Harbor Me Chapter 40 Summary & Analysis

Back in the present, the light has shifted outside of Haley’s window, and the Ailanthus tree is cast into shadow. Haley walks to the top of the stairs and watches her father play the piano, noticing how delicate his hands are. She calls out to him and asks him to play “Summertime,” and he does. While she listens, she thinks of how much her life has changed since the fifth grade and since meeting her friends. She sits next to her father and puts her head on his shoulder, and he tells her that he’s dreamed of this moment. Her uncle comes downstairs and plays the guitar along with them, and Haley decides that the moment marks both the end of one story and the beginning of another.

Just as Haley had thought at the beginning of the afternoon, the Ailanthus tree has remained a steady presence outside of Haley’s window even as the day slowly becomes night. Having reviewed the tapes from the last year, Haley has had the chance to reflect on how she’s grown and to come to terms with the idea of a new beginning. As she looks at her father, her attention to how delicate his hands are suggests that she’s seeing her father’s vulnerabilities and artistic nature for the first time, since she’s accustomed to seeing him as a prisoner. Now, he’s her father. When she asks him to play “Summertime,” she references the “song about summertime” that she recalls her mother once loved. Her request of the jazz standard is like an offer of forgiveness, but not at the price of forgetting—instead, she invites her father to remember her mother with her. Now that Haley has overcome her greatest source of angst and fear, this particular story is ending—but she’s soon to walk into another “room” by herself and begin another new chapter.

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Harbor Me: Chapter 40 Summary & Analysis