39 pages • 1 hour read
Lauren TarshisI Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | 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 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Next Day, May 22, 1:30 p.m.”
When Dr. Gage arrives to pick up Dex, he and David embrace warmly. Dr. Gage gives them a tour of his specially-equipped SUV, which includes both security features and research equipment. The storm has already become “a supercell,” which is “the most dangerous and violent” type of thunderstorm, one capable of creating tornados (25). Dr. Gage reveals the research project he is working on to determine whether tornados make a particular sound as they begin to form, information that could help with early detection. He shows Dex and David his “sound pods,” apple-sized metal balls that contain recording equipment (26). Shot into the sky, they then transmit sounds back to Dr. Gage’s lab. After saying goodbye to David and Zeke, Dr. Gage and Dex head off.
Chapter 6 Summary
As they drive through downtown, Dr. Gage notes that Joplin must be “a great place to grow up” (30). Dex agrees, noting privately that while he would like to “travel the world” someday, “he’d always be happy to come home to Joplin” (50).
On their way toward Kansas, they encounter fellow storm chasers Jimmy and Sara. Dr. Gage asks about Jimmy’s leg, which he had injured chasing an EF-5 tornado, the strongest, most “violent twisters that wipe out whole towns” (32). Dr. Gage notes that a shift of wind had send the tornado right at them, and “they could have been killed” (32). When and where tornados will strike cannot be known with certainty. Warnings can be issued, but they are often wrong. Dex reflects that warning sirens go off weekly, “always false alarms,” which cause people to ignore them (33). Because “tornadoes form deep inside the clouds,” no one knows when one is coming until they can see it, but not all tornados can be seen (33). Those hidden within rain and clouds can strike without warning, making them “the most dangerous” kind (34). Dr. Gage shows Dex a thick scar on his arm and begins to tell “the story of the tornado that nearly killed him” (34).
Chapter 7 Summary
During “the Super Outbreak of 1974,” 148 tornados hit 13 states over a 24-hour period, killing 330 people. Dr. Gage was 11 years old, living in Jasper, Alabama. When caught in a tornado’s path, he had taken shelter in a ditch under a massive tree’s root. His ears had popped, which he later learned indicated a “sudden change in pressure” that “was a sign that a tornado was coming” (38). The tornado tore the tree out of the earth, and Dr. Gage’s arm was sliced by a steel pipe that hit him “at one hundred fifty miles per hour” (38). He and his family survived, but two of his friends were among the 23 people in his town who were killed. After living through a tornado, he became obsessed with learning as much about them as he could. Early warning systems need to be developed to better predict when and where they will hit “so that people aren’t caught by surprise” (39). Dex reflects that Dr. Gage and Jeremy are alike, both wanting to “make the world safer” and “risking their lives” (40). Just then, Dr. Gage points to a mass of thick gray clouds racing toward them. They begin the chase.
Chapters 5-7 Analysis
This section of the narrative corresponds to the rising action of a traditional dramatic arc. Dr. Gage and Dex chase the storm, and Dex, along with the novel’s readers, learn more about tornadoes and the dangers they pose. Dr. Gage discussing his equipment and research project presents the unpredictability and violence of thunderstorms in a clinical fashion, from the perspective of someone who studies them and seeks to protect others from them. This approach creates an emotional distance from the subject that will later collapse when Dex is living through the tornado. The narrative does not downplay the danger and unpredictability of tornadoes. The experiences of Jimmy and Dr. Gage emphasize the scope of the threat. However, the clinical tone provides a counterpoint to the scary nature of the phenomenon itself.
The tornado facts discussed in Chapter 5 are balanced in Chapter 7 by Dr. Gage’s personal experience of tornadoes when he was the same age that Dex is within the narrative. This story provides a motive for Dr. Gage as a scientist: He has experienced the danger firsthand and wants to build knowledge so that others will not suffer as he did, both physically through his injury and through the loss of his friends. In this sense, Chapter 7 provides an important suggestion to young readers that even in the face of tragedy and the unknown, humans can claim a sense of agency. Though tornadoes continue to be violent and difficult to predict, continuing to study them may, in the long run, teach humans how to mitigate their threat.
This section also portrays Dr. Gage as a man committed to helping others, something that connects him to Jeremy, as Dex points out. Both Dr. Gage and Jeremy offer different ways of contributing to a community. Joplin is one kind of community, the SEALs another, and the storm chasers yet another. Young readers learn there are many ways to participate in and nurture a community. The drive through downtown offers another opportunity to emphasize the kind of community that Joplin is, which foreshadows events at the end of the novel, when volunteers within and beyond Joplin come together to support and rebuild.
Related Titles
By Lauren Tarshis
