Jasper Jones: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

It is New Year’s Eve morning, and Charlie is spending time with Jeffrey, who has become fascinated with Bruce Lee. Jeffrey wants to learn the infamous “one-inch punch.” They talk about karate and play cricket on the Lus’ front lawn, which, Charlie notes, is nothing but a bug-free piece of soil now. Friends and neighbors have given An new flowers and seeds to replant his garden. Charlie admits that this is a nice gesture, but he’s skeptical that the neighbors would have done anything had An Lu’s garden not been destroyed—when Sue Findlay scalded Mrs. Lu, for example, no one did anything about it.

Lately, Charlie has found it difficult to eat anything—he’s been too obsessed with Eliza Wishart. He also feels anxiety in his stomach because he hasn’t heard from Jasper in more than a week. It’s possible that the police have arrested him again.

Charlie and Jeffrey trade insults—Jeffrey teases Charlie about kissing Eliza, and Charlie says that Jeffrey is “a volcanic eruption of stupidity.” They mention the upcoming fireworks display at Miners’ Hall, and Jeffrey hints that Eliza might be there. As they laugh and joke, Charlie wonders if he’ll able to leave Jeffrey behind when he leaves Corrigan one day. In a way, saying goodbye to Jeffrey will be harder than saying goodbye to his own family. Jeffrey has always made Charlie feel relaxed and confident in himself.

Charlie thinks that it’s been difficult not telling Jeffrey about Laura. He wonders if Laura’s dead body will rise to the surface of the lake soon, and if he and Jasper will be arrested for hiding her there. He’s reluctant to go to the fireworks display that night for fear of running into Eliza—he’ll be too tempted to break his promise to Jasper and tell her about Laura. Charlie thinks about leaving town with Jasper, avoiding any responsibility for Laura’s disappearance. He could go to a new school, or travel with Jasper, as if they were characters from On the Road. Charlie fantasizes about exploring Australia with Jasper and writing letters to Eliza—and one day, he’ll be a great author in New York. When that happens, he’ll reunite with Eliza and tell her about Laura.

In the evening of New Year’s Eve, Wesley knocks on Charlie’s door and asks him if he’s going to go see the fireworks. Charlie says that he’s not sure, and that he might see Jeffrey instead. Then, Wesley tells Charlie the truth: he has been working on a novel in his study, and he’s finally finished it. Wesley wants Charlie to be the first person to read it. In his study, Wesley shows Charlie the manuscript, titled Patterson’s Curse. In spite of himself, Charlie feels jealous of his father. Without knowing it at the time, he’d always imagined himself showing his own manuscript to Wesley one day.

Charlie takes Wesley’s manuscript and goes to read it in his room. Just as he’s beginning, he hears a knock at the window—Jasper is there. Jasper explains that tonight, he and Charlie need to confront Mad Jack—sneak onto his property and tell him that they know he wrote “Sorry.” Charlie says that confrontations like this only work in movies, and there’s no way Mad Jack will own up to his crime right away. Jasper insists that they visit him. He says that they’ll pretend they saw him kill Laura and scratch the word onto the tree. Tonight is the perfect time for the confrontation, he says, since everyone else will be at the fireworks display. When Charlie starts to explain, once again, that Jasper’s plan will never work, Jasper interrupts him, saying that Charlie can either help him by pretending he saw Mad Jack kill Laura, or not. He suggests that Charlie is only reluctant to go to Mad Jack’s because he’s afraid, and reminds him that he promised to help Jasper. With this, Jasper walks away from Charlie’s window.

Remembering his loyalty to Jasper, Charlie decides to follow him to Mad Jack’s house. He tells Wesley he’s going to see the fireworks with Jeffrey. Wesley is clearly disappointed that Charlie isn’t reading his novel right away, and a small part of Charlie is pleased with this.

Charlie leaves his house and walks through the center of town to Mad Jack’s house, noticing the children laughing and playing. He hears his name and turns to see Eliza, looking beautiful. She tells Charlie she’s glad he came to see the fireworks, and that she’s been meaning to tell him something important. Charlie reluctantly tells Eliza that he needs to go, but he squeezes her shoulder and promises that he’s coming back soon. He thinks that he’d give anything to be able to spend the evening with Eliza instead of having to spend the evening at Mad Jack’s.

Charlie walks the rest of the way to Mad Jack’s house, where Jasper is waiting for him. He smiles and tells Charlie he knew Charlie would come. Charlie doesn’t reply. Jasper twice asks Charlie if he has a light for his cigarette, and it occurs to Charlie that Jasper is as nervous about trespassing onto Mad Jack’s property as Charlie is. Jasper insists that he and Charlie must enter through the front of Mad Jack’s house, not the back—they need to project confidence. Charlie sees how false Jasper’s confidence is—it’s as superficial as Batman’s cape. Nevertheless, he follows Jasper to the front of the building.

Jasper bangs on the front door of Mad Jack’s house and calls for Mad Jack. After a few moments, Mad Jack appears at the door. He smiles, much to Charlie’s surprise, greets Jasper by name, and invites him into the house, putting his hand on Jasper’s shoulder, though Jasper brushes it off at once. Charlie notes that Mad Jack is shorter and less imposing than he’d imagined, with yellow teeth and white hair. As he ushers Charlie and Jasper into his home, he walks with a pronounced limp. Charlie notices old photographs and dead butterflies pinned to the walls.

Mad Jack invites Jasper and Charlie to sit down, but Jasper insists that they won’t sit. Jack, unfazed, asks for Charlie’s name. Jasper tersely tells Jack Charlie’s name, but adds that he doesn’t need to know anything else about Charlie. Jasper gets to the point: he tells Jack that he and Charlie know “what he’s done.” To Charlie’s surprise, Jack sighs and sits down, looking tired and sad. Jasper asks him to admit that he killed “her.” Jack quietly tells Jasper that he’s wanted to speak with him about the matter for a long time. When Jasper adds that he and Charlie saw Jack kill “her” three weeks ago, Jack is confused—he claims that he “did it” when Jasper was only two years old. Instead of being confused, Jasper insists that Jack is a liar, and urges him to confess what he’s done. Charlie notes that Jack looks saddened, but not the least bit intimidated.

Jasper presses on, trying to get Jack to confess to killing Laura. He tells Jack that he and Charlie know he killed Laura Wishart, beating and hanging her less than a month ago. Jack is horrified with this information, and barely seems to know that a girl named Laura Wishart has been missing. Jasper tells Jack that he found Laura’s body—confronted with this information, Jack asks Jasper how Jasper knows that Laura is dead. Charlie senses that the balance of power is changing: Jack is becoming more confident, and Jasper is beginning to sound like a scared, desperate child. Charlie realizes that Jack had nothing to do with Laura’s death, and that he isn’t “mad” at all—he’s just a sad, lonely man.

Jack asks Jasper why he’s being accused of murder, and as he asks the question, he begins to cry. He asks Jasper if it’s because of Jasper’s mother. Jasper doesn’t understand what Jack means, and when Jack realizes this, he weeps and shakes his head. Jack asks Jasper if he’s ever wondered why Jack calls Jasper’s name every time Jasper walks by. Jasper doesn’t know what to say. Jack tells Jasper to turn around—behind him, there are three photographs, which Jack identifies at Jasper’s mother, his father, and Jasper himself. Jack tells Jasper that he is Jasper’s father’s father—Jasper’s grandfather. Jack reveals that it was he who drove the car when Jasper’s mother died in a car crash.

The narrative jumps forward: Charlie is back in his room, shaken by his confrontation with Jack. On his walk back from Jack’s house, he didn’t run into Eliza. Instead, he walked silently with Jasper. Once they’d reached Charlie’s room, Jasper told him that he planned to talk to his father as soon as possible. Alone, Charlie thinks that his town is a dark, ugly place. Perhaps this is the reason everyone seems eager to cover up ugliness with politeness and smoothness. At the moment, Charlie doesn’t blame them for doing so.

Charlie reveals everything Jack told Jasper. Jack was the father of Jasper’s father, whose name is David—he showed Jasper David’s old room, which was full of football trophies. Years ago, David met Rosie, his future wife, at a dance outside of town. Rosie was from the neighboring shire (or county), and because she was Aboriginal, David avoided spending time with her in the presence of the people of Corrigan. Shortly after meeting David, Rosie became pregnant, and David told Jack about her. Jack insisted that Rosie get an abortion, and told David that he was ruining the family name. David refused, and married Rosie shortly thereafter. Jack, furious, disowned David. In response, Davis changed his last name to Jones.

After Rosie’s child—Jasper—was born, Rosie tried to befriend Jack. After a year of attempts, Rosie finally succeeded. When Jack met Rosie, he changed his mind about her. She was beautiful, and a great cook, and he came to enjoy spending time with her—indeed, she became something of a replacement for Jack’s own wife. Jack dressed nicely whenever he visited her, and Rosie would always make special food for the occasion. David was never present for these visits—he never forgave his father.

One day in April, when Jack was visiting Rosie, Rosie clutched her side in pain and begged Jack to drive her to the hospital. Jack obliged, but drove over a deep pothole immediately after pulling his car out. As a result, the car skidded into a wall of trees. Jack emerged from the car, covered in glass and blood, only to see Rosie’s body lying in front of the car, dead. During the autopsy, it was found that Rosie had had appendicitis. Jack never forgave himself for driving the car that killed Rosie. He often wished that he had died instead of Rosie.

In the weeks after Rosie’s death, rumors spread throughout Corrigan. Some said that Jack had been in love with Rosie, and was trying to kidnap her, or that the two of them were having an affair and wanted to leave Corrigan together. No one ever mentioned the fact that Jack was trying to save Rosie from appendicitis. In response to the rumors, Jack became a simple, lonely man, never interacting with the townspeople, apart from the children who stole peaches from his property. He would always call to Jasper when Jasper walked by, and assumed that Jasper was ignoring him because he hated him. In reality, Jasper ignored Jack’s calls because his father never told him that Jack was his grandfather.

Charlie wonders how Jasper never learned about his father. Even if David never told Jasper, it seems likely that Jasper would have heard something from the other townspeople, who gossiped about how Jack killed Rosie. Perhaps, Charlie thinks, the town became afraid of Mad Jack, and the stories of his insanity quickly obscured any information about his relationship with Rosie. Charlie also feels amazed that he used to be afraid of Jack—it’s obvious to him now that Jack is a decent, sad old man.

After Jack explained his relationship to Jasper, he told Charlie and Jasper what he’d seen the night Laura died. He’d watched Laura walking alone, seemingly angry. Jack assumed that Jasper and Laura had had a fight, and Jasper would eventually follow her. Instead, Jack saw “someone” else follow Laura.

A few hours after meeting Jack, Charlie is sitting in his room. He hears a tapping at the window—it’s Eliza. When Charlie opens the window, Eliza demands to know why Charlie didn’t meet up with her at the fireworks show, as he’d promised. She explains that she had to tell Charlie something: she knows where Laura is.

Charlie sneaks out of his window, his mind full of possibilities: he has no idea how much Eliza knows. It’s possible, he thinks, that it was Eliza who Jack saw following Laura. Eliza leads Charlie through town, past families celebrating the new year, and couples kissing. Eliza and Charlie say nothing, but Charlie notices that Eliza is very upset.

Eliza leads Charlie to the river, on the same path that Charlie takes with Jasper. By the river, Charlie notices an unexpected sight: his family’s car. He tells Eliza what he sees, and Eliza is surprised. Slowly, he approaches the car, with a terrible feeling that he already knows what’s inside. He peers inside the car, and sees his mother “grappling and gripping” a man he doesn’t know, with her dress half off. When Ruth sees Charlie, she pulls her clothes on and yells at him hysterically for being out after dark.

As Ruth yells at Charlie, he senses that he doesn’t have to listen to her anymore. Ruth grabs his hand and orders him to get in the car so she can drive him home, but he pulls away with ease. Firmly, he tells Ruth that he’ll never do what she says again. He adds that Ruth “dug this hole,” and now she’ll have to “fill it in.” As he says this, Charlie feels hatred for his mother, but also sympathy—she looks weak and childish. He tells her, “go home,” and as he says the words, he feels as authoritative as Jasper. With this, he turns, takes Eliza’s hand, and walks away. Ruth calls after him, but he doesn’t listen.

As Eliza and Charlie walk away from the river, Eliza tells Charlie that she’s sorry, and these simple words soothe Charlie. They walk past Jack’s house, and Charlie feels another wave of sympathy for the man, who’s now forced to lived alone. Eliza leads Charlie to the glade where Jasper previously took him, and Charlie notices that she doesn’t hesitate at all.

Eliza and Charlie arrive at the glade. Eliza looks at Charlie and says that he’s been there before—it’s not an accusation, just a statement. She tells Charlie that they need to “tell each other things.” Charlie asks Eliza to go first, and she agrees. She takes out a letter, and explains that Laura wrote it for Jasper. Charlie asks Eliza how she found the letter, but she only shrugs. Eliza tells Charlie that she’s had the “Mean Reds” for the last few weeks. The Mean Reds are a feeling of anger, confusion, and paranoia—Charlie nods and says that he’s been feeling exactly this way. As Charlie nods, Eliza begins to shake, and tells him that she killed Laura—it’s her fault.

Charlie explains what Eliza told him about Laura’s death. He notes that he needs to “get it out” quickly, because it’s too difficult to hold inside himself.

Eliza knew that Laura and Jasper were in a relationship, Charlie explains. Their relationship charmed Eliza—it was like a modern Romeo and Juliet—but it also filled her with envy. In November, Jasper stopped seeing Laura, and Laura fell into a depression. Laura stopped talking to Eliza, and stopped eating or talking to anyone else either. Later, when Eliza found Laura’s letter to Jasper, Eliza discovered something: Laura and Eliza’s father, the shire president, would drunkenly abuse Laura, and had done so since Laura was a child. Eliza never knew Laura received this treatment.

On the night that Jasper took Charlie to the glade for the first time, Eliza tells Charlie, there had been an argument in Eliza’s house. Eliza’s father was drunkenly yelling at Laura. Eliza’s mother was calm and oblivious, as usual, and Eliza was sitting in her room, reading and listening to music, trying to pretend that she couldn’t hear the yelling. Suddenly, Eliza heard screaming and pounding from Laura’s room, immediately next to hers. There was a loud sound like a gunshot, and then footsteps. Eliza looked out of her window and saw her father driving the car out of the garage.

After Eliza saw her father driving away, she heard her sister crying and walking out of the house. Eliza didn’t try to comfort Laura because she was afraid and unsure of what to do. After Laura had been gone for a few minutes, Eliza realized that Laura was probably going to meet Jasper. Quickly, she ran out of her house and followed Laura. Eliza was afraid and confused—she had no idea why her father had been shouting at Laura. Nevertheless, she followed Laura to Jasper’s glade, wanting to turn back the entire time. In the glade, Eliza hid behind a tree and watched as Laura sat and cried. Eliza wanted to reveal herself, but she insists that she didn’t because she didn’t want to “disappoint” Laura, who was clearly waiting for someone else.

In the glade, Eliza watched Laura as she bent over her lap, seemingly writing a letter. Then, Laura climbed the eucalyptus tree, skillfully navigating from branch to branch. Eliza watched as Laura, now at the highest branch, slipped a rope around her neck, rocked back, and fell from the tree, hanging herself. Instead of screaming or running, Eliza could only stare at her sister’s dead body in shock. Eventually, she found the energy to walk forward, where she found a letter on the ground.

As Eliza stood in the glade, hypnotized by the sight of her dead sister, she heard a voice, and quickly hid again. Jasper Jones arrived in the clearing. Eliza watched as he wailed and moaned, embracing Laura and trying in vain to support her body so that she could breathe again. Then, Jasper ran away from the glade. Eliza tried to follow him, but he was too fast—as a result, she spent hours struggling to find her way out of the bushes. When she emerged, she ran to the river and vomited. Then, she staggered home, arriving shortly before the dawn.

The day after Laura’s death, Eliza read the letter Laura had left, even though it was addressed to Jasper. Eliza learned that Laura and Jasper were planning to leave Corrigan forever. In her letter, Laura told Jasper that she was afraid Jasper had left her behind and didn’t love her anymore. She’d gone to the glade in the hopes that Jasper would be there to take care of her.

By reading Laura’s letter, Eliza learned why she’d been arguing with her father the night she killed herself. Pete Wishart had raped Laura many times—now, she was in “trouble.” Laura wrote that she was “full of milky poison.” At dinner, in the presence of her mother and father, she had accused her father of raping her and impregnating her. Amazingly, Laura’s mother refused to believe her. Later in the evening, while Eliza was still reading in her room, Laura’s father came into Laura’s room and warned her never to tell anyone about his abusive behavior again. Laura refused, and tried to hit her father—she even threw a glass paperweight at him. In response, her father beat her mercilessly, and then left her alone to weep. With these words, Charlie writes, “it’s out.”

As Eliza reads Charlie her sister’s letter, her voice is sad yet unflinching. Charlie realizes that Eliza has been going through a pain far worse than his own: she blames herself for Laura’s death. At the same time, Charlie is deeply angry with Eliza—if she hadn’t taken Laura’s letter, Jasper would have found it, and neither he nor Charlie would have had to go through the hardships of the last month. Still, Charlie realizes, if Eliza had left the letter, Charlie would never have become close friends with Jasper. Charlie wonders how Jasper will take the news contained in Laura’s letter. In all probability, Charlie thinks, he will blame himself for Laura’s death even more than he already does.

Eliza then reveals the final piece of the mystery to Charlie: it was she who carved “Sorry” on the tree in the glade. Then she asks Charlie to tell her what he knows. Reluctantly, he explains that Jasper showed him Laura’s body—the most horrible sight, he tells Eliza, that he’d ever seen. Afterwards, he and Jasper cut Laura down, weighed her body with stones, and threw her in the river. Charlie can barely look at Eliza, and he begs her not to hate him for what he did. Eliza tells Charlie that it hurts her that he didn’t tell her what he knew. Charlie nods, but explains that he had to keep his promise to Jasper. Eliza doesn’t reply.

Eliza mutters that it’s her fault Laura died: if she’d spoken to Laura while she was in the clearing, Laura wouldn’t have hanged herself. Charlie insists that this isn’t the truth—it is her father who is responsible. He apologizes to Eliza for moving Laura’s body. Eliza says that she forgives Charlie, though she wishes he’d told her. In a way, though, she is glad Charlie saw Laura’s body, because it means that he knows what she’s going through.

Charlie asks Eliza why she didn’t come forward with Laura’s letter, and if she was afraid of her father. Eliza says nothing, which Charlie takes as proof that she was. Charlie starts to ask Eliza if her father ever raped her, but Eliza shakes her head no before he can finish the question. Suddenly, she asks Charlie to dance with her, and Charlie obliges. He closes his eyes and imagines living with Eliza in Manhattan. Eliza tells him that she plans on leaving Corrigan, and asks him to promise to come with her when she leaves. Charlie promises, and kisses Eliza on the head. Eliza begins to cry. Charlie holds Eliza and thinks that perhaps, for once, he’s doing the right thing—sometimes a quiet embrace is better than a witty poem.

Still alone in Jasper’s glade, Eliza leads Charlie toward the hollow under a tree. In the hollow, there are tins of food, plates, tobacco, and cards. Charlie realizes that this is where Jasper sleeps at night. Eliza wants to sleep in the hollow with Charlie. Charlie crouches down next to her, but thinks that sleeping in the hollow isn’t right, since it means taking Jasper Jones’s space. As he lies down next to Eliza, he wonders what he and Eliza will do with their information about Laura. They could keep silent, thereby saving Eliza from her father’s anger. But even if they say nothing, Charlie thinks, it’s possible that the information will get out anyway.

As Charlie lies in the hollow with Eliza, he hears a noise, and looks up: Jasper is in the glade. Jasper demands that Charlie explain why Eliza is there. In response, Eliza throws him Laura’s letter. Jasper says that he won’t be able to read it, since it’s too dark. Instead, Eliza explains everything she’s told Charlie. Charlie notices that she’s bitter and angry as she explains—she clearly blames Jasper’s absence for Laura’s depression. As Eliza tells Jasper about the sight of Laura hanging herself, he groans and jumps into the nearby waterhole.

When Jasper jumps into the waterhole, Eliza and Charlie are shocked. Instead of standing still, however, Charlie removes his shirt and jumps into the water after Jasper, wondering if Jasper might be trying to drown himself. In the water, Charlie finds Jasper’s body—he’s holding himself beneath the surface. Charlie is forced to push to the surface when he runs out of air. As he rises, he’s surprised to feel Jasper’s body rising with him. At the surface of the water, Jasper grips Charlie’s body violently, and for a moment Charlie thinks Jasper is trying to drown him. Then, Jasper embraces Charlie. Charlie realizes what has been the truth all along: Jasper is a frightened, lonely boy. He asked Charlie to help him with Laura because he was too frightened to go by himself. If even Jasper Jones feels fear, Charlie thinks, then everyone does. People shouldn’t aim to rid themselves of all fear—they have to learn how to “carry fear” and live with fear. Charlie remembers talking about Batman with Jeffrey—much like Bruce Wayne, people have to learn to achieve things while also struggling with their emotions.

Charlie and Jasper swim to the side of the waterhole and climb out. In silence, Charlie, Eliza, and Jasper look at the water, which leads directly to the river. Eliza says, “She’s down there forever.”

Eliza, Jasper, and Charlie lie in the glade and look up at the stars. Suddenly, Charlie turns and tells Jasper that he and Eliza are thinking of leaving Corrigan too. Jasper immediately rejects this idea—if Charlie and Eliza leave, the police will resume their investigation, track down the two of them, and possibly implicate them in Laura’s death. Eliza nods and tells Charlie that Jasper is right. She says that she’s going to tell “everyone” about what her father did to Laura, and how Laura died. Charlie tells Eliza that this is impossible: if Eliza explains that Jasper was connected to Laura, the police will arrest him. Eliza indignantly says that she has to tell the truth, and that she’ll leave out the parts about Jasper. Charlie objects that this wouldn’t be the truth at all. He tells Eliza that she blames Jasper for Laura’s death, and that she’s trying to punish him in the same way she’s been punishing herself. Eliza doesn’t speak, but Charlie senses that she knows he’s right. Jasper only shrugs and tells Eliza that she should do what she thinks is right.

Jasper, Eliza, and Charlie fall asleep in the glade. The next morning, they walk back to Corrigan, slowly and silently. When they pass Jack’s house, Jasper stops and says that he needs to talk to Jack once more. He tells Charlie that his father has left town—-Jasper has no idea why. He puts his hand on Charlie’s shoulder and thanks him, and then turns to Eliza and mutters an apology to her. Although his voice is quiet, Charlie can tell that the apology means a great deal to him. Charlie and Eliza watch Jasper walk toward Jack’s house. They see that Jack is sitting on his porch. Charlie senses that he’ll never see Jasper again.

Charlie and Eliza make their way toward Corrigan. Along the way, a car pulls up by them, and a man asks Eliza if she’s Pete Wishart’s daughter. Eliza shakes her head, and the man drives on. Only a few minutes later, another car stops them, and the Sarge steps out and orders them to get in. Reluctantly, Charlie and Eliza get in the car, and the Sarge drives them to the police station, muttering that he’s gone to a huge amount of trouble to find Eliza. At the station, the Sarge sends Eliza inside and tells Charlie to go home, warning him never to cause him trouble again. Charlie walks away, thinking that he knows firsthand what the Sarge is capable of. Instead of going home, he waits a few blocks from the station, worrying that the Sarge will hurt Eliza. A few hours later, Eliza emerges from the building, apparently unharmed, accompanied by her parents. As they drive away, Charlie tries to catch Eliza’s eye from her car. He thinks that Eliza sees him and smiles, but he can’t be sure.