54 pages • 1-hour read
Half His Age
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Chapters 42-65Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes sexual content and depictions of child sexual abuse and emotional abuse.
Chapter 42 Summary
Korgy finally reschedules his date with Waldo and takes her out for a fancy dinner. Waldo feels uncomfortable, fearing she isn’t behaving correctly. After putting in their order, Korgy gets a call from Gwen and takes it outside. Waldo waits and waits.
Her food is cold by the time Korgy returns. She tries to hide her upset but finally confronts him about taking Gwen’s calls in front of her. Korgy assures Waldo she is in control and they can stop seeing each other whenever the affair becomes too much for her. She assures him she doesn’t want to stop. The conversation turns to other topics. On their way out, the server compliments Korgy on being a good father.
Chapter 43 Summary
A few days later, Korgy informs Waldo that he is taking a week-long vacation with Gwen. He insists he can’t get out of it because they made the plan months ago. Waldo is devastated, as she’d hoped she and Korgy could spend more time together over spring break. Through tears, she tries initiating sex, but Korgy stops her. She insists this is what she wants.
Chapter 44 Summary
Chapter 45 Summary
In Korgy’s absence, Waldo picks up extra shifts at work and obsessively shops online. Nothing feels satisfying.
Chapter 46 Summary
The following week, Waldo finds herself “parked outside of [Korgy’s] house” (157). Although unsure what she is doing, she climbs into the vacated house through an open bathroom window.
Inside, she opens the cabinets and closets and inspects the room. Then she masturbates on his and Gwen’s bed using Korgy’s cologne bottle. Afterwards, she watches their wedding video on a desktop computer while eating popcorn. Upset by the footage, she climbs back outside and heads home.
Chapter 47 Summary
When Korgy returns from his trip, he comes over to Waldo’s apartment and ends their relationship. Waldo insists she loves and wants to be with him, assuring him he isn’t hurting her. He repeatedly tells her she is beautiful and that their relationship is wrong; he is terrified that even if she wants to be with him now, she’ll grow to resent him. He kisses her while crying over how confused he is. They hug before he leaves.
Chapter 48 Summary
Chapter 49 Summary
Chapter 50 Summary
Korgy won’t even make eye contact with Waldo when she returns to school. She is devastated.
Chapter 51 Summary
Chapter 52 Summary
Chapter 53 Summary
Waldo and Nolan go on a double date with Frannie and Tristan at a diner. Waldo is busy telling herself her new relationship is good for her when Nolan exclaims that Korgy is there. Waldo is horrified to look up and see Korgy with his family. He notices her when he and his family move to leave, a terrified look on his face. Waldo excuses herself to the bathroom, where she masturbates to Korgy’s Instagram again.
Chapter 54 Summary
Waldo drives to Korgy’s house and watches him celebrate his birthday with his family and friends from inside her car. She devours a bag of chips, silently berating herself for everything that’s happened.
Chapter 55 Summary
After school one day, Korgy finds Waldo at her car and confronts her for failing to turn in assignments. Waldo insists she doesn’t even care about writing and doesn’t believe he’ll fail her if she doesn’t complete the work.
Chapter 56 Summary
Chapter 57 Summary
Waldo continues dating Nolan, although she feels uncomfortable that Nolan likes her more than she likes him. Their sex has gotten better, but Waldo still doesn’t have feelings for him. One night, they go to a house party and have sex upstairs. Afterwards, Nolan tells Waldo she’s beautiful; Waldo is grateful he says it in a slightly different way than others, but still feels detached.
Chapter 58 Summary
Waldo’s mother helps her get dressed for the prom. She has been preparing for weeks, in hopes of impressing Korgy, who is on the chaperone list.
Chapter 59 Summary
Waldo and Nolan drive to the hotel for the prom. Waldo tries to hide her disappointment when she doesn’t see Korgy there. Mid-dance with Nolan, she excuses herself to the bathroom. She collects herself in the stall, telling herself she won’t let Korgy upset her.
Back on the dance floor, she pulls Nolan into a dramatic kiss. When she pulls away, she sees Korgy watching her from the other side of the room.
Chapter 60 Summary
Waldo and Korgy have sex in the bathroom. During intercourse, Korgy apologizes profusely for breaking up with her, insisting he made a mistake and can’t live without her.
Chapter 61 Summary
Chapter 62 Summary
The next day, Korgy takes Waldo back to Beluga Point. He explains himself again and finally tells her he loves her.
Chapter 63 Summary
Waldo attends her high school graduation. She thinks the ceremony is silly, but feels happy when she sees Korgy smiling at her.
Chapter 64 Summary
Korgy takes Waldo out to celebrate her graduation a few weeks later. She feels frustrated and disappointed that nothing has changed between them since he said, “I love you.” She tells him it’s okay that the celebration is delayed, but privately feels resentful toward Korgy.
Chapter 65 Summary
Waldo and Korgy continue seeing each other. Their encounters are always sporadic and rushed, but Waldo keeps telling herself she doesn’t mind. When they have sex, she tells Korgy to be more aggressive, secretly hoping sex can mask her frustration.
Chapters 42-65 Analysis
The longer Waldo and Korgy’s relationship goes on, the more apparent Korgy’s negative impact on Waldo becomes. Waldo’s growing resentment toward Korgy furthers the text’s exploration of The Inherent Harm in Adult-Child Relationships. At the start of their affair, Waldo believes that she only needs what Korgy is willing to give her. She convinces herself that she should be grateful that Korgy pays attention to her at all. As time goes by, however, Waldo realizes that Korgy’s divided attention is not enough; worse, Korgy’s lack of investment in her life feels like a direct reflection of her lack of self-worth. Since Korgy has inherent power over Waldo—due to his age and his role as her teacher—Waldo feels powerless to express her wants and needs, frustrations, and desires.
Waldo begins to speak up for herself more overtly in these chapters—a new behavioral pattern which only intensifies her fears of burdening Korgy and pushing him away. She believes she is indebted to Korgy and that asking for more would violate the terms of their dynamic. At the same time, her narration and her stream of consciousness become increasingly self-aware over the course of this section, a tonal shift that reveals the intense emotional weight Korgy is putting on her. For example, when Korgy takes Gwen’s phone call during their dinner date, and Waldo gets upset, Korgy acts as if he is confused by her frustration, saying: “You’re usually so understanding” (144). Waldo’s subsequent internal monologue conveys her newfound ability to see through Korgy’s lines to the truth of how he sees her:
It’s a masterfully chosen phrase, a way of pinning the problem back onto me, like he’s just the timid guy trying to make sense of his girlfriend’s ‘outburst,’ which he quantifies as any emotion that makes him remotely uncomfortable, which is any emotion that isn’t happiness or horniness. I would be impressed if I wasn’t so livid. (144)
Waldo is dissecting Korgy’s language and manner in this passage. She is making sense of Korgy’s control over her, newly aware that everything Korgy says is a way to manipulate her or hold her responsible for the entirety of their relationship. He even asserts, “Look, Waldo, […] You’re in control here” (145, emphasis added). Korgy knows that he has power over Waldo but is too cowardly to own his part in their distorted dynamic, instead falsely insisting she is the one in control. He is unwilling to truly acknowledge his culpability, with the exception of his dramatic, woe-is-me declarations that their relationship is wrong or that his feelings for Waldo are confusing him. As a result, Waldo feels compelled to quash her true emotions and to resume her comforting, compliant role.
The recurring images of Waldo masturbating to images of Korgy or using his belongings convey her desire to assert her power and claim her voice in their relationship, invoking The Impact of Loneliness and Longing on Coming of Age. When she masturbates using Korgy’s cologne bottle, for example, she does not wash it off after orgasming. This is a way for Waldo to stake her proverbial claim and to mark Korgy’s space with her bodily fluids. She is trying to make her presence in Korgy’s life overt—both visibly and tangibly. Waldo is also inserting herself into Korgy’s private domestic and familial sphere in this scene, intruding upon his space to gain power over him.
In the surrounding scenes where Waldo masturbates in the bathroom or at home while looking at Korgy’s Instagram, Waldo is often trying to satisfy a longing or urge. However, she does hold some power over Korgy in these moments, as she is using his account for her own use. At the same time, Waldo can only make these assertive moves when she is alone: She still avoids storming into Korgy’s house—choosing to sit outside and watch him from afar instead—and confronting him because she understands the unspoken repercussions of exposing that Korgy has hurt her. As the vulnerable party, she has been rendered helpless and silent.
Waldo’s brief relationship with Nolan during these chapters acts as a counterpoint to her relationship with Korgy. Korgy and Nolan’s characters are foils of each other, with Nolan’s contrasting features exposing Korgy’s hypocrisies and abuses. Unlike Korgy, Nolan is Waldo’s peer. He is also generous and authentic. He behaves in a respectful adult way toward Waldo instead of mistreating her and feigning regret later with lines like “I’m supposed to be the adult here” (163), the way Korgy does. Nolan is honest about what he feels for Waldo and blunt when he breaks up with her. He doesn’t try to make her feel lesser than himself, but he also holds her accountable while clearly stating his own needs. In this relationship, the main players are equals. Waldo doesn’t have to negotiate who she is to please Nolan the way she does for Korgy. The dynamic doesn’t last, but Nolan’s genuine care for Waldo serves as a foil for Korgy’s selfishness and exploitation.
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