51 pages • 1 hour read
I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005
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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Monday, August 29, 2005. 7:00 AM. The Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, Louisiana”
In a flash forward, 11-year-old Barry Tucker clings to an oak tree amidst the raging winds and rain of Hurricane Katrina. Barry has recently fallen off the roof of his house into the floodwaters drowning his neighborhood in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward. As the storm rages around him, Barry wonders what he is going to do. He stares at what remains of his neighborhood as detritus floats toward him such as wood, glass, and even a refrigerator. He tries not to imagine what this means for the inhabitants of the now-destroyed houses around him and worries about his mother, father, and younger sister, Cleo, from whom he has become separated.
For a brief moment, he thinks he hears someone calling his name, but he realizes it is just the shrieking wind. Barry begins to shake, fighting back tears, when he sees the remains of an entire house coming right toward him.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Twenty-One Hours Earlier. Sunday, August 28, 2005. 10:00 AM. The Tuckers’ House, The Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, Louisiana”
Twenty-one hours earlier, Barry and his best friend, Jay, sit together on Barry’s front porch as Barry puts the final changes on a drawing he has been working on. Barry and Jay have entered Acclaim Comics’s “Create a Superhero” contest, and Barry has been working on the entry drawing for three weeks. With a final flourish, he reveals to Jay his drawing of Akivo: a seven-foot-tall superhero with “bulging muscles, hawk wings, titanium armor, and eyes that could see through walls” (5). Jay marvels at the drawing, stating that they are going to win the contest. Despite knowing that hundreds of people are entering the contest, Barry believes that he and Jay have a chance to win.
As the boys discuss their excitement over the contest, they fail to notice their classmate and neighbor, Abe Mackay, walking by with his “killer” dog, Cruz. Abe begins laughing, catching Barry and Jay’s attention, and both boys grow wary. Abe used to be friends with Jay and Barry, but since his father left two years previously, Abe has all but stopped going to school, hanging out instead with older boys. Abe and his grandma now live alone in a sky-blue house. Abe’s new dog, Cruz, is another source of anxiety for Barry and Jay, as Abe has told them that Cruz is “trained to kill” on Abe’s command (9). As Abe and Cruz approach the porch, Abe bends down to unhook Cruz’s leash, telling the dog to “go get” Barry and Jay.
Chapter 3 Summary
Barry turns away from Cruz, expecting an attack, but only hears Abe burst into laughter, still holding Cruz on his leash after all. Barry wishes he could be courageous and tell Abe to leave, but he feels himself too cowardly to stand up to Abe. Barry wishes he could be more like his father, Roddy, who rarely lets things bother him.
The front door opens, and Barry’s father appears. Abe immediately backs down, becoming more like the person he used to be when he was friends with Barry. Barry reflects on the effect his father has on those around him, as Roddy Tucker is a semi-famous jazz musician in New Orleans. Roddy turns to Barry and tells him that he needs to pack, as the family is leaving in an hour in advance of the approaching storm.
Barry is surprised to hear that his family is leaving, as they have never left town for a hurricane before. Barry recalls that the last bad hurricane occurred 40 years ago, and since, each hurricane that heading straight for New Orleans has “petered out” at the last moment. Roddy interrupts his thoughts, telling Barry that there is a mandatory evacuation, the first in New Orleans history. Roddy tells Jay that his mother called, and his family is leaving for Birmingham, Alabama promptly, while the Tuckers will be going to Houston to stay with Barry’s mother’s family. Barry realizes the storm must be serious if it means they are going to Houston to stay in his mother’s cousin’s tiny, loud house.
Barry looks around his neighborhood, which holds innumerable memories of Barry’s childhood, even if it is not the nicest neighborhood in New Orleans. He thinks about how his parents sometimes discuss moving to a nicer part of town, but that the Tucker family has lived in the Lower Ninth Ward for generations and that it is “home.”
As Abe begins to walk away, Roddy tells him that the city has opened the Superdome, a stadium in New Orleans, for people who do not have cars or cannot evacuate. Roddy tells Abe to get him and his grandma there as soon as possible and Abe leaves. As Roddy goes back inside, Barry can hear the radio announcer bleating out a warning to “[g]et out now. Get out while you can!” (14), and Roddy tells Barry to hurry up.
Chapter 4 Summary
Barry begins feeling nervous, even though his family has been hearing about the storm for days without taking it too seriously. He thinks about how water surrounds New Orleans, the Industrial Canal only two blocks from their house and multiple waterways cutting through the city. Barry reminds himself that there are multiple levees to protect the city, but also remembers that people say that the levees are not strong enough to manage big storms.
Barry’s thoughts wander to Hurricane Betsy, the hurricane that hit New Orleans 40 years ago. Barry’s grandfather always told him stories about Betsy and how the levee broke, flooding the Lower Nine and causing damage that took six months to rectify. Jay calls out to Barry, bringing him back to the present, and asks what they are going to do about the contest since they had planned to mail their entry the next day. Barry promises that he will mail the drawing from Houston. The boys stand there for a few moments longer, neither wanting to say goodbye, until Barry’s mom calls out to him, urging him to get ready to leave.
Jay and Barry hold up their hands and link their pinkies, a nod to Akivo’s special move “so the energy from his secret power star, Beta Draconis, could flow from his pinky into his heart” (20). Barry smiles at his best friend, imagining his own power star somewhere in the galaxy.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
The opening chapters introduce important themes and characters that will develop throughout the text as Barry and his family prepare for Hurricane Katrina to make landfall. Against the backdrop of the approaching hurricane, Barry is experiencing the growing pains of adolescence. Like many pre-teens, Barry struggles with self-confidence and a sense that he is not as strong or brave as he would like to be. His inner turmoil manifests in the hyper-masculine superhero he creates, Akivo: “Seven-foot-tall [...] with bulging muscles, hawk wings, titanium armor, and eyes that could see through walls” (5). Akivo has the bravery and strength Barry often feels he lacks, thinking of himself as “about as fierce as one of Mom’s peanut butter cookies” (11). Barry’s insecurity in these early chapters alludes to a burgeoning theme of Bravery and Fear, as Barry will learn about the true depths of his strength in the face of fear as he fights for survival during Hurricane Katrina.
As Barry will learn the extent of his inner strength during his experience in the storm, the author makes a point to establish the importance of Barry’s father, Roddy, in his life: “If only Barry was more like his father. Nothing ever got to Roddy Tucker” (11). When Barry later becomes separated from his family and has to survive on his own, it is his father’s example that, in part, enables Barry to make decisions that ensure his survival. Thus, the novel must establish Roddy’s influence early on. Barry will channel his father’s calm energy in the face of crisis later on as he fights for survival.
Despite Barry’s lack of confidence in himself, the early chapters offer examples of one of Barry’s greatest strengths that will carry throughout the text: his sensitivity and love for those he cares about. The text shows this in Barry’s interactions with his younger sister, Cleo: “Barry always got a soft feeling in his heart, like the purring of a little cat, when he looked at his sister. Good thing he wasn’t a superhero. One look at a crying Cleo and all his powers would be drained away” (23). Barry feels as if his soft spot for his sister is a weakness, when, in reality, the storm will teach Barry that his love for others and desire to care for them is one of his greatest strengths.
The tone of these early chapters vacillates between concern about the hurricane’s approach with skepticism that it will be as bad as predicted. Barry admits that “[t]he news reports had been warning about Hurricane Katrina for days, but nobody in Barry’s house had been paying much attention” (15). The family’s initial lack of concern is born of the fact that there has not been a bad hurricane in New Orleans in “forty years” and that hurricanes that threaten New Orleans always “[peter] out at the last minute” (12). Still, Barry soon gleans that there is something different about this storm. As the storm draws closer, a sense of dread looms, as Barry’s parents express anxiety and a desire to leave before the storm hits, something Barry’s family has never done before: “Leaving town for a hurricane? Not the Tuckers! Never before” (12). Barry’s surprise at his parents’ reaction illustrates the gravity of this storm and introduces the theme of The Impact of Natural Disasters on Communities before the hurricane even makes landfall.
As citizens begin making evacuation plans, author Lauren Tarshis employs the use of foreshadowing to illustrate the impacts of the hurricane before it arrives: “Like everyone in New Orleans, [Barry] understood what could happen if a strong hurricane struck. The city was surrounded by water. [...] But some people said that the levees weren’t strong enough for a really big storm” (15). In this quote, Barry points out that while the city is surrounded by an elaborate levee system, there have been questions about its integrity and ability to withstand a large storm. This foreshadows what will occur once the hurricane makes landfall: the widescale destruction of the levee system, which floods New Orleans and contributes to the devastating destruction. This quote illustrates one of Tarshis’s primary goals in writing this text: bringing an awareness of the government’s mismanagement of the hurricane to a new generation and illustrating how some of the hurricane’s immense damage could have been avoided.
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