64 pages • 2 hours read
Lynda RutledgeMockingbird Summer
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A 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 14-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 14 Summary
Corky and Mack find Papa Cal bitten by a rattlesnake and quickly take him to the hospital. Corky feels guilty about Papa Cal and worried about today’s practice. Belle tells her that Evangeline said America is not going to play.
Corky sees Evangeline and America crossing the tracks and decides to follow them to the Southside with Roy Rogers at her heels. America hears Roy’s bark and tells her mother she’s going for a run. Corky apologizes for giving America the book. America says that meeting Corky’s family made her think more deeply about her own family. As America leads Corky back to the Northside, she says she likes Corky but they cannot be friends. Corky says if it is about race it is “stupid” because “[i]t’s just skin” (175). She urges America pursue her gift for running, but America doesn’t see the point. She wonders how Olympic athletes survive financially—something that has never occurred to Corky. Corky asks America how it feels to run fast, and America tells her it’s like having “wings on [her] feet” (177) and makes America feel a kind of “Almighty glory.” Corky wishes she could be like her, but America recognizes the ways Corky’s immaturity and privilege keep her from understanding America’s experience.
America participates in the softball practice and the other girls try to imitate her. Bubba drives by with Tad and yells racial slurs to Corky and Mack. Impulsively, Corky steps away from America and instantly regrets it. America notices. Mack calls Bubba a racist and slaps him. Corky realizes America has left.
Corky feels troubled and wonders what made her step away from America. She rejects Tad when he tries to talk to her. Pastor Pete informs Mack that the deacons have decided not to let America play in the game against the Methodists due to pressure from Noah IV. Infuriated, Mack says the team loves America. Mack and Corky interrupt the deacons’ meeting, and Corky proclaims that America is great. She asks the deacons how they will feel to be the ones who stopped a potential Olympic athlete from developing her gifts. She also asks where the women deacons are. Eventually, the deacons vote again and decide to allow America back onto the team. Despite the good news, Corky thinks of the hurt she saw on America’s face.
Chapter 15 Summary
On a date with his current girlfriend, Cissy, Mack admits he’s not doing well at school. Cissy tells him he must get a degree, because his baseball dreams might not work out and won’t provide financial security. When Mack asks her about her major, Cissy replies that it doesn’t matter, because she’s a woman. As Mack drives her home, she suggests that if he chooses a major like economics, medicine, or law—something financially lucrative—then they will discuss their future.
Mack drives around and thinks of his first kiss with Lorelei. He thinks that even though choosing a major is the practical choice, his dreams are different. He feels sad but knows that his problems are unimportant compared to the problems of the world. Mack drives home but notices truck lights following behind him. The truck comes so close it forces him to turn into a house yard to avoid it, and he hits his head on the wheel. The truck disappears and Mack feels a knot on his head.
At home, Corky sees the bump on Mack’s forehead and tries to tell him about the truck that has been coming to their house, but he stops her before she can get it out. Later, Corky dreams she’s on one side of the railroad tracks and America is on the other. America walks toward her to return To Kill a Mockingbird, but after the train passes between them, America is gone. The book’s pages scatter in the wind.
Chapter 16 Summary
As the game approaches, Corky wants America to play with the team, so she knows she must act fast. She lies to her mother about going to the drugstore early and crosses to the Southside instead. She heads to the church to talk to Reverend Washington. She asks him to convey an apology to America, hoping that she will come to the game. Reverend Washington surprises her saying that America is in the church and Corky can apologize herself.
In the sanctuary, America plays the piano. Corky admires her talent, but feels embarrassed to say it. She tells America she doesn’t know why she stepped away from her and confesses that she kissed Tad and wanted to kiss him again. She apologizes and tells America that now she never wants to kiss him again. She pleads with America to play on the team. America says that her mother fears trouble but Corky insists she must play because she is too good. America tells Corky she knows “nothing about nothing” (200). To keep America talking, Corky says she loves the Southside’s baptistry, which is different from the Northside church. America says her mother feels at home in church because they have lived in four different towns. Corky tells her it’s ok if she doesn’t want to play. America says she cannot ride a horse and suggests that Corky teach her. Corky tells her to come to their house in the afternoon. America returns home and decides to continue reading To Kill a Mockingbird.
At home, Corky finds a note from her mother saying she took a job at the library and will stay until late. She asks Corky to pick up a letter to her father from Belle. At the library, Corky takes the letter and asks Belle if everything is alright. Belle assures her everything’s fine.
Chapter 17 Summary
Corky takes America to the corral. America says she wants to learn riding because her great-grandfather was a cowboy. Corky tries and fails to ride her family’s horse, but America mounts it with ease. Corky leads the horse in the yard just as the girls who have a crush on Mack drive by. They snub America, who asks them if they want to race. Corky and America laugh as they leave. Corky delights in seeing America’s face “open and happy” (211). America laughs when the horse rolls over on the ground like a dog and she and Corky agree to be friends. America tells Corky that her family will probably leave High Cotton when America’s father finds a job. Corky wants her family to employ Evangeline permanently and offer America’s father a job at the drugstore. Without explaining, she invites America to come by the drugstore the following day.
The girls hear music coming from the house and find Evangeline playing “Claire de Lune” at the piano. Belle is amazed that she can play by ear. They all stay quiet for a while enjoying the music.
Chapters 14-17 Analysis
Rutledge interweaves the themes of Coming of Age in a Transformative Era and Developing Consciousness Through Friendship and Literature as Corky learns more about herself and the reality around her through her connection to America, defining her transition from childhood to adolescence. Corky’s decision to apologize to America in person about the book and convince her to participate in the softball team compels her to defy the town’s segregation laws and accepted norms, crossing to Southside on her own. Her act of defiance evidences her growing consciousness and her bond with America. Rutledge underscores the importance of this moment through Corky’s own perspective when she declares she is “learning stuff this summer”: Race is “just skin,” and their friendship should not stop because of prejudice (175). America skepticism at Corky’s hopeful view of their future reflects both her greater maturity and vastly different experience of the world. When Corky tries to convince America to pursue her athletic talent because she is “as fast as the fastest woman in the world,” America’s hesitance highlights the stakes for America of being exceptional in a society where her success represents a threat to white, patriarchal power. America’s reaction helps Corky realizes her lack of empathy and the disparity of resources, opportunity, and safety between them, reflected in the fact that Corky “had no concerns about getting by” and “[b]eing the best in the world was all that mattered” (176). In an attempt to better understand America’s perspective, Corky asks if she’s scared. Corky’s desire to connect to her friend allows America the space to name her “unsettled, fearful feeling” (179) about her family’s financial survival and the threats of racialized violence in High Cotton.
Bearing witness to the Boatwrights’ overt racial hatred forces Corky to confront her own internalized bias. When America rejoins the softball practice, she pushes the girls to do their best as they “[run] around trying to emulate America” (182). However, when the practice ends, Bubba calls America racial slurs and Tad shocks Corky: “She saw the same look of pure hate. And it was…now aimed at her” (183). Despite Corky’s aversion to the hatred on Tad’s face, she impulsively steps away from America. The incident signals a new stage of Corky’s coming-of-age journey in which she recognizes her personal growth as a work in progress, realizing she does not yet know “the person she [is] turning into” (185). Despite her mistake, Corky’s openness and willingness to admit her mistakes allows America to open up to her. She accepts Corky’s invitation to her home and asks Corky to teach her to ride the family’s horse, encouraging reciprocity in their relationship.
Corky’s emerging social consciousness shifts from internal to external as she takes action to defend America to the Baptist deacons. When the board of deacons votes to exclude America from the softball team, Mack and Corky interrupt the meeting to advocate for America. Corky tells the deacons: “What if America IS that great? […] What if she ends up in the Olympics, and you were the ones who said she couldn’t play with us?” (188). Mack and Corky’s passion and willingness to stand up to the influence of Noah IV ultimately changes the deacons’ decision. Despite their victory at the meeting, the recurring motif of the truck following Mack home signals the impending threat of racial hatred in the narrative.
