40 pages • 1-hour read
Today Will Be Different
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Chapters 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Blur”
The narrative returns to the present day. Eleanor regains consciousness and assures Spencer and Timby that she is okay even though she hit her head. She takes Timby back to Galer Street School and then goes to return the keys she stole. When no one is looking, she puts the keys in the dollar drop for unhoused people. As she walks away, however, she realizes that she put her keys in the box by mistake. She uses a tomahawk to open the box, causing the money to spill out. She takes her keys and puts the young mother’s keys on the spilled money. Timby sees this, and they quickly leave. They start talking about what they want to do when they get home, and she suggests that they start watching Looper Wash. When they get to the apartment, Sydney Madsen is there. She is exasperated that Eleanor left so many messages and that when she went to the apartment, Joe’s car was there but not hers. Timby then explains that his mother hit her head, and Sydney demands that Eleanor go to the hospital to check for a concussion. Eleanor, pretending to look for her insurance card, discovers that Joe has gone to Magnolia, a community center, and drives there with Timby to look for him.
During the drive, Eleanor has an emotional breakdown, and Timby comforts her. She then sees Alonzo walking by and offers him a ride. Alonzo reveals that he quit Costco because he could not continue working there. He also worries about his adjunct professor job because a student has been trying to get him fired for not having enough diversity in his poetry lectures. Eleanor and Timby tell Alonzo about Joe, and they reach a community center. While Timby and Alonzo hang out together, Eleanor looks for Joe in the community center and a nearby church but does not find him. In the church, she realizes that her problems largely stem from being separated from Ivy. She then learns from people in the community center that Joe went with his singing group to perform at the Key Arena. She goes there with Alonzo and Timby. Timby sees Joe and runs toward him.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Plan”
The novel switches to Joe’s point of view. Joe remembers meeting Eleanor and her sister, Ivy, in the Long Island hospital where he worked. She had broken her wrist and asked him if she would be able to use a pencil again; he told her she would. They promised to see each other again. After 20 years of being together, Joe thinks about how he is starting a new journey alone.
A while ago, he treated the wrist of Seahawks player Vonte Daggatt, telling him he would need to use a splint. In a flashback, Joe flies into a rage when he finds Vonte playing without his splint. The team’s yoga teacher explains that he took off Vonte’s splint because he was feeling fine. Joe says that an injury caused by playing without the splint could end Vonte’s career, which would be catastrophic because he has a wife and three daughters to support. Joe physically assaults the yoga teacher and has to be taken away by his friend. Alone in the stadium’s press room, Joe tries to process what happened, worrying about how this will affect his career. He then sees a middle-aged man with a British accent, the team’s chaplain, who says that he might be able to help him. Joe realizes that God is calling him and that he needs to tell Eleanor.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Art of Losing”
When Eleanor sees Joe, she is initially angry, but only for a moment. She remembers that Ivy once told her that anger comes from fear, and she realizes that fear comes from love and losing the things one loves. Joe tells Eleanor that he found Jesus after the Seattle Seahawks chaplain invited him to his church. Eleanor is upset with him for hiding this from her, and he admits that he lied but says he was going to tell her. Joe says that they will talk more about it later and leaves. Later, Eleanor finds Joe with his group, and he tells her about his breakdown. Joe is interested in going to divinity school and learning more about Jesus and the history of Christianity, which confuses and angers Eleanor even more. He reveals that he had been feeling trapped, which Eleanor interprets as being her fault. She says that she has been neglectful and is still sad about Ivy. He and his group then get on stage to sing. As the group sings, she remembers her wedding to Joe and how she thought she would help him become the best version of himself; now he does not need her to do so. After the performance, Eleanor flies into a rage, saying that she needs the Joe who knew everything and accusing him of leaving her for Jesus. As she charges toward him, a guard dog jumps on her and bites her forearm.
Eleanor wakes up in the hospital with Timby by her side. Joe then appears and tells her that there are no breaks, just some puncture wounds. They both agree to work things out, and Joe notes that Thomas Jefferson praised the New Testament’s morals but acknowledged the contradictions, which Eleanor likes. She also likes the idea of them moving to Scotland so that Joe can attend divinity school. Eleanor completes her work on The Flood Girls and decides that she will never give up on Ivy. During their nightly teeth-brushing routine, Eleanor tells Timby about Ivy but laments that Ivy and her husband don’t like them. However, Timby assures her, “[T]hey know you […] But they don’t know me” (207). Eleanor then restates her resolutions for today, adding new promises to get tickets for the Pope concert and to research Scotland.
Chapters 5-7 Analysis
Chapter 5 brings the novel back to the present, in which Eleanor realizes her chaotic behavior’s impact on those around her and begins working to make things right. The section also focuses more on solving the mystery of Joe’s whereabouts. Chapter 6 shifts to Joe’s perspective to give details on what led Joe to be at the Key Arena. Chapter 7 then returns to Eleanor’s perspective, with her learning Joe’s secret at last.
The last section explores The Tension Between the Self and Family frequently. Eleanor’s fear of what Joe’s secret might be turns into a fear that Joe no longer needs her and will no longer be able to help her in her moments of stress and confusion. She explains, “Perhaps it was that Joe was literally on a higher plane than I was. But a river of light seemed to flow over his head; it was made of love, and Joe could dive in anytime he chose, with or without me” (193). After realizing the effect her behavior is having on her family and how important Joe’s new faith is to him, she decides that she wants to work things out, and they resolve their conflict. She also realizes that her decision to cut Ivy out of her life has caused her to internalize the pain she felt, which has fueled her bad habits. The “Delphine” lanyard appears again as a symbol driving this theme. Eleanor explains that she stole the keys in an attempt to “get back at” Ivy (150). In returning the keys to the school, she symbolically lets go of her anger toward Ivy in the process and allows herself to move forward. Likewise, The Flood Girls reappears in Chapter 7, with Eleanor finishing it and considering finally publishing it, saying that it is “jinxed no more” (206). Like The Flood Girls, Eleanor’s hope of reconciling with Ivy is a possibility again.
The chapter section also explores The Gap Between Who One Is and Who One Wishes to Be as Eleanor realizes that she genuinely wants to be better than she is and improve her habits. During her drive to Magnolia, she tells Timby that she has not been attentive enough to Joe and that she doesn’t “want to be that way” (160). When she looks for Joe in the church, she thinks to herself, “I’d turn fifty in May. My accomplishments? To most people, they’d be the stuff of pipe dreams. Everything I’d set out to achieve in this lifetime, I’d done, with grace to spare. Except loving well the people I loved the most” (168). Eleanor develops significantly in the last chapter section, finally coming to terms with the fact that her actions are hurting others and distancing her from her family. Joe’s conversion, however, takes her by surprise and forces her to confront the fact that his development does not rely on her. Though she does not understand his new religious fervor, Eleanor gradually realizes that this is important to Joe and that he is willing to work things out with Eleanor, not intending to force her to be religious too. She then realizes that she needs to be able to make changes for her husband and son, such as moving to Scotland so that Joe can pursue divinity studies. Eleanor decides that she needs to prioritize those she loves and make sure that she does right by them.
The Function of Family in Healing and Growth also plays an important role in Chapter 7. Resolving her conflict with Joe allows Eleanor to begin focusing on loving her family the way she wants to and becoming a healthier, better adjusted person. Her renewed commitment to Joe and Timby also results in her recommitting to repairing her relationship with Ivy.
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