61 pages • 2 hours read
Lois LowryThe Silent Boy
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “May 1911”
Katy is playing a word game in the kitchen with Peggy called “Love, Hate, Friendship,” and they are trying to determine who they will love. Katy’s game reveals Peggy and Loyd will be married, which makes Peggy blush. Katy says they could do Nell’s name next, but she already knows Nell “is sweet on” (148) Paul Bishop. Peggy is very upset by her saying this, so Katy decides she better not tell Peggy what she saw Nell and Paul doing in the barn.
Katy describes her impression of Nell from living next door to her. She knows that Nell likes to wear makeup and go to the movies, and she aspires to be a movie star. Katy remembers the picture she saw of the movie star Mary Pickford. She thinks girls that age shouldn’t be in films or in factories, they should be in school. Only one woman in her father’s class became a doctor, and she was teased along the way. Katy resolves to attend college and become a doctor too. She wants to marry Austin Bishop, have children, and travel.
Mr. Bishop brings his new camera out onto the lawn to show it off. The children gather around, and Paul and Nell play flirtatiously. Paul pretends to propose to Nell as if they are movie stars in a film. Katy recalls stumbling upon them in the barn, where she found them standing close together and possibly holding hands. She thought it was romantic and fun until she found them a second time, almost certainly having intercourse in the hay. After discovering them like that, Katy decides she doesn’t like Paul. On the lawn, posing for photos, Katy sees “what [Nell] didn’t; that he was mocking her in a cruel and secret way” (158). When Nell and Peggy pose together for a photo, Katy says that this photo represents the last time that they were all “together and happy” (159).
Chapter 12 Summary: “July 1911”
Mr. Thatcher brings Katy and her friend Jessie along with him to the country to check on Mrs. Shafer’s newborn twins. They pass Jacob, who is working in the field with his father, on their way. Katy tells Jessie that he is almost 14 and is her good friend. She waves at him, but Jacob doesn’t wave back or say hello. Jessie doesn’t understand why he would behave that way if they really are friends. When they arrive at Mrs. Shafer’s the girls meet the newborns, and Katy notices that they are much smaller than her baby sister was at the same age. Her father checks the babies and tells Mrs. Shafer that they are thriving and she can safely name them now. Then he takes Mrs. Shafer into another room with the babies and tells Katy and Jessie to stay out of trouble. Katy knows that he really means Jessie. Jessie asks about Jacob and why he wears his cap all the time. She asks if he is “stupid or something?” (168). This makes Katy angry, and she changes the subject. Later, at home, Katy asks her father if he knows why Jacob always wears the cap. Dr. Thatcher says it is probably a habit, just like the way he pulls on his ear when he is thinking. He explains that Jacob probably wears the cap because it gives him a sense of safety.
Chapter 13 Summary: “August 1911”
Katy is reading a novel, A Girl of the Limberlost, aloud to her mother on their front porch. They see that the Bishops have all their blinds drawn; the family has been troubled recently. A pack of boys runs down the street followed by an extremely loud noise, which turns out to be Mr. Bishop driving a new automobile. He proudly shows it to his wife and all the neighbors. Mrs. Bishop and Katy’s mother both think that he is being foolish. Mr. Bishop is the first man in the neighborhood to own a car, and he tries to convince Dr. Thatcher that he should also get one for his patient visits. Dr. Thatcher thinks automobiles aren’t as reliable as his horses. Katy goes to speak with her father and tells him that Jacob often comes to their stable. He is not surprised. Katy asks Dr. Thatcher what the trouble is with Nellie, and he tells her that Nell has returned home to the Stoltz farm and will never be in the pictures. Katy mentions that the Bishops are upset too; she heard Mr. Bishop and Paul yelling at each other. Dr. Thatcher says that must be why Mr. Bishop bought the car, to distract the family.
Chapters 11-13 Analysis
These chapters reveal how quickly information can spread in small neighborhood and explore the novel’s theme of communication. Gossip and eavesdropping are two of the modes of communication that help Katy learn about the attitudes and world around her. Katy has also learned to read and write well enough to play word games, so her realm of communication is expanding. She is learning how to talk about big ideas and how to know when not to communicate her ideas. For example, she wants to share what she saw in the barn, but she recognizes that it will bring pain to the Bishops and Nell: “I had thought that I would tell [Peggy] what I had seen. But it was clear that she was truly troubled by the thought. So I stayed silent, and put my paper away” (148).
The idea of keeping one’s thoughts to oneself is further explored in Chapter 12. Katy and Jessie are riding together when they see Jacob. Jessie cannot understand why Jacob would not wave and say hello to Katy if they are truly friends. Katy can’t quite explain their relationship, and it upsets Katy that Jessie’s narrow definition of communication doesn’t encompass Jacob. Chapter 13 refers to Gene Stratton-Porter’s 1909 novel A Girl of the Limberlost, an important nod to the coming-of-age tradition The Silent Boy engages with. As Katy reads this novel aloud to her mother, she recognizes her own privilege by comparison to the protagonist, who has a very cruel mother. The main character is a poor farm girl, much like Nell or Peggy. However, she uses her education and wit to uplift her social position. Lowry alludes to this text to show that what Katy reads shapes her developing character just like her conversations with adults and other children do.
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By Lois Lowry
