The Rock and The River

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2009

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-9

Chapters 10-11

Chapters 12-14

Chapters 15-16

Chapters 17-19

Chapters 20-21

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 10 Summary

As Sam walks home, it begins to rain harder, and Father drives up next to him and offers him a ride. Sam refuses, and they meet at home. Sam spends the entire next day working with Father. Father tells Sam that Maxie is welcome to come over to the house to help them but that he doesn’t want Sam out in the streets as much as he has been. Stick taps on the bedroom window several nights later, but he needs help getting in because he is hurt. Sam helps him and is stunned by his swollen and cut face. As Sam helps tend to Stick’s wounds, Mama knocks on the door. Sam helps Stick get in the closet and answers the door. When Mama leaves, Sam finishes tending to Stick and puts him in his bed. Stick sneaks out again while Sam is asleep. Sam finds a note from stick that reads: “Where is it? I need it.” Sam knows that he is talking about the gun.

Chapter 11 Summary

Sam tries to approach Maxie in the schoolyard, but she runs away. Raheem sees this and gives Sam attitude when he asks about Stick. Raheem tells Sam to fix his relationship with Maxie. Sam looks for Maxie again after school but can’t find her. He goes to her home, but she doesn’t answer. Sam sees her looking out the window at him as police officers harass Charlie. Soon Raheem, Leroy, Lester, and Stick pull up in a car and confront the police officers. The police officers leave, and the Panthers get back in their car. When Sam turns around, Maxie is standing in front of him.

Sam and Maxie go for a walk. When Sam apologizes for what he said to Maxie, she tells him he was right, and she was wrong about him being different from everyone else. She leaves to do “Panther stuff” and tells Sam she will be at the march for Bucky the next day. Sam returns home to find Stick in their room looking for the gun. Sam refuses to tell Stick where it is, and they fight. Father hears the fighting and comes to see what is going on. He is angry, frustrated, and relieved to see Stick in the house again. Stick leaves, and Father tells Sam to come help him.

Chapters 10-11 Analysis

Sam begins to learn that eliminating the tensions in his life is not a viable solution to the challenges of growing up. While he thought that pushing Maxie and the Panthers away would simplify his life, he is left unsatisfied. The weather mirrors his mental state: “The rain wasn’t helping my mood in any way. I only felt muckier—nothing was washed clean” (154) and “the storm outside couldn’t compare to the one in my head […]. How could I want so many things that didn’t match?” (156).

Sam also begins to understand the consequences of his argument with Maxie. Raheem explains the importance of Maxie getting out of her neighborhood and tells Sam, “Whatever happened between you and Maxie messed with her head” (168). When Sam tries to patch things up with Maxie, he realizes he has ruined their relationship. Sam, although Black just like Maxie, has a certain amount of privilege in living in a better home and neighborhood. Because he disparages Maxie for her living conditions, Maxie sees Sam as the enemy: He doesn’t look at her situation and hope to help her better it, he criticizes it as though it’s something she can control. Sam unintentionally plays the role of the oppressor.

Sam’s relationship with Stick also becomes increasingly frustrating for Sam. He is shaken when Stick arrives at home so injured that he cannot climb in the window. Sam explains, “Stick must have climbed in and out of our window a hundred times. He could have done it in his sleep” (159). Sam realizes the price Stick is paying for his involvement with the Panthers and again tries to simplify things by refusing to give Stick his gun. Sam’s impulse to simplify is contrasted by Father’s acceptance of complexity. While Sam physically fights Stick, Father allows Stick to leave the house again, saying, “If locking you two in this room for the rest of your lives would help anything, believe me” (179).

When Sam sees the police officers harassing Charlie, he is again bothered by his inability to act. He is awestruck by the way the Black Panthers intervene and prevent the situation from turning into what happened to Bucky. He is shocked that “They hadn’t needed to fight, or even to talk too much. The guns had said it all” (173), Seeing this also makes Sam realize why Stick needed his gun and “Why he couldn’t tuck it away and forget about it” (172). Sam sees here the immediate influence of violence, again represented by guns, rather than the seemingly ineffective influence of peaceful protests. This is the first time Sam sees real evidence of the Panthers as a force for good.