35 pages • 1 hour read
Chris CroweMississippi Trial, 1955
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2002A 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 16-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
Hiram cannot stop thinking about the details of the trial and complains to Grampa about it, asking if he thinks it’s really over, since they never identified the third man involved. Grampa is agitated by the conversation and tells him not to speak of it anymore. Later, when he is out for a walk, Hiram runs into R.C., who looks all beat up and bloody. He tells him about his brutal fight with his father and how he is leaving Greenwood for a job in Jackson; in fact, he was out of town before Emmett’s murder and during the whole trial, making it impossible for him to be the third man. Hiram spends the night thinking about Naomi and wishing he could bring her back to Arizona with him.
The next morning, he wakes up to overhearing Grampa speaking with some men outside about selling his pickup truck. One of them remarks, “You can’t be too choosy about price in this situation, but we’ll do what we can. I guarantee you this truck will be out of Mississippi before dark” (204). At breakfast, Hiram asks Grampa about the truck and Grampa dismisses the conversation, which infuriates Hiram even more. After he leaves the house, Hiram runs into Ronnie Remington, who clumsily reveals that he and Ralph are harboring a secret about Grampa’s pickup truck, which alarms Hiram even more. It is then that Hiram figures out Grampa was there the night of Emmett’s abduction and murder.
Chapter 17 Summary
On his final Sunday in Greenwood, Hiram has breakfast alone and chats with Ruthanne, who misreads and attributes Grampa’s laying low post-trial as a change of heart. On his final day, Monday, she remarks how Hiram and Grampa seem “awful skittish of each other” (218). Hiram does not know how to reply. Later, he inquires after Naomi at the sheriff’s office and the sheriff assures Hiram that she is safe. Naomi meets him at the train station and they exchange farewells. His father picks him up at the train station in Arizona and they discuss his visit and briefly touch on the trial. They share a moment of understanding about their relationship and the love that they have for one another, despite their previous arguments.
Chapters 16-17 Analysis
Following the trial, something still is not sitting quite right with Hiram, and his conscience and instinct nag at him. The details of the initial news report return to him and his Grampa’s angry irritation about his mentioning it is alarming to Hiram. Though the Remingtons are often dismissed as eccentric, they are good-natured and honest people, so Ralph’s seemingly wild banter about a secret regarding the pickup gives Hiram due pause. He considers more deeply all of Grampa’s strange reactions during and surrounding the trial and is hit with that feeling of disbelief and unease when he connects it to the details of the news report that have been haunting it. Despite it being his Grampa, Hiram knows the truth and painfully must accept it for what it is. The child/adult dynamic shifts in light of this reality, and part of Hiram’s growing up is experiencing how one can still love someone but deeply disagree or dislike aspects about them. His summer trip to Greenwood that his own father so deeply opposed ends up functioning as the catalyst that brings them back into conversation with one another and reopens the opportunity to develop their relationship.
