51 pages • 1 hour read
The Great Alone
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Chapters 27-29Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 27 Summary
Cora still feels guilty about uprooting Leni from Alaska, even though Grandma Golliher insists that Leni is happy. While camping at the wilderness of the Hoh Rainforest, Leni teaches her son about his heritage. Cora sees this as a “pressure release” for Leni, who comes on these trips “to re-find herself in nature, to recover whatever small piece of her Alaskan soul she could find, to connect her son to the father he didn’t know and the life that was his by birthright but not in fact” (373). Cora’s mother insists that Cora should forgive herself, but Cora regrets letting Leni see Ernt’s abuse more than killing him.
Meanwhile, Leni tells herself that she is happy. She has just graduated from college, holds a job at a bookstore, and pursues photography night classes. Her son, MJ, is growing up happy and loved. Leni has a good relationship with her mom and grandparents. Despite her comfortable life, Leni misses Alaska and tells her son stories based on Alaskan myths. She hasn’t called Matthew’s rehabilitation center since MJ’s birth, but Leni still cherishes her Polaroids of Matthew. Cora sits with Leni outside and says that she wishes she could see the Northern Lights, to which Leni agrees.
Chapter 28 Summary
Cora goes to have her pneumonia checked and receives a cancer diagnosis. The news anguishes Leni. Cora assures her that she will fight it. Leni still writes to Matthew, even though she won’t send the letter. Cora’s condition worsens over the summer. Cora reminisces about Alaska to Leni, which surprises Leni given that they haven’t spoken of Alaska, her dad, or Matthew in years. Leni says she loved all of it, even her father. Cora asks Leni to tell MJ about her. She gives Leni a written confession, prompting her return to Alaska, to her “home” (397). Cora reads to MJ one last time before Leni comes for her final visit. Cora anguishes over leaving Leni and calls her “the love of [her] life” (393). Leni assures her mother that she will be okay. With this knowledge, Cora passes away.
Chapter 29 Summary
Leni’s grandmother gives Leni a box of Cora’s keepsakes and tells her that Cora would have wanted her to have them. Leni looks at a photo of her parents’ wedding and of her dad before he went to war. She looks also at a picture of him after his return. She finds a letter addressed to her from her mother asking Leni to go back to Alaska and scatter her ashes on their beach. Cora also left two one-way tickets for Leni and MJ. Although Grandma Golliher doesn’t want Leni to go, she tells her that Alaska is in her and that she belongs there. She also maintains that MJ needs to know where he comes from. Leni admits to still feeling terrible over leaving Matthew and how she wants to give the Walkers a chance to know MJ. Leni’s grandmother warns her that “life—and the law—is hard on women. Sometimes doing the right thing is no help at all” (400).
Leni travels to Alaska with her son. It’s as beautiful as it was, although tourism has increased. Leni goes to the police station and turns in her mother’s confession. She thinks of her grandfather telling her to only hand in the letter, but Chief Ward baits her until Leni, wanting to live an honest life, confesses the entire story. Leni records the confession, and once she finishes, the chief tells her she’s under arrest. Leni asks for Tom.
Chapters 27-29 Analysis
These chapters continue to depict the duality of the mother-daughter bond and how it can be both stifling as well as liberating. Although Leni chooses to adapt to life in Seattle to keep her mother and grandparents safe from the law, she has not fully put Alaska behind her. Leni’s insistence on going camping and telling her son stories about Alaska show her lingering attachment to the state. Cora witnesses this enduring attachment, as she once did Leni’s deepening feelings for Matthew, so she uses her death to finally “shove [Leni] out of the nest” (262). As she dies, Cora gives Leni her confession and two one-way tickets to Alaska, exhorting her to go “home” (397). This is also a way for Cora to appease her own sense of guilt at uprooting Leni from Alaska.
The narrative shows how the law, personified by Chief Ward, does not offer much sympathy to women. Leni’s grandparents warn her not to go, or if she must return, to simply turn in Cora’s confession to avoid the law. They caution Leni that the law does not forgive women, echoing Large Marge’s experience with her sister and Cora’s own statement that it’s a “man’s world” (16). Leni decides to tell Office Ward the truth about her involvement in her father’s death and faces a subsequent arrest, even with her child present. With no recourse but to call Tom, Leni’s situation demonstrates how the law fails women.
Her choice may put her in peril, but Leni’s truth-telling demonstrates her independent spirit. Leni wants to return to Alaska without any burden and live an “honest life” (405) there. Her confession itself makes culpable in the encounter between her mother and her father. She was not only a victim of his violence but acted on her mother’s behalf. Instead of accepting how her mother’s confession writes her out of the event, Leni writes herself into her mother’s confession.
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