37 pages • 1 hour read
Gary PaulsenLawn Boy
Fiction | Novella | Middle Grade | Published in 2007A 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 3-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Law of Increasing Product Demand Versus Flat Production Capacity”
The boy’s new business rapidly spirals out of his control. He gains clientele from the wealthier part of town, which means more money and larger yards. His daily mowing capacity is three lawns and each lawn requires service once per week, which limits his ability to expand the business. According to his calculations, the boy could make $7,500 by the end of the summer if he mows every day without vacations, though he laments his lost summer free time.
The boy’s situation changes when a colorfully-dressed man with a bowl cut named Arnold Howell approaches him about lawn service. Arnold is a struggling stockbroker with “a cash-flow problem” (17), so instead of paying cash, he offers the boy stock. After Arnold briefly explains what the stock market is, the boy agrees to the arrangement.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Capital Growth Coupled with the Principles of Production Expansion”
The boy feels like his life and intelligence are average, so his sudden financial success confounds him. A few days later, Arnold informs the boy that he bought shares in a small coffin-making company, which confuses the boy until Arnold assures him that he didn’t literally buy coffins. Arnold notices something bothering the boy and learns about his workload predicament: The boy has too many job offers and not enough time in the day. Arnold advises the boy to not refuse any jobs, remarking, “Supply and demand. […] It’s groovy, man. The very nature of the concept of economic structure” (23).
Arnold offers to introduce the boy to a man named Pasqual. Pasqual is only available to meet after dark, when his wife comes home to watch their kids. The boy hesitates, recalling warnings about going out after dark: “If we were supposed to be out in the dark, Kenny Halverson’s uncle said, we’d be born with night-vision goggles on our heads” (25). Arnold promises that Pasqual is safe and can help the boy expand his business, so the boy agrees to meet Pasqual.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Labor Acquisition and Its Effect on Capital Growth”
The boy drives his mower to Arnold’s house and meets Pasqual. Pasqual knows workers who will help mow lawns, and in exchange for connecting them to customers, the boy will receive half their earnings. The boy worries that only keeping half their earnings won’t compensate the workers enough, but Arnold and Pasqual insist. Pasqual’s workers, whom he refers to as cousins, will help during the day, and Pasqual will finish the quieter work at night.
The boy worries about his parents discovering his recent financial success because he doesn’t want to seem like he is “kind of bragging or something” (29). He decides he can wait until the end of summer to tell them. Because hiding money in the house would raise suspicion, Arnold agrees to invest more of the boy’s income. The boy keeps enough money to buy more gas for the mower’s tank.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Economic Expansion Combined with Portfolio Diversification”
Every day for the following two weeks, the boy wakes early, packs lunch, checks the engine’s oil, meets Louis (one of Pasqual’s cousins) at Arnold’s, and mows until the day’s end. The days become monotonous: “Numbers, all numbers. And that’s what happened to the time. It turned into numbers” (30). The boy still struggles to sustain the workload, but Pasqual warns him against turning down any work. Mowing lawns is seasonal, so the boy should take advantage of having customers as long as possible. Pasqual offers more of his cousins to help with additional labor. The boy is surprised that his employees fill four—eventually five—pickup trucks. The business grows so large that instead of meeting at Arnold’s house each day, workers report directly to their first job sites.
Chapters 3-6 Analysis
As the plot veers in wild directions, the boy regrets losing his former unexciting life: getting average grades, playing with toy models and video games, having trouble talking to girls, and being “polite to old folks, people over twenty or thirty” (22). The old lawn mower symbolizes this simpler time with its rabbit and turtle pictures marking the mower’s throttle. The boy prefers these symbols to written labels, and believes signs everywhere should use similar imagery. The old mower similarly represents the boy’s innocence, highlighted in this section by word choice. Though the mower is the impetus for the boy’s success, the machine itself is underwhelming. Whenever he drives the mower anywhere, the boy describes it “putt-putting down […] the road” (32). The onomatopoeia “putt-putting” suggests the mower doesn’t have the smoothest-running engine and that it’s a little rustic. The repetition of short syllables make the description sound silly and amateur, which reflects the boy’s nature more accurately than any accidentally genius financial decisions Arnold helps him make.
The book’s humorous tone enables middle school readers to better understand the story’s economic themes. Paulsen’s writing style welds serious business to silly jokes with short, staccato sentences. Arnold and the boy’s dialogue exchanges tend to bounce back and forth this way:
‘You’re going to buy something for me with money you owe me but don’t have?’
‘Exactly.’
‘What are you going to buy?’
‘Stock.’
‘What’s stock?’
‘Shares in a company. You would buy shares in a company.’
‘Why?’ (19)
Very practically, these lines break new vocabulary into definitions for readers, using real-world terms simply and accurately. The boy structures his questions as most children do, repeating “what’s that?” or “why?” until he receives a satisfactory answer. The way Paulsen dilutes complex concepts helps young readers engage confidently with intimidating, grown-up topics; if readers comfortably learn about capitalism, other complicated subjects may seem a little more accessible.
At the ripe age of 12, the boy is already learning about the nature and tradeoffs of work, a major theme the book explores. This section depicts work’s tedious side and the toll it takes on the boy’s summer vacation. The more he works, the more the world loses color and joy, now reduced to numbers—a counting of days and hours and minutes. Work consumes so much time and energy that the boy’s world shrinks, almost exclusively revolving around money and mowing. For example, instead of reading about athletes and games in his Sports Illustrated magazine, the boy now studies “the patterns the grounds crews left behind in the nap of the grass” (34). Though the boy intuitively recognizes some aspects of business like the fact that his overall earnings are different from his profit since he has to pay for the mower’s gas tank and other expenses, he misses other important details, like keeping track of how many employees he’s acquiring or how the stock market is affecting his $40 investment.
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By Gary Paulsen
