49 pages • 1 hour read
Suzanne WeynThe Bar Code Tattoo
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 16-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary
The patient beside Kayla begins thrashing, distracting the nurses before they can summon the doctor to administer a tattoo for Kayla. The nurses evacuate the patient to a lower floor, and Kayla uses the opportunity to escape, dressing in a man’s suit that she finds hanging in a hospital closet. A few miles away from the hospital, Kayla stops at a diner, where she overhears a woman in her 30s named Katie speaking to someone over the phone and making plans to leave town. Kayla secures a ride with Katie, who reveals that she used to work for GlobalInsurance, where she learned that genetic codes were shared in the bar code. She has decided not to get the tattoo because her family has a history of cancer; she knows that if the tattoo were to broadcast that information, her life would begin a downward spiral. Katie gives Kayla a temporary rub-on bar code tattoo and offers to drive her to Binghamton. From there, she says that Kayla can get on the Superlink and escape to Canada. Katie also reveals that The North Country News announced Kayla’s disappearance and enlisted public help in detaining her for tattooing and questioning.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary
Kayla parts ways with Katie and plans to take the Superlink to Adirondack Park, where many resistance groups are known to hide. When she stops at a local Eatery, she recognizes Nedra on the television. Nedra claims that Kayla purposefully started the fire to kill her mother. A school picture of Kayla then fills the screen. Kayla rushes to exit the restaurant, but a server spills a tray on her, smearing her fake bar code tattoo. Globalofficers are patrolling the parking lot when Kayla exits the building, so she stows away in the backseat of an unlocked green car. When the driver and passenger return to the car minutes later, they are pursued by the shouts of Globalofficers.
Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary
The owners of the car are an elderly couple; they were also dining at the Eatery. The driver, Toz, exits the lot and is relieved when the Globalofficers do not follow. The passenger, Mava, eventually discovers Kayla hiding in their backseat. After determining that she can trust the elderly couple, Kayla tells them the truth about the fire, her mother, and her fake bar code. Mava and Toz reveal that they have burned off their tattoos with acid. They are headed to Toronto, Canada to meet their daughter, Sarah. In Canada, the bar code tattoo system is not used; the citizens still use cash.
Toz and Mava agree to take Kayla to the Adirondacks after grabbing a few items from Sarah’s old apartment. Kayla falls asleep on the long drive and has another unexplainable vision. She is awakened when Toz blasts through a tollbooth that requires bar code scanning. They arrive at Sarah’s apartment, where Kayla is allowed to shower. Mava also cuts Kayla’s hair to better disguise her and divert the attention of Globalofficers. Kayla uses Sarah’s computer to send emails to Amber and Mfumbe. She assures Amber that she is safe and that nothing the news says about her is true. Kayla then alerts Mfumbe of Zekeal and Nedra’s affiliation with Tattoo Generation and thanks him for his friendship. The message she receives from Mfumbe’s email is from his parents, who reveal that Mfumbe went missing on the same night that Kayla’s house caught fire.
Part 2, Chapter 19 Summary
Toz and Mava watch the news on Sarah’s TV. On screen, Nedra represents Tattoo Generation and attempts to persuade all 17-year-olds to get tattooed. Over the next six days, Kayla, Toz, and Mava hunker down in Sarah’s apartment and wait for the news of Kayla’s disappearance to pass. Eventually, her story goes from a large feature on page three of the daily news to a small paragraph on page 12. Toz and Mava invite Kayla to go to Toronto with them, and she accepts. On the Superlink, Toz has a heart attack, causing a car crash that breaks Mava’s arm and alerts nearby Globalofficers. Mava convinces Kayla to leave them behind and run for safety.
Part 2, Chapter 20 Summary
Kayla begins traveling through the forest to avoid the Globalofficers that are patrolling the Superlink. The smell of cooking food leads her to a remote cabin called the Oasis, which is crowded with people watching a basketball game on the television. A news announcement interrupts the sporting event, broadcasting information about Toz and Mava’s car crash. Though Mava only had a broken arm when Kayla left her, the broadcast claims that she is “in critical condition and is not expected to live” (189). The reporter then reveals that Kayla was a passenger in the vehicle and claims that she is on the run after murdering her mother. Kayla flees the establishment but returns hours after closing to steal food.
Part 2, Chapter 21 Summary
A trap door in the floor of the Oasis opens, revealing Mfumbe. He tells Kayla that he ran away from home when his dad tried to force him to get the bar code tattoo. He found the Oasis through the virtual reality headset and describes it as a place where people don’t care about the bar code tattoo and “don’t want to be pushed around by Global-1” (194). He has been working in the Oasis kitchens ever since. Mfumbe is surprised to learn that Zekeal and Nedra are agents for TattooGen. Mfumbe gives Kayla a piece of his peppermint gum and invites her to stay in his cabin.
The next day, Kayla mentions her desire to find Eutonah. Mfumbe mentions that the location numbers on her headset never moved when she contacted the woman, implying that her conversations with Eutonah were not computer-based. Mfumbe believes that Kayla might have psychic abilities. Kayla stays with Mfumbe for a few more days, but one morning, she wakes up to find that he is missing. When she leaves his cabin, she sees Eutonah, who beckons her to follow. Kayla then realizes that the woods are filled with Globalofficers.
Part 2, Chapters 16-21 Analysis
As Kayla travels across the country in search of the resistance groups in the Adirondacks, Weyn takes the opportunity to portray the broader workings of society beyond the confines of the protagonist’s town and high school. This narrative shift allows Weyn to further examine The Dangers of Convenience Culture. For example, as Kayla stows away in Toz’s and Mava’s car, the narrative provides additional background on the workings of the national highway system, particularly on the hyper-fast interstate called the “Superlink, which allows drivers to halve their travel time. When the narrative mentions that the elderly couple’s speedometer indicates a speed of 140 miles per hour, the casual insertion of this information highlights both the inherent danger of the situation and The Desensitizing Influence of Technology, for none of the vehicle’s passengers consider this fact to be out of the ordinary. Additionally, these scenes demonstrate that convenience culture decreases people’s tolerance and patience; citizens have become so used to convenience in Kayla’s society that they take advantage of any opportunity to decrease their travel time. The average highway speed in the United States is anywhere from 60 to 70 miles per hour, and even these speeds can prove fatal. When the kindly old couple suffers a car crash that thwarts their bid for freedom, the author implies that their decision to hasten their journey ultimately prevents them from reaching their destination altogether.
Many more disadvantages crop up as Kayla flees to the Adirondacks, further exemplifying The Dangers of Convenience Culture. Despite the ease of communication offered by computers and cell phones, these devices can be tracked by the authorities, rendering them more of a threat than a benefit. Weyn pointedly draws a deliberate contrast to past decades in real-life settings, for Kayla remembers that when her mother was a child, she could simply “find a public phone, insert a metal coin, and make a call” (167). As Kayla wistfully wishes that public phones were still a reality so that she could contact someone without being traced, Weyn uses the scene to imply that newer technology is not necessarily better. Ironically, the newest technological advancements make it much harder for Kayla to contact anyone who might aid her journey, and this predicament highlights the hidden inconvenience of modern conveniences.
Just as the supporters of bar code technology represent The Desensitizing Influence of Technology, those who resist this dangerous societal trend exemplify a far more empathic and humanizing approach to the world around them. Thus, Weyn implies that when certain characters’ detach themselves from technology’s influence, they also regain their humanity. For example, when the elderly Mava discovers Kayla hiding in her car and notices the girl’s fake bar code tattoo, she says nothing and “squeeze[s] Kayla’s hand” with her own (172), revealing the red, twisted scar from the acid she used to burn away her tattoo The gesture is kind and motherly, and this silent moment of solidarity reflects a genuine expression of affection that brings “tears of gratitude to Kayla’s eyes” (172). Like Mfumbe, Mava is a fellow resister who displays genuine compassion for Kayla because she faces a similar predicament.
Likewise, the sense of community in the wilderness-based resistance groups differs markedly from the demeanor of the apathetic, self-serving, ambitious citizens who support the implementation of bar code tattoos and reside in “civilized” areas. Although Kayla is distrustful of everyone because of her status as a fugitive, Mfumbe assures her, “These people who live in these woods would never turn you in. […] It proves to me that bar code resisters can band together and make a difference. It reminds me of the American Revolution” (196). This historical allusion hints that the only way to divert society from its current disastrous course is to return to less advanced roots—a time before technology and various breaches in personal privacy. Thus, Weyn uses Mfumbe’s comment to invoke an era in which Americans famously fought for their freedoms. The idea that such a conflict might once again be necessary also serves as foreshadowing for the escalating dynamics that will be revealed in later installments of the series.
