The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Part 5, Chapters 12-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5: “None of Us Are Getting Out of Here Alive”

Part 5, Chapters 12-24 Summary

In 1975, Sam authors an essay about his ocular albinism and receives a scholarship for college. Additionally, an article he writes about Ernie makes the front page of the newspaper, the Associated Press runs it. Ernie accepts an offer to play football at Stanford University, and while Sam anxiously awaits acceptance from Stanford, Mickie commits to attend the University of California Davis. Sam considers moving forward in his relationship with Mickie but still worries it will ruin their friendship. He tells Mickie he might not have children, fearing he would pass on the red eye trait. Mickie reassures him he will be a great father. Max has been more tired than usual, but he and Madeline rejoice with Sam when his acceptance letter from Stanford arrives. Sam can hardly believe it is true.

Graduation day arrives, and Sam and his parents exchange tearful hugs. He realizes his parents are aging and that he will be leaving them soon. He and Ernie attend graduation parties until the early hours of the morning, and Mickie stays home with Madeline to watch a movie. Sam returns home to find Mickie in tears. Something has happened to his father.

At the hospital, Sam and Mickie wait with Madeline for the doctor’s report. Max has experienced a stroke. He will survive but never fully recover, and he will require placement in a long-term care facility. Distraught, Sam goes in to see his father: “For better or worse—and too often it is for worse for so many of us—adulthood has arrived, whether I wanted it to or not” (305). Sam pledges to his unconscious father he will take care of the family. On the way home, Sam and Mickie stop by the church. Sam prays, begging God to heal his father. After lighting an altar candle, the two go home, and Mickie sleeps beside Sam in bed. Sam’s father is transferred to a rehabilitation facility, but the doctor confirms Max will never regain all his function and will need long-term care that Madeline cannot provide at home. Sam decides he will not leave for college in the fall; he wants to take care of his parents. Angry with God for not answering his prayers, he returns to the church and extinguishes a candle.

Madeline and Sam tour Crystal Springs Long-Term Care Campus in Santa Cruz. It is a lovely facility with many accommodations for the patients, but Sam’s mother is despondent and struggling to make sense of how quickly life has changed. Sam and his friends help Madeline set up Max’s room, and Sam and his parents share a meal before they leave. Madeline tearfully says goodbye, and Sam ponders how a merciful God could allow so much pain. His mother spends the entire day at Crystal Springs with Max.

Their family pharmacy will remain open, and Sam plans to hire a new pharmacist. Sam and the pharmacy staff hire a man named Frank and organize a reception for the community to meet the new pharmacist. It is a momentous success, and Sam announces his plan to defer college for a year to work in the pharmacy, though he has not told his mother.

Part 5, Chapters 12-24 Analysis

Graduating from high school marks a quintessential turning point in any young person’s life. For Sam, it’s a milestone in his difficult journey to find his place in a world that cannot see past his physical appearance. Though the overt bullying fades away, Sam still struggles to find acceptance with his peers. He looks back on his formative years, thankful for the attentive love and support of his parents and friends, but the passage of time weighs on him. Just as Sam is completing high school and planning for his future at Stanford with Ernie, tragedy strikes, and he must again wrestle with the question of providence. Sam calls on the faith of his mother once more in supplication for his father’s healing, but after the doctor delivers the painful news Max will never fully recover, Sam runs to extinguish the altar candle, symbolically snuffing out his last attempt at faith. Sam’s crisis relates to the classic question of theodicy, the justification of divine goodness in the face of human suffering, and his religious trauma is twofold: He feels he has lost both his heavenly and earthly fathers. Now, in a sense, he must try to be his own father (and his own savior) as he takes charge of the family business and steers his own life with no sense of divine provision or intervention.

Madeline and Sam enter a new phase of life as they transition from mother and son to caregivers to Max, a radical shift that puts a significant strain on the family relationships. Sam goes from celebratory high school graduate to the head of the household overnight, and he must choose between his own self-interested pursuits and caring for his family in a crisis. Though the narrative has so far framed much of Sam’s experience as an incremental coming-of-age, this decision is his true Rubicon in crossing into maturity. The author portrays him as a youth who does not flinch when called upon to serve his family: Though it pains him immensely, Sam lovingly puts his college dream on hold to keep his father’s business alive and support his mother. It is a heroic and brave decision.