65 pages • 2 hours read
Jodi PicoultMercy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 13-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary
Graham asks to speak to Cam about Jamie’s case, but Cam declines. However, Graham remembers that Cam is the one who hired him and believes Cam has some hidden sympathy for Jamie. Graham asks Allie for help in unearthing it. Graham meets with Hugo, who is cooperative and tells Graham everything he discovered about Maggie’s manner of death. He notes that Jamie’s skin underneath her fingernails doesn’t necessarily indicate struggle and that Maggie looked peaceful in death.
Allie shows Cam the bonsai that she has been working on as Mia walks into the shop, and Cam feels sandwiched between the two women. He has been lying to Allie about working extra shifts and spending that time with Mia instead. Allie brings up the question of getting a Christmas gift for Jamie. Cam initially shoots it down but absentmindedly tells Allie to organize one when he remembers she is heading out of town for the case the next week, immediately brightening his mood.
With Angus’s help, Allie manages to get a picture of Jamie and Cam as children at Carrymuir and frames it. When she shows it to Cam, he is livid; he doesn’t want Jamie to receive any piece of shared history with Cam. Allie uncharacteristically pushes back, and Cam breaks the frame and tears the photo. A livid Allie calls Cam selfish for caring only about what he wants, a reflection of how she has felt throughout their marriage. She leaves the house and goes over to Ellen’s, who pacifies Allie and sends her home. However, at home, Cam’s apology seems wooden, and Allie wonders how they have descended into fighting all the time. For the first time, when Cam reaches out to her in bed, she pulls away.
Graham and Allie meet with all their prospective witnesses in Cummington. The Spitlicks tell them about Maggie helping out when Watchell’s sister had a stroke, and they recall her stating that she would never want to live that way. Pauline doesn’t think what Jamie did is wrong, believing that Maggie should be on trial instead for taking advantage of how much Jamie loved her by asking him to kill her and leaving him to deal with the consequences. Dr. Wharton reveals that Maggie met him a few days before she died; at that last appointment, she had been told that her death was inevitable but that there was no way of knowing when it would come.
Graham also speaks to Jamie, who recounts the incidents between Maggie’s last appointment and her death. She came home from the appointment and asked Jamie to kill her, and he refused at first, calling her selfish. When he finally acquiesced, they decided to spend one last weekend together, watching a movie and dining at an expensive restaurant. They arrived at Wheelock on a Monday and spent the day together, discussing how Jamie would kill Maggie. On Tuesday, Maggie kissed Jamie goodbye before he suffocated her with a pillow. On being asked whether he would have done anything differently, Jamie confesses he would have liked to kill himself too but knows he would have never had the courage.
Dr. Roanoke Martin, the state-appointed psychologist, interviews Jamie and deems him sane, capable of comprehension, and as showing no remorse for killing Maggie. This is based on Jamie stating that he misses Maggie and regrets having had to kill her while not feeling sorry for actually doing it. Jamie also cuts the interview short when Dr. Martin brings up a hypothetical situation from a morality test that involves a person’s wife being terminally ill.
Mia stays over on an occasion when Allie has gone overnight to Cummington. The next morning, Ellen arrives to check in on Cam and walks in on him and Mia having sex.
Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary
A furious Ellen heads home and uses her dowsing rods to “the puddle of immorality which must have seeped into her own child’s soul” (257). Mia packs up her things and leaves even as Cam asks her to stay, reassuring her that Ellen won’t tell on them. Mia leaves behind a pair of underwear and a shirt, which Cam stuffs into his bottom drawer before heading to Ellen’s. Ellen asserts that she will not tell Allie what happened, as that is Cam’s punishment. She doesn’t understand Cam and claims she didn’t raise him this way; Cam is left contemplating how sleeping with Mia is the only selfish thing he has done in his life.
After reading the state psychologist’s assessment, Graham takes Jamie to see Dr. Harrison Harding, a psychiatrist who Graham knows is sympathetic about euthanasia. He is initially reluctant to see Jamie when he realizes that the defense is not using a euthanasia plea. Under Graham’s persuasion, Dr. Harding then ponders the possibility of using an argument of a psychotic episode brought about by stress. When he finally sees Jamie, he begins by telling the latter about his own wife, who had to be on life support for three years after being shot.
Ellen declines Allie’s invitation to join the couple for Christmas, as she cannot bear to face Allie without telling her the truth. She visits Cam at the station and gives him his gift—a broom, which is a symbol of good luck for a new couple, as she still wants her son to be happy. However, she tells Cam that “[i]f God had wanted [them] to act on instinct, [they] wouldn’t have the power of reason” (264).
Allie gives Mia a tartan scarf the day after Christmas, and Mia apologizes for not having anything in return. Allie confesses she got Cam guitar lessons and an instrument, hoping he will learn. Allie will be away a lot until New Year’s Eve, helping Graham with more casework, and Mia is thrilled that she will have Cam to herself. Mia gets Cam a globe as a gift, suggesting they will travel the world together someday. Cam is thrilled with this since, unlike Allie’s gift, it reflects what he actually wants. Cam gifts Mia a stay in a bed-and-breakfast out of town, two weekends away. He will tell Allie that he has a training to attend.
Fyvel Adams, a professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, helps Graham put together a survey that will help them sample and understand the citizens of the Wheelock, determining whether their attitudes and values will prove them to be the right jurors for Jamie’s trial. Allie conducts the survey telephonically while Graham drives around town looking at people’s houses, marking down those who appear to show some sign of nonconformity.
Allie is alone for New Year’s Eve; as she waits for Cam to return from patrol duty, she sorts through his drawers to clean them. Just as Cam arrives, Allie finds Mia’s underwear and shirt, but she merely thinks that she accidentally put them there herself after doing the laundry when Mia was staying over. Cam is relieved by his wife’s innocence.
An unknown writer reminisces about taking a walk with the addressee, where the latter tried to show the writer how to whistle through an acorn top. The writer never figured it out but loved how the addressee refused to give up for hours.
Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary
Allie and Cam always celebrate Valentine’s Day a month early, as the flower shop is busy during the actual holiday. Cam forgets every year and scrambles to get Allie a gift. This year, Allie is more disappointed than usual, especially because they have been fighting more often, and Cam is also going away for the weekend.
Cam promises to get Allie a gift before noon when he is due to leave, lying about the details of the weekend. Cam almost forgets to get Allie something and then hastens to pick up some candy and a card with a heart without looking inside. Allie is hurt and disappointed when she discovers that it is a card addressed to “Dad,” but she doesn’t say anything.
Cam and Mia drive to Braebury, New Hampshire, and sign into the bed-and-breakfast pretending to be newlyweds. They go skating together, but Mia is unable to get the hang of it. Watching how gracefully Cam does it, she realizes how little she actually fits into his life and begins crying, saying she doesn’t want to go skiing the next day. Cam reassures her that they don’t need to, proclaiming that he will love her anyway. They discuss Jamie’s case, and Mia asserts that she knows what it feels like to do something that she is not supposed to.
The morning they are meant to head back to Wheelock, Cam says that he will leave Allie and asks Mia to come away with him. Mia thinks about how he wouldn’t be the man she fell in love with, as she actually wants what Allie has, and not even a divorce can change that. She silently decides to leave him instead.
Graham tries to recreate the details of Maggie’s last few days on a whiteboard. Most events have eyewitness accounts to back up claims, but there are gaps that no one else can verify. Graham knows the jury will latch onto these and make their own assumptions. Dr. Harding’s detailed report after Jamie’s evaluation regards the man as sane but having been deeply in love with Maggie, moved by her suffering, and heartbroken at having had to kill her on her demand.
Graham and Audra do jury selection, with Allie and Jamie present. Graham does not feel confident that the final selected 14 will be sympathetic to Jamie’s case, and Jamie is equally dejected, despite Graham’s reassurances. Allie takes Jamie suit shopping for the trial. In the dressing room, Jamie remembers going swimsuit shopping with Maggie and how Maggie hated looking at her body after her mastectomy.
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary
Cam and Mia return to Wheelock, where they sleep together in the inn one last time. Afterward, Mia packs up her things and leaves town for good, leaving behind only her bonsai tree.
On Monday morning, as Allie unpacks Cam’s bag from the weekend trip to do his laundry, she finds polaroids of him and Mia. Furious, she rips them apart. At the same time, Graham witnesses Maggie’s ghost walk into his office and touch an empty spot on his dry erase board, filling up a gap in the events before her death with a red fingerprint, before she disappears. Simultaneously, out on a walk, Ellen spots Cam pull into the Wheelock Inn parking lot and turns away, not wanting to see more.
At the inn, Cam discovers that Mia has already left—he had come to tell her that he was going to talk to Allie that night before calling a lawyer. Cam rushes up to Mia’s room to find only the bonsai tree, which suddenly begins to untwist from its gnarled shape and grow as “nature had intended” (304). In the flower shop, the same thing happened to all the other bonsais, which burst out of their copper wire. Allie, who has arrived at the shop, is distracted by this and misses seeing the geranium petals Mia has spread on the flower, a symbol that she will never see Cam again. Allie goes home, sorts through and sells all of Cam’s things in a garage sale, and then waits for him to come home.
Part 2, Chapter 13-16 Analysis
As things heat up with both Jamie’s trial preparations and Cam’s affair with Mia, the theme of The Weight of Familial Duty appears foremost in these chapters. Graham asks Allie for help in digging up any sympathy Cam may have for Jamie, remembering that Cam is the one who hired him in the first place. Cam, however, reacts in anger when Allie dredges up an old photograph of him and Jamie together at Carrymuir, reminding Cam of the familial connection they share. Cam’s anger is a projection of how shackled he feels by the bounds of family ties and connections: He returned to Wheelock only because of family obligation, thus marrying Allie. As such, the weight of familial duty is what prevented him from traveling and potentially meeting Mia. Cam’s anger and projection overlap significantly with Allie, as she is part of the life that he feels he was forced to build instead of the life he wanted.
Despite feeling guilty for the affair with Mia, Cam carries on with it, lying to Allie in order to spend time with Mia. The affair with Mia represents the first time that Cam is able to decide something for himself; this is reflected in the difference between the gifts Allie and Mia give him. Allie’s gift reflects something she would like him to learn, do, or become—a reminder of more expectations Cam needs to meet. Mia’s gift, on the other hand, is based simply on Cam’s heart’s desire, and it is the first time someone is recognizing and acknowledging the path he could have taken. Thus, even when Ellen discovers Cam’s affair with Mia and is furious with him for behaving in contradiction to all the values he has been raised with, Cam reflects on how being with Mia is the only selfish thing he has done in his life. Cam is weighed down by duty that he does not want, and as Allie is central to his life, he resents her and treats her poorly. This again contrasts with Maggie and Jamie, who, despite having an unequal Power Dynamic, communicated with one another about their needs. Indeed, Jamie pushed back against Maggie’s wishes, but he ultimately understood her pain and does not regret his choice. Cam, on the other hand, has yet to show that he truly understands and appreciates Allie. While the relationships overlap in similarity, there is much left for Cam to learn.
Interestingly, even as Cam looks to break away from the bonds of family and duty for Mia’s sake, Mia arrives at a realization that she will never fit into Cam’s life. Furthermore, she sees that what she seeks is the life Cam and Allie already have together far more than Cam himself. Thus, both of Cam’s romantic relationships appear to be headed toward a breakdown, with the balance shifting in both: Mia decides that she must leave Cam, and Allie has begun to retaliate and push back for the first time. Just like Jamie said to Maggie, Allie calls Cam “selfish” for destroying the photo of him and Jamie and pulls away from Cam in bed for the first time. Allie is also becoming more conscious of how unfair the balance is between her and Cam, reflected in the hurt and disappointment she allows herself to feel when Cam not only forgets Valentine’s Day but also gives her a thoughtless gift. Nevertheless, because of the power dynamic in their romantic relationship, she doesn’t ever suspect that he is straying, even when she finds Mia’s underwear and clothes in Cam’s drawer. However, when Allie finds the polaroid photos of Cam and Mia, she rips it, like Cam ripped the photo of himself and Jamie, and immediately sets about gathering his things. While cancer was the breaking point for Maggie and Jamie that ultimately brought them closer to understanding each other, Cam’s long-standing infidelity threatens to destroy his relationship with Allie.
Part of this obliviousness may also come from the fact that Allie is entirely consumed with work for the case. She and Graham meet with prospective witnesses again, who all once again confirm that Maggie knew she was going to die, didn’t want to keep living this way, and was determined to ask Jamie to kill her. As it becomes convincingly clear that Maggie’s manner and time of death were according to her own wishes, the task at hand for Graham is to secure jurors who possess certain attitudes and values that allow them to sympathize with Jamie. As Graham and Allie set about surveying the citizens of Wheelock, it becomes clear that justice is not black and white; decisions regarding the fate of a defendant can be made based on personal beliefs and morality. Thus, even though the term “mercy” is banned for the duration of the trial, it is the only thing that will save Jamie, highlighting the theme of Mercy and the Law.
The idea of a disconnect from reality appears in these chapters in the context of Jamie’s case. Two different psychologists examine him to determine whether he was sane when he killed Maggie. Dr. Martin deems him to be in touch with reality, and although Dr. Harding considers positing that Jamie had a psychotic break, his examination also reveals a sane but grief-stricken, heartbroken Jamie. In a different instance of experiences outside of physical reality, Graham encounters Maggie’s ghost. Recurring symbols and motifs include flowers, which Mia scatters on the floor of the flower shop as a message to Allie; and the bonsai, which all burst out of their confines when Allie discovers Cam’s infidelity and Cam discovers Mia’s disappearance. With this, events in the book arrive at the scene in the Prologue in which Allie sells all of Cam’s things, except the stained-glass panel, and waits for him to come home. Now, Cam must decide how much he values Allie and whether or not he will fight for her or leave, as he planned to do with Mia. Indeed, to Cam, Allie represents his whole life and its rigidity, so in choosing Mia over her, he has essentially rejected his current life. If he now chooses to commit, he will also be recommitting to his own life and his Familial Duty.
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