82 pages • 2 hours read
Jason ReynoldsWhen I Was the Greatest
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014A 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 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
At the party, Ali recognizes some of the partygoers from the neighborhood but also sees rougher “straight-out-the-pen” guys (96). He tries to blend in, but when he looks around for Needles, he finds his friend has taken a bolder approach and is center stage on the dance floor with a grin on his face. His dancing impresses both Ali and the cheering crowd. Noodles is at the front door chatting to Tasha and misses the show. Ali is glad Noodles is occupied because he might have pulled his brother away out of fear of his Tourette’s syndrome.
Ali spots the woman who entered the party ahead of them and, after checking on Noodles, goes to talk to her. Ali is emboldened by a cup of “loose juice” (119), and he and the woman, Candace, dance intimately. She leads him to a room to take things further. They kiss and begin undressing, but Ali stalls because he is nervous and not ready to have sex for the first time. Before he has to admit this, they are interrupted by a commotion—there is a fight. Ali searches for Noodles and Needles to ensure they are okay, but neither is where he left them. He spots Tasha, stunned and crying, and eventually sees Noodles in a corner looking dazed. Despite being yelling at by Ali, Noodles is unable to say where his brother is. From Noodles’s expression, Ali realizes that Needles is in the middle of the fight. Furious, Ali flings himself into the melee. Ali uses his boxing training to swiftly dispatch the attackers before Tasha yelling “Cops! Cops!” causes the partiers to scatter (128). Ali and a still-dazed Noodles carry Needles home.
At the apartment, they undress Needles, whose clothes are so bloody they look “tie-dyed” (130). They use liquor to clean his cuts because there are no other supplies. There is no ice either, but Noodles does locate some aspirin. Knowing they cannot afford to go to the hospital, they are relieved no bones are broken. Needles has a busted lip, a bloody nose, and badly swollen eyes. The other cuts are shallow. Needles ignores his brother completely, choosing to focus on Ali, who keeps apologizing for leaving him alone. Ali uses a sock from Needles’s foot to wrap his swollen wrist. He sits with his friend until he drifts off, then he and Noodles leave the room.
Ali presses Noodles to explain why he never helped Needles. With tears in his eyes, Noodles says the whole fight was his fault. Someone stepped on his foot, which already hurt from the too-small shoes, and so Noodles reflexively shoved him. Noodles apologized, but things spiraled, and before he could leave, Needles came to his defense. Needles’s tics suddenly acted up, which caused him to stab the man with his knitting needles. This started the beating, and Noodles ran. Ali is in disbelief because abandoning your brother goes against everything he knows. Fed up, he looks for his phone to find the time, but it is gone. Still, he knows it is late and goes to leave. An emotional Noodles tries to stop Ali; he reveals that their father left because of Needles’s Tourette’s syndrome. Their mother became depressed and started staying out late, which eventually resulted in them moving to the slum. Noodles treats his brother poorly because he feels Needles is responsible for destroying everything. Ali appreciates the explanation but has nothing left to give. He leaves without a word.
Chapter 11 Summary
Sharp pain shoots through Ali’s hand as he opens his door. He reins in his agony to avoid waking his mother or sister, as he knows they will question his injuries and late return. He takes off his shoes, which are dirty and specked with blood—ruined, just like their night. He sees them as a memento of his first real fight and a symbol of the sacrifices of being loyal and protecting your people. His face is battered and swollen, and his jaw is stiff. In bed, he feels the heavy weight of both physical and emotional pain. He struggles to make sense of Noodles’s actions, or lack thereof. He knows that he has reached his limit with Noodles.
The noise of someone breaking into the apartment stirs him, and he grabs a baseball bat to defend his family. With the apartment still in darkness, he strikes the intruder just before recognizing that it is his father. John tells Ali and Doris, who is also awake, that he came to check on Ali since he never sent a text that he arrived home safely. After some cajoling from John, Ali tells his parents everything that happened that night. He maintains that he had to intervene to save Needles’s life, but Doris is dismayed at his involvement in violence. John gets water to help calm her crying and shaking. He makes sure Ali handled himself well in the fight before signaling his approval. Nevertheless, Ali is guilt-ridden and feels responsible for upsetting his mother. She asks about Needles and is satisfied when she learns how he cared for his friend.
Doris warns of a serious punishment that awaits Ali. John suggests he visit Malloy to see about his hand once Doris allows it. Uncomplaining and exhausted, Ali returns to bed.
Chapter 12 Summary
Ali wakes with a sore face and a very stiff body. His hand is swollen like “those big foam hands” (154) worn at sporting events. He has only seen them on TV because although his father promised to take him and Jazz to see the Knicks or the Yankees, he never did—possibly because he could never afford tickets.
The smells of breakfast remind Ali that Jazz will see injuries and be troubled. He worries about how she will react to hearing about the fight and Needles’s thrashing. Despite her maturity, he feels this information will be too much. To Ali’s surprise, Jazz already knows. She runs up to Ali hugs him tightly, asking how he is doing. She heard them talking in the night and knows everything. He reassures her that everyone, including Needles, is fine.
Ali sees two empty plates and assumes Jazz ate his breakfast along with hers. He learns that the second plate belonged to their father, who spent the night on the couch. Ali is amazed because it has been a long time since John slept in their home. Ali thinks it is massive that their mother let him stay there. Jazz left his breakfast in the microwave, and on the counter nearby is a stern note from Doris laying out the terms of Ali’s punishment. He is not allowed to leave the house except to briefly go to Malloy’s to get his hand mended. He must also thoroughly clean the apartment. Despite including some reprimands, she finishes the note with “I love you, son” (158). After breakfast and a painkiller, Ali leaves for Malloy’s.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
At the party, the boys each live out their version of the perfect night—perhaps no one more so than Needles. The sight of Needles dancing feels incongruous with descriptions of him as taut and subdued. He seems like a different person, and in a way he is, because for the first time he is free to move his body expressively without feeling judged for any unusual movements. The visual of cheering partiers gathering around Needles is an inverse image of the scene in Chapter 1, where his tics drew a concerned crowd. By pairing these moments, Reynolds presents a depiction of life with a disability that resists perpetuating the harmful trope of the tragically disabled character and instead focuses on the potential for vibrant and enjoyable experiences.
At the end of the night, the joy and feelings of community in the previous three chapters are replaced by feelings of betrayal and heartbreak. This is a potent moment because in retrospect, the repeated emphasis on family is realized as subtle foreshadowing of the coming betrayal of those tenets.
As difficult as it is for the main characters, the fight serves a constructive narrative purpose. It acts as a catalyst for Ali to push Noodles to explain his behavior, which in turn leads to Noodles finally opening up about his family’s history and his feelings toward his brother. Noodles’s confession gives context to his anger and shows that his and Ali’s experiences have resulted in contrasting perspectives on the importance of family. While this does not excuse Noodle’s actions, it does evoke pity for him, particularly when considered alongside Ali’s experience with therapy. While Ali has the shadowboxing coping mechanism, Noodles has not been taught any healthy strategies for processing his emotions, and as a result, he lashes out at people closest to him.
The preceding chapters have shown that Ali feels a personal responsibility for those he loves, and his actions in the aftermath of the party reiterate this character trait. When he thinks there is an intruder in the apartment, his physical pain is overshadowed by the imperative to keep his family safe. This parallels his determination to push past his fears of hitting an opponent or being struck himself to save Needles from harm. This kind of self-sacrifice demonstrates the standard of care Ali expects and exposes Noodles’s shortcomings in meeting it. At the same time, Ali’s family rallying around him shows precisely why Noodles does not share the same values. While Ali’s parents have made sacrifices for their children and provided a supportive system he can emulate, Noodles’s parents have largely acted out of self-interest. His resentment of his brother is certainly a factor in his response to the fight, but so is the influence of this upbringing.
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