The+Wish


 * **The Big Questions: How does this chapter fit the novel as a whole / Why is it important / What should a good reader take away from this chapter?**
 * Oh Jesus Jesus, I can't believe nobody's posted on this yet. The Wish is probably one of my favorite chapters, because I think it's the hardest-hitting story of what Jess' world is like after Johnson's death. It really is a dismal chapter-- they don't really do much, the mother and grandmother are mostly out of it, it rains, they hear this depressing story from the old man, and finally Joe Robert smashes the steering wheel and screams at Jesus. They are dismal without Johnson, that much is apparent, but it seems like an odd sort of dismalness. They are empty, incomplete, without Johnson. This chapter really is incomplete, it's set apart from the others in that it has really no element of fun or easygoingness. The book gets progressively less happy as it goes along, and I think here it has reached the bottom. (Huff)


 * This collection of short stories that don't seem so have much to do with one another do, in reality have a couple common threads running through them. To me, the most important of these is that with Johnson this family is happy and carefree, but without him, they're broken. I think this brokeness has less to do with the actual character of Johnson and more with the fact that the family has to learn to cope with this overwhelming grief individually. I think this chapter fits the novel as a whole because, although all of the short stories seem to center aroud the tragedy of Jonson's death in one way of another, The Wish really seems to drive that home to the reader. (Zoellick)

**Important Quotes (and commentary)**
 * "'Oh Jesus Jesus,' he said. 'I wish Johnson Gibbs hadn't got killed.'"
 * For sure the most important line in this chapter. (Huff)
 * I think that hearing the old mans story about his wife and children dying and leaving him a broken man reminded Joe Robert of the loss of Johnson and how it had left his family similarly broken. (Zoellick)

**Moments of astonishingly good writing**

Alright Graham, quit worrying, I am hear to save the day with my great observation of a writing phrase that stood out to me. Read and enjoy!


 * "There's different kinds of education," my father said. His voice sounded wise and melanocholy, admiring.
 * This line could have been the title of the book, it was so important. It was the theme of the book, for me: every character was educated differently than the next and in some way or another, each person knew things that the others did not. When it comes to Johnson and Joe Robert, Johnson was more street smart and people savvy while Jess' dad had been to school and knew how to be a great dad, husband and friend. Joe Robert recognized this earlier in the book - he had to have done so when he met such a guy as Johnson - but the first time that the reader is aware of his opinions is in chapter nine. As Jess described his father in this quote, Joe Robert was very wise. Wise in his own way. (Maia Y)
 * I think the same can be said for the uncles and Johnson. Johnson is that person that completes the family making them feel wonderful. Also, each uncle is unique and was probably educated in a different place than North Carolina, making their characteristics and values much different than the ones Jess is familiar with. (McCutchen)
 * "The old man had been right about the rain; it kept coming down in sticky spit-lets which the wipers smeared on the windshield. The roadside houses and bushes looked bleary and small. We went down through the hills and through the lonesome river valley. Tipton was gray in the gray rain, no people about."
 * I knew exactly what the author was describing here where it talks about looking through a wind shield covered in rain and where the ground is all muddy and everything just looks gray. (McCutchen)