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66 pages 2 hours read

John Grisham

The Rainmaker

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1995

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Chapters 31-35Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 31 Summary

Rudy takes Judge Kipler’s advice and has Dot give her deposition in the courtroom. Dot is nervous, but Rudy has coached her and helps her remain calm. Drummond, paid by the hour, deposes her for several hours, asking irrelevant and personal questions. In the third hour, Dot reveals the existence of the “Stupid Letter,” written by Great Benefit:

Dear Mrs. Black:
On sever prior occasions, this company has denied your claim in writing. We now deny it for the eighth and final time. You must be stupid, stupid, stupid! (348).

The letter has the shock value that Rudy was hoping for. Kipler threatens Drummond and Great Benefit with sanctions if they are caught withholding documents from the plaintiff. Drummond continues to drag his feet through the deposition, and it finally ends six-and-a-half hours after it began.

Rudy returns home to find all the cars gone. Randolph tells Rudy that they are going to take Birdie to live with them down in Florida. They would like Rudy to stay there, however, and keep an eye on the house. Rudy agrees.

Chapter 32 Summary

Booker takes Rudy to a nice restaurant to announce that his bar exam compliant has been accepted, and Booker has passed. They discuss the Blacks’ case, which Kipler thinks may be worth millions.

Booker asks Rudy to handle some collections files for the Shankle firm. Rudy accepts. Deck doesn’t like the collections for Ruffin’s, a furniture store, because he sees it as a waste of time.

Rudy prepares to travel to Cleveland to depose several employees of Great Benefit. Donny Ray has grown so weak he can barely speak on the phone anymore, so Rudy drives over for a visit. He talks with Dot for a while and sits with Donny Ray. As he watches Donny Ray lay dying, Rudy vows revenge against Great Benefit.

Chapter 33 Summary

Kipler is not in a good mood when they all meet to hear motions. Drummond drags his feet to find an appropriate time for the trial. Kipler puts pressure on him, and a date is finally set for Monday, February 8. Rudy wishes he had a little more time to prepare.

Deck’s friend, Butch, an ex-cop, tracks down Bobby Ott, the man who sold the Blacks the insurance. Rudy goes down to the prison where Ott is being held for writing bad checks. Bobby agrees to meet with Rudy after he gets out of prison in 18 days.

Kelly is still in Rudy’s thoughts. He wants to find a way to see her again.

Chapter 34 Summary

Rudy takes a Greyhound bus to Cleveland and stays in a cheap hotel. Rudy imagines the guys from Tinley Britt flying first class and staying in swanky accommodations.

At Great Benefit’s headquarters, Rudy is taken to the board room to meet with those he needs to depose. He is greeted by four lawyers from Tinley Britt. Though nervous, Rudy asks questions and requests the claims file, the most important document. Jackie Lemancyzk, the claims handler Rudy wants to talk to, is not there. In fact, several people Rudy needs to depose, including Jackie, no longer work for Great Benefit. Rudy takes the claims file and retreats to a conference room to look it over.

An hour later, Rudy emerges and has found something missing: the Stupid Letter isn’t in the Great Benefit file. Rudy talks to Kipler, who chastises the lawyer from Tinley Britt. Kipler then tells Rudy to leave Cleveland. Because Great Benefit is withholding documents and witnesses, Judge Kipler will order them to come to Memphis to be deposed there.

Rudy talks with Jack Underhall, Great Benefit’s in-house lawyer. He learns that the parent company is called PinnConn. Rudy questions Underhall for three hours and then returns to Memphis.

Chapter 35 Summary

Deck is working to acquire Derrick Dogan, who has been in an accident, as a client. It looks like a slam-dunk case.

Rudy returns to court. Kipler berates Drummond and lays heavy sanctions against Great Benefit, requiring them to pay for Rudy having gone to Cleveland and wasted his and the court’s time.

Rudy has dinner with Dot. He tells her about Kipler and how he deals with Drummond, but she isn’t much interested. No matter what happens with the case, it’s too late for Donny Ray. He has already planned his funeral and signed a simple, two-page will, leaving his meager possessions to Dot and Buddy. Dr. Kord makes a house call. He checks in on Donny Ray and talks to Rudy about testifying in court. Dr. Kord is angry with Great Benefit and wants to help speak out against them.

Late that night, Miss Birdie calls Rudy to complain that her family isn’t treating her very well anymore. She thinks they might want to poison her. She also wants to ask about power of attorney. Randolph wants her to sign one. Rudy tells her not to sign. Miss Birdie hangs up. She thinks she heard someone. She isn’t supposed to use the phone.

Chapters 31-35 Analysis

In Chapter 31, Rudy’s transition from ambulance chaser to a man of the people is complete. Great Benefit’s guilt becomes increasingly apparent, and Grisham makes a conspicuous, indictment of the American health care system. Donny Ray’s imminent death becomes a metaphor for the entire insurance industry, and Donny Ray becomes a symbol of the uninsured in America. Rudy points out the quality of America’s hospitals, technology, doctors, researchers, etc., and questions why anyone should die within such an advanced system. The simple and damning answer: The affluent can afford to pay for the services; those who can’t pay he poor are left to die.

The pressure that the affluent place on the poor is apparent in more than just the insurer/insured relationship. In Chapter 33, Rudy displays feelings pity for Bobby Ott, even though Rudy does not hold back his anger toward Great Benefit. Rudy views people like Ott and Jackie Lemancyzk, as just additional victims of the insurance company. He recognizes that Ott was just another poor man who was forced by impecunious circumstances to sell cheap insurance plans to other poor people. Great Benefit gets rid of low-level employees, in Chapter 34, who might have provided damning evidence against the company.

The contrasts Grisham sets up between the powerful and those they oppress gives Rudy’s faceoff with Tinley Britt a David-versus-Goliath aspect. The lawyers from Tinley Britt travel in luxury (first-class plane tickets) and stay in what Rudy presumes is a luxury hotel. Rudy travels to Cleveland via Greyhound bus and rooms in a cheap hotel.

Rudy has a powerful ally in Judge Kipler, who continues to keep Drummond under his thumb. Rudy explains that Judge Kipler has behaved similarly in other trials and is gaining a general reputation as a judge who dislikes big law firms; Black v. Great Benefit is not a solitary event. Kipler’s choices further reproach the greed and immorality of large law firms that are solely interested in collecting large sums of money from unscrupulous clients. Again showing his status as a former lawyer, Grisham emphasizes the importance of seeking litigation promptly when a large company doesn’t behave ethically. Prompt litigation would most likely have brought Great Benefit to a settlement in time for the Blacks to have paid for Donny Ray’s bone marrow transplant. This notion is further reinforced in later chapters.

In his personal life, instead of being happy that Miss Birdie is gone, Rudy feels that he has lost a friend. The strange circumstances she mentions, such as not being allowed to use the phone when she wants to, heighten his suspicions. It’s another examples of the powerful—Miss Birdie’s sons—taking advantage of someone less powerful—Miss Birdie—out of greed.

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