60 pages • 2 hours read
Julie MurphyDumplin
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 22-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 22-28 Summary
Willowdean’s car dies, so her mother drives her to school in the morning and asks her to get a ride home from Ellen since Mrs. Dixon is busy with pageant obligations. As Willowdean gets out of the car, her mother says goodbye to her, calling her “Dumplin’.” Will sees that Patrick Thomas heard her mother call her by her nickname. Later in the day, when Will is talking with Mitch, Patrick approaches them and cracks a joke about Mitch finding a girlfriend his own size. He then refers to Will as “Dumplin’.” Willowdean thinks of all the times Patrick Thomas made fun of Millie and her weight, Amanda and her uneven legs, and even Hannah because Patrick got the whole school to call Hannah a horse. As Will’s anger increases, she knees Patrick between the legs.
Willowdean is suspended from school, and her mother has grounded her for the first time in her life. An argument starts between the two of them, and Will accuses her mother of being embarrassed of Will, her daughter. Lucy comes up in the argument, and Willowdean’s mother admits that she doesn’t want Will to end up like Lucy. The argument ends when Willowdean tells her mother that Lucy was a better mom to her than her mother is.
Willowdean doesn’t get out of bed on the first day of her suspension. Ellen calls and texts her, and Will finally returns her call. Will is relieved that she is able to tell Ellen everything; she tells her about her mother calling her “Dumplin’” and Patrick Thomas overhearing and about the fight she had with her mother over the entire situation.
Willow spends her suspension on the couch in front of the television. Ellen brings her homework every night, and Mitch calls to apologize for Patrick’s big mouth, but Will says she doesn’t want to talk about it. Finding herself alone on a Saturday night, Willowdean makes her way to Lucy’s room. Will finds old newspaper clippings and a blank pageant application from 1994 in Lucy’s drawer. Knowing that her mother won the pageant in 1999, Willowdean is shocked to think that Lucy could have thought about entering the pageant.
Willowdean remembers the trip that Lucy and Ellen’s mother planned to go visit Dollywood. Lucy and Suze booked plane tickets, hotels, and rental cars only to find that when they got to their airport, Lucy would have to purchase an extra seat on the plane because she couldn’t fit in just one. Lucy was too mortified to go on the trip with Mrs. Dryer.
Thinking about the things that Lucy never did because society wouldn’t let her believe she could do them even though she could, Willowdean decides to compete in the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant. Will calls Ellen and tells her of the decision. Will expects that Ellen will think that she is crazy, which Ellen does, but El also thinks that the idea is awesome.
Willowdean returns to school the next week only to find that Hannah Perez is the new joke at school. When someone shows Willowdean a school picture of Hannah, which sits beside a photo shopped picture of a horse, Will tells the girl that it isn’t funny.
Ellen visits Will at work that night. While they talk about the pageant, Millie comes to the restaurant for a pint of chili. Millie overhears El and Will talk about the pageant, and the next day, she asks Will if she is really entering. When Will says yes, Millie smiles and says: “[T]hat’s amazing” (150). Despite Ellen and Millie’s support, Willow still doesn’t tell her mother that she is entering the pageant.
Chapters 22-28 Analysis
When Willowdean loses control because of her anger toward Patrick and kicks him between the legs, Willowdean says: “I’m as shocked as he is” (130). This is important because it shows that Willowdean didn’t plan to fight Patrick; she is not the type of person to get in fights. It also shows how much of a bully Patrick is to the kids at school. If he weren’t as mean as he was, Will would never have kicked him. Whereas Will used to simply ignore bullying, she has internalized so much self-doubt that she is now striking back against social judgments about her weight.
Mrs. Dixon is furious because of the incident at school between Willowdean and Patrick, and it starts an argument between them about Willowdean’s happiness. Mrs. Dixon wants Willowdean to be happy and believes that Will is missing out on dating. Will replies that a man is not going to make her happier than she is. Will is the more mature and sensible one in the argument, even though she is arguing with her mother. This altercation highlights how Will's values differ from her mother's. Mrs. Dixon's unrealistic expectations of what will make Will “happy” cause the rift between mother and daughter to grow. During the argument in Chapter 23, Mrs. Dixon brings up Lucy, and it is obvious that she doesn’t want Will to end up like Lucy—obese and alone. This is also hurtful to Willowdean, as Lucy was like a mother to Will.
It is in Chapter 26 that Willowdean decides to enter the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant. She expects Ellen to think she is crazy, but Ellen supports Willowdean, showing that El really is a kind friend. Millie overhears Will talking about entering the contest and tells Willowdean how awesome that it is that Will is going to compete. This foreshadows that later in the novel, Will becomes a role model for Millie.
Willowdean doesn’t tell her mother about entering the contest. Willowdean realizes that she wants her mother’s reaction to be a positive one. She wants Mrs. Dixon to be excited and supportive of Willowdean’s participation, but Will knows her mother won’t be supportive and how that lack of support will hurt her. In this way, Will is rebelling against her mother's set perception of her as a “fat” girl—one who has no place in the pageant world per social expectations of beauty. Will counters her mother's limited view of beauty and decides to forge her own way, motivated to honor her deceased aunt's unrecognized dreams.
