85 pages • 2 hours read
Camron WrightThe Rent Collector
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A 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 26-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary
Sang reads the other essays from Sopeap and thinks about the lessons—of love, irony, kindness, and anguish—she learns from each story. However, the book does not tell her where to find Sopeap, though the note at the end does tell Sang that Sopeap left her some books at her house and tells Sang where to find the key.
Sang next thinks to look at the hospital for Sopeap. She discovers that Sopeap quit treatment several weeks prior and refused an opportunity to travel to Thailand for experimental treatment. Sang then goes to Sopeap’s home, which is located outside of the dump and much more of a real home than Sang’s own—not only does it have “two rooms, solid walls, and a pitched roof,” it also has a “front door that locks” (226). Sopeap is not there, but when Sang and Ki go inside, Sang sees hundreds of books. Then she locates a list of the dozen families from whom Sopeap collects rent, including Ki and Sang. Sang questions Sopeap’s neighbors, who know only that Sopeap left a few days before. Ki then suggests finding out who owns the land on which he and Sang live, reasoning that the landowners will know where their rent collector might be.
Chapter 27 Summary
Sang’s friend Teva tells Sang to go to the Ministry of Land and Records for help. Once there, Sang asks an official for help, who tells them that Sopeap was not just a rent collector, but the landowner. Furthermore, Sopeap sold the land on which she and Ki and the other families live to a person named Chenda Lai Sin. Right as Ki and Sang are about to leave, the official tells them that Sopeap also transferred the title to her house to Sang and Ki.
Next, Sang finds Chenda Lai Sin’s home and meets Rathana, the real Sopeap Sin’s younger sister. Rathana tells Sang that her family had long suspected that Sopeap Sin was dead but had no official notice. Then they began to receive monthly packages, which contain a great deal of money. This made them believe that Sopeap Sin might be alive but “perhaps […] ashamed for something that had happened during the war” (237). However, they were never able to determine where the money came from.
Sang wants to tell her the whole story but suggests to Rathana that she tell the entire family at once. Sang returns the next day to speak to Rathana, her three brothers, and Sopeap Sin’s elderly mother. However, none of them know where to find the purported Sopeap Sin, as they have always believed that she was executed along with the rest of the educated during the revolution.
Chapter 28 Summary
Sang continues her search for Sopeap. When she returns to Sopeap’s home, she finds the story Sopeap promised her, the one she called her favorite. Sang goes through the essays Sopeap left her again, this time finding a clue in a story about an old woman at the reeducation camp, an old woman who decides to end her life by going into the jungle surrounding the camp. Death is imminent in the jungle, and the only question is how that will death occur: [L]and mine or soldier’s bullet? Malaria or starvation? Spider bite or poisonous snake?” (244). There, the old woman encounters a dying elephant, which she expects will trample her or harm her. However, the elephant is gravely injured, so the woman comforts the elephant until it dies. This reminds her that life, including her own, is valuable.
Ki wonders if the old woman represents Sopeap, but Sang believes that it is the elephant that symbolizes her: “Wounded and hidden, but so close, almost anyone could find her—if they just knew where to look” (249). With this thought, Sang believes she may know where Sopeap has gone.
Chapters 26-28 Analysis
In these chapters, Wright continues to explore the power of story and demonstrates how story has helped Sang to forge connections and become part of a supportive community that extends beyond Stung Meanchey. Sang reads and re-reads the essays that Sopeap has left for her but is not able to understand them without this community. This is most evident when Sang’s friends and family rally to help her find Sopeap: Ki produces the idea to look for the landowners, and Teva knows where to find the information.
Sang meets what will come to be an extension of that community when she finds the real Sopeap Sin’s family. The family does not blame Soriyan and is grateful for the ways in which she has helped. Although Soriyan allowed the real Sopeap Sin to tragically die in her place, Soriyan’s subsequent actions have neither been selfish nor unkind. Her action’s positive effects continue to radiate out: Soriyan improves the lives and conditions of Sopeap Sin’s family members, who are then able to do the same for their children, and so on. This parallels the ways in Sang’s education will have beneficial effects on others: She will be able to educate her son, as well as her husband and friends. When Sang combines the information she has learned from Sopeap’s stories with the wisdom and help of this community, she can find Sopeap before she dies.
