48 pages • 1-hour read
Wild Eyes
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Chapter 31-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary: “West”
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of emotional abuse, sexual harassment, and explicit sexual content.
West catches Skylar humming a song that he doesn’t recognize while they’re throwing hay together. He watches her record the tune on his phone and marvels at how different she seems recently. Later, she borrows a pen while they’re out grocery shopping and writes down a lyric she’s thought of. He feels proud when he glances over and sees the lines she’s composed.
Over the following days, Skylar spends more time alone writing and more time at Wild Rose recording the album with Ford. One day, West stops by the studio and watches Skylar work, impressed to see her “in her element” (334).
Chapter 32 Summary: “Skylar”
Emmy wakes up from a bad dream and comes into West’s room, where Skylar is sleeping in his bed. She considers leaving, but West insists that she stay.
The next day, Skylar discovers that she has been nominated for a Billboard Music Award for her new single, “Photosynthesis.” West congratulates her, kissing and hugging her. Then she admits that she will have to return to LA to meet with her agent and attend the award ceremony. West wishes that he could go, but he can’t leave the kids. She understands and promises to return.
Chapter 33 Summary: “West”
While Skylar is in LA, West counts down the days until her return. During his usual bowling session, his friends tease him about being in love with her. Afterward, West returns to his empty house, glad to at least have Cherry’s company. While studying the bird, he realizes that he is in love with Skylar. Then she calls, and they chat about how much they miss each other. She tells him to check his email. He opens the explicit photos of herself that she has sent him, and they have phone sex.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Skylar”
Skylar can’t wait to see West. When she returns to his house, she feels as if she has come home. She and West race into each other’s arms, confessing that they never want to be apart again. Then they have sex. In West’s arms, Skylar feels her troubles dissipate. They profess their love and continue having sex all afternoon and evening.
Chapter 35 Summary: “West”
Emmy and Oliver return home. Driving back from soccer with Skylar and the kids, West feels happy. Then Ford calls Skylar, asking to meet with her when they’re home.
Back at the house, West watches from the window as Ford gives Skylar some bad news. After Ford leaves, West races outside, demanding to know what is happening. Skylar crumples into his arms, revealing that someone has leaked the explicit photos she sent him to the media.
Chapter 36 Summary: “Skylar”
Skylar leaves to take a walk to clear her head. Sitting by the lake, she worries that West’s children will hear about the photos. She is terrified that everyone will see her differently and that she is ruining West’s family life. West joins her later, reminding her that none of this is her fault.
On Monday, Skylar visits the pet store to buy Cherry some bird seed. She runs into Bree, who comments on the photo scandal and warns Skylar that her presence is going to hurt West and the kids. Bree is in love with West and thinks that she can make him happier than Skylar can. Fearing that Bree is right, Sylar races outside and “into the waiting lenses of several paparazzi” (381).
Chapter 37 Summary: “Skylar”
Skylar and West explain the photo incident to the kids. Later that day, Rosalie stops over to check on Skylar, reminding her she doesn’t have to continue making music if she doesn’t want to; she can be a musician for herself if it makes her happy. Overwhelmed, Skylar starts crying.
Chapter 38 Summary: “West”
Oliver returns home one day with bruises on his face. West and Skylar demand to know what happened. He reveals that he got into a fight when someone said something derogatory about Skylar. That night, West and Skylar have sex. In the morning, Skylar reveals that she is leaving for LA and isn’t going to come back now that her album is finished. West demands an explanation. Skylar insists that she doesn’t want to hurt him or the kids anymore. Before she leaves, Skylar gives West an envelope. She has sold the earrings and deposited the money into education accounts for the kids. She also promises to give Oliver partial royalties for the songs that he helped her to write. They share a tearful goodbye. Afterwards, West climbs into bed, missing Skylar.
Chapter 39 Summary: “Skylar”
Skylar doesn’t feel like herself as she prepares for a television interview. When they go live, she becomes upset when the interviewer asks her to explain herself in light of the photos. She insists she has nothing to explain and then fires her dad and Jerry on camera. Afterward, she calls Ford, asking for a legal reference. Proud of her courage, he agrees to help and reveals that her dad is the one who leaked the photos. On her way out of the studio, Skylar feels better.
Chapter 40 Summary: “West”
Ford confronts West for letting Skylar go. He encourages West to go to Skylar’s award ceremony and fight for her. He loans West his private jet so that West can get to LA on time.
Chapter 41 Summary: “Skylar”
Skylar is thrilled when West unexpectedly shows up for the ceremony. He hugs and kisses her in front of everyone and assures her that she will win. West is right; “Photosynthesis” is named Song of the Year. During her acceptance speech, she stands up for herself and reveals the treatment that she has suffered at the hands of her father. She also announces her love for West and her desire to leave LA to be with him. Afterward, the couple moves to leave. Before heading out, West confronts Jerry and punches her dad in the face, warning them to stay away from her.
Chapter 42 Summary: “Skylar”
Skylar, West, Oliver, and Emmy hang out by the lake together. Since moving permanently to Rose Hill, Skylar has felt better. She is even more delighted when West presents her with a jar of her favorite candy.
Epilogue Summary: “West”
A year later, West, Skylar, and the kids attend Doris’s talent show charity event at the school. For the event, Skylar, Emmy, and Oliver perform Skylar’s song, “Wild Eyes.” Afterward, West takes Skylar on a drive to the place where they met. He gets down on one knee and proposes. Skylar leaps into his arms and accepts.
Chapter 31-Epilogue Analysis
In the novel’s final chapters, both Skylar and West find love and happiness, completing their Journey Toward Self-Acceptance when The Pursuit of Happiness finally leads them to accept each other’s love. For Skylar, her time in Rose Hill has allowed her to fully embrace her authentic self and unleash her creativity. Thus, her professional success upon releasing her new single, finishing her new album, and winning the Billboard Music Award affords her a sense of personal accomplishment even as she recognizes West’s positive influence on her life. At the start of the novel, Skylar was convinced that “she couldn’t write a song” (334) simply because she had never done it before. However, caught up in the positive atmosphere of Rose Hill, in the company of West and his kids, she finally accesses new forms of self-expression. Her songs and album are emotional outpourings, and the work is symbolic of her new degree of self-acceptance. Through her new songs, Skylar reclaims her story and her feelings in her own words. Releasing them to the public is her way of presenting a more authentic version of herself to the world—one that isn’t curated by her parents, her agent, or her fans, but is inspired by the person she is becoming.
The scenes in which Skylar stands up to the television interviewer and gives her acceptance speech at the awards ceremony also mark pivotal moments in her Journey Toward Self-Acceptance. For years, Skylar has simply been “doing what it takes to make the paycheck[s]” that she has “practically signed away to [her] parents” (339). Her historically disempowering relationship with them has trapped her in a lifestyle that crushes her spirit. Therefore, when the interviewer interrogates her about the photo leak, Skylar decides to defend herself, reminding her audience that she doesn’t “owe anyone an explanation” (401). She uses a bold, assertive tone that contrasts sharply with the timidity that she sometimes shows earlier in the narrative, and this decisive shift conveys her intolerance of the abuse that she has long endured. A similar dynamic dominates her speech at the award ceremony, which she uses to reclaim her voice and experience. Although her speech is gracious, she does not shy away from owning her recent experiences and declaring her goals for the future. The novel uses these moments to capture Skylar’s personal growth and to celebrate The Transformative Power of Love and Community.
As is characteristic of the contemporary romance genre, the novel gives Skylar and West a guaranteed happily-ever-after conclusion, and Silver also creates a relatively mild “third-act breakup” in that West soon realizes his mistake in letting Skylar go and heads to LA to proclaim his love. As the earlier chapters have already established, Skylar and West’s dynamic is built on mutual love, trust, and honesty. They have shepherded and supported each other through numerous conflicts and have emerged as stronger individuals and a stronger couple. As they now understand, “[e]verything is better when [they] do it together” (433), and they know that they offer each other a sense of belonging and refuge. Thus, West’s marriage proposal and Skylar’s acceptance usher the lovers into a hopeful future and reiterate the novel’s overarching notion that true love has the power to deliver and transform the individual.
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