93 pages • 3 hours read
Joyce Carol OatesBig Mouth & Ugly Girl
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 34-38Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 34 Summary
Matt and Ursula still sit with other misfits at their cafeteria table, but they do not call or email each other anymore. Ursula vows not to cry about this loss of Matt’s friendship or to “give in” (193) to the emotional stalemate between them.
Chapter 35 Summary
Matt also vows that he won’t give in, though this distance between himself and Ursula feels “like a time bomb. A secret bomb” (194). Hurt by her statement that people consider his family’s suit greedy, he is also angry at Ursula. Even as he is angry and lonely, “at school Matt wanted to shield his eyes from her. She was so tall, walked with such pride. He saw her blue eyes glance upon him with contempt. She was a person of integrity, he was a coward” (195).
Chapter 36 Summary
Matt’s mother drives him to Manhattan to see Dr. Harpie, an adolescent psychologist. No one except Ursula knows about Matt’s suicide attempt, and Matt feels only Ursula truly understands him.
Matt guesses that this therapy appointment is part of his parents’ legal strategy. Once at the office, Matt suddenly insists to his mother he will not honor the appointment and leaves.
At home, Matt tries to convince his father to drop the suit, saying he just wants to forget the whole thing. Matt’s father says this is impossible now, that they will never forget what happened to Matt. Because their father is unshaken and unkempt but absent for days at a time, both Matt and his brother Alex assume he has lost his job, though their parents won’t discuss this with them.
When Matt protests that people at school hate him now, his father says he will be sent to a private school next year with the settlement money. When Matt again says he just wants this ordeal to end, Matt’s father tells him, “it doesn’t matter what you want, Matt. We’re in this too far to back out. My name is at stake—my integrity. Just remember, you got us into this—with your idiotic, childish sense of humor” (200).
Chapter 37 Summary
It has been three days since Matt and Ursula’s fight. Ursula feels herself slipping into her old, prickly habits and losing weight because she is not eating. Her mother asks if anything is wrong, but Ursula refuses to discuss it. She muses that it may have been a misstep to criticize Matt’s parents and writes him an apology email, but she deletes it before sending.
Chapter 38 Summary
Tensions are rising at Rocky River High School. Everyone is choosing sides over the Donaghy family’s increasingly public lawsuit. Reverend Brewer, who is also being sued by the Donaghys and was recently interviewed by the local paper, castigates the school and Matt’s family. Since the school district has refused to pay his legal bills, there is a fund among his congregation, many of whom are families of Rocky River students. This increases the divisiveness of the suit and causes the Brewer twins to also be bullied at school.
Ursula finds a “coupon” for a treasure hunt stuck in her locker. It leads her to a gift from Matt, a copy of Great Twentieth Century Drawings with an apology note. She runs to Matt, and they promise to see each other after school.
Walking together for hours, Matt and Ursula talk about their fathers. When Ursula confesses that her father has talked about her size, Matt tells her she is beautiful. They then talk about their mothers, who they feel are mutually “disgusted” with them (208). They laugh about this, and Matt says, “I don’t know, it’s just funny. People are disgusted with you, and people are disgusted with me. So—here we are” (209).
Chapters 34-38 Analysis
These chapters cover the temporary split between Ursula and Matt as well as their reunification. Several elements of these chapters highlight that even when apart, Matt and Ursula in many ways lead parallel lives. For instance, Matt’s departure from the psychiatrist’s office before his appointment mirrors Ursula’s escape from the dance event. Ursula’s deletion of her email to Matt, one of Matt’s common habits, is another parallel. Above all, their shared stubbornness at the beginning of the fight, and their mutual realization of the need to apologize, shows their growing maturity and their compatibility. Like Ursula’s inexplicable urge to go hiking, which led her to rescue Matt, these parallels suggest that Ursula and Matt are drawn together by destiny.
Another important facet of these chapters is the clear crumbling of Matt’s family life under the pressures of the lawsuit. Both of Matt’s parents are obsessed with the proceedings of their case against the school district, Mr. Parrish, and Reverend Brewer. As a result, they neglect caring for Matt’s mental well-being. This is ironic, as the suit centers on damage to Matt’s mental health; their inability to appreciate this irony further damages Matt’s reputation and shows that they are failing Matt as parents. This is particularly evident when Matt’s father blames Matt for the situation—even though it was his choice to pursue the lawsuit and to not look for work.
When Matt and Ursula finally reunite, the major discussion topic is their conflict with their parents. This is the very topic they avoided discussing before their fight, which suggests the couple’s growing maturity and emphasizes the theme that parents’ views and actions have important consequences on their children’s mental lives. Additionally, the deteriorating treatment of the Brewer twins at school reaffirms that they are also victims of the choices their parents made for them.
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