47 pages • 1 hour read
The Best of Me
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Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
Marilyn Bonner is worried about something she saw that day, and in another part of town, Candy plots her escape. She loads her car with her all her belongings and plans to leave the town as soon as she finishes her shift at the bar that night. Meanwhile, Alan is looking forward to seeing Candy at the bar and asking her out.
Back in Durham, Frank is out playing golf with his friend and plans to watch sports at the club after his game.
Jared, Frank and Amanda’s son, has been coming home very late at night recently. He is sleep deprived and goes to sleep without switching off his phone.
Back in Oriental, Ted is extremely sick but still wants to take revenge on Dawson. Abee is worried that his authority over the Cole family may erode due to Dawson overpowering Ted, who usually supports him.
Chapter 17 Summary
Dawson is alone at Tuck’s place. After his last talk with Amanda, he regrets coming home and decides to leave Oriental as soon as possible. At her mother’s house, Amanda remembers Tuck’s letter to her and opens it. In the letter, Tuck advises her to choose Dawson. He is certain that she will regret it if she continues with her present life. Amanda is convinced that Tuck is right, and she rushes out in search of Dawson.
Dawson decides to visit Dr. Bonner’s grave before leaving Oriental. Amanda reaches the intersection leading to the cemetery and sees Dawson’s parked car. At the last moment, she changes her mind and takes the turn to drive back to her family in Durham. At the cemetery, Dawson is taken aback to see Marilyn. Marilyn reveals that she is aware that Dawson has been atoning for his mistake by sending her money all these years. She tells him to forgive himself and let go of his guilt.
Chapter 18 Summary
As Amanda drives back home, she regrets not having made love to Dawson in the Vandemere cottage. Though she desired him deeply, she found it difficult to break her marriage vows. In a hotel room in New Bern, Dawson feels empty and tired. With Amanda gone and Marilyn asking him to let go of his guilt, he feels that there is no purpose in his life.
In Durham, Frank gets drunk at the club, and his friend calls Jared to pick Frank up and take him home. After picking up Frank, Jared gets into an accident. Frank is badly hurt, and Jared calls Amanda to let her know. Amanda is on her way to Durham and frantically drives to the hospital after getting Jared’s call.
In the meantime, Abee and Ted go to Tuck’s place in search of Dawson. Not finding him there, Ted vents his fury by destroying the Stingray parked in the garage. Meanwhile, Abee is worried that Candy is hiding something from him.
Chapter 19 Summary
In the hotel room in New Bern, Dawson dreams about the explosion on the rig. He spots the dark-haired stranger and thinks his face is familiar. On waking up, he realizes he has forgotten Tuck’s letter in the garage. He takes the risk of driving back to Oriental to retrieve the letter.
On reaching the hospital, Amanda discovers that Frank has suffered only minor injuries and Jared is in ICU, awaiting surgery to repair his ruptured heart valve. She is filled with rage at Frank for getting drunk and making Jared drive him home.
Abee, accompanied by Ted, goes to Candy’s house to check on her and finds that Candy has packed up and left. He is furious and concludes that she has eloped with her lover. He goes to Tidewater to see whether she is there. At the bar, Alan tries to start a conversation with Candy with the intention of asking her out.
Chapter 20 Summary
It is a dark night, and Dawson drives towards Oriental. When he reaches the curve where he hit and killed Dr. Bonner more than two decades ago, he stops the car, unsure whether to proceed to the city. He gets the familiar feeling of being watched and spots the dark-haired stranger—the ghost—at the roadside.
In the meantime, Abee and Ted burst into Tidewater; Abee chases Candy while Ted traps Alan and prevents him from escaping. They start beating Alan up.
Outside, Dawson realizes that the apparition is Dr. Bonner. The ghost runs toward the building located at the curve of the road, and Dawson follows it. The building turns out to be Tidewater, and Dawson enters it to find Alan being attacked by Abee and Ted. He realizes that the ghost led him to the building to save Alan. Though Dawson fights off Abee and Ted, Ted fires his gun at Dawson as he and Alan make their way toward the door.
Chapters 16-20 Analysis
This section consists of fast-paced narratives and dramatic plot developments. To set up these events, the chapters are broken into short sections that feature different characters’ points of view. Relating different events that happen simultaneously produces suspense. For example, Candy’s plans to escape Oriental and Alan’s plan to ask Candy out are juxtaposed against Abee obsessing about Candy’s suspicious behavior. These plot and character lines finally converge in the fight in the bar, during which Ted murders Dawson as he is trying to escape. In Chapter 16, Frank playing golf and drinking and Jared’s sleep deprivation lead to the accident in Chapter 18, which is another major turning point.
The possibility of Amanda and Dawson getting back together is permanently closed with Dawson’s death. The theme of The Power of True Love is reflected even in the parting of the lovers: Amanda is aware that her truth lies in being with Dawson and that leaving him was the wrong decision, but her loyalty towards her family makes it possible for her to live with the imperfect future that awaits her.
As part of the denouement, her “wrong” decision (to return to her family) results in the betterment of others’ lives. Similarly, Dawson feels his return to Oriental was a mistake, but it ends in him saving both Alan and Jared. Even though he can’t be with Amanda, he is able to repay his debt to the Bonner family and, in death, help Amanda’s family as well.
The theme of Guilt and Redemption reaches its highpoint in this section. Marilyn, the major object of Dawson’s guilt, gently points out to Dawson that the root cause of Dawson’s debilitating guilt lies within him. The extent of Dawson’s fixation on guilt is reflected in the purposelessness that he feels when he is released from guilt When Marylin forgives him. However, the stranger/ghost again rescues him from a sense of purposelessness by leading him to Alan, who becomes Dawson’s redemption.
The relationship between Tuck and Amanda attains a new dimension in this section with Tuck advising Amanda in his letter to choose Dawson. This is yet another example of the contrasting parental figures represented by Tuck and Evelyn. Both of them are aware of Amanda’s confusion and her inability to make the best decision about her future. However, in Chapter 15, Evelyn tells Amanda to trust herself, which results in Amanda leaving Dawson. In Chapter 16, she changes her mind, but after seeing Dawson at the cemetery, she changes her mind again and drives back to Durham. Thus, though less sympathetic to Amanda’s emotional complexities, Evelyn wields more power over Amanda than Tuck, emphasizing the strong, albeit conflict-ridden, connection between the mother and daughter.
The narrative in these chapters is fast paced with many cliffhanger sections, adding to the suspense and drama of the story. The thriller element in the story is exemplified in the story of Abee and Candy and the graphic descriptions of violence in the scenes set in the bar. The bar fight in Chapter 20 is narrated from Alan’s perspective as he is lying on the floor, injured, and unable to see the fighters. Hence, mostly auditory descriptions are employed to communicate the progress of the fight, and it adds another dimension of suspense since the readers are not sure whether Dawson is winning the fight.
Driving as a symbol of relationship progress is extended in these chapters. Amanda changes the direction of her car at the last moment, turning away from Dawson’s parked car at the cemetery and driving in the direction of her home, which symbolizes her choice to stay with her family. Also, shortly after getting the news of Jared’s and Frank’s accident, she drives frantically to her family, getting swept up in the exigencies of her present life. In the meantime, the Stingray, the symbol of Amanda’s and Dawson’s future together, gets destroyed by Ted, an event that foreshadows Dawson’s murder.
There are several revelations and an instance of misdirection in this section. Only on Amanda’s drive back to Durham is it revealed that she did not make love to Dawson the previous night in the cottage. This detail makes clearer Amanda’s decision to stay with Frank. However, the description of Frank’s bloodied face and Jared’s panic during the accident misdirects Amanda—and readers—to believe that Frank is critically injured. The later revelation that Frank is fine, and Jared is critically injured heightens the dramatic quality of the scene as a distraught Amanda finally pieces together that her son needs heart surgery.
Another crucial plot event in this section of the story is the moment of anagnorisis in which Dawson realizes that the apparition is Dr. Bonner’s ghost. The process of recognition is spread across Chapters 19 and 20: In Dawson’s dream sequence in Chapter 19, the image of a veil of smoke being lifted to reveal the stranger’s face denotes the beginning of recognition. This is followed by Dawson closely observing the apparition’s gait and body language to deduce that it is the same man he hit 24 years ago. The chapters minutely detail Dawson’s thought process without directly revealing the identity of the ghost. Hence, the section succeeds in sustaining suspense till the last moment when the connection between the victim of the road accident and the ghost is concretely established.
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