51 pages • 1 hour read
The Great Alone
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Chapters 19-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
In the evening, Cora apologizes for not allowing Leni to attend the graduation party thrown in her honor. She tells Leni she could have snuck out, and Leni admits she considered it but knew it would end with Ernt attacking Cora. When her mom cautions her to be careful, Leni replies, “We can’t be good enough to keep him from losing it” (262). She tells her mom she got into the university, and Cora says that she will help Leni, but that they must plan with care: Leni needs to avoid seeing Matthew during the summer.
As her dad continues working on the wall, the isolation makes Leni restless. Desperate come August, Leni wonders if Matthew still feels the same way about her. Her chance to see him comes when her parents go to Sterling, a trip that could take a day. Leni rushes to go see Matthew and let him know. They spend the day together and sleep together for the first time. As Leni and Matthew talk about Ernt and their plans to leave, Leni thinks her love for Matthew is different from her mother’s love for Ernt.
Chapter 20 Summary
Matthew wakes Leni up since her parents have arrived. Leni hides Matthew and traces of him from her dad with her mom’s help. Eventually, Matthew manages to escape undetected. Cora disapproves of the risks Leni is taking and reminds her that she only needs to hold on until September. Leni’s father finishes the wall, which makes Leni more anxious. Leni tells her mother they need to leave. Cora thinks if they do, Ernt will kill her, but Leni thinks that will happen eventually. As soon as her dad leaves, Leni devises a plot to run but doubts her mother’s capabilities: “She only prayed that when the opportunity for escape arose, Mama would go with her” (279).
Leni pleads with her mom, insisting that they leave together. Their opportunity arises when they go into town to see Large Marge. However, when Ernt confront Tom, Cora reconsiders and tells Leni to run. Instead, Leni goes after her mom and calls for help, which Ernt hears. Angered, Ernt assaults Cora. Matthew quickly arrives and defends them. Leni uses the chance to persuade her mother to go to Large Marge. Cora agrees on the condition that Matthew hide Leni for at least a day. Matthew takes Leni to hide out in the wilderness.
Chapter 21 Summary
Matthew wakes up after a night of comforting an anguished Leni, thinking that she’s going through the loss of a father, “the dad she wanted” (290). After she wakes up, Leni decides that she’s going to go back for her mother even if it means she won’t go to Anchorage. Matthew promises that he’ll go back with her, hopeful that he can be with Leni. The weather becomes turbulent on their hike back down the trail. Matthew hears a scream and looks back to see Leni fall into a crevice.
Leni wakes up with a broken arm in a cave-like space. She moves towards the light and hears Matthew calling her. She tries to warn him not to climb down for her but ends up watching with dread as he falls and triggers an avalanche of dirt and rocks. Leni has a dream of a memory: She is on a canoe with her mother who cryptically tells her she needs to “help him. Help [herself]” (294). The canoe tips, and a killer whale attacks them. Leni wakes up in the crevice and sees Matthew unconscious, hanging over her. In pain but determined, she struggles to get Matthew down. After an arduous effort and many falls, Leni pulls Matthew down. She blames herself for him coming after her and tries to care for him as best as she can with the survival skills she’s learned. She ties up his gruesomely broken leg and tries to comfort him with the Robert Service poems they both enjoyed. Delirious, Matthew is aware of himself in pain and with Leni. He feels himself dying.
Chapters 19-21 Analysis
In these chapters, Leni and Cora make important sacrifices for each other, regardless of the consequences. This reveals the depth of their mother-daughter bond, despite the strain Ernt’s abuse has caused. Even knowing her vulnerability to Ernt’s rages and her dependency on him, Cora breaks from him discretely for her daughter’s sake. She supports Leni when she learns of Leni’s college acceptance and financial resources to go. Cora plans for Leni’s escape and helps Leni hide Matthew from Ernt. She sacrifices her own escape so that Leni has a chance to leave. Later, when Cora finally decides to ask for help, she makes Matthew promise to keep Leni safe. When it comes to Leni, Cora asserts her own will, deriving strength from their bond.
Leni’s inability to leave Cora shows the limits of what she will do for Matthew and her independence. While Leni continues to take risks through her relationship with Matthew, she continues to worry over her mother’s safety, especially when Ernt finishes the wall. When the situation between Cora and Ernt intensifies, Leni sacrifices her dream of studying at UAA for her mother’s sake. The mother-daughter bond is something that Leni has internalized, seen through the dream Leni has after her fall where her mother tells her to help Matthew and herself. Just as their bond gives Cora the strength to pull away from Ernt, it also empowers Leni to help Matthew and keep them both alive until their rescue.
The Alaskan wilderness described in these chapters suggests the increasing peril as the seasons pass. The unforgiving weather intensifies the latent danger surrounding the Allbrights, and the long dark hours with Ernt behind his wall lead Leni to insist on leaving. As the narrative’s tension escalates, so does the elements. The end of summer storm causes Matthew’s accident, despite his knowledge of the terrain.
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