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 26-29
Chapter 26 Summary
In the wake of Elijah’s proclamation, Weems considers the people he’s trapped with. A few days ago, he thought it was an odd group. Now, he realizes all the labels high school students put on each other mean nothing and that serious situations bring out who people really are. After what they’ve gone through, they don’t “seem like such an odd group anymore” (168).
Chapter 27 Summary
Pete and Julie go to the cafeteria and come back with more food, including hotdogs they can heat over the fire. The group gets excited about hot food. Someone shouts, and then they hear a cracking noise, “like someone had fired a cannon thirty yards away” (171).
They run out into the hall, where they see part of the ceiling has caved in and there’s snow in the building. They aren’t sure if the loud noise caused this, but they all stay quiet. Jason comes up from the shop and ends the chapter on the somber note of “this is not good” (173).
Chapter 28 Summary
The group cooks and eats their hotdogs; though, none of them are really hungry. The reality of how much trouble they’re in hits Weems. The school, where they thought they’d be safe, is coming down and might be “what killed us” (175).
Jason and Les go to the shop. Pete goes to the fire room, and Julie follows. When Pete comes back, he asks where Julie is. The group assumes she went down to the shop, and they sit down to talk about what they’ll do when this ordeal is over. Weems realizes how loud he’s laughing and checks on the ceiling, relieved it isn’t collapsing.
Chapter 29 Summary
Weems, Krista, Pete, and Elijah try to rationalize why the roof collapsed. Weems secretly wishes Pete and Elijah would leave because he wants to be alone with Krista. After all, they “could die in here” (180). Julie comes running into the room, sobbing. She says something about Les. Pete runs out of the room. Weems follows, but Krista stops him.
Chapters 26-29 Analysis
Chapter 26 is a major turning point in Weems’s character growth. Faced with the roof crushing him, he seriously considers the people he’s trapped with for the first time. Weems acknowledges he judged them prematurely and hopes they haven’t done the same to him. Weems doesn’t fully stop thinking of them in terms of categories, but he now sees them as real people, rather than just stand-ins for a single characteristic. Weems also realizes he put himself in a category and ironically hopes the others haven’t done the same to him.
The nor’easter delivers its most devastating blow yet in Chapter 27 when it brings down part of the roof. Up until now, the school has stood as a bastion between the kids and the threat outside. Now, the storm infiltrates their safe place. The antagonist is bringing the fight to the kids, foreshadowing how they’ll soon venture outside into the threat itself.
In the wake of the ceiling collapsing, Weems reverts to placing people in categories (something comfortable). He wants to be alone with Krista; though, now it’s because this might be his only chance with her, not just because she’s pretty. While Weems backslides a bit, he also maintains the idea his companions are more than a single trait. Weems remains trapped in an uncertain headspace, which reflects how he operated in the school all along until the catastrophe.
