Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
Part 1, Chapters 7-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Episode 1, Scene 12, Take 2”
During a flashback, Gerald faces disciplinary measures from Nanny during the first episode of Network Nanny. He’s visiting Gersday in his head, so he’s given a timeout for lack of attention. While in Gersday, Gerald imagines a world in which his mother intervenes in Tasha’s abusive behavior, and in which he’s a happy child. When the buzzer for his timeout goes off, he’s still fantasizing about this world.
In the same episode, Gerald chases Tasha with a toy light saber after she knees him in the stomach. He breaks the plastic light saber on her arm, causing her to cry. Gerald’s mother then intervenes on Tasha’s behalf. Since the camera people did not capture the full scene, they want to purchase another light saber so that Gerald can reenact the whole scene again. Gerald’s mother protests the decision but eventually gives in. Gerald then chases his sister once more, hoping to injure her more severely for how she hurt him. In retaliation for siding with Tasha, Gerald also defecates in a pair of his mother’s loafers, which she eventually discovers, much to her horror.
Chapter 8 Summary
While Gerald is working at the PEC Center, Nichols approaches once again to order beer despite being underage. Since Beth is nearby, Gerald refuses to serve him, leading Nichols to antagonize him. Beth intervenes just as Gerald is about to fight him. Instead of leaving, Nichols returns with Todd and tries to skip the line to get Gerald to pour him a beer once more. Fortunately, a woman at the front of the line grabs Nichols by the collar and tells him to wait his turn. She tells Gerald that she is a hockey fan and Nichols should not mess with avid followers of the sport. Gerald is thankful for her intervention, until Nichols publicly identities Gerald as the Crapper from the back of the line. The woman suddenly recognizes Gerald from the reality television show he appeared in as a child. Later, she finds him and tells him, “I’m so sorry for what those people did to you” (37). She gives Gerald a hug, which makes him cry. When the woman leaves, Beth and his crush give him consolatory looks. Gerald vows to never allow anyone to hug him again.
Chapter 9 Summary
Gerald comes home from work to find his mother sawing the tops off lotion bottles so that she can get to the lotion at the very bottom. He resents the fact that his mother seems more concerned with getting the lotion from the bottles than she is for his wellbeing. He recalls how abandoned he felt when his reputation for being the Crapper followed him to middle school. When another student, Tom, teased him for it, he bit the boy’s face, insisting that he “had it coming” (41).
Chapter 10 Summary
When Gerald returns to school on Monday, he envisions himself wearing warpaint in order to face any of his peers who are ready to antagonize him about being the Crapper. He attends classes in the SPED, or special education classroom, despite not having a disability that would warrant his presence there. He prefers this classroom since none of the disabled students make fun of him, and he considers them family.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Episode 1, Scenes 20-29”
On Network Nanny, Nanny implements a chore chart for all the children. For every chore that the children complete, they receive a sticker. Once the chart fills up with stickers, the children receive a reward. For Gerald and Lisi, this means going to the circus. Gerald completes all his chores while Lisi completes only part of her tasks. Meanwhile, Tasha does not complete any of her responsibilities, claiming that she is too traumatized by the smell of feces from Gerald’s antics to clean the bathroom. Gerald’s mother sides with Tasha and tries to convince Nanny to exercise leniency on Tasha. However, Nanny is not convinced and punishes Tasha for not completing her chores. She gives Lisi light restrictions on television time for only partially completing her responsibilities, while Gerald receives ice cream as his reward.
When Gerald realizes that his parents do not intend to punish Tasha, permitting her ice cream and television after Nanny and the cameras leave, he retaliates by defecating on Tasha’s bed. He and Lisi do not get to go to the circus in the end.
Chapter 12 Summary
Lisi no longer calls home once she graduated from high school because their mother actively prevented her from going to college. Their mother had reasoned that since Tasha did not perform well in college, the rest of her children would not fare well either. With the help of a guidance counselor, Lisi was able to apply to colleges and leave home. Gerald wants this for himself as well but fears that being in a SPED classroom might limit his options.
In the SPED classroom, Gerald watches the instructor, Mr. Fletcher, teach linear equations to his students with great passion and patience. Gerald considers his SPED classmates with fondness.
Part 1, Chapters 7-12 Analysis
One of the prevalent themes in these chapters is the sense of justice that Gerald feels lacking in his life. On more than one occasion, people give Gerald promises about doing something regarding Tasha’s abusive behavior towards him, yet the failure to properly correct that abuse has done further harm than good. In a seemingly hopeful instance, Nanny had recognized how much Tasha terrorized Gerald and Lisi and installed disciplinary measures to reset the order of the household. Yet from Gerald’s perspective, this gesture was not only ineffective but merely performative as there was little oversight to make sure that Gerald’s parents followed through with parenting advice. Once the camera crew left, the dynamic of the house returned to what it was before, which meant Tasha’s abusive reign continued unchecked.
Gerald justifies his violent tendencies with numbness, using his parents’ lack of concern as an excuse. After recollecting the memory of biting Tom’s face, Gerald reasons apathetically that the child “had it coming” (41). Gerald’s reasoning behind his response is that Tom’s incessant teasing had reached a breaking point for him. The persistence of Tom’s teasing had a similar quality to Tasha’s constant torture of him throughout his life. While he could never adequately fight back against Tasha, Tom’s actions made him an appropriate point of transference for all the repressed fear and rage experienced throughout the years.
Gerald’s life thus far is host to many repressed desires, as his most extreme emotions—even the positive ones—trigger the most painful memories. He chooses to remain in a SPED classroom despite the questionable nature of his cognitive disability because it allows him to escape the expectations of regular classrooms. Despite revealing that he has no learning disability through his quick understanding of linear equations, his desire to stay in a SPED class has to do with the sense of safety he feels from being with other students with stigmatized experiences, and his mother’s active prevention of her children from attending college. The latter reason takes Gerald a while to reconcile since it involves confronting his mother’s manipulative behavior that enables Tasha’s abuses. His acceptance of his mother’s fault shows his ability to reason and deduce, both of which further underscore that he has no cognitive disability.
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