63 pages • 2 hours read
Ann NapolitanoDear Edward
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 3, Chapter 8-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3, Chapter 8 Summary: “July 2016”
Edward and Shay work as camp counselors in the summer. When Edward takes his campers swimming, he is overly cautious about their safety. He suggests that he might want to be a teacher when he’s grown.
Edward and John turn the nursery in their home into an office. As their healing continues, John closes the PO box to which the letters were going, so that “all mail now comes to the house. Cleaning out this room is the last step” (308). They are making the final conscious steps toward wellness.
One evening, Edward and Shay sit next to the camp’s lake. Edward tells Shay that he loves her, and she responds in kind. He thinks about his connection to her and his larger relationship with the crash victims: “He’s aware of Shay beside him. Her molecules are mixing with his; he’s not just himself; he’s made up of her too […] That means he has molecules inside him from his parents and Jordan and everyone else on that plane” (310).
He admits to Shay that he once believed—and possibly still does—that “as long as I stay on the ground, the plane will stay in the sky […] They’re all alive up there, as long as I’m alive down here” (311). This has not only driven his stagnancy; it also implies the 12-year-old version of himself is still alive.
Part 3, Chapter 9 Summary: “2:11 P.M.”
The co-pilot’s error causes the plane to level off before descending. In coach, Linda worries about the turbulence. She decides to use the restroom, but Florida discourages her from doing so. Even on the crowded plane, Linda is “pregnant and alone, listening to a chorus of tiny bells” (315). She is isolated even when surrounded by others.
Part 3, Chapter 10 Summary: “December 2016”
While Shay is getting her hair dyed, Edward wanders around a shopping center. He runs into Dr. Mike, and they grab drinks at a coffee shop. Edward remarks that, because he is 16, he feels he should be able to move past the crash. Dr. Mike replies, “What happened is baked into your bones […] What you’ve been working on, since the first time I met you, is learning to live with that” (317). This reframes Edward’s central problem: he should be learning to cope, not forget.
Part 3, Chapter 11 Summary: “2:12 P.M.”
The plane begins to plummet. Florida continues to assure Linda that they will be okay. While Veronica longs to be with Mark in the moment, Mark regrets a recent argument with Jax. Jane imagines that she is with her family, kissing her children. Bruce thinks about the math problem he’s spent six years trying to solve and realizes he has only wanted to impress his sons.
In 2016, Edward reads another letter, this one from the paramedic who rescued him from the wreckage. Edward must confront his final moments on the plane: he links hands with Jordan and Bruce, who yells out for Jane. His final physical connection to Jordan comes when Edward “sees teardrops on his arm” and isn’t sure if they belong to him or his brother (324). Edward closes his eyes against the pressure of the descent and feels himself falling.
In his letter, the paramedic says that when he rescued Edward, the boy repeated one phrase: “I’m here. I’m here. I’m here” (325). This echoes Edward’s healing process and acknowledgment of his own life beyond the crash.
Epilogue Summary: “June 2019”
After their high school graduation, Edward and Shay drive across the country to the site of the crash. Edward has, with Lacey’s help, divided Jax’s money to benefit others, including paying for Shay’s and Mahira’s educations and building a greenhouse for Principal Arundhi’s botany club.
At the site, Edward and Shay view the memorial and climb a nearby hill to look over the scene. Much like Edward himself, the land has healed from the crash. His healing is expressed by the realization that “He’s created a circle, created a whole, by coming here. When he leaves, he can carry this full circle—everything this moment and this place contains—in his arms” (334).
His connection to Shay is also strong because of the impact they have had on one another’s lives. Though she and Edward will have a daughter together 10 years later, they share their first kiss while looking out over the crash site.
Part 3, Chapter 8-Epilogue Analysis
The final chapters of Dear Edward are about the final conscious and subconscious steps Edward takes toward healing. Consciously, he embraces the memories of his family and the other passengers by believing that parts of them still live within him. He learns that healing doesn’t have to involve forgetting the crash or its victims; instead, he allows himself to become part of their legacies.
Dr. Mike makes this clear to Edward. The crash is part of Edward’s identity, as are the lives of the other passengers. However, it is not the entirety of his identity. The passengers on the plane were all dealing with a key inner conflict: safety versus independence, represented by normal and alternate law. Edward must learn to embrace both; the co-pilot caused the crash when he could not strike a balance between the plane’s natural course and his own control. Edward cannot grow if he makes the same mistake.
By becoming a counselor, Edward must embrace this balance. He wishes to keep his campers safe through routine and regulation but also accepts the inherent risks in activities such as swimming. Edward is learning to cope with this balance—he considers becoming a teacher to help his students navigate both normal and alternate law.
When he helps Lacey and John repurpose their nursery, Edward is deliberately reclaiming some of his identity. He is no longer a surrogate child to his aunt and uncle, but rather a family member with a unique role in their lives. It is also a moment in which Lacey and John choose to confront and move on from their past. Throughout the novel, individual choice paralyzes characters. When characters learn to make choices together, though, they grow.
The paramedic’s letters force Edward to finally confront the moment of the crash. Despite his journey, Edward has been unable to do so. The letters convey something about Edward that he did not previously recognize: there was always strength in him, even after the crash. By yelling “I’m here” repeatedly, he illustrated his determination to survive and the possession of his own identity. It is as if the subsequent years were a journey to rediscover what was already true.
When he goes to the crash site with Shay, Edward is making an independent choice to face the tragedy. It is key that he doesn’t go alone, however. It is through connection that Edward heals, and he cannot confront the source of his trauma without outside support.
The moment marks the completion of his healing: Edward will always carry the trauma of the crash with him, but it will no longer define his identity. Shay represents the beginning of his new identity as an individual, a romantic partner, and eventually as a father to his own child.
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By Ann Napolitano
