64 pages • 2 hours read
Michael NorthropTrapped
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011A 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 21-22
Chapter 21 Summary
Jason and Weems lug everything they’ll need for the fire upstairs. They open up a new classroom for the fire, which has the pro and con of being “close to both rooms” the kids are already using (142). Despite all the reservations, the fire ends up working out and almost sounds like “a fireplace crackling away somewhere nearby” (144).
Chapter 22 Summary
For the first time since the snow started, it slows down enough to be noticeable. Pete leans out the window to try and get cell reception. There’s none, and he drops his phone in the snow. The phone is too far away to reach, and there’s nothing they can do but close the window “with a heavy thud” (147).
Weems spots a helicopter out the window. It doesn’t get close enough for them to try and contact it, but the group splits up to keep an eye out from different sides of the building, which leaves Weems alone with Krista. Weems stares at her and wonders if this is what love feels like. Krista looks up, and Weems thinks she’s staring at him. She’s actually looking out the window at the snow, which is “really coming down again” (151).
Chapters 21-22 Analysis
Chapter 21 is a rare chapter where everything seems to go right. The fire works out fine, and the kids are able to contain it, warm up, and defrost snow to drink. Weems’s remark that the fire sounds like a fireplace shows he’s still longing for the storm to stop and for help to come. The sound comforts him, chasing away any lingering fear from Elijah’s comment in Chapter 19.
In Chapter 22, Pete tries again to get reception for his cell phone. Northrop continues to utilize dramatic irony in regard to the cell towers. Pete dropping his phone represents how the kids remain cut off from communication with the outside world. Pete’s phone sinking into the snow foreshadows Pete’s death and final resting place buried beneath Flammenwerfer. The far-away helicopter also represents the kids’ isolation and foreshadows Weems’s later rescue by the National Guard at the end of the book.
The snow seems to take on a personality in Chapter 22. At the beginning of the chapter, the snow has lightened up, offering hope that it might stop. The loss of Pete’s phone and the helicopter that’s too far away reduce that hope. By the end of the chapter, the snow picks up again, almost as if the storm mocks the kids for daring to think their situation might improve.
Weems finds himself alone with Krista and stares at her. He’s drawn in by her beauty and wonders if he’s in love, even though he’s only had one real conversation with her. Weems still thinks of Krista as only attractive. It takes him a minute to realize Krista’s looking at the snow, not him, showing how much importance Weems places on Krista’s appearance.
