45 pages • 1 hour read
Hanna AlkafThe Weight of Our Sky
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 12-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Mel decides to go to the Rex to look for her mother. Going past Chin Woo, Mel stops a soldier harassing a young woman. Mel hides to avoid an oncoming truck, and she falls asleep. She wakes up and goes to the police station. The police officer, Pakcik Hassan, helps her search the station for her mother, and he insists that she stay at the station. A man brandishing a knife bursts into the station, accusing the police of killing his mother, and when he drops his knife, Mel grabs it and runs. Mel goes to a temple, where the clergyman recognizes the name Salmah, saying Nurse Salmah helped a lot of people before searching for Mel. Mel continues her journey to the Rex.
Mel discovers the Rex empty, avoiding the theater where she left Saf. Finally entering the theater, Mel finds a young girl, May, who is about seven years old. May’s mother brought her to the theater and told her to stay. Mel helps May clean herself, then they leave to go back to the police station. Mel and May encounter a group of rioters, and—when confronted by one rioter—Mel slashes his face with the knife. Mel brings May inside a nearby school, and they meet Mrs. Low, a teacher, who welcomes them to her classroom. Mel finds her mother helping a child in the classroom.
Chapter 13 Summary
Mel’s mother explains that the injured student, Ethan, was shot by a ricocheted bullet by Malay men shooting into Chinese-owned buildings. Mel starts tapping but stops when her mother stares at her hands. They decide to take the school van to the hospital. As they get closer to the hospital, the van dies, and May notices a group of Malay men approaching them. A group of Chinese men approach armed with weapons and led by Frankie. Mel begins counting and tapping out loud, and Salmah is shocked. Mel sees how Salmah collapses and becomes hopeless. However, a voice in Mel’s head drowns out the Djinn, reminding her of all the courageous things she has done.
Mel gets out of the van. Frankie is shocked to see her, and Mel shouts for the crowd to stop, explaining to the Malay men how Frankie’s family helped her. Mel repeats Auntie Bee’s advice, noting that both Malay and Chinese people need to share Malaysia. Frankie helps Mel, escorting Mel, Salmah, Ethan, and May away from the crowd. Vincent arrives in their family car, and everyone but Frankie gets inside. Vincent sees that Frankie rejoined the group, and he leaves to retrieve him. After a few minutes, Salmah insists that they need to leave, when Vincent appears at the window with an injured Frankie. Vincent and Frankie get in the car, and they drive to the hospital. Mel notes that the hospital is a blur, but nurses and doctors take care of Vincent, Frankie, May, and Ethan. Mel is finally reunited with her mother, and they laugh and embrace.
Epilogue Summary
In the aftermath of the riots, Mel visits Saf’s grave for the first time. She avoided the funeral, fearing Pakcik Adnan’s reaction, and Salmah says that Saf’s family is lucky to have a physical grave for their daughter, who has been confirmed dead. The government reports that 196 people were killed in the riot, but Salmah and most people believe this is an underestimate to downplay the event. Uncle Chong and Auntie Bee visit Mel and Salmah often for mutual support, and Vincent and Mel grow closer. Frankie avoids Mel, but Mel thinks they could still become friends. The Djinn still appears occasionally, but Mel notes that she fights him and wins often, resolving that it is a battle she will be fighting for the rest of her life. Mel begins praying again for the first time since her father died, and she promises Saf that she will go to see Paul Newman movies for her.
Chapter 12-Epilogue Analysis
The final section concludes the issue of Race and Identity in a Society Divided Along Racial Lines by highlighting the individuality of single members among groups engaged in violence. After leaving the stadium, Mel encounters a variety of individuals, essentially touring the torn streets of Kuala Lumpur. At the police station, for example, Mel sees herself in the young Chinese man who barges in, accusing the police of killing his mother who “never even killed spiders or cockroaches” (220). Though the peaceful mother that the man conjures is most immediately reminiscent of Auntie Bee, Mel understands how she, too, could be the child losing their connection to reality after an act of senseless violence, especially committed against her mother. This incident, paired with Salmah’s presence at the Chinese school, shows how individual experiences transcend connections with racial groups. Regardless of race, the young man is upset at the loss of his mother, and Salmah is dedicated to helping anyone and everyone in need of medical treatment. In the final explosion of violence between the two groups outside the van, Mel gives a speech that is clearly intended to resolve the violence, calming down both groups and dispersing the crowd. However, her story is personal, reflecting her own experiences with Auntie Bee and Vincent’s family, so realistically, her story only truly impacts Frankie’s perspective as a member of the Chinese group. Mel’s overarching point, however, ties into the title of the work, as Mel says, “We make our own sky, and we can hold it up—together” (264), referring to the Malaysian proverb of making a home for oneself. In this case, the “weight” of “our sky” is the tension of a racially divided country, and the act of “holding up” that sky is coexisting without violence. As Mel and her group leave the crowd, they can hear “the shouts and the thuds and the clanks and the screams” of the group collapsing into violence despite Mel’s inspirational words, reflecting how the tension and anger inside each of these people mirrors the tension and anger inside the main characters (266). While Vincent and Mel have experienced the futility of racial violence and sought to end it, people like Frankie need an outlet for their anger. Even after the events of the novel, Frankie “never comes with them on these visits, and when we go to their house he makes himself scarce” (272), again emphasizing how racial tensions are difficult, if not impossible, to completely resolve.
The Importance of Love and Friendship and The Stigma and Reality of Mental Health resolve in the end of the novel without asserting any unrealistic claims of curing or ending Mel’s struggles with mental health issues. Instead, Mel is portrayed in a happy and loving situation, with the support of both her mother and Vincent’s family, excepting Frankie, in which she feels the strength needed to combat her own obsessive and compulsive thoughts and actions. Ironically, as one would expect Mel to develop this strength through the support of her friends and family, she realizes her strength when “it dawns on her how hopeless an endeavor this is, and right before [her] eyes, she shrinks and shrivels until there is nothing left in her place” (260). She is describing how Salmah reacts to the realization that Mel is still struggling with her mental health issues. Salmah’s hopelessness, though, sparks a desire to protect and defend Salmah in Mel’s mind, allowing her to suppress the Djinn, exit the van, and provide an opening for her group to retreat safely. Nonetheless, the voice in Mel’s mind that convinces her of her own strength “sometimes sounds like Saf, and sometimes sounds like Vince” (261), reflecting the importance and influence of friendship in such a battle. In the end, Mel comes “to accept that the Djinn and [her] are always going to be locked in a battle for control” (273), but she now knows that she is able to win such battles. This conclusion is a realistic take on mental health concerns, in which the true success is the realization of inner strength and the power to overcome concerns in the moment, rather than a broad-spanning solution, such as exorcizing a demon of Djinn.
