51 pages • 1 hour read
Kristin HannahThe Great Alone
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A 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 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
Leni’s father tells her he’ll keep her safe as he drops her off at school. Once he leaves, Matthew suggests they skip school and take the ferry into Homer. Riding the ferry with Matthew, Leni feels free from the worry that constantly plagues her and finally feels like an ordinary teen. Matthew tells her he got into the University of Alaska at Anchorage (UAA) and asks her to come with him. Leni feels trapped by her circumstances, her lack of money, and her dad’s volatility. She can’t explain to Matthew how much her fear of her father structures her life. At Homer with Matthew, Leni has a wonderful day but knows it can’t last because “[f]amilies and the future were fragile” (227).
At home after, Leni’s conflicted feelings increasingly distract her to the point that Large Marge cautions her about Matthew again. Matthew senses Leni’s distress and goes to see her at her cabin, where Ernt confronts him. After Matthew leaves, Cora comforts Leni but reminds her that Leni’s relationship with Matthew is dangerous. One day when Matthew isn’t at school, Leni fills in as a substitute teacher. He meets her after and takes her to a secluded place where he asks to kiss her. He reveals that his dad has also warned him about getting involved with Leni, but both teens agree that they don’t care. While her parents go fishing, Leni goes to see Matthew, and he mentions wanting to see her the next night. However, Leni’s parents have followed her, and a furious Ernt pulls Leni away before she can agree to the rendezvous. At home, Ernt strikes Cora, accusing her of knowing about Matthew and Leni’s relationship.
Chapter 17 Summary
The next day, Cora accuses Leni of carelessness, and Leni confesses that she and Matthew kissed. Although Cora reacts with sympathy, she admonishes Leni to stay away from Matthew. Leni feels that she can’t and goes to meet Matthew at midnight. He asks her again to go with him to study in Anchorage. Leni is torn; she wants her independence, yet she is scared for her mother. She hears her father calling her and convinces him that she was merely outside staring at the summer skies. Later, Leni writes a personal statement to the university and takes to stealing away whenever she can to meet with Matthew: “[S]tolen time became the engine that powered her world” (242).
On a class trip, Matthew leads Leni off to look at bears and tells her of his grandfather daring to homestead near them. Mad Earl has a heart attack and dies, so Matthew and Leni return. The whole town gathers to watch as his ashes scatter throughout the bay. Tom offers to host a sendoff, to which Leni’s father objects, but Thelma reacts angrily to Ernt’s divisive words. She tells Ernt to come as part of the town or stay out. Ernt pulls Cora and Leni with them, telling them that he will build a wall to keep them away from the town. Disturbed, Leni thinks she will never be able to leave her parents.
Chapter 18 Summary
Matthew is at Mad Earl’s sendoff, the hour growing late until only Tom and Large Marge remain. Large Marge mentions that since Mad Earl’s people have pushed Ernt away, Ernt might retaliate and hurt someone. Thinking they mean Leni, Matthew dashes over to the Allbrights’ property. He sees the beginning of the wall Ernt is building. Leni comes out and tells him about it but warns him to leave before her father sees him. Matthew reports back to his father.
Leni is worried about the wall, but Cora dismisses her concerns. Large Marge comes to visit with a gift from Thelma. Ernt leaves them to talk and Large Marge warns Cora about the wall, telling her, “You know what walls do? [...] They hide what happens behind them. They trap people inside” (255). Cora explains that they can’t leave Ernt because he would just come after them. Large Marge assures her the community would protect her. Leni is concerned that they would have to leave Alaska to escape Ernt, but her mother says she can’t leave him. Disappointed, Large Marge tells Cora she is always there to help. When she then offers to take Leni to school, Ernt tries to stop her, so Large Marge threatens to tell the police.
At school, Large Marge gives Leni an acceptance packet to the university. Tom will be paying for her tuition, and the rest of the community will chip in for the rest of her needs. Large Marge warns Leni to be careful before she leaves. This is difficult for Leni because it means rarely seeing Matthew over the summer. The town throws a party for Leni and Matthew’s graduation for school, but Ernt doesn’t allow Leni to attend.
Chapters 16-18 Analysis
Leni’s relationship with Matthew shows that Leni is no longer a child. The narrative links Leni’s desire for independence with her romance. Despite her father’s displeasure and her mother and neighbors’ words of caution, Leni pursues her relationship with Matthew, lying to her family to spend time with him. Apart from her feelings for him, the relationship is a way of emerging from her parents’ shadows. Her new bond becomes a gateway to Leni’s future when Matthew invites Leni to go with him to study at University of Alaska at Anchorage. While her relationship with Matthew is a large part of the dream, going with him to study also allows her to follow her interest in photography and grow professionally. In her admissions statement, she addresses her desire for independence: “[I]t’s time for me to leave the homestead and make my own way, to learn about the real world” (241). Her plans for college not only reveal an expansive future, but they also demonstrate the generosity of the Kaneq community as the whole town bands behind her desire for independence and growth. Tom offers to pay Leni’s tuition, and the rest of the neighbors chip in for books and expenses.
The community banding behind Leni stands in contrast to how Ernt ruins his relationships with both the townspeople and Leni through his inability to accept change. The Harlans, Ernt’s former friends, banish Ernt for trying to create a divide between them and Tom, who only wants more prosperity for Kaneq. Ernt also forbids Leni from attending her own graduation party, trying to separate her from the community, and he builds a wall around the Allbright cabin in a paranoid delusion. His actions continue to strain the relationship between Leni and Cora, as well. The toxic relationship between her parents anguishes Leni, not only because of Ernt’s violence towards Cora, but also because Leni feels herself trapped. Nevertheless, the fear of her father’s wall sequestering her with her parents leads Leni to decide in favor of her own freedom.
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By Kristin Hannah
