58 pages • 1 hour read
The Schwa Was Here
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.
Chapters 18-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary: “Larger Than Life, in Your Face, Undeniable Schwa”
The Schwa, insisting he has something to show Antsy, convinces Antsy to take a bus to a deserted area of Brooklyn. The sketchy neighborhood is filled with abandoned warehouses and bisected by the Gowanus Expressway, an elevated highway. Beneath the highway, the traffic is unusually heavy. Antsy nervously follows the Schwa to the seventh floor of a smelly, condemned warehouse. They look through the broken windows at the Manhattan skyline and the expressway. Antsy worries that the Schwa is contemplating suicide by jumping out of a window, but when the streetlights come on, Antsy understands the Schwa’s big plan for being seen. The Schwa’s face and the words “CALVIN SCHWA WAS HERE” fill a lighted billboard facing the expressway. The Schwa used his college fund to rent the billboard and rapturously believes that everyone passing by will see him. Antsy is impressed until he notices that there are no cars on the expressway: It is closed for construction. He does not want to shatter the Schwa’s happiness, but the Schwa slowly realizes the truth. The Schwa despairingly laments that it is his fate simply to vanish.
Antsy is irritated at the Schwa’s attitude because Antsy sees the Schwa and is there for him. They walk onto the deserted expressway and the Schwa sits in the road, staring up at his picture. Antsy knows he cannot get the Schwa to move, so he calls Lexie, asking her to get her driver to take her to the expressway ramp and help him with Calvin. Antsy realizes it is the first time he called the Schwa by his first name.
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Schwa Gets Radiation Therapy in a Room That Doesn’t Smell Too Good No Matter How Much It’s Disinfected”
The Schwa is embarrassed and resentful that Antsy brought Lexie to see him and his billboard. He tells them both to leave because Lexie chose Antsy, and he wants to disappear. Lexie is fed up with his self-pity and insists she is his friend. Antsy asserts the Schwa is not going to vanish, and he has proof: They go to Waldbaum’s supermarket and find Gunther, who promises to tell them the truth about the Schwa’s mom’s disappearance. Gunther remembers that the Schwa’s mom was unhappy and that his coworker, Oscar the day butcher, was also unhappy and hated his job. One day, Gunther heard the Schwa’s mom crying, but since Oscar handled emotional customers better, Oscar talked to her. The Schwa’s mom felt detached from her life and considered suicide. Oscar felt the same way. He took her hand, told Gunther he quit, and Oscar and the Schwa’s mom ran happily from the store together.
Antsy thinks that knowing the truth that his mom did not just vanish would make the Schwa feel better, but the Schwa furiously says that knowing she ran away with a butcher is worse. The Schwa is angry at his mom for abandoning him and leaving him to think it was his fault. The Schwa cries and rages while Lexie and Antsy comfort him. Antsy worries that he hurt the Schwa and is a bad friend.
The police are at Antsy’s house when he gets home late. Antsy fears that his parents called them out of worry for him but discovers, shockingly, that Frankie was arrested for drunk driving. Antsy is surprised also to learn that his dad was ticketed for drunk driving as a teen. Antsy is glad that his parents trusted him enough not to worry about him.
Chapter 20 Summary: “The Weird Things Kids Do Don’t Even Come Close to the Weird Things Parents Do”
Antsy compares the truth to a pretty girl you see from the bus. From far away, she is perfect; up close, things are not as nice, yet once you get used to her, the flaws are not as bad. The Schwa faces an uncomfortable truth. Antsy imagines the scene at the Schwa’s house when he gets home.
Mr. Schwa is upset about the Schwa being out so late, but the Schwa ignores his tirade and asks where his mom is and where her pictures are. Both fear the reality of the truth. Mr. Schwa says he put away the pictures “‘Because she left us’” (206). When the Schwa replies she left him, Mr. Schwa insists she left them both. The Schwa knows this is true. Mr. Schwa digs a shoe box out of an old suitcase in the garage and gives it to the Schwa. It is filled with about 50 unopened letters addressed to him, postmarked from almost every state. According to Mr. Schwa, the letters first arrived shortly after the Schwa’s mom left. She also used to phone, but Mr. Schwa told her if she wanted to talk to the Schwa, she should do it in person. The Schwa is stunned and hurt that his dad kept these communications from him and worked to erase his mom. The Schwa tells his dad that he spent their money on the billboard to show that he was visible, which makes his dad cry and say he is not invisible. The Schwa takes the letters to his room and reads them.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Why I Started Vandalizing Brooklyn”
The Schwa shows Antsy the box of letters. In them, his mom mostly apologizes, says she loves and misses him, and that her disappearance is not his fault. The most recent letter has a Key West, Florida, address. The Schwa plans to find his mother and tell her in person how she hurt him and get her apology.
Antsy learns that Dad lost his job. Antsy tells Dad about the Schwa’s mom and asks if he did the right thing in letting the Schwa know the truth. Dad says he did the right thing since Antsy believes the Schwa “needed to know” the truth and his intentions were good. Antsy learns that Dad was fired when someone promised to invest heavily in his division if Dad was let go. Antsy suspects Mr. Crawley is behind Dad’s termination.
Antsy furiously confronts Mr. Crawley, who toys with Antsy, then declares that he needs a business partner for a newly acquired restaurant—Dad’s dream job—and suggests Antsy’s dad contact him. Antsy is stunned. Mr. Crawley also wants Antsy to continue pretending to date Lexie to annoy her parents when they return. He will also pay Antsy and Lexie to kidnap him monthly and take him on an adventure.
Antsy calls the Schwa to tell him all this, but the number is disconnected. The Schwa’s house is empty and for sale. Antsy calls the realtor and learns the seller is Margaret Taylor in Queens. Antsy is mad that the Schwa truly disappeared. He determinedly draws little graffiti Schwa faces with a schwa symbol on the forehead and the words “The Schwa Was Here” in permanent marker all over Brooklyn to make sure the Schwa never truly disappears. Antsy begins phoning the many Margaret Taylors to find the Schwa.
Chapter 22 Summary: “My Anonymous Contribution to Popular Culture and My Parents’ Phone Bill”
Antsy discovers more Schwa graffiti that he did not draw. He dreams that the Schwa’s face is everywhere: on buses and on the Times Square billboard. He hears the Schwa telling him to “Make them look!” (222). One day, Antsy contacts the correct Margaret Taylor—Aunt Peggy—who is selling the Schwa’s house. She explains that Mr. Schwa and Calvin had to move out because of financial trouble. Mr. Schwa moved in with her in Queens, but Calvin stayed with a friend in Brooklyn to finish out the school year. The friend’s name is Anthony Bonano. Antsy is stunned. He realizes the Schwa disappeared on purpose, like his mom. Antsy decides not to track the Schwa down any further; he has done his “penance.”
Antsy continues “fake-dating” Lexie, which is pressure-free. Howie and Ira become Mr. Crawley’s new dog walkers. Dad finally contacts Mr. Crawley about the restaurant job and becomes a partner. Dad brings in Mom, and they turn it into an Italian-French fusion restaurant called “Paris, capisce?” Antsy finds a Schwa tag in the restaurant’s bathroom. No one believes Antsy when he says he started the trend, but Antsy doesn’t mind the lack of recognition.
Six months after the Schwa disappears, Antsy gets a letter from him postmarked Puerto Rico. The Schwa found his mom in Florida and told her that “she owed [him] big,” so his mom agreed to take him with her on her travels (228). He signs the letter, “Your friend, Calvin.” Paper-clipped to the letter is a beach photo of him grinning with his mom. Antsy recognizes the paper clip: It went to the moon.
Chapters 18-22 Analysis
Antsy and other characters learn about Building a Sense of Self, the Nature of Friendship, and the importance of the Role of Family Dynamics as the novel’s themes come to fruition. The Schwa’s discovery about his mother changes his life but creates a potentially problematic resolution for readers.
Antsy shows personal growth in his self-aware analysis of the evolution of his relationships with friends and family. Antsy wants the Schwa to be seen and to feel confident about himself, rather than being defined by his abandonment. Antsy shows he is a true friend by helping the Schwa learn the truth about his mother. Although Antsy second-guesses taking the Schwa to the Night Butcher because of the pain the truth causes, Antsy’s intentions are pure and rooted in friendship. Antsy wants the Schwa to understand that he will not supernaturally vanish, and, importantly, that he is not at fault for his mother’s disappearance. When Antsy phones Lexie for help getting the Schwa off the expressway, Antsy calls the Schwa by his first name for the first time, showing that Antsy now thinks of him as Calvin: a real person and a real friend.
Antsy evaluates his friendship with the Schwa and feels that he comes up short as a supportive friend: He recognizes that he has been selfish in using the Schwa to test the Schwa Effect and in pushing away the Schwa’s friendship to pursue a relationship with Lexie. Antsy’s efforts to track down M. Taylor, find the Schwa, and make him known through his tagging reveal Antsy’s sense of honor. Antsy self-reflectively understands that his actions are a badge of his friendship and “penance” for his failures as a friend.
Lexie’s short-lived romantic relationships with both Antsy and the Schwa transition into genuine friendship. Her touch shows her care and concern for the Schwa—something he has misread. She shows her friendship through her rejection of his self-pity, her caring touch, and her insistence that she has never forgotten about him. Similarly, Antsy realizes that his and Lexie’s relationship improves when they are only pretending to date. Both Antsy and Lexie are there for the Schwa during his emotional crisis following the Night Butcher’s story, illustrating their committed friendship.
The Schwa is finally truly seen, in a way that even his billboard would not have achieved, and, more importantly, he sees himself. The Schwa’s new understanding of his parents’ actions—through the letters and the Night Butcher’s story—allows him to solidify a sense of identity. The truth sets him free from guilt and fear though it leaves him with anger and a sense of injustice.
Antsy also realizes that, although he has felt ignored and overlooked by his family, he is now confident enough in his place in the world and sense of self that he does not need to be their center of attention. His comment that “[he] can handle being anonymous” (227) is a sign of his growing maturity. Antsy has his parents’ respect.
Other characters also expand their outlooks on themselves and life. Mr. Crawley now wants to be routinely taken on a “creative and adventurous event,” showing that he appreciated the helicopter ride and wants to be part of the outside world (215). Antsy’s parents embark on a completely new future with their restaurant, something Antsy knows his dad has dreamed of. Both of Antsy’s parents have redefined themselves. They are no longer a stay-at-home cook and a plastics product developer. Their new identities embrace things they love—food and the creativity, connection, and love it represents.
In these chapters, Schusterman suggests that the Schwa and his mom demonstrate symptoms of depression and show suicidal ideation. The Schwa’s mom confides to the day butcher that she considered taking her life because “[s]he felt like she was watching her own life from the outside, as if through a spyglass” (199). Antsy worries that the Schwa feels the same way: detached from his life and contemplating suicide. Antsy pulls the Schwa back from the windows in the abandoned warehouse because he fears the Schwa may jump, and he tries to put a positive spin on life for his friend. The Schwa’s fatalistic belief that he will disappear adds credibility to Antsy’s concern.
The Schwa tells Antsy he wants to find his mother so he can tell her how much she hurt him and to hear her apologize, but his final letter to Antsy mentions neither the pain he experienced at her abandonment nor his mom’s emotional issues. Instead, the Schwa’s mom admits she “owes” him, and their photograph together shows both looking happy.
While readers welcome a happy ending for the Schwa, Shusterman nonetheless leaves part of the story untold. Just like his mother, the Schwa runs away, lying to and abandoning his disabled (and now financially broke) father, causing him what will be another emotional blow. The Schwa does not mention his father at all and does not express remorse or emotion about leaving him. Readers are left to wonder if the Schwa cares about his father since learning about the withheld communications from his mother. Schusterman also leaves unanswered whether the Schwa’s mom addressed the serious mental health issues that led her to run away in the first place and if the two worked out the serious family issues of the Schwa’s abandonment, anger, and betrayal.
Unlock all 58 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Neal Shusterman
