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All We Have Left
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BetaChapters 39-42Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 39 Summary: “Alia”
Travis is quite courtly toward Alia as they navigate through the staircase, taking her hand to guide her across water on the steps. She is aware of the hordes of frightened people surrounding her, the narrowness of the stairs, and the incessant blaring of sirens; paradoxically, “[…] everyone is pretty calm” (273). People calm one another when panic breaks out. The two hold hands for support, and Alia wonders how her parents would react to meeting Travis.
Travis tells Alia the story of his grandfather’s death. Travis accompanied Gramps to a weekly music session with a group of old friends, noting that “They’d known each other since ‘Nam” (274). As they left to go home, a young man started punching Gramps, who tried to calm things by talking to his assailant. Another member of the group pulled out a knife, and Travis ran to find help. Upon his return, Gramps was “[…] almost dead” (275). Travis’s father never forgave his son for the incident, characterizing his actions as cowardly. Travis agrees, noting that he had nearly abandoned Julia and Alia when he explored the building for an alternate staircase. Alia reminds him that “[…] you came back” (275), assuring him that he was not responsible for Gramps’s death.
Alia recognizes Mr. Morowitz, her father’s colleague, being helped down the stairs. He advises Alia that her father had returned to the office briefly, just after she had left, when the explosion hit. He tells Alia that her father was “[…] standing hear the door, and then I didn’t see him again” (276). Alia becomes obsessed by the thought that her father may be hurt and unassisted on the upper floors, and she insists on returning to explore his office. While Travis initially attempts to restrain her, she leaves him and starts back up the stairs alone.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Jesse”
Jesse confronts her Entrepreneurship class teacher, Mr. Laramore, whom she has learned was a good friend of her brother, Travis. She asks why he had never mentioned this to her, and he responds that “[…] I didn’t see any reason to bring up something that was so painful…for all of us” (281). He gives Jesse a broad overview of the mugging that resulted in the death of her grandfather, indicating that “[…] Travis couldn’t forgive himself for not doing more to help his…grandfather” (282). Gramps had been relocated to a local nursing home by the family, and Travis felt that his memorial service should have been held in New York City, which he loved so much. Travis had told Laramore that he’d like to take some of Gramps’ ashes to the City, thereby providing the missing piece to the puzzle of his presence in the Towers on 9/11. Mr. Laramore explains that Gramps had helped build the Towers and worked there in maintenance for over thirty years: “Travis said it was the place your grandfather liked best in the entire world” (284).
Chapter 41 Summary: “Alia”
Alia runs up the stairs at lightning pace; she is surprised to find that Travis is trying his best to catch up with her. She acknowledges that her experience as a runner has built her endurance. When she reminds him that he hardly knows her and asks why he chose to turn back with her, Travis says, “I didn’t want to, believe me…but I’m so tired of regretting the things I didn’t do” (286). He also tells Alia that he has his grandfather’s ashes with him and had hoped to scatter them from the roof of the building. What she had wrongly perceived as a pickpocketing attempt was an effort to procure a pass that would allow him access to the roof. He points out that he had even worn his grandfather’s work shirt, which had the name “McLaurin” embroidered on the pocket, in an attempt to appear more authentic. He tells Alia that they started this journey together, and that they will finish it together. They ascend the stairs, hand in hand.
Chapter 42 Summary: “Jesse”
Adam and Jesse come to know each other through constant question and answer sessions, such as, “What was your favorite cartoon when you were a kid?” (289). He will start college soon and Jesse dreads his absence, although he will attend school just a few hours away. While they spend most of their free time together, neither has invited the other home to visit their parents, as if by tacit agreement.
Adam tells Jesse that he had tried to remain angry at her after the graffiti incident, but has been unable to. While their relationship has not been at all physical, the author implies that Adam and Jesse have fallen in love. He is conflicted and tells her that “If I’d already finished college and was thinking about a wife, then we’d be golden” (292). As previously mentioned, dating is not a part of the Muslim culture.
Adam leaves to go home and Jesse checks a message on her phone from Anne Jonna, the 9/11 survivor who had lectured at the Peace Center. She has found a missing persons poster at the memorial museum and it depicts a girl named Alia.
Chapters 39-42 Analysis
In this section, the author juxtaposes the feelings of panic heard outside the Towers as sirens wail loudly through the streets with the relative calm that the weary individuals descending the stairs exhibit–never shoving and always helping one another. This sense of peace engulfs Alia and Travis, as well. The young man chooses this moment to describe the circumstances of his grandfather’s mugging and death, and the responsibility that he feels for this loss. The comparison between cowardice and bravery is exemplified in Chapter 39, as well. When Alia decides that she must climb the Tower again to be sure that her father is not lying alone and injured in his office, Travis decides to follow her back up the stairs. Overcoming all instincts for self-preservation, he accompanies a young woman whom he barely knows on a certainly futile task. When Alia realizes that he is behind her on the stairwell, she asks why he came with her. Travis responds that he had not wanted to do so, “[…] but I’m so tired of regretting the things I didn’t do” (286). The couple come to appreciate one another more as they know each other better, and Travis advises Alia that his plan for the morning had been to scatter some of Gramps’s ashes from the roof of the World Trade Center.
Jesse comes to know herself, Adam, and something of her brother, Travis, more in this section. She confronts Mr. Laramore, her Entrepreneurship teacher, and asks why he had never spoken about his friendship with Travis. The teacher responds that “[…] I didn’t see any reason to bring up something that was so painful…For all of us” (281). He also provides the missing clue as to why Jesse’s father perceived Travis as a coward–he had left to get help while his grandfather was being mugged, and found Gramps near death when he returned with assistance. Finally, he reports that Travis had wanted to scatter some of Gramps’s ashes from the roof of the Trade Center that he had helped to build, thereby explaining the young man’s presence in the building that morning. This helps Jesse to provide the pieces necessary to solve the puzzle, and also assists her with some emotional closure regarding her brother. He was very bright and had been accepted to Columbia University. He had aspired to be a music teacher, and Mr. Laramore has wondered if “[…] we would have hung out together in the teacher’s lounge” (281). Jesse comes to realize that her brother’s death reverberated among people far outside her immediate family, and that Mr. Laramore had experienced some of the emotional consequences of the loss of his friend.
As the summer winds down, Adam and Jesse spend more time getting to know one another by sharing details of their childhoods. While Jesse is delighted with his company, she dreads the fact that he will leave for college soon. Neither invites the other home to spend time with their family, a detail that underlines the degrees of disapproval that would exist on both sides of the relationship.
Adam tells Jesse that he had tried to remain angry at her following the graffiti incident, but his feelings for her were too strong to allow that to happen. He tells her about having lost his faith for a time, and how hard he has worked to get it back. They are both aware of the Muslim prohibition against dating rather than marrying, and he tells her that, “If I’d already finished college and was thinking about a wife, then we’d be golden” (292). While it’s clear that the couple are in love, the cultural conflict that will be involved with the construct of dating is significant.
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