Nineteen Minutes

by

Jodi Picoult

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Nineteen Minutes: Part 1, Chapter 3: Hours After Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
A handwritten note meditates on the inevitability of bad things continuing to happen forever. Yet the writer also wonders if the purpose of all this “bad” is to remind people to recognize the good. 
This is quite a common way to philosophically justify the existence of evil in the world. It is possible to persuasively claim that, without evil, no one would know what good is.
Themes
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The shooting at Sterling High is the worst sight Patrick has ever witnessed in his career. He sees EMTs crouch over a girl whom he recognizes because she works at the video rental store. She has been shot in the shoulder. All over the school, officers are working at a frantic pace. The cafeteria looks as if everyone who had been sitting there, eating their lunch like on any other day, has suddenly been abducted, leaving only their belongings behind. Patrick hears a noise and for a brief second believes it is another shooter; he puts up his gun, but finds that it is only a terrified lunch lady.
Here the novel makes an important point about who is affected by a school shooting. The answer of course, is everyone. While students caught up in the shooting are obviously traumatized, this intense trauma also extends to Patrick, who struggles to cope with what he has seen despite the fact that, as a police detective, his career involves witnessing disturbing and brutal incidents.
Themes
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Vengeance vs. Justice Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon
Appearances vs. Reality Theme Icon
In court, Alex is listening to the bizarre story of a woman who had just purchased a tropical fish from a pet store and, distracted by it rolling off the passenger seat, hit a pedestrian with her car. At this moment, a bailiff enters and writes a note to Alex that there has been a shooting at Sterling High. She immediately announces that court is adjourned. At Sterling, John Eberhard—who has been shot—manages to drag himself across the art supply room. He remembers Courtney sitting opposite him in the cafeteria just before the shooting happened. He watched a “flower” of blood blossom on her chest. With difficulty, he hoists himself up to the window and ends up crashing through it, remaining teetering on the ledge.
The contrast between Alex’s comically mundane experience in court and the chilling horror of Sterling High in the aftermath of the shooting conveys how unexpected an event like a school shooting is in the town of Sterling. Sterling is a close-knit community with a seemingly low crime rate. This is conveyed by the quirky story about the woman and the tropical fish. However, the serene, harmonious nature of the town is of course about to change dramatically. 
Themes
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Vengeance vs. Justice Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon
Appearances vs. Reality Theme Icon
John tries to shout for help, but he cannot form any words. Someone sees him and a fireman tells him to wait, but John can no longer control his body and he tumbles down onto the ground two stories below. Meanwhile, Patrick shows Diana Leven, who works at the attorney general’s office, through the gymnasium. He explains that ten people have been confirmed dead, but the number of wounded is stil unknown. After leaving the school building, Diana is immediately swarmed by reporters asking questions. She hates this part of her job, and she tells the reporters that she can’t give them any information at the moment. 
While Patrick reveals that the shooting has left a terribly high number of students dead, the description of John trying to shout for help and falling out of the window shows that the damage inflicted by the shooting far surpasses the number who were killed. John’s inability to form words could be the result of shock, or it could (as will be revealed later) be caused by a head injury.
Themes
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Vengeance vs. Justice Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon
Appearances vs. Reality Theme Icon
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Due to the enormous number of people there, Lacy has to park six blocks away from Sterling High. She prays that, having lost one son, she is not about to lose the other. The last time she spoke to Peter, they had an argument about the fact that he hadn’t taken out the trash. As she walks through the crowd and hears snippets of conversation about the shooting, she hears someone mention Peter’s name. When she approaches the girl speaking, explaining that she is Peter’s mother, the girl looks shocked and explains that Peter is the shooter.
While Lacy approaches the high school, she likely believes that she is experiencing every parents’ worst nightmare—the prospect of losing their child in a violent attack at school. At the same time, when someone indicates that Peter was not a victim but the shooter, it becomes clear that this might actually be even worse.
Themes
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Expectations and the Failures of Family Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon
Appearances vs. Reality Theme Icon
Alex goes to look at the list of wounded, which has been posted by the hockey rink. She sees Matt’s name on the list, then Josie’s. She almost drops to the floor, but instead pushes her way through the crowd in a daze. Meanwhile, Lacy has arrived at the police station, still wearing her scrubs. Patrick notes that she doesn’t “look like a person who’d created a monster.” Lacy says she wants to see Peter, but Patrick replies that she can’t, as he’s in custody. At 17, Peter is legally an adult, and thus he must request his lawyer himself—even though, as Lacy points out, he might not know how to do this. Patrick says that he hopes he will able to talk to Lacy later about what Peter did, then he leaves to talk to Peter himself.
Patrick’s thoughts that Lacy doesn’t “look like someone who’d created a monster” reveals some of the misconceptions that exist around school shooters. While they commit monstrous acts, many shooters—like Peter—come from loving families with devoted, ordinary parents like Lacy. This fact is of course very chilling, as it reveals that shooters can be hard to identify and their actions hard to predict.
Themes
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Vengeance vs. Justice Theme Icon
Expectations and the Failures of Family Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon
Appearances vs. Reality Theme Icon
In the cell where Peter is being held, Patrick offers him coffee. Peter is crying softly. When Patrick asks if he wants food or anything else, Peter replies, “I want my mom.” Gently, Patrick says that he’d like Peter to explain what happened and asks that Peter let him help. However, Peter won’t say anything. Once Patrick has left the room again, Peter whispers to himself, “They started it.” 
It is striking—and disturbing—that in this passage Peter is behaving like a little boy. Although he may have just killed ten people, there is still some of that childish innocence left within him.
Themes
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Vengeance vs. Justice Theme Icon
Expectations and the Failures of Family Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon
Appearances vs. Reality Theme Icon
Dr. Guenther Frankenstein, the state medical examiner, is a former Mr. Universe. He and Patrick are friendly, and they occasionally hang out over beers. Now, Guenther crouches over the body of a girl whom Sterling High’s principal, Arthur McAllister, identifies as Kaitlin Harvey, a kind-hearted “special-needs kid.” Together with Principal McAllistar, Guenther has already identified five other victims: Courtney Ignatio, Maddie Shaw, Whit Obermeyer, Topher McPhee, and Grace Murtaugh. A student who is an Eagle Scout has been attempting to stop the blood pouring from Mr. McCabe. However, Guenther now gently informs him that Mr. McCabe is dead. 
Here, the number of dead becomes more human, as Guenther begins to list their names. The fact that the Eagle Scout is trying to save Mr. McCabe’s life is deeply moving. It is not uncommon for teachers to die in school shootings, often in an attempt to protect their students—and here, one student tries to return the favor.
Themes
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Lost Innocence Theme Icon
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In the gymnasium, Guenther certifies the deaths of another two victims, both boys, then heads to the locker room. Viewing the male body lying there, Guenther observes that he is the only victim who has been shot twice. Patrick notes that the victim had four guns: one was in his hand, one on the floor, and two more in his backpack. Guenther speculates that the victim in the locker room may have been the kid Peter hated most. At this moment, an officer informs Patrick that “the makings of another pipe bomb” have been discovered in Peter’s car.
Recall that, in the earlier chapter, Picoult hinted that the kid lying in the locker room was wearing a hockey jersey and was next to Josie, thus indicating that it is Josie’s boyfriend Matt. The fact that Matt could have been the student that Peter hated most helps to begin to build the social map of Sterling High School.
Themes
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At the hospital, Alex has discovered that Josie fainted during the shooting and now has a mild concussion. From the news, she knows that Matt is dead, and she worries that Josie was with him when he was killed. She sits beside Josie, who is still unconscious, filled with regret about the things she hasn’t done and wishes she did, including keeping Josie home from school that day. Silently, she makes promises to Josie about everything they will do together once she wakes up. At the same time, Alex is also thinking about how the trial for the school shooting will take place in her courtroom. When Josie wakes up, she is confused and can’t remember what happened. Alex assures her that she is ok, but Josie immediately asks about Matt.
Like many teenagers, Josie is deeply in love with her high school boyfriend. Teenage romance can be so intense in part because it is usually the first time a person has been in love, meaning that everything is new and extra overwhelming. Furthermore, because teenagers tend to have (relatively) fewer responsibilities and things to worry about, they can throw themselves into love with single-minded intensity—as Josie does when she wakes up and her first question is about Matt.
Themes
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Expectations and the Failures of Family Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon
Lewis has called a lawyer and assured Lacy that there has obviously been a mistake and that everything is going to be alright. Lacy wants to be comforted, but she is also troubled by the knowledge that it was Lewis who taught Peter how to hunt. Lacy is stunned by the idea that, having cared for Peter his whole life, she may not really know him at all. She thinks about the families of the victims and immediately starts to cry, but then she pulls herself together. Walking into Peter’s room, she feels determined to “fix” the situation. She immediately finds the materials Peter used to make the pipe bombs and throws them in trash bags. The doorbell rings; it is a large group of police officers. One of them produces a search warrant, ordering the rest to search the house.
One of the main questions that the novel asks is whether Lacy is a perpetrator or a victim. Her inclination is to remain loyal to Peter, although this is out of motherly devotion rather than a belief that what Peter has done is right. (Indeed, it rests on Lacy and Lewis refusing to believe that Peter committed the shooting at all.) Lacy is clearly suffering from the prospect of her son being a shooter, but perhaps her denial also makes her complicit on some level.
Themes
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Vengeance vs. Justice Theme Icon
Expectations and the Failures of Family Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon
Appearances vs. Reality Theme Icon
Quotes
Jordan McAfee, a lawyer, is watching the news coverage of the Sterling High shooting with his wife, Selena. Selena also works as Jordan’s investigator; they have a young baby, and Jordan also has a son from his first marriage, who is currently a sophomore at Yale. Jordan is on the phone to someone else when Lewis calls, asking if Jordan will represent Peter. Jordan is shocked; he looks at the baby in Selena’s arms and thinks about how the shooter at Sterling High is “someone’s son.” Wanting the shooter to get a chance at a fair trial, he immediately agrees.
The narrator’s detailing of Jordan’s family life is important, because it shows that he is able to relate to Lacy and Lewis as a parent. Not many people would understand the particular and unique pain of realizing that one’s own child committed a terrible act, and the conflicted feelings of wanting to protect their child while also beginning to process the horror of what they did.
Themes
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Vengeance vs. Justice Theme Icon
Expectations and the Failures of Family Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon
Having overseen all the initial work that needed to take place at Sterling High, Patrick drives over to the medical center and asks a nurse if he can see a girl named Josie, admitting that he doesn’t even know her last name. The nurse points him to Josie’s room, and he finds her sitting with Alex, whom Patrick knows as Judge Cormier. When Patrick greets them, he tells Josie that he was the one who carried her out of the school, but Alex explains that Josie doesn’t remember anything, and mistakenly believes that she was in a car accident. Hesitantly, Patrick explains that Josie was actually the victim of a school shooting, and that Matt was killed in it. Josie wails and immediately starts thrashing. 
This story highlights one of the most difficult parts of working in the emergency services: delivering bad news and, in cases like these, forcing traumatized victims to relieve their trauma when they had previously been trying to psychologically suppress it. For Josie, this moment constitutes a major loss of innocence, a point from which she will not return.
Themes
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Outside in the hallway, Patrick feels overwhelmed by horror. Alex comes out and curses him for telling Josie about Matt. Gently, Patrick reminds her that Josie is “one of the lucky ones. Stunned by this awful truth, Alex apologizes. Patrick explains that he’d like to talk to Josie later, but for now he just came because he wanted to be certain that she was alright.
Patrick is clearly the kind of person whose job is more than just a job. The fact that he came to check on Josie just to see if she was alright shows that he has a great capacity for care and empathy, despite all the horrors he’s likely witnessed in his career.
Themes
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Expectations and the Failures of Family Theme Icon
Lost Innocence Theme Icon