The Benefits of Being an Octopus

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Chapters 21-24

Chapters 25-28

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 17-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 17 Summary

Zoey’s routine continues, but the fallout from the shooting and her debate lessons have given her new perspective. Her understanding of the world has begun to shift.

When Ms. Rochambeau drops Zoey off at the bus stop for the first time, she sees the trailer park where Zoey lives. She watches Zoey wrangle Bryce and Aurora as they get off the bus, managing Bryce’s increasing tendency to act out and Aurora’s increasing clinginess. As Ms. Rochambeau drives away, she gives Zoey a thumbs up, indicating that she approves of Zoey’s ability to handle the difficult situation. Despite the vote of confidence, Zoey can’t help but see her young siblings as a stranger might: “Suddenly all I can see is their gray-tinged clothes that smell like Frank’s cigarette smoke and their ratty hair that never got combed in the morning” (96). Zoey is becoming more aware of how Bryce and Aurora’s socioeconomic class may put them at a disadvantage with other kids at their school, the same way it has negatively affected her. Already, someone at school evidently has called Bryce stupid—a word he keeps angrily repeating.

At home, Zoey overhears a conversation between her mother and Lenny: He blames Kara for losing his job after he snapped at a patient. He was angry because Kara left the gas tank nearly, and that apparently led to his outburst and consequent firing. He calls Kara “Little Miss Clueless” (99) and bullies her until she stops arguing. Zoey realizes that Lenny is using the debate tactic of discrediting his opponent—and that he’s fully aware of how he’s manipulating Kara. Logically, he knows that the firing incident wasn’t her fault, but his need for control dictates that he must blame it on Kara. Zoey knows that her mother isn’t clueless, and she resolves to take a stand against Lenny.

Chapter 18 Summary

The next day, Ms. Rochambeau picks Zoey to debate against an eighth-grade boy on the gun issue, though Zoey doesn’t know which side she’ll be representing. Lydia makes snide remarks to Zoey about what she assumes is Zoey’s pro-gun stance. Feeling put on the spot, Zoey leaves the room before Ms. Rochambeau can reveal whether Zoey will debate for or against gun ownership.

Although Zoey enjoys hunting and sees gun ownership as part of life, she isn’t sure of her beliefs around gun violence. She recognizes the evil of mass shootings but also recognizes that a gun can be a tool like a fishing rod and that, like a chainsaw, a gun is dangerous only in the wrong hands.

At home, Zoey’s rage at Lenny’s treatment of her mother leads her to sneak into Lenny’s bedroom and pull out all the meticulously folded undershirts from his dresser drawers. She refolds the shirts, but as she does so, she finds a form for the power company—the one that Lenny accused Kara of losing. Zoey realizes that Lenny intentionally hid the form, creating the trailer’s power outage, just so he could use the event to berate Kara for her incompetence. Zoey decides to show her mother the form as evidence that Lenny is unfairly manipulating her.

Chapter 19 Summary

The next day at the Pizza Pit, Zoey shows Kara the incomplete form. However, Kara is angry at Zoey for snooping into her affairs. She tells Zoey that they’re lucky to have Lenny to take care of them. Kara blames herself for the mistake and insists that Zoey is trying to stir up trouble.

At home, Zoey notices a disturbing trend: Bryce is beginning to talk to Zoey and Aurora the same way that Lenny talks to Kara. Lenny scoffs at Zoey’s claim that she’s in debate club; he says that she’s lying and wants to start trouble.

Zoey is frustrated because she can’t stop Bryce’s transformation into a bully. He berates Aurora, saying: “You’re just a stupid bug that keeps annoying everyone around you. And no one cares about you” (111). Aghast at his words, Zoey tries to comfort Aurora, to no avail. The once-empowered Zoey now feels the weight of cyclical abuse and fears that her desire to help her mother, Bryce, and Aurora is doomed to fail.

Chapter 20 Summary

Later that night, Fuchsia pays Zoey an unexpected visit. Fuchsia tells Zoey that Michael picked Fuchsia up from school the day of the shooting and threatened her with his gun. He pointed the gun at her, but at the last moment he moved it to the side and shot through the car window. Zoey realizes that Fuchsia was the target of the shooting and feels terrible for dismissing Fuchsia’s distress as attention seeking.

Zoey asks Fuchsia if she’s going to call the police or the Department of Children and Families (DCF), but Fuchsia says she has learned her lesson about trying to fight back (115). Fuchsia is afraid not only of Michael but also that her mother would side with him, just as Kara sides with Lenny. When Fuchsia leaves, Zoey is crushed that she can do nothing to help her friend. She gives Fuchsia her camo coat so that Fuchsia doesn’t have to walk home in the snow without a coat.

Chapters 17-20 Analysis

This section provides insight into Zoey’s changing point of view, based on the hard lesson that even factual evidence may be insufficient when dealing with someone in a position of power. Kara dismisses Zoey’s evidence because she’s unwilling to risk her family’s security, even if it means allowing Lenny to treat her poorly. Fuchsia, too, is unwilling to risk her and Crystal’s safety by calling DCF on Michael. Like Zoey and her family, Fuchsia and Crystal aren’t financially independent. They’ll continue to be subject to Michael’s violence because they can no longer pay the rent on their one-bedroom apartment.

In these chapters, the author reveals the circumstances that can lead women, children, or anyone to be at an abuser’s mercy. Abusers like Lenny and Michael masquerade as providers who offer stability and protection. Lenny’s power as an abuser comes from getting Kara to participate in her own abuse because he has the power to put her and her children out on the street. He wants Kara to believe that she has no choice but to stay with him, and up to this point in the story, Kara believes it. However, Zoey has pierced the cracks in Lenny’s facade; his neat trailer, perfectly shaven face, sober habits, and punctuality once made him seem decent and respectable, but Zoey now sees these characteristics as evidence of his controlling personality.

Fuchsia’s story parallels Zoey’s. While Lenny’s abuse is verbal, emotional, and psychological, Michael’s abuse is physical. Before the shooting, Fuchsia was so scared of moving in with Michael that she told her mother she’d call DCF. Crystal was so scared that Michael would think she called DCF that she told him about Fuchsia’s plans. That’s why Michael surprised Fuchsia at school; he wanted to show her the consequences of trying to defy him.

This section portrays the rising action that leads to the story’s climax. Most kids Zoey’s and Fuchsia’s age are mainly concerned with their studies and social lives. Zoey and her friend must navigate larger aspects of life, and unlike other kids, their family situations put their lives at stake. Zoey, who came to the fight against Lenny’s abuse armed with logic and objectivity, feels completely beaten. Themes developed in previous chapters established that no matter how unfair Zoey’s situation is, no one will intervene on her behalf. Because Ms. Rochambeau understands this, she has been coaching Zoey to be her own advocate. Now that Zoey has faced her first defeat in getting her mother to see the truth, the question is whether Zoey will have the resilience and resources to continue fighting what seems like an unwinnable battle.