54 pages 1 hour read

Stephen King

The Institute

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4, Chapters 1-9 Summary

Waking in the middle of the night, Luke decides to visit a website that enables users to bypass parental controls—and it works. Luke is about to try to confirm his parents’ murder when he is interrupted by someone screaming for help in the hall.

The screamer is a new arrival: 10-year-old Avery Dixon. Luke, Kalisha, and new girl Helen calm Avery—with Kalisha treating her fellow telepath like a younger brother, the two communicating without words. She soothes Avery to sleep by telepathically singing him a song that her mother used to sing to her. Afterward, Luke tells Kalisha that he thinks he knows how to help Maureen with her debt.

The next day, Luke asks Gladys if she has children and if she would want to see them locked up in a place like the Institute. Gladys doesn’t react. After another session of abuse in the labs, Luke wants nothing more than to tear down the facility like the biblical Samson destroying the temple of the Philistines.

Part 4, Chapters 10-12 Summary

Kalisha arranges for Luke to meet Maureen at the ice machine, the only place in the facility safe from security microphones. Luke tells Maureen that she’s not obligated to pay her husband’s debts—the credit card companies are harassing her illegally.