50 pages • 1 hour read
Kristin HannahMagic Hour: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Cal takes Ellie home from work. Julia tells them that she named the girl Alice and shows Ellie a picture of Alice in a dress. She asks them to watch Alice while she goes to the library to research Alice’s diet. Cal recommends that she go talk to Max about the diet, then teases Julia about Max’s good looks. Ellie laughs this off by saying that Julia is not Max’s type. Julia leaves, looking hurt. Cal is angry that Ellie was mean to Julia, and Ellie gets defensive. Cal tells her that the only emotions she cares about are her own and leaves.
Max sees Julia leaving the library, and Julia tells him that she needs to talk with him about Alice. He invites her over to his house, and as Julia drives, she feels nervous about going to his house at night. He invites her inside and makes her a drink. Julia asks Max what Alice might have been eating in the woods, based on his examination. Max says that she was living off the land, but he cannot make any concrete guesses about what she ate.
Julia tells Max her theory about Alice being a so-called feral child. She thinks that someone held Alice hostage for some time and then left her alone to survive. She also says that she thinks Alice can speak but chooses not to talk. Max tells her that he believes in her abilities as a doctor, which Julia appreciates.
Chapter 12 Summary
When Julia gets home, she tells Ellie that she thought she was going to marry Philip, but he cheated on her and then married someone else. Ellie tells Julia to be careful with Max so that he does not break her heart.
The next day, Peanut shows Ellie the article that Mort wrote. Although he does not mention Julia, the article calls Alice a “wolf girl” who jumps from tree branches and howls at the moon. Cal says that the media thinks it is a hoax, and Ellie gets angry that they might lose their progress in finding Alice’s family. She gives Cal the picture Julia took of Alice to circulate to the press.
When Alice wakes up, she realizes that she is not afraid for the first time in her life. Julia shows different objects to her, and she feels mesmerized until Julia pulls out a dream catcher. Alice screams and scrambles away, desperate to escape. Julia holds the dream catcher out again, and Alice claws at herself, believing that someone will hurt her.
Julia opens the door and throws the dream catcher into the hallway. She tells Alice that she is sorry and tries to soothe her. Alice does not let her touch her, so Julia reads Alice in Wonderland until she calms down. Julia tells Alice that she knows how hard it is to trust people, then stiffens when she remembers she said the same thing to Amber the year before. She does not let herself dwell on that and strokes Alice’s hair.
Alice eventually falls asleep, and Julia wonders about Alice’s reaction to the dream catcher. She wonders if she reacted to the dream catcher or the string on it, which could resemble rope. Julia feels overwhelmed because she knows that the longer she keeps Alice isolated, the harder it will be for her to integrate into society.
Chapter 13 Summary
Ellie asks Julia to speak to the press to clarify Alice’s story. At the police station, Julia tells the press that she is working with a girl they call Alice and that she wants everyone to focus on finding the girl’s family. A reporter interrupts and asks her about the children who died in Silverwood. Once he asks this question, the room erupts. Julia struggles to talk over the press, but no one hears her.
Afterward, Ellie tells Julia that she did not expect it to be so bad for her. Julia does not respond and walks out of the station. Max catches up to her and offers her a ride on his motorcycle. She gets on the back, and he drives her to his house. He takes her inside, but Julia tells him that she does not want to sleep with him. She says that she only knows how to love someone “all or nothing” (186), and if he does not want that, then she does not want to be with him.
Chapter 14 Summary
When Alice wakes up, Julia pulls the dream catcher out again. Alice screams, but Julia says that it is called a dream catcher. Suddenly, Julia breaks the dream catcher in half. Alice feels sick because she knows that the abductor will come and hurt them. Julia brings out more dream catchers from a box and breaks them. She hands one to Alice, and she realizes that Julia wants her to break it, too. Alice grabs every dream catcher in the box and rips it apart. Afterward, Julia hugs Alice as she trembles and relaxes. Julia writes about their experience breaking the dream catchers. Alice sits next to her as she writes, and Julia knows that they have broken through a barrier of isolation between them.
Ellie comes inside and tells Julia that some doctors from state care, a researcher, and a woman from DSHS, are waiting downstairs for her. Julia has been expecting this, so she tells Alice she will be back and goes downstairs. They make introductions, and the researcher tells Julia that they want to see Alice. She refuses, which surprises him. He tells her that Alice should receive the most advanced treatment because of her unique case, and one of the doctors tells Julia that they could learn a lot from Alice. Julia says that she wants Alice to get better; she doesn’t want to study her so that she can advance her career. The woman from DSHS tells Julia that she needs to get Alice talking soon or they will put her in a treatment facility.
After they leave, Julia says that she may have missed things with Amber that could have prevented the shooting, but Ellie refuses to hear her out. Julia goes back upstairs, where Alice howls for her. Julia asks Alice to speak to her, but Alice only stares. Julia cries at the table and eventually realizes that Alice is stroking her arm, comforting her.
Chapter 15 Summary
Over the next few weeks, Julia continues giving press conferences, although the media does not care about Alice’s progress; they only pester Julia about her past. Several news organizations leave the area because of the lack of progress in Alice’s case. One day, Julia goes to the daily press conference, but no one shows up.
Chapter 16 Summary
Julia tells Ellie that no one showed up at the press conference and confides that she thinks she is not good enough. Ellie disagrees and says that their father always believed in her. Julia bristles, which surprises Ellie. Julia tells Ellie that their father was a bully, but Ellie does not believe it.
When Alice wakes up, Julia leads her out of the room. Alice follows Julia outside into the yard. Alice looks excited to be outside and sits in the grass and howls. Julia promises that she will not leave her alone. Ellie joins them outside. When Julia walks away, Alice chases after her and says her first word, asking Julia to “[s]tay.”
Chapters 11-16 Analysis
As Max and Julia’s relationship develops, both characters feel unsure that they can trust the other person. Max hasn’t opened up to Julia about his past, but she sees that he is searching for something by pursuing noncommittal relationships and adrenaline rushes like motorcycle driving. Similarly, Max can interpret Julia’s fear of speaking to the press as guilt over Amber’s death. Max knows that Julia fears remembering the past in the same way that he does, even if it is for different reasons. However, Julia’s ultimatum of giving her “all or nothing,” forces Max to face the question of whether he feels ready to process his trauma (186). Both characters have coped with their past in isolation, and their budding relationship offers a chance to heal together if they are committed and honest with each other.
As Julia helps Alice work through her trauma, she focuses on protecting Alice from people who want to use her to further their careers. The research doctors who come to Ellie’s house want to use Alice’s trauma to learn more about science and the human mind. While Julia understands this desire, she does not believe in exploiting a child for the sake of science. This argument brings up the theme of Trauma and Recovery because it reveals the difficult truth that some doctors do not put their patient’s recovery first. Since Julia’s career has already fallen apart, she knows that she is the best doctor to help Alice because she only wants to see Alice fully recover. Her argument with the doctor leads to Alice’s breakthrough, in which she comforts Julia when she cries. This moment shows a turning point in her recovery because only through The Search for Identity and Belonging can empathy for other people develop. Alice sees Julia as a part of her community, and this sympathy for another person outside of herself causes her to further develop her sense of self. Through her connection with Julia, she realizes that she wants to speak because she does not want Julia to leave her alone. Julia’s methods are proven to work in these chapters as they culminate in Alice uttering her first word: “Stay.”
A major example of Alice’s Trauma and Recovery comes from Alice’s experience with the dream catchers. Although Julia does not understand why Alice fears them, she knows that her extreme reaction stems from a past trauma. Alice initially self-harms when she sees the dream catchers because she does not know how to process her fear. As such, the dream catcher is a symbol that represents Alice’s trauma and the hold that her fear has over her. When Julia shows Alice how to smash the dream catchers, Alice takes a step toward autonomy and healing. She channels her rage and metaphorically destroys her pain and the man who hurt her. Although Alice must continue working on her recovery, the physical act of destroying something that she fears teaches her that she is more powerful than she knows.
Similarly, Julia learns through helping Alice that she must let go of the past that haunts her. As she tells Alice to trust people, Julia has a flashback to how she once told Amber the same phrase. Even though Julia could spiral from this memory, she shows character development as she chooses to focus on the present and help Alice rather than thinking of repairing the past. This growth is also reflected when Julia finally tells Ellie that their father was a bully, showing a willingness to address past harm. Although they have faced different traumas Alice and Julia teach each other the power of focusing on the present rather than dwelling on the pain of the past.
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By Kristin Hannah
