65 pages • 2-hour read
The Spear Cuts Through Water
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.
Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5: “The Fourth Day—In Which We Offer Our Finest Weapon”
Chapter 5, Pages 331-381 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of suicidal ideation and sexual content.
In the Inverted Theater, the dancers leave the stage, and the curtain closes. A shade announces the intermission. The grandchild wanders out to the lobby. A woman asks the grandchild if the spear they carry is the same as Araya’s. The grandchild suspects so. The woman inspects the spear and remarks on the strange carvings along the haft, explaining that it is an ancient form for describing dance movements. Eventually, the audience returns to their seats, and the dance begins again.
Keema and Jun spend the night doing as the empress instructed, eating her body and cleaning the bones in the river to take to the sea. They fall asleep as the “chemistry of bequeathment and inheritance” begins in their stomachs (338). Keema dreams of the Last Road, a road along the border between life and death. There, he meets Araya. She does not know who she is but feels that she is not ready to accept death but must wander in search of something she has not yet finished. Keema says that he lost her spear and broke his oath. He believes that is why she cannot pass on yet. Araya comforts him and tells him to wake up.
Keema and Jun wake, feeling changed. They can hear and smell everything around them. The world seems brighter, the air sweeter, and sounds sharper. As they make breakfast, they slowly realize that they can hear each other’s thoughts. This causes a fight, as their idle thoughts often devolve into petty comments and complaints that they would never speak aloud. Among these thoughts are more pleasant ones, such as Jun thinking that he trusts Keema with his life and Keema enjoying the chance to cook for someone and take care of them.
Then, the voices scream in Jun’s head, reminding him of his sins and saying that he does not deserve a peaceful morning with the boy he likes. Keema can hear these voices as well, but Jun refuses to explain. Jun shouts, and the ground around them shakes, sending rocks flying with their new power.
They de-camp and head east. The shared thoughts become overwhelming, and they drift farther apart until the distance cuts off their mental connection and they lose sight of each other. Once alone with his thoughts, Jun’s voices return. They accuse him of being incapable of love and claim that Keema will never trust him. Jun responds that Keema has proven that he does trust him, and the voices go quiet.
Alone, Keema recalls hearing Jun’s thoughts about liking him and takes pleasure in it, but he knows that he is too afraid to make a move. He wants to wrestle Jun again. Imagining their bodies tangled together, his power explodes and shoots rocks into the air.
Meanwhile, Jun can feel the earth speaking to him, as if trying to teach him something. He recalls the empress’s description of the Rhythm that moves the world and the magical dances that follow this Rhythm. In a grove of trees, he listens to the Rhythm and begins to dance. Far away, Keema can feel the dance as well.
Separately but simultaneously, the two boys touch themselves, feeling each other’s reactions in a feedback loop. They are performing for each other. Then, just as Jun becomes aroused and happy with the feeling, his voices return to torment him. The connection breaks. Jun berates himself for wanting something he does not deserve and continues walking.
They reach the crowded road that leads to the Divine City. Many people have traveled to see the emperor on his last stop in the Divine City, not knowing that he is dead. Jun and Keema reach the checkpoint at Swan Gate. However, the gate is closed, and an enormous crowd swarms around it, demanding to be let through so that they may reach the Divine City. Rumors spread that the gate is closed because the resident tortoise has refused to work. The tortoise knows that its mother is dead and refuses to obey anymore.
The boys encounter the trinket seller they met before. The trinket seller recognizes them and apologizes. He warns that the crowd is restless and may grow violent. As the trinket seller watches, the boys use their new power to move the levers and wheels that control the gate. The gate opens, and the people rush through. The trinket seller calls the boys “young gods” and offers them a ride in the back of his wagon.
Chapter 5, Pages 382-412 Summary
The road leads through a large canyon to the Divine City, home of the emperor’s summer palace and the prison called Joyrock. Keema and Jun ride in the back of the trinket seller’s wagon, sitting side-by-side and sharing memories in their minds. Keema shows Jun how he lost his arm, but the dancer refuses to tell the audience, stating that some thoughts were for the two boys alone.
A dust storm blows through the canyon, forcing the travelers to seek shelter in nearby caves. Keema and Jun abandon the trinket seller’s wagon for an isolated cave. Alone, Keema suggests that they practice their new powers by moving a rock between them and fighting for control. They do so until they both lose control, shaking the cave. A rock cuts Keema’s face, and Jun cleans it. Overcome with the touch, Keema tackles Jun again, demanding a rematch. The fight slowly morphs into a dance until they are pressed together, and Jun kisses Keema’s neck.
Again, the voices in Jun’s head taunt him, and he pulls away. Feeling rejected, Keema fears that he has done something wrong. Some time later, a large Purple Elk, a Silver Monkey, and a Red Peacock enter the cave. They are the “Three Shepherds of the soul” from myth (392), sent to lead souls to death and the Sleeping Sea.
The grandchild recalls Lola’s description of the Sleeping Sea. Lola explained that the soul leaves the body like water and returns to the sea to mingle with other souls and eventually returns to the earth, reborn.
The three animals lead Keema and Jun deep into the cave and through tunnels that lead into a lush jungle path. Jun fears that they are being led to their execution, but Keema is enchanted and excited. The elk orders the boys to hold on to him. For a moment, nothing happens. Then, Jun and Keema realize that they look different, like reversed images of each other. Jun’s tattoo is on the wrong side of his face. Keema is now missing his right arm instead of his left. They have entered the Inverted World.
They walk into the Inverted Theater. Suddenly afraid, Keema confesses to Jun that everything he said about the Daware tribe was a lie. He was an orphan, and his parents said only the word “Daware” before they died. With no origins, he borrowed customs from tribes he heard about and made the rest up. Without these stories, he has no purpose. Jun assures him that it does not matter. Finally, they walk to the stage. The audience murmurs with shock.
The dancer explains that they have a choice to make. The Water has felt the Moon’s death and is angry. The Water is building a giant tidal wave that will wipe out the Old Country and reclaim the Moon’s body. The boys must give the Moon’s bones to the Water and stop the tidal wave. However, in doing so, they will die. Jun accepts. He has always planned to die on this journey. He knows that he cannot be redeemed but hopes that this will make some amends. Keema says no; he is angry and confused. He thinks of the joy of Jun’s body against his and refuses to sacrifice the chance for happiness. He cries, “[W]hy is this my story?” (405).
The dancer offers Keema a choice: He can retreat to the emperor’s room in the palace in the mountains, the only place high enough to avoid the coming wave, and watch the rest of his country die, or he can go to another world and time entirely and retreat to a new life. Either way, his country will die.
Keema looks across the audience and sees the grandchild with Araya’s spear. The dancer beckons the grandchild to the stage, explaining that the grandchild is Araya’s descendant. In fact, everyone in the audience is a descendant of Araya’s family. If Keema refuses to help, every person in the audience will cease to exist, having never been born. Keema asks the grandchild about their life. The grandchild describes how the family immigrated from the Old Country generations ago and how they often feel embarrassed rather than proud of their heritage. Their brothers left one by one, and now the grandchild lives alone in the old house, caring for their great-grandfather.
Keema asks the grandchild if they would still choose to live even if nothing changes. The grandchild offers Keema the spear and says yes. The audience bows in silent supplication. Keema accepts the spear and promises to stop the wave. The boys leave the Inverted Theater, and the dancers fill the stage, preparing to finish the story.
Chapter 5 Analysis
With the empress’s death, the first-person narration recedes, and the combined third-person and second-person narration takes over once again. The subtitle of Chapter 5, “In Which We Offer Our Finest Weapon,” refers primarily to the scene in the Inverted Theater when the grandchild offers the spear to Keema. However, it also subtly refers to the empress offering her body for Keema and Jun to consume. The empress herself was their most powerful weapon, as evidenced by how easily she finally defeated her two sons despite being near the end of her strength, and by eating her body, the boys now gain her powers. With this last act of literal self-sacrifice, the empress has completed her role in Ending the Generational Cycle of Violence.
In terms of physical action, Chapter 5 is the least eventful. It offers a brief respite for Jun and Keema before the final climax and confrontation of the novel. The opening scene in which Jun and Keema cook breakfast in their camp is one of surprising domesticity. Jun is delighted by the peaceful moment and the feeling of being cared for. However, as the scene progresses and the two realize that they can now hear each other’s thoughts, this moment of peace becomes fraught. Eventually, the two drift apart in search of privacy. Their developing love pulls them together and drives them apart, illustrating the theme of Love as a Source of Conflict and Healing.
Several significant shifts occur in this chapter that deeply alter the emotional landscape of the novel. The most obvious shift is the shared thoughts between the boys, which reveals the truth of their mutual attraction. Their growing relationship becomes decidedly romantic in nature. Though they both know this on some level, neither is entirely willing to admit or discuss it even now that the telepathic connection between them has made it obvious. Jun is reluctant because of the continued shame, self-hatred, and unworthiness he feels due to his past violence, and Keema is hesitant because he is inexperienced and afraid of rejection. Though their feelings erupt into brief moments of physical intimacy several times in this chapter, each moment is thwarted by the voices in Jun’s head, which are manifestations of his shame and self-hatred. The voices explicitly state that they will “rob him of every intimacy” and keep him from experiencing joy that they do not believe he deserves (368).
Jun’s feelings of unworthiness once again underscore the painful and uncertain process of seeking redemption. Despite his efforts to do and be better, he still believes that he does not deserve forgiveness. His emotional crisis comes to a head in the Inverted Theater when he swiftly accepts the suicide mission, believing that the best thing he can do for the world is remove himself from it. Meanwhile, Keema’s own emotional crisis puts him at odds with Jun’s. Where Jun accepts death as his purpose, Keema, who has searched for purpose his entire life, believes that this suicidal task will rob him of his chance at finding it. He states, “I was so close” (405), as he looks at Jun, implying that he has gained a sense of purpose in his relationship with Jun by loving him. As redemption motivates Jun, love motivates Keema, both thwarted by failure and death.
The symbols and motifs also become increasingly significant. Dancing appears, first when Jun dances in the woods and then when Jun and Keema’s wrestling transforms into dancing. In both cases, the dance combines the expressive elements with the physical and emotional intimacy that both boys long for but fear. Then, the motifs of the spear and stories appear again in the Inverted Theater, becoming intertwined. Chapter 5 reveals the lineage of the grandchild and the audience members, connected by and within the story. They are likewise connected by and to the spear itself. Moreover, Keema and Jun enter the Inverted Theater, which explodes the barrier between the story and the storyteller, revealing “the tales of heroes […] of brave deeds and grim tragedies” that structure their lives and give cultural identity to the audience (400), illustrating the theme of Storytelling as a Means of Identity Formation. The choices of Keema and Jun and the fates of the grandchild and all Araya’s descendants are interconnected through the story and the spear, extended beyond space and time to bind them.
Unlock all 65 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs