60 pages • 2 hours read
The Keeper of Stars
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Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Winter”
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary: “Dead of Winter”
The narrative jumps ahead to February of 1962. Ellie is now an astronomy professor in Bloomington, Indiana. She and her assistant, Zora Wheaton, pick their way along an icy sidewalk. Zora, originally from Mississippi, complains about the weather. Ellie suggests a stop at her favorite bookstore. The bookstore owner, Sam, gives Ellie a package that recently arrived for her. It is not the book that Ellie was expecting and that she needs for her work, so Sam begins searching the morning’s mail to see if the book has arrived. They chat about whether Sam will sell the store to move to a warmer climate for his wife’s health. Sam locates Ellie’s book, and she pays for both it and a copy of Pride and Prejudice as a gift for Zora, which Zora has been quoting from. Before Zora and Ellie part, Zora reminds Ellie that they are supposed to go on a double date the following evening. Ellie has forgotten, and Zora is worried that she will once again stand up the man Zora is trying to fix her up with.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary: “Out of the Blue”
When Ellie finally opens the mysterious package from Sam’s shop, she finds a note from Jack, whom she has not seen in many years. He reminds her of the summer of 1950 and then explains that he is now an author and that she was the inspiration for this book. He wants her to have a copy as a remembrance of him, even though it has been nine years since they last saw one another and they “didn’t part on the most pleasant of terms” (124). Ellie wipes tears of loneliness and regret away.
She has thought of Jack often, but she has never followed through on thoughts of going back to Sims Chapel to see him because of her own stubbornness and “her mother’s voice in her head” (124). She weeps harder when she reads the dedication that Jack has written to her and when she sees the author’s photo of him. Although she has found a great deal of professional success, her work keeps her too busy to pursue much of a personal life. She worries that the time to settle down and start a family is slipping away. As she reads the chapters about her and Jack’s romance, she sees a portrait of herself as a “Northern socialite” who stole Jack’s heart and disappeared “like a thief in the night” (126). She learns for the first time that Jack had intended to propose.
A flashback to August of 1950 shows a conversation that Ellie has with her mother shortly after their return home to Ohio. Marie tells Ellie that she came to fetch her early from Sims Chapel because she missed Ellie and wanted a few days with her before the new school year. Marie reminds Ellie that they had fun together in Nashville and says that they have more in common than Ellie realizes. She wants a fresh start in their relationship and promises to start treating Ellie like an adult. Ellie feels hopeful about her relationship with her mother for the first time in years. She explains to Marie about Jack, and Marie advises her to let love wait until she has achieved what she wants to achieve professionally. Ellie is upset, wondering if being a professor is more important than being with Jack.
Ellie’s memory then switches to November of 1950, when Jack visits her in Bloomington. After having sex in a motel room, Jack and Ellie talk about their love, and Jack notes that Indiana is as far away from home as he has ever been. He expresses gratitude for God having brought them together and says that he never wants to lose the feelings he has for her. He is willing to be patient and put up with their separation, for now, because Ellie is worth waiting for.
Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary: “Snowed Under”
In the present, Ellie falls asleep reading Jack’s book and, in the morning, resumes her reading. Finally, she puts the book down and opens a trunk where she has stored mementos over the years. She finds her memory box containing things from the summer of 1950. Inside are the arrowhead and bottle of sand Jack gave her, as well as a journal she kept during her relationship with Jack.
An entry from March of 1951 shares her feelings as Jack leaves for two years to fight in the Korean War. Because Jack is overseas, she does not return to Sims Chapel that summer as they had planned, and by June, she is desperately missing the place. By September, her mother and her best friend, Marjorie, are pressuring her to move on and date someone at college instead of waiting for Jack, and she feels her resolve weakening. By Christmas, she notes that the tone of Jack’s letters has changed. She feels that her memories of him are fading, and she feels depressed and withdrawn. Finally, she writes Jack a letter breaking off their relationship.
As Ellie reads the letter now, she weeps and wishes she could go back in time. She crawls into bed with the box and falls asleep. Later, Zora calls to remind her about the planned double date, and Ellie once again cancels.
Part 2, Chapter 19 Summary: “Cold Shoulder”
On Monday morning, Zora chastises Ellie for breaking her date again; she tells Ellie that she is starting to think that Ellie wants to be alone for the rest of her life. Ellie says that she is not sure that she deserves to be with anyone, and she finally tells Zora the story of her relationship with Jack.
She flashes back to April 1953, when Jack comes to her college on his way home from the war, just to let her know that he is home and safe. Jack tells her that he understands her decision to end their relationship, but he wants to know if, now that he is back, they can start over and try again. Ellie confesses that she is already in a relationship with Michael “Mike” Pearson.
Disappointed and angry, Jack asks if she loves Mike. Ellie thinks that she is not sure her relationship with Mike is as intense as the one she had with Jack, but before she can answer, Jack tells her that he does not want to know. He begins to walk away. Ellie calls after him that she did not mean to hurt him. He stops and tells her that she does not know what it means to hurt. He opens his shirt, and she can see several wounds from the war. Then, he tells her that her leaving him hurt worse than any physical wound. He tells her that Mike is a bad person who does not love her and will inevitably leave her for someone else. She angrily replies that she loves Mike and Mike loves her, breaking Jack’s heart all over again.
When Zora hears this story, she asks why Ellie left Jack. Ellie tries to explain the depression she felt when they were separated and the feeling that she had to end it to save herself. Zora tells her that she will regret it when she is older and still alone, and Ellie thinks that breaking up with Jack “might have been the biggest mistake of her life” (147). She tells Zora that she once asked her aunt about him, but Clara told her that Jack had moved to the West Coast, and she assumed she would never hear from him again. Zora points out that Jack would not have sent the book unless he still had feelings for Ellie. She asks whether it is possible that Ellie has never gotten married because she subconsciously hopes that she will still end up with Jack. Ellie thinks of the mockingbirds and wonders if this is her chance to reach out to Jack again.
Part 2, Chapter 20 Summary: “Tip of the Iceberg”
Ellie drops by Amelia’s house, seeking her sister’s advice. She asks about their mother’s early arrival in Sims Chapel in the summer of 1950, telling Amelia that she now wonders if there was more to the timing than Marie admitted. Amelia thinks back and recalls Marie getting an upsetting phone call the day before she left to collect Ellie. They wonder who the caller was. Ellie shows Amelia Jack’s book. She explains that she found out from the story that Jack planned to propose on the day Marie arrived in Sims Chapel and shares her suspicion that someone found out and called Marie. She tells Amelia that when she saw Jack’s photo on the book jacket, her feelings from that summer came flooding back. Amelia suggests that Ellie go see Jack or at least write to him. Ellie decides that she is not brave enough to see him in person—she will write him a letter.
Part 2, Chapter 21 Summary: “Snowball Effect”
Feeling overwhelmed at the thought of writing to Jack, Ellie postpones the task until summer, when she has time off and can think more clearly. The day before the spring semester ends, Marie calls to tell Ellie that Clara has had a fatal heart attack. Marie says that she is leaving for Sims Chapel today and that Amelia will follow tomorrow. Ellie announces that she will also travel to Sims Chapel, feeling that it is the least she can do for her aunt. It has been years since Ellie last spoke to Clara, but she is deeply saddened by Clara’s death.
Part 2 Analysis
In Part 2, the third-person narrator’s perspective shifts exclusively to Ellie in 1962 to explore the emotional aftermath of her breakup with Jack. Ellie has become a successful professor in a male-dominated field, but she questions whether the sacrifices she has made are worth it, supporting the novel’s thematic arguments regarding The Impact of Individual Ambitions on Romantic Partnerships. The package from Jack touches off a cascade of long-dormant feelings for Ellie. Spurred on by Zora, for the first time, Ellie considers the possibility of Taking a Risk on a Second Chance at Love. Jack’s gesture in sending the book to Ellie, and the dedication referring to Ellie as Jack’s “keeper of stars” and the person who “holds [his] destiny in her hands” (124), develops the theme of The Power of Individuals to Determine Their Own Destinies. The act of sending the book suggests that Jack, 12 years later, is still a person who believes that he has some power to shape his own fate—but the book’s dedication suggests that his early belief in his absolute power to determine his own destiny has been modified, somewhat. In saying that Ellie “holds [his] destiny in her hands” (124), Jack acknowledges that Ellie also holds power over his fate.
The structure of this section of the novel, alternating present-time narrative with passages from Jack’s novel as well as flashbacks into Ellie’s memories, creates suspense and juxtaposes Ellie’s present with her past, heightening the emotional stakes of the narrative. Jumping ahead to 1962 and making it clear that Ellie is single creates suspense about what happened to her and Jack after her mother’s unexpected arrival in Sims Chapel in August of 1950. When Jack’s book arrives, it becomes clear that Jack and Ellie last saw one another in 1953—which creates questions about their relationship from 1950 to 1953 and what happened in 1953 to cause a final break between the two. The juxtaposition of Ellie’s current unhappiness and regrets against Jack’s narrative of their idyllic relationship is poignant, particularly when Ellie learns that Jack intended to propose on the very day her mother took her away from Sims Chapel. Ellie’s own memories, presented as flashbacks, eventually answer many of the questions created by the jump forward in time but also raise the emotional stakes, making it clear that Ellie has many reasons to regret her part in ending her relationship with Jack.
In Chapter 18, it is revealed that Ellie ended the relationship while Jack was serving in Korea. She grew depressed by the separation and found herself withdrawing from her own life; she felt that “in order to survive, [she needed] to let [him] go” (138). It is not this that causes her so much guilt, however. She is plagued by her own suspicion that she was somehow weak or that her own ambitions or her mother’s expectations for her life partially informed her decision to leave Jack. When she tells the story to Zora—another woman trying to make her way in an academic field dominated by men—Zora does not express sympathy for Ellie having to give up an important relationship to protect her own mental health. Instead, she is immediately critical, suggesting that Ellie gave up on Jack because she was too ambitious and had the wrong priorities.
Elevating monogamous, committed romantic love above any other kind of happiness is characteristic of romantic fiction, but The Keeper of Stars goes further than this. Like Part 1 of the novel, Part 2 conveys a specific and idealistic vision of what “true love” is. Part 2 also conveys a general tone of disapproval for women’s professional ambitions, promoting marriage and motherhood as a higher calling for women. In Part 1, Jack, his mother, and Clara all portray romantic love as a permanent feeling that a person can only have with one other person. In Part 2, Jack’s fury when he returns from Korea to learn that Ellie is dating Mike and Zora’s suspicion that Ellie is still single because she is still secretly pining for Jack continue this line of argument.
According to the perspectives of some characters in the novel, Ellie is “foolish” for being too busy with her career to pursue a serious relationship: Supposedly, her “personal life [is] a disaster” because she is unmarried and childless (125), and the narrator comments that “while Ellie was busy chasing her ambition, everyone around her had moved on” (126), giving the example of her younger sister, Amelia, already being a wife and mother when Ellie is not. The diction “moved on” reduces Ellie’s career path to a childish preoccupation, implying that others have progressed in a way she has not—and the example of Amelia as a wife and mother makes clear what the “appropriate” path of progress looks like for women in the novel. Female professors were rarer in 1962 but not unheard of, even in the sciences. Many female professors of the time were married, making it clear that marriage and academic ambition were in no way incompatible for women of the 1960s. Framing Ellie’s situation as an “either or”—marriage or career—is a rhetorical choice that conveys a clear stance about women’s roles in the novel.
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