48 pages • 1 hour read
Michael FinkelThe Stranger in the Woods
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2017A 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 21-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 21 Summary
As exile, marooning, and solitary confinement indicate, isolation is a scarring punishment. Senator John McCain described his two years alone as a Vietnam War prisoner as worse than the permanent injuries he suffered, and the United Nations deems more than 15 days of isolation as inhumane. A University of Virginia study found that most men would prefer mild electric shocks than being alone for 15 minutes, and a University of Wisconsin experiment discovered that rhesus monkeys would suffer lasting behavioral damage if kept from others for three months. Unwanted loneliness is as much as a risk factor for death as smoking.
Those who pursue voluntary isolation are still at risk. The cave explorer Véronique Le Guen committed suicide shortly after staying in an underground cavern without a clock for 111 days, which ruined her biological rhythms and sense of purpose. One competitor of a global sailing race enjoyed the days alone so much that he abandoned the race to complete a second lap, while another fell into despair and went overboard.
Humanity’s ability to form relationships is the key to its evolutionary success. Knight seems to be the exception; the thought of solitary confinement even brings him joy. Hooley notes that, between the intense winters and the moral quandaries of the burglaries, suffering is “the price Knight paid in order to remain in the woods” (140).
Chapter 22 Summary
The sensation of spending so much time alone feels unexplainable to Knight, a sentiment shared by isolationists across many cultures. The lack of mirrors at his campsite enhanced this experience, removing his identity and need to behave a certain way even to himself. At the risk of spouting “phony wisdom or little koans,” Knight said that if one enjoys solitude, they never feel alone (142).
A similar story of solitude is that of Tenzin Palmo, an Englishwoman who became a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She lived in a cave in the Himalaya mountains for 12 years, where she ate one meal a day, slept sitting up, and endured a seven-day blizzard that blocked her entrance. When asked what conclusions she came to during her stay, she just said it wasn’t dull. Meanwhile, a New York University preliminary study of Buddhists monks found that the brain remains active during intentional silence except that function moves from the cerebral cortex to the subcortical zones, which are responsible for memory and emotion.
Believing that Knight was more contemplative than usual, Finkel asks if he has any grand insight he wants to share. After some thought, Knight just said “Get enough sleep,” which Finkel “accepted as truth” (148).
Chapter 23 Summary
Knight is not immune to aging: His physical prowess decreased, and his eyesight worsened beyond what his glasses could help with. At one point, he suffered an arm injury that prevented him from lifting a cup for a month, and he worried about potentially developing a chronic condition like diabetes.
Cracks formed in the wall between Knight and society. He ran into a random hiker on the trail during the 1990s, saying nothing but a quick “Hi.” The local population expanded, and the security systems evolved beyond his skillset. In 2012, the master burglar broke into an occupied home because the resident, Kyle McDougle, parked his large truck away from the house. He saw Knight’s flashlight and screamed at him until he ran away. Knight was remorseful about scaring him.
Two months before his arrest, the Bellavance family came close to Knight’s campsite while on an ice fishing trip, and one of the men caught sight of him. The grandfather, Tony, recognized that Knight was the North Pond hermit, but he convinced his son and grandson to leave him be—he’s there for a reason and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. The Bellavances swear an oath to Knight, and he bows to them. Knight was disappointed, however, when he learned they talked to police about the encounter after they learned of his arrest.
Chapter 24 Summary
The North Pond locals who believed Knight’s tale wanted leniency, seeing him as a “compulsive introvert, not a hardened criminal” (157). This includes Harvey Chesley, the facilities director of the Pine Tree Camp that suffered the worst of the thefts, and Lisa Fitzgerald, the owner of the property where Knight’s campsite was. Both say that they would let him go if they were the ones who had found him.
This mentality did not hold true for frequent victims who no longer felt comfortable sleeping in their cabins. One owner, Debbie Baker, said her sons had nightmares about the hermit. Another, Martha Patterson, felt that her vacation home was a refuge from the outside world and that the hermit damaged its sense of security. The case also draws the ire of the Hermitary website, a forum for self-proclaimed hermits with extensive membership requirements. Its administrator, Meng-hu, believes that the burglaries reinforce negative stereotypes about the lifestyle.
Maeghan Maloney, the district attorney for the case, feels that a case like Knight’s is ill suited for the legal system. His pro bono defender, Walter McKee, waives Knight’s right to a speedy trial to decide the best outcome.
Chapters 21-24 Analysis
Before reaching the case’s climax, Finkel examines the use of isolation for punishment. Knight seems like one the few prisoners who may prefer solitary confinement, but that requires the reader to ask if Knight actually was alone in the woods. He still interacted with the outside world through the burglaries and his entertainment. In comparison, solitary confinement would have no natural sounds to listen to, no sun and moon to track time with, and no agency. As the Véronique Le Guen story shows, even people who are used to those conditions can suffer lasting damage.
Transcendence can also come from isolation. Eastern religions do not have the disdain for hermits that Western religions do, and Tenzin Palmo demonstrates how one can thrive even in a situation with more extreme conditions than Knight’s. While the North Palm hermit wasn’t looking for a spiritual awakening himself, he did experience a freedom from obligations to others or even to oneself. Knight’s seemingly curt response to Finkel’s attempt to gain some deeper insight from him, “Get enough sleep,” actually does have some meaning for the writer (148): When Finkel stayed overnight at Knight’s campsite, he enjoyed the longest uninterrupted period of rest he’d had in years.
Chapter 24 prepares the reader for Knight’s sentencing from the perspective of the residents and the legal teams for the case. The criminal justice system typically has strict guidelines for crimes like burglary, but Maloney’s comments demonstrate that these mandates can make it difficult for prosecutors to determine a fair sentence for someone like Knight.
One resident’s criticism about Knight is that he should have lived off the land instead of stealing goods. Indeed, Knight knows how to hunt, fish, and farm. There are a few problems with that approach, though: These activities would probably not be enough to survive winter and may have increased his chances of capture if authorities found unusual crops or animal remains. Although Knight has shot animals before, he may not like killing, as he stated it as a reason for not keeping a pet. He wants to leave the world unnoticed, so taking some frozen meat leaves less of a footprint than harming a living creature.
Knight’s 27-year-long stay is remarkable and thanks in part to some luck. He only suffered one serious injury. McDougle did not try to attack or kill Knight, which would be legal under self-defense “castle doctrine” laws, and the Bellavances were sympathetic to his cause even if it only added a few more months to his tenure.
