47 pages • 1 hour read
Jesse AndrewsMe and Earl and the Dying Girl
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary: “A Note from Greg Gaines, Author of This Book”
The book opens with an author’s note from its author and narrator, 17-year-old Greg Gaines. Greg is a retired filmmaker struggling to write a book, having abandoned the film world after making what he refers to as the “Worst Film Ever Made.” He warns his readers that if they expect some thought-provoking, coming-of-age tale about friendship aborted by cancer, they will be disappointed by this book because he learned nothing. Greg does not guarantee readers will walk away entertained, or gain important life lessons, or even feel endeared to him in any way. All he offers is his version of a story, one Greg believes is not so well-told.
Chapter 1 Summary: “How It Is Possible to Exist in a Place That Sucks So Bad”
Greg is a senior at Benson High School which sits between an affluent and a non-affluent neighborhood, attracting students from a variety of backgrounds. The students, according to Greg, fall into one of several categories: rich kids, church kids, jocks, smart kids, theater kids, stoners, gangbangers, band kids, or gothy dorks. No group rules the school, resulting in daily chaos. On the topic of high school, Greg assumes that his readers share his belief that it “sucks” (5). To survive his high school experience, Greg develops a set of rules that allow him to gain access to all groups by not becoming friends with any of them. While this system may seem to exclude him from the “typical high school experience,” Greg assures his readers that such a typical experience “sucks” (10). He may not be a part of any one group, but his wits and ability to float between groups relatively undetected provide Greg with a hard-earned feeling of peace amidst the chaos.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The First Day of Senior Year in Convenient Script Format”
Greg’s first day of senior year starts off smoothly. After a brief note about subdividing the previously mentioned groups by grade, the writing style of the book shifts to screenplay format. In this format, Greg interacts with individual members from the theater kids, the band kids, and the gothy dorks, as well as one church kid, and all four members of the subgroup, “Middle-Class African American Junior Sub-Clique 4C” (18). Although Greg admits that under other circumstances, he may have become a gothy dork himself, since their values and opinions about high school align, he reverts to his established system of avoiding the chaos of high school and moves on to another group. When Jonathan Williams, a member of Junior Sub-Clique 4C, accidentally bounces a rubber ball off Greg’s teeth, the moment threatens to upset Greg’s delicately developed system of sustaining peace. But fellow 4C member, Donté Williams, quickly points out that Greg’s a senior, and therefore outranks them all, and the crisis is averted, until Greg almost runs “into one of Madison Hartner’s boobs” (20).
Prologue-Chapter 2 Analysis
The opening chapters of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl quickly establish Greg’s flippant, casual, self-deprecating tone, alongwith the novel’s rapid-fire pacing. His spastic focus and alternating narrative styles distract readers from the fact that Greg states right away a girl named Rachel gets cancer. Because the narrative voice is so entertaining, the introduction of Rachel in later chapters loses no suspense.
The author’s note debunks the typical cancer narrative, in which its central characters fall in love in the end or learn awe-inspiring life lessons. Demystifying the trope in this way firmly grounds readers in the knowledge that Greg’s reality is much different and follows no prescribed rules. The effect positions readers to intake Greg’s experience rather than look for any overarching didactic messages.
Spending ample time defining Greg’s methodology of avoiding friendships and his subsequent inability to maintain any lasting relationships resolutely plants clues as to what fate awaits Greg: true connection to another human being. What Greg resists most will absolutely be the thing that defines his story in the end.
