93 pages • 3 hours read
Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
A 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 44-49Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 44 Summary
Without much convincing from Ms. Schultz, Ursula rejoins the basketball team. She admits she missed her teammates and feels a fiery red pride “entering the locker room to change into [her] uniform, and all of [them], the team, moving into the gym together” (239). Proud to be cheered on by her teammates, Ursula realizes that Ugly Girl is “a uniform, or a skin” (240) that she no longer needs to wear all the time. Upon rejoining the team, new team captain Courtney Levao offers the position back to Ursula, but Ursula refuses after seeing that Courtney is well-liked by the team. She acknowledges this is a skill she could learn from her new captain.
Matt attends both games Ursula plays before the season ends, as do Lisa and Ursula’s mother. Lisa is spending less time on ballet, losing interest in the activity. When Ursula introduces Matt to her mother, she finds him very sweet and not at all the troublemaker she expected. Ursula’s father calls her before the game, saying he really wishes he could be there.
Chapter 45 Summary
A fire alarm goes off at Rocky River High School. Matt worries that he will be blamed for this emergency. Hearing shouts of a bomb once outside, Matt is now certain that he will be blamed.
The emergency does turn out to be another bomb scare, though again there is no real threat. At the scene, however, Matt is approached by Mr. Parrish, who now looks like “an old, ravaged man” (247), and two police officers. They take him into protective custody and drive him home.
At home, Matt sends Ursula an email. He tells her the police told him that a bomb threat was called into the school, with the caller pretending to be Matt. The next morning Matt sends another email. The police have identified the caller as Reverend Brewer.
Chapter 46 Summary
More news spreads through Rocky River High. The first is of Reverend Brewer’s arrest for the bomb threat. Additionally, the Donaghys are dropping their lawsuit.
Ursula emails Matt, happy to hear the news. She also signs her email “Love, Ursula.”
Chapter 47 Summary
It is April. Ursula has a new platinum blonde haircut that’s very short in the back and longer on the sides. Her parents are shocked but accept it. Her father has a new schedule and now eats with his family twice a week.
Matt likes Ursula’s new haircut. He has rewritten his play and submitted it to the Spring Arts Festival. If it is selected, he and Ursula will be the stars. Matt also writes a comedy piece for the Rocky River Run called “Mass Media Hysteria.” Ursula tells him he should send it to the New York Times op-ed page. Everyone at school stares openly at the two together.
Chapter 48 Summary
At school, Matt feels less judged by his peers. Muriel and Miriam are no longer at school, having been implicated in the false bomb threat with their father. Matt wants to forgive them but feels that he will remember the hurt of their acts “for a long time” (258). He is asked to rejoin the Rocky River Run. Slowly, Matt’s friends begin talking to him again. Matt notes Stacey Flynn has only become prettier “since [his] trouble” (259); she stands close to Matt at his locker as she asks if he ever submitted his play. Matt finishes the conversation and departs disinterested.
Stacey, among other friends, emails Matt and apologizes. One friend invites him to a party, but Matt rejects when Ursula is not allowed to join. Matt gets invited to another party, and when he invites Ursula, they decide these are phony friends and opt to see a play in New York instead.
Chapter 49 Summary
Matt and Ursula go for another hike in the woods. Ursula muses that “the hard part of humanity is history. All that’s been done to human beings by other human beings. In the Rocky River Nature Preserve you didn’t have to think of such things” (263).
Earlier, Matt told Ursula that he wanted to tell her something on the hike. Ursula realizes it is almost exactly three months since she first emailed Matt. They find a boulder to sit on. Matt tells Ursula that the New York Times is going to publish “Mass Media Hysteria.” What’s more, his play was accepted to the festival, and Ursula will act opposite him. Ursula is excited to hear the news and a little jealous, then Matt kisses her.
Chapters 44-49 Analysis
These final chapters represent the closing action and resolution of Big Mouth & Ugly Girl. In this section everything is returned to the trajectories of the beginning. Just as Matt hoped his play would be selected for the Spring Arts Festival in Chapter 1, it now has. Just as Ursula was on the basketball team in Chapter 2, she returns to this activity. Other problems resolve, too, most notably the Donaghys’ decision to call off the lawsuit. Even lesser issues, like Lisa’s growing eating disorder due to the pressures of ballet, seem to naturally resolve. The easing of the community’s stigma against Matt is symbolized by the redemption of the police force in not questioning Matt about the new bomb threat but taking him into protective custody to ensure his safety.
Throughout the book Oates informs the reader that rumors have harsh consequences and long-lasting effects. This lesson recurs in Matt’s thought that it will be difficult to forgive the Brewers, and in Ursula’s thought that “the hard part of humanity is history” (263). It seems both Matt and Ursula will live with the consequences of prejudices against them for some time. However, a new idea also emerges in these chapters. Though it was difficult, Matt and Ursula both regained their previous identities—they have even improved them. Matt is now published in The New York Times, and his play—redrafted after the events that befell him—is better than ever. Ursula is also more confident and comfortable in her skin, symbolized by her bold new haircut which, instead of deflecting attention, as she did throughout the book, now draws attention to her.
Above all, the two characters found strength, support, and love in each other amid the events of the book. Through adversity, these two misfits realize that they are not alone, and they form a bond that the final chapter implies will endure: “The first kiss didn’t work out too well, I guess. We’d be trying others” (266).
Unlock all 93 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Joyce Carol Oates
