey. Jeremy appreciates opening the box more because he’d given up all hope, and he appreciates Lizzy’s role in opening the box because he realizes she put as much emotion into the search as he did. Lizzy giving Jeremy the key as a gift symbolizes the unbreakable nature of their friendship. The jealousy, uncertainty, and awkwardness of past moments don’t matter when compared to this gesture of loyalty and care.
The opening of the box shows—the revelation of the mystery that has driven the plot throughout—initially appears anticlimactic. The meaning of life turns out to be a pile of ordinary gray rocks. The significance of these rocks, however, depends entirely on the memories and people attached to them, illustrating the importance of Finding Value in Relationships. Jeremy’s dad chose to mark the steps on his journey with rocks, noting where and when he found the rocks and why each is important. The title of Chapter 20 refers to the interconnected nature of these rocks/events. When strung together in order, the rocks show the events and relationships that made up Jeremy’s father’s life, and this represents how living in the moment makes events stand out. When Jeremy starts his own string of rocks in Chapter 20, he begins with one that symbolizes the journey he has just completed: “I pick up a rock and shove it deep in my pocket. Rock #1: From the day I realized that love is stronger than death and that people you barely know can amaze you, 13” (235). By marking this rock as “Rock #1,” implying that there will be more rocks to come, he announces the beginning of a longer journey, indicating that Life as a Journey of Discovery is just beginning for him. Jeremy chooses to mark his journey with rocks because it was what his dad did and also because the method speaks to him. He doesn’t have to mark events this way, which he understands now, but he wants to feel connected to his dad through the shared experience.
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By Wendy Mass
