61 pages • 2 hours read
Susan NussbaumGood Kings Bad Kings
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013A 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 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Yessenia Lopez”
Yessenia goes to the “time out room”—which she jokingly refers to as “the Toilet” (31). During her time in the juvenile detention system, she met “criminal” acquaintances charged with drug dealing, theft, and gang activity. She—along with other people at ILLC—attend Hoover High School, and Ricky busses them over daily. Yessenia has a crush on Ricky.
Yessenia and her friend at ILLC, Cheri, joke and laugh about their unfortunate situation. Yessenia also has a counselor, Mrs. Patricia Flowers, who talks to her about her family situation. While talking about her non-present parents, she insists that her mother is her Tía Nene, who has taken care of her all her life. Even her Tía Nene never saw Yessenia as capable and independent and everyone feels that “somebody always gots to take care of [her]” (35).
Chapter 6 Summary: “Teddy Dobbs”
Teddy is a 21-year-old patient who plans to escape ILLC but gets distracted thinking about his girlfriend, Mia, and his relationship with his father. At ILLC, Teddy mostly does delinquent and vulgar activities with his friend, Bernard, such as stealing their teacher’s keys to sneak into forbidden areas and masturbating into the pool. He wonders about how much a hooker would cost. He gets in trouble often and tries to spend time with Mia, but the “houseparents,” who are responsible for taking care of the patients, interrupt them. When Teddy’s father visits, he brings gifts for Teddy and Mia, and Teddy’s dad tells Teddy that he just has a “different way of learning stuff” and that he’s not “retarded” (42).
Chapter 7 Summary: “Ricky Hernandez”
It’s a rainy day, and Ricky decides to help out his new coworker (Joanne) by taking her home. He seems attracted to her and comments on her good looks. They small talk, and he thinks to himself if he should help her put on her coat but sees that she is self-sufficient so doesn’t want to seem rude. Once they are in his bus, they small talk. Ricky tells Joanne about his former job as a taxi driver, but he rambles and feels nervous because he isn’t sure what to say. Joanne is sweet and responds very politely. Ricky remembers some of his past girlfriends, and it’s evident that he doesn’t discriminate in the types of partners he has had—though he mentions that he likes a woman with curves. In one of his past relationships, his girlfriend was jealous, and once he slapped her after she had hit him. He is single now, and it seems he has a growing interest for Joanne, who he goes far out of his way to drop off at her apartment door. They depart by shaking hands, and he hopes she smiles at him again like she did when he offered to take her home.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Jimmie Kendrick”
Jimmie’s narrative begins with her past. She moved to New York City from Chicago to sing, but things didn’t work out, and she ended up without a job or a home. She was a homeless woman who was sober and survived by finding loose money on the streets and sleeping on subways. She had a friend, Linda, whom she met in New York and who would allow Jimmie to shower in her apartment.
Jimmie is tall, muscular lesbian who looks out for others; she has broken up bar fights and taken care of strangers who get harassed on the streets, like the “young tranny” she defended from an abusive man (51). Jimmie never really appeared homeless, and her attitude is generous and good willed. She knows Joanne because she was her personal caretaker at one point, and Joanne suggests that Jimmie should apply to work at ILLC, which is in Englewood—a Chicago “hood” that is near where Jimmie grew up. Within a week, Jimmie gets the job at ILLC, feeling optimistic and carefree.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Ricky Hernandez”
Ricky’s interest in Joanne continues, as he talks to her about his sexual interests. They have a joking and flirty relationship, and Ricky is “turned-on” (59) by their conversation about blow jobs. The reason they even started having that conversation is because Ricky’s colleague, Jerry, was talking to Ricky about his sex fantasies, and even though Ricky wasn’t very interested, he wanted to talk to Joanne about how “creepy” and funny it was talking to Jerry.
Chapters 5-9 Analysis
Yessenia’s character continues to develop as a tough young woman who gets into constant trouble. The author reveals and reinforces more of her family background, and it’s clear that she has no guidance and support in her life—besides her Tía Nene, who she deeply loves and misses. Yessenia’s narrative voice is much younger, lacks maturity, and is pessimistic compared to the other characters—even her peers. She often confuses terms like “a ward:” “If this is what it means to be award of the state, you can have your award, I don’t want it. I can take my own booty to the bathroom” (31). Fiercely independent, she occasionally reveals her vulnerable side. When she says that even her own Tía Nene never treated her as a self-sufficient woman, it’s obvious that Yessenia’s troublesome behavior stems from how she thinks others perceive her worth.
Teddy Dobbs appears in Chapter 6 as a young adult delinquent who often gets in trouble at ILLC for breaking the rules and challenging authority. He represents a typical young teenage male—in some aspects—by making dumb decisions such as “jerking off” in the pool and stealing from his teacher. In many ways, his character shows how, despite his mental disability, he is still a regular boy who gets into mischief with his buddy, Bernard. In his mind, he is living a normal adolescence with his girlfriend and his father, who comes to visit him. Though people have labeled him as “retarded,” he thinks he is no different than others, and he lives his life with joy and thrill. His actions and ideas, however, expose some levels of delusion, as he hopes to escape from ILLC but has nowhere to go or no ability to even do so. His character symbolizes how nothing is in the control of the disabled characters—from how they are labeled to how they move around in public spaces—even when they like to believe it is.
In one instance, Teddy’s girlfriend, Mia, is wheeled away when they are about to kiss, underscoring how Teddy’s ambitions and intentions to be a normal kid are futile; he literally can’t harness anything around him, even basic expressions of affection—and overall, there is a huge lack of autonomy for disabled characters like him.
Jimmie’s character stands out in physical, and even mental, prowess, which is a sharp contrast with many of the other narrators in the story who are unable to move or communicate properly due to their illnesses. Jimmie is large, can defend herself, and despite having been homeless, is very self-aware and intuitive. Though largely undeveloped at this point in the narrative, her character’s relationship with Joanne serves to further illuminate how Joanne’s character is well-loved, compassionate, and helpful.
Ricky’s sense of masculinity begins to emerge more at this point in the text, as he shares his sexual interests and romantic history. Though he is a genuinely sweet and thoughtful man, he also possesses a sense of demeaning sexism in the way he views and interacts with women. In one instance, he even hit his ex-girlfriend and left her after they got into a fight. His sexual attraction to Joanne demonstrates how he views women—even his co-workers—as potential partners, and how he doesn’t have much self-control. Comments such as “Hey, I like talking about sex as much as the next guy. And you know when you’re with another guy you’re gonna say some things you wouldn’t want to say around a woman.” (56) are telling in how Ricky isn’t as innocent as he originally appears.
