49 pages • 1 hour read
John David AndersonMs. Bixby's Last Day
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A 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 7-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Steve”
Steve narrates the bus ride from the mall to downtown, during which he sits between Topher and Brand, who are angry with each other. Steve remarks, “[t]here is nothing worse than being stuck between two people who are mad at each other” (126). Abruptly, Topher turns to Steve and explains that, just because he drew a picture of Maggie does not mean he has a crush on her. Steve reflects that he never thought Topher had a crush on their teacher. Eventually, Brand and Topher begin to speak to one another again. Brand explains that he is jealous of Topher’s ability to draw. He agrees to buy a new sketchbook to replace the torn one.
Steve reflects on the difficulty in understanding girls. It is much easier, he notes, to get along with boys. In particular, he says he is not compatible with his sister, who is five years older than him and has lorded over him for as long as he can remember. He also comments that his parents often argue. Steve recalls an occasion in the spring when he and Topher went to a creek searching for tadpoles and discussed the idea that marriage is a problematic relationship. They struggled to find an example of any marriage that worked serenely. Topher made Steve promise to prevent Topher from ever getting married.
The bus deposits the boys downtown in an area Steve finds unsettling. Topher leads them to a liquor store called What Ales You. He watches adults passing on the street, hoping he can find someone who will take their money and buy a bottle of wine they can give to Maggie. Topher singles out a man in his mid-thirties who is casually dressed. Topher stops the man and tries to persuade him to go into the store and buy a bottle of wine. The stranger, who identifies himself as George Nelson, does not believe Topher’s initial story about the wine being for his mother’s birthday, causing Topher to confess that the bottle of wine is for their hospitalized teacher. The four go inside the liquor store, where George introduces the three boys as his sons and tells them to pick out a bottle of wine. Since they have no knowledge of an appropriate wine, the boys struggle over the choice until the proprietor tells them that George has walked out of the store with the money the boys gave him.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Topher”
Topher narrates the chase for George. He immediately slips into fantasy mode, saying they are chasing a perpetrator as they run through the downtown streets. As the boys gain on him, George knocks over a trash can to impede their path. Brand runs around it, but Topher decides to leap over it, saying, “I’m the Cape Crusader, sans cape. I don’t go around, I go over. I leap. I practically fly” (155). Tripping over the trash can, Topher sprains his ankle. Brand stops chasing George to help Topher. They decide his ankle is not broken, though it is extremely painful. The cheesecake has also been damaged during their pursuit and appears to be ruined.
Topher reflects on the common adult practice of telling children they can be whatever they decide they want to be. These, he knows, are lies. He talks of finding all of his baby teeth in a Tupperware container and subsequently asking his mother detailed questions about the tooth fairy, knowing she was making up the answers.
Steve catches up to Topher and Brand. The loss of their money and Topher’s injury causes Brand to decide that the mission is over. He tells his friends that he is going home. He says, “[i]t was a stupid idea. All of it. It was stupid and pointless and a complete waste of time” (163).
The incident causes Topher to remember Maggie’s description of her brief career as a magician. At 10 years old, she put on a magic show for her family that ended with her grandmother almost killing her pet gerbil. The performance was such an epic failure that Maggie gave up her desire to become a magician. The class discussed the moral to the story, and Maggie said that perhaps she should have tried harder.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Brand”
Brand begins the narration of this chapter by talking about a fall, not Topher’s fall but rather his father’s. The fall he describes is not the fall from the scaffold but Abe’s slow-motion rejection of physical therapy and rehabilitation. Brand describes how his father’s initial optimism and gratitude gave way to apathy and a sedentary existence.
Because of his father’s complete withdrawal from social life, Brand went to sixth grade Meet the Teacher Night by himself. Miss Bixby introduced herself to him and asked if he was alone. When he said he was, “[s]he said that was alright. That she would help me. That if I needed anything at all, to just ask her” (172).
As they board a bus to return to school, Brand thinks that he should have come by himself. He knew, however, that he needed the help of others and that, if he persuaded Topher, Steve would certainly come, too. He reminisces about the times that he rode in Maggie’s car and how pleasant it was. As the other two boys begin a discussion about which superhero is dominant, Steve suddenly tells the others to be quiet and duck down. He sees that George has gotten onto the bus.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Steve”
Steve’s narration of this chapter begins with an extended reflection on statistics and probability. He focuses on a poem read in class about separated lovers who search the world for one another before reuniting. Steve points out the statistical improbability of this, only to have Maggie say that there are forces beyond simple numerical statistics impacting human life. As he and Topher discuss the probability of people who are meant for each other actually coming together, Topher says, “[n]ever tell me the odds” (186).
Sitting behind George on the bus, the boys discuss how they can confront him and get their money back. Steve is extremely skeptical about the possibility of this, though Brand devises a plan. When George gets off the bus, the boys follow him at a distance, with Brand trying to flank him. Eventually they corner him in an alley with Brand in front of him and Steve blocking his exit. When the confrontation becomes physical, George throws a punch at Brand, only to have Brand duck and the punch land on Steve’s jaw. Topher emerges with Steve’s phone, announcing to George that he has taped the entire encounter and that the police will charge George with assault and battery. Holding this over his head, the boys are able to take back what’s left of their money along with a bottle of bourbon that George used their money to buy. In the process, they look inside the man’s billfold and discover his actual name is Hazel Meriweather Morgan. After Hazel leaves, Topher reveals that Steve’s camera battery had died and he videoed nothing.
Reflecting on what happened and Maggie’s lesson about not relying simply on statistics, Steve concludes that perhaps there are forces driving human interactions that are not reducible to statistics. He hopes this is true, since the one-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 25%.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Topher”
Topher begins the narration of this chapter by talking about slaying dragons. The boys travel from their confrontation with Hazel to the McDonald’s near Saint Mary’s Hospital to acquire the last gift they intend for Maggie, a large order of fries. As they wait for the French fries, the boys see Christina, Steve’s sister, enter McDonald’s. Steve tries to hide but Christina sees him and confronts him about his absence from school and the blood on his shirt from his busted lip. Producing her phone, she announces she will call their mother. Repeatedly asking her not to, finally Steve resorts to shouting, attracting the attention of everyone in the restaurant. Christina becomes anxious at this, saying, “[s]top it, Steven [...]. You’re making a scene” (217). Christina hesitates then decides not to tell their mother that she has bumped into Steve as he is skipping school. She speaks with him privately and then they agree that neither will tell their parents about the encounter.
Topher senses that there have been significant changes occurring in the lives of each of the three boys because of their quest. This causes him to remember drawing a picture in Maggie’s class that he discarded. When he returned to the room, he found Maggie recovering the picture. He asked her to explain, and she showed him that she had kept a file of several of his drawings that he had discarded. She related that she keeps the works of exceptional students, and, though he does not realize it, he fits into that category.
The boys leave McDonald’s and walk to the hospital. Topher speaks critically of Christina, and Steve defends her, saying she is only worried about caring for her brother. Steve tells Topher that he exacerbates the situation by taunting Christina. As they start into the hospital, Brand stops them and says there is something he must tell them.
Chapters 7-11 Analysis
The second section of the narrative focuses on a deep examination of the personalities, abilities, and potential of the three narrators, speaking to the book’s theme of The Unique Specialness of Every Individual. Anderson uses the events of the quest to expose elements of the three boys of which they were not aware themselves. For example, in Chapter 7, Topher randomly turns to Steve and tells him that the portrait he drew of Maggie does not mean that he has a crush on her. The implication is that indeed Topher is attracted to Maggie. The root of this, as revealed in Chapter 11, is the empowering moment when Topher finds Maggie retaining his drawings that he discarded. That she did not know he would discover her doing this is an undeniable compliment to his abilities. She builds upon this by informing him that she only collects the works of exceptional individuals, opening her file to show him what she has retained from other students. Maggie shows him the file that she has already acquired of his works and asks if she can continue to keep his drawings.
Topher’s attraction to his teacher creates a contradiction within him, the author reveals, in that Topher acknowledges he does not understand romantic relationships and that marriage itself is a problematic union. In this section, Topher also demonstrates growth when he must confront the reality that the fantasies that motivate him and enliven his world stand detached from the actual reality in which he must dwell. The clear example of this comes when Brand reminds him after he twists his ankle that he is not a superhero. To himself, Topher acknowledges this but also understands his imaginary inner world is essential to help him move forward.
This second section also introduces shy, anxious Steve at greater depth. Steve wrestles with the jealousy he feels over the closeness of Topher and Brand, such as when the three get on the bus to ride to the mall and Topher chooses to sit with Brand rather than Steve. The author introduces the wary inner child that is Steve, for example, when he escapes his home and his parents’ arguments by going to see Topher. Standing at a creek in the early spring and searching for tadpoles when it is too early for them to emerge, Steve listens receptively as Topher expresses his troubled thoughts about romantic relationships as well. The absent tadpoles are a metaphor for their childhood, as Steve and Topher are not yet developed and find adult matters distasteful. The intimacy of the relationship between these two best friends shines forth in a moment when Topher instructs Steve to prevent him from ever getting married and the two share a momentary clasping of hands.
Steve’s greatest step forward in the second section, according to Topher, is his willingness to confront his sister and demand that she give him his personal space. The author discloses what the brother and sister privately said as well as the conversation between the two friends. With his sister, Steve stands up for his friend. With his friend, Steve stands up for his sister. Over the course of the narrative, Steve makes two additional significant gains. Despite his devotion to, as he puts it, numbers and statistics, Steve comes to the recognition that indeed there are forces outside the realm of scientific investigation and probability that impact human life. Ultimately, he agrees with Maggie’s observation that the laws of physics do not impede or dictate human relationships. Steve comes to accept the possibility that destiny plays a role in human life. Finally, Steve also accepts the idea that his parents will find out that he skipped school, and he becomes willing to endure whatever retribution results from it.
As with his two friends, the second section of the narrative reveals new insights into Brand’s background as well as showing his strengths and fears. The first section of the book portrays Brand as a person who feels he does not belong. He’s not like either of his two friends, despite the fact that they accept him. The second section reveals Brand to be a person of secrecy. The source of his need to keep confidences comes to light with the story of his father’s accident and descent into lethargy. The way the author plays on the word “fall” in Chapter 9—referring not to Brand’s dad’s literal fall but rather his fall into apathy and depression after his accident—links his feelings of alienation from Steve and Topher to his prior alienation from his father, who once felt like a friend but no longer does.
In addition to being a person of secrets, Brand is isolated. He readily acknowledges that, apart from Steve and Topher, he has no real friends. Through the storyline, the author gives hints that there is more to the Brand story than has been revealed. The end of Brand’s isolation begins in Chapter 9, in which he records meeting Maggie for the first time. His desire to be in her class stems from the fact that his friends are there. As he gets to know the teacher, he refers to her as icing on the cake. Brand notices that, unlike other teachers, when Maggie asks a question, she waits until the student has finished answering before looking away or showing any impatience. This influence, coupled with her willingness to engage with Brand without prying into his personal life, allows him too gradually open his heart. As he describes it, he shares with her things he has told no one. The result of this is that, when she speaks prophetically to him, he hears her words and understands the truth of the encouragement she gives him. Through this motif of Maggie’s proverbs, the narrative reveals that Maggie plays a profound role in the emergence of newfound understanding, strength, and resilience in the lives of these three young men. She has the gift of discovering The Unique Specialness of Every Individual.
Anderson uses the boys as three different first-person narrators in the text. The alternating narrators produce chapters that vary greatly in tone. Topher’s chapters read like a spy thriller. Steve’s chapters have the tone of uncertain fearfulness. Brand’s chapters sound as if they are written by an outsider who is grasping for long-denied hope. By using three first-person narrators, Anderson maintains the air of uncertainty about whether the boys will succeed in seeing Maggie and, if so, about how that experience will transpire. The author uses these three in part because each has a distinct relationship with Maggie as well as different perspectives on their quest. Steve, a perpetually anxious boy, has a history of intellectual jousting with Maggie. He cares for her in large measure because she faced down Steve’s hypervigilant father when he criticized her for giving Steve a B. Topher is the dreamer for whom all of life is a fantasy, allowing him to escape the reality of his detached parents. Maggie, who has secretly saved Topher’s discarded drawing, is his potential link to accomplishment in the real world. Brand is the put-upon, caregiving child of a depressed father. Only Maggie has managed to instill in him a reason to hope. Though they work together as a team to fulfill their quest, each narrator has a distinct goal in mind for his trip to see Maggie.
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