48 pages • 1 hour read
Jeff KinneyDouble Down
Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 14-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “October”
Part 1, Chapter 14 Summary: “Monday”
The whole school is talking about Mariana Mendoza’s Halloween party, which is coming up on Friday. Mariana’s parties “are kind of legendary because her parents don’t care WHAT goes on, as long as it stays in the basement” (140). Greg has never been invited to one of these parties, and this year he is desperate to attend. However, because last year’s party got so out of control, her parents are only letting her invite students “who are in the school band with her” (141).
Greg is not in the band, but Rowley is. Greg is convinced that if Rowley goes without him, he will be socially lost, so he decides to join the band to get invited. Mrs. Heffley is excited that Greg wants to “challenge [himself] and try something new” (142) but Mr. Heffley is skeptical. He argues that instruments cost a lot of money that he doesn’t want to spend if Greg isn’t going to stick with it. He brings up the time that they tried to get Greg into playing piano, which failed miserably: he never practiced and was not interested in learning. Mrs. Heffley insists that they just need to find the right instrument for Greg.
Greg’s parents take him to the music store to find an instrument. Greg wants something that will be easy to play and make him look cool. He decides on the French horn because it only has three keys. At first, Greg’s father says it is too expensive to buy, and that they should rent it instead. Mrs. Heffley tells her husband that he needs to have more faith in Greg, and he finally agrees to buy the instrument. Greg hopes the French horn will be as easy as it looks. He is starting to feel like he is going through a lot of trouble “just to get invited to a Halloween party” (151).
Part 1, Chapter 15 Summary: “Tuesday”
Greg is starting to regret his instrument choice. It is very heavy and he has to drag it to school every day. The French horn is in the brass section, which, to Greg’s horror, is made up almost entirely of boys. The woodwind section is mostly girls; Rowley is one of the few boys, and Greg is jealous. He resents Rowley for not telling him more about the gender distribution of each band section before he joined. On top of everything, Greg cannot get the instrument to make a noise; it is much harder than it looks. His band teacher, who will soon be retiring, does little to actually teach the students about their instruments.
Part 1, Chapter 16 Summary: “Thursday”
Greg’s problems with the French horn continue. He has to play the instrument with his left hand, despite being right-handed, and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot make any sound through the mouthpiece. His father is also putting lots of pressure on him, and “wants to hear [him] practicing each night, like [he] promised him” (159). To satisfy his father, Greg finds a video of a girl playing French horn on the internet and plays it loud enough for Mr. Heffley to hear through his bedroom door.
Greg’s plan to get invited to Mariana’s Halloween party has also been foiled, as Mariana is only inviting the woodwind section. Greg comes up with another plan to get into the party. As Rowley is in the woodwind section, Greg decides that he and Rowley will dress up as a two-headed monster for Halloween. This way “wherever [Rowley] goes, [Greg goes], too” (161). Greg manages to convince Rowley to agree to the plan, even though he wanted to dress as a “nice witch” (161) and the two make a costume out of some sheets that Greg finds in the linen closet. Mrs. Heffley asks them what they are doing, and at first, Greg thinks she is upset with them for cutting up her sheets, but she is actually happy that they are being creative instead of playing video games. She says she will give them a ride to the Halloween party.
Part 1, Chapter 17 Summary: “Halloween”
Greg and Rowley arrive at Mariana’s Halloween party. Greg thanks his mother for dropping them off and gets out of the car. He is horrified when Mrs. Heffley gets out of the car too. She tells Greg that she is coming inside to “introduce herself to Mr. and Mrs. Mendoza” (165). No one answers the doorbell, so Greg, Rowley, and Mrs. Heffley all go inside. They find the party in full swing in the basement.
To Greg’s continued horror, his mother takes out a bunch of homemade Halloween games from her bag and starts setting them up. He is stunned when some of the girls start helping Mrs. Heffley set up the games. The games are all a big hit and the kids have lots of fun. Greg and Rowley are a good team and win lots of the games. When the games are over, the party intensifies, and most attendees dance.
Unfortunately, Rowley tells Greg that he needs to use the bathroom. Because their costume involves them sharing clothes, Greg refuses to let Rowley go. He decides that Rowley is just going to have to “wait until [they] get home to deal with it” (172). Rowley gets desperate to use the bathroom, and makes it “impossible for [Greg] to enjoy [himself]” (172). Mrs. Heffley realizes what is happening to Rowley and suggests that they all leave. She says that it is cooler “to leave a party when it’s going strong than when it’s fizzling out” (173). They leave, and Greg is miserable, but his mother is very happy.
Part 1, Chapters 14-17 Analysis
Much of Double Down’s comedy is derived from Greg’s attempts to execute elaborate, fraudulent, and often unsuccessful schemes to get wants, when simple, more straight-forward solutions would likely yield better results. The blurred line between Reality and Illusion provides a framework for the story’s comedic punchlines. Greg deliberately chooses the French horn because it looks like it will be easy to learn, having only three keys. What Greg does not know is that the French horn is a notoriously difficult instrument. Playing the French horn involves making specific hand shapes inside the bell of the instrument while also pressing the keys. Many musicians list the French horn as the most challenging instrument in the entire orchestra. If Greg was interested in actually learning his instrument, he could ask his parents for help or talk to his band teacher. As is so often the case, Greg is more interested in his own fantasy-based solutions than a more direct and honest approach. He comes up with elaborate plans, none of which are based in reality, which is why many of them fail. In this case, Greg joins the band, convinces his parents to buy him an expensive instrument, does not learn to play it, and still fails to secure an invitation to Mariana’s party—repeated failures that are a major source of humor in Double Down, and a consistent feature across all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid stories.
When Greg convinces his parents that he wants to play the French horn, readers already know that he has no intention of practicing his instrument. Greg’s parents are not aware of his true motivations, creating a sense of dramatic irony where readers know something that some of the characters do not. This is a particularly striking depiction of Greg’s approach to Perseverance and Commitment. He is deeply committed to attending Mariana’s party, and he does demonstrate perseverance to get there: He convinces his parents to buy him an expensive instrument despite his past failure to learn piano. When his French Horn scheme fails, he immediately develops a new creative-but-impractical solution: the two-person costume with Rowley.
Greg uses the interplay between Reality and Illusion to his benefit in these chapters—further evidence of his rich imagination and creativity. He uses online videos of someone else playing the French horn to create the illusion that he is practicing. As usual, Greg does not see anything wrong with these lies as long as they serve his personal goal: attending the party. Throughout all of the Wimpy Kid books, Greg pursues popularity and greater social standing at almost any cost. The party represents an opportunity to fit in with the other kids in his grade and establish himself as someone cool. Greg often thinks that he understands what makes someone or something cool, but his understanding is actually incomplete: his mother’s Halloween games initially embarrass him because he fears the other kids find her embarrassing, but in reality the games are a huge hit at the party. This kind of intense self-consciousness and concern with the perception of others is common for Greg’s stage of development.
The complicated Friendship and Loyalty between Greg and Rowley is once again on display in these chapters and provides an additional source of comedy in the trope of the long-suffering, comedic sidekick—Rowley. Greg resents Rowley for not giving him more information about the school band before he joined. Just as he has many times before, Greg thinks of Rowley as both a friend and a resource or tool. He pressures Rowley into sharing a Halloween costume with him claiming an altruistic motivation (wanting to save Rowley from being ridiculed if he attended a party as a “nice witch”). Rowley is not as strong-willed as Greg, and he looks up to his friend, so he goes along with Greg’s plan. It does seem that the two boys enjoy each other’s company, as they do well at the Halloween games and enjoy the party. However, Greg is once again inconsiderate of Rowley’s feelings when he refuses to let him go to the bathroom fulfilling the comedic trope of the domineering, self-interested protagonist who is consistently inconsiderate of his more passive, kind-hearted sidekick.
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