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 32-35Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 32-35 Summary
Willowdean joins Millie, Amanda, and Hannah to talk about their talents for the talent show. They talk about other pageant expectations as well. Amanda brings up the fact that everyone but them dressed up for the registration. Willowdean fills them in on the dress they are expected to wear, the talent show, and the interview portion of the competition. Hannah replies: “We are so fucked. Your mom runs the whole thing and that’s all you’ve got?” (173).
Mitch invites Willowdean to his house to watch movies. Mitch’s mother is welcoming; she tells Willowdean: “Mitch said you were pretty, but he didn’t say gorgeous” (176). Mitch and Willowdean watch a movie in Mitch’s room. Mitch leaves the door open at the request of his mother. Instead of watching the movie, Willowdean watches Mitch’s hand grow closer to her own hand. After the movie, Will and Mitch get tacos. Mitch admits that he doesn’t love football as much as everyone thinks he does. He tells Will that he feels pressure from his father and the town. Once, while hunting when Mitch was a child, Mitch killed a deer. His father was proud of him, but Mitch spent the night crying over the deer’s death.
Thinking that the pageant’s group dance number “can’t be much harder than walking in choreographed circles” (185), Willowdean ends up sweating and tripping over the other girls’ and her own feet through dance rehearsal. She practices with Millie, Amanda, and Hannah but is aware that Ellen is up front with Callie. Both Ellen and Callie wear Sweet 16 outfits to rehearsal.
The Sadie Hawkins Dance is a popular event at Clover City High, Willowdean’s school. Girls think up elaborate ways to ask a guy to the dance. When Will tells her that she hasn’t asked anyone yet, Amanda reminds Will that they will need to ask a guy to be their escort to the pageant, so Will decides that she “[m]ight as well cross two things off [her] list” (190). Amanda tells Will that Millie asked a boy named Malik. Will is surprised he said yes. Then, Bekah Cotter asks Bo to the dance outside fifth period World History just as the class, including Willowdean, is leaving the classroom. Bo says yes to Bekah, provoking Will to ask Mitch, who says yes.
Chapters 32-35 Analysis
The talent show portion of the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet competition is a challenge for Will: “My talent consists of watching television, being Ellen’s best friend, and knowing the lyrics to nearly every Dolly Parton song” (171). Will is surprised when Millie tells Will that Will’s talent is confidence, showing that sometimes the way people see us is much different than we see ourselves. Along that same theme, Mitch confides in Will that he doesn’t really like football, which allows Will to realize that things don’t always look like they do on the outside. This recognition in others gradually helps Will to see herself in a different light, one that is not overshadowed by how she believes society—and her mother—view her. Just as Will doesn't want others to judge her based on her appearance, i.e., her weight, she must learn not to categorize the people in her life based on her own preconceptions.
When Willowdean talks about the pageant with Millie, Amanda, and Hannah, she can’t help but notice how serious Millie is about the competition and how Millie thinks the girls might actually have a chance to win. Throughout the novel, Will tries to stop Millie from doing things she believes will embarrass Millie. Although this can be viewed as a protective gesture, Will is also projecting her own insecurities onto Millie. Through her developing new friendships, Will learns how to accept herself and not compare herself to others, as she had with Ellen.
