Scar Island

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-9

Chapters 10-13

Chapters 14-18

Chapters 19-22

Chapters 23-26

Chapters 27-30

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 27-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 27 Summary: “Darkness and Drowning”

Jonathan sets out to save Colin. He comes to a staircase that is submerged in water three steps down. He puts a book of matches in his mouth to keep them dry while he swims through the dark water, staying close to the ceiling. He finds a staircase and climbs up it out of the water. It takes him four matches to light the wet wick of the candle.

When he finally finds Colin, he is almost totally under the water. Only Colin’s head and neck are above the surface. He must put out his candle to dive under the water and untie the knots to free Colin.

Chapter 28 Summary: “Saved”

As he struggles to untie Colin and save him from drowning, he imagines that he is saving his sister Sophia: “I can save her [...] I can save him, he corrected himself” (223). He finally unties Colin and frees him. They swim in complete darkness toward the door, using the wall to guide themselves.

They make it out to the corridor, where the water is not as high. Jonathan decides he must warn the librarian even though it means taking another risk in the rising water. When they arrive at the library, the librarian is standing with wet hair and the rat shivering on his shoulder. The wind is blowing pages around the room. The librarian tells Jonathan and Colin to come in and says he will find them another book.

Chapter 29 Summary: “A Lunatic (Not an Idiot)”

The wind has blown out the library’s windows and has soaked the books. Jonathan tells the librarian that they must leave immediately and get to higher ground. However, the librarian just laughs. He says, “It’s the sea. Come at last. To claim her own” (227).

The librarian tells Jonathan that he must take the boys to the lighthouse above the Admiral’s room. He explains that the lighthouse was built on the original stone and will survive the storm. He says that “the rest is all built on sand” (228).

When the librarian says that Jonathan must take the boys to the lighthouse, Jonathan suspects that the librarian knows about the deaths of the adult. He asks the librarian if he knows about what happened to the grownups. The librarian replies, “I am a lunatic. Not an idiot” (228). He explains that he goes to the kitchen at night. Since ice cream is his favorite food, he saw the dead adults in the freezer.

The librarian urges Jonathan to save himself and the other boys, but says he plans to stay because he has lived long enough. He insists Jonathan take a book before he leaves the library and gives him Moby-Dick. He also persuades Jonathan to take Ninety-Nine. Jonathan puts the rat in his shirt and swims through the water with Colin.

Chapter 30 Summary: “Home”

Jonathan and Colin return to the dining room and find water pouring in the doorway. Sebastian tells Jonathan that he and the other boys were getting ready to leave the dining room to look for him and Colin. Jonathan tells Sebastian that they must leave and go to the lighthouse. Sebastian replies, “Easy, Johnny. I didn’t want to get blamed for you dying. Doesn’t mean I want you in charge” (235).

Jonathan insists they must leave before the sea swallows the whole island. Benny says Jonathan cannot be trusted because of what he did that caused him to be sent to the reformatory. Jonathan yells that Benny is wrong. He then finally reveals the whole story about what happened the night his sister died: “You can trust me! My sister... she... she did die in a fire, and... but...” (235). At first Jonathan can’t bring himself to continue, but Colin urges him to explain so that the boys will trust and follow him.

A tearful Jonathan admits that he didn’t start the fire. He woke up and heard his sister screaming. He tried to save her, but the fire was too hot. He reveals the scars on his arms from the burns he received from trying to save his sister. The firefighters had to drag him away from the fire. He still blames himself for the tragedy because she learned to play with fire from him: “[I]t’s my fault. [...] They were my matches! She learned from me!” (236).

After hearing the whole story, the boys regain respect for Jonathan and are ready to follow his lead. He tells the boys they need to light the lighthouse to signal the outside world. Since they need fuel to light its fire, Jonathan takes the key to the Admiral’s office out of his pocket, where he has been hiding it, and unlocks the door. The boys find their juvenile crime files and burn them to light the lighthouse.

Sebastian reveals the reason he never writes letters home. He says he has no family and grew up in orphanages and group homes. After hearing his story, the other boys forgive his bullying and invite him to write them.

In the final scene, Jonathan and Sebastian work together to crank the lighthouse. Jonathan says he wants to go home.

Chapters 27-30 Analysis

Saving Colin from the flood waters is an act of personal redemption for Jonathan. He feels a need to save a life, even at great risk to his own, to make up for the life he could not save. The cathartic effect of the moment is evident when he mistakenly thinks, “I can save her,” referring to his sister, instead of “I can save him” (223).

In the final chapter, all the secrets of the story are finally fully revealed. Ironically, one of them turned out not to be a secret at all. Jonathan never told the librarian that the Admiral and his men were dead and that the boys were unsupervised. He kept it a secret. However, during his last encounter with the librarian, he realizes that the librarian knew that the boys were alone at Slabhenge. He saw the dead bodies in the freezer.

When he returns to the dining room with the plan to seek refuge in the lighthouse and still encounters distrust, Jonathan realizes that he must tell the whole story of the fire to regain the respect of the boys and save them from drowning. This is the first time he feels a strong need and desire to lead because he knows his leadership can save the boys. Therefore, he finally tells the whole story: He did not start the fire, but he is guilty of being a bad influence on his younger sister.

He shows the boys the burn scars on his arms that he had tried to hide throughout his stay at Slabhenge. While Sebastian sees scars as a sign of toughness and pride, Jonathan has always seen his burn scars as a badge of shame because they remind him of his arsonist past. In finally revealing them to the boys, they now have a healing effect because they show how he suffered trying to save his sister from the fire.

Sebastian also releases his secret—that the reason he never wrote letters home was that he has no family and has spent his whole life in orphanages or foster care. His revelation redeems him for the boys, who invite him to write letters to them.

The final scene shows how an outside common threat can lead the rivals in a power struggle to put aside their differences and work together. Jonathan and Sebastian work together to light the lighthouse to signal adults in the outside world to come and rescue them. They burn their files for fuel, which symbolizes their redemption from their juvenile crimes, whose records are reduced to ashes.