90 pages • 3 hours read
Priscilla CummingsRed Kayak
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2004A 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 19–21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
Brady's aunt meets him at the train station, along with his cousins Kevin and Emily. When they get back to the house, Kevin leaves for a music lesson and Brady watches Emily play with dolls. Doing so reminds him of Amanda, who would be roughly the same age as Emily if she'd lived. Eventually, though, he grows bored and goes to ask his aunt if she needs help cooking dinner. She doesn't, so he settles into the den and begins flipping through somefamily photo albums.
Brady skims through the photos, enjoying the memories they bring back. Eventually, he comes across one of his mother holding Amanda. His aunt walks in on him as he starts tearing up, and he says that he's never seen a picture of his sister before. When he wonders why his parents don't have any photographs, his aunt says that they must have found the reminders too painful. Brady, though, complains that "It’s like Mom and Dad packed her up and put her away. Like they wanted to pretend she never existed" (140). Brady's aunt gently tells him that he can keepthis photo if he wants, and Brady puts the photo in his wallet, where he says it was "a comfort" (140).
Brady has fun playing with his cousins and spending time on the beach, and wishes he could stay in Rhode Island indefinitely. He knows he needs to make a decision about the drill, but he continues to mull things over on the trip back. The thought of J.T. facing punishment particularly worries Brady, both because he knows J.T. didn't intend to hurt anyone, and because of the difficulties it will cause J.T.'s family. He thinks back to how shy J.T. was when he transferred to Brady's school, and remembers how Digger defended him from bullies. This in turn causes him to feel guilty about the prospect of turning Digger in, and he briefly considers getting off the train and running away. He decides against it, though, and has made his choice about what to do by the time he arrives in Baltimore.
Chapter 20 Summary
When Brady comes home, he and his parents enjoy a big meal of fresh crabs from the river. Brady asks how crabbing has been, and his father replies that it's been slow, and that he's frustrated by the fact that fisherman in other states don't need to abide by the same regulations he does. As a result, he's thinking about fishing perch on the side.
The next day, Brady's parents leave to run errands, and Brady prepares to dump the drill in the river. He feels guilty about his decision when he sees Tiny Tim, and he doesn't even want to take Tilly with him: "Tilly had found a huge, horse-shoe-crab shell on the creek bank and was chomping away. Quickly, I drew back on the oars so I could escape without her. I didn’t want anyone to see what I was about to do, not even my dog" (147). Ultimately, though, Brady follows through on his plan in order to protect his friends and family.
Chapter 21 Summary
Brady expects to feel relieved now that he's acted, but instead feels uneasy. He wonders if "it was something [he] just had to get used to first, like a new haircut" (148). Over the next few days, though, things don't improve much; Brady avoids getting in touch with J.T. and Digger, instead wasting time around the house. Though he eventually goes back to work for Mrs. DiAngelo, it doesn't make a difference in his mood.
On the Fourth of July, Mr. DiAngelo returns, which Brady finds disconcerting: "I had the eerie feeling he was watching me all day" (149). When he gets home, he hears a message on the answering machine for his father: the other watermen are planning to protest the new government regulations. His father isn't happy when he hears about the meeting, but Brady's mother reminds him that if he doesn't attend, the other watermen will "make [his] life miserable" (150). He says he knows, and leaves it at that.
The next day, as he's working with his mother in the garden, Brady remarks that Mr. DiAngelo is back, but that he isn't sure the marriage is any better: Mrs. DiAngelo seemed upset the last time he saw her. His mother reiterates that it's a good thing he's helping out there, and Brady says that he doesn't think he'll be able to stay on. His mother asks whether anything has happened, and Brady says no, but isn't able to look her in the eye.
Back in his room, Brady begins to reconsider his decision to stay silent. He takes out the picture of Amanda and wonders what her advice to him would be. As he's staring at the picture, his mom walks in. He hesitantly explains where he got the photograph, and he and his mother have a heart-to-heart conversation: Brady admits how much he'd wanted a reminder of his sister, and his mother apologizes for leaving the family in the wake of Amanda's death.
Eventually, Brady's mother asks him to reconsider working for Mrs. DiAngelo, and he agrees. She takes him out into the living room and shows him where she keeps the key to the trunk with Amanda's things in it, telling him he can open it anytime. Brady is touched, but also feels guilty: "I loved my mom so much, I thought. It would just kill her to know what J.T. and Digger had done, and how it was all my idea…." (155).
Chapters 19–21 Analysis
The parallels between Amanda and Ben become clearer in these chapters, as Brady finally receives the memento of his sister that he's always wanted. Besides being a source of comfort to Brady, the photograph paves the way for Brady and his mother to talk openly about Amanda's death for the first time. The conversation they have brings them closer together, clearing up misunderstandings and hurt feelings; by giving Brady the key to Amanda's things, Brady's mother acknowledges that her son has his own way of remembering Amanda, and gives him the tools he needs to truly come to terms with her death.Unsurprisingly, Brady turns to Amanda's photograph as he tries to similarly work through his feelings about Ben's death and his friends' role in it.
Meanwhile, the problems Brady's father is facing at work continue to echo Brady's own moral dilemma. Like Brady, Mr. Parks is torn between loyalty to people with whom he shares experiences and interests—in this case, his fellow crabbers—and the broader ethical imperative of preserving the balance of life in the bay. As we see in Chapter 20, it is not easy for Brady's father to set aside his personal feelings in order to reach his final decision; he shares the resentment other fisherman feel towards the government regulations that limit their ability to make a living, and he knows that he will face pressure to conform to their decision. Ultimately, his willingness to go his own way in the face of these concerns will give Brady the courage to do the same.
Finally, these chapters give us a glimpse of something we haven't yet seen in The Red Kayak: a family that is fully whole and functional. The Parks family, though loving, is still struggling to come to terms with Amanda's death as the novel opens. The other families we see—the DiAngelos, the Griswalds (Digger's family), and the Tylers (J.T.'s family)—are also struggling with issues ranging from loss to sickness to abuse. When Brady visits his cousins Kevin and Emily, we see what all these families might be like under other, happier circumstances.
