53 pages • 1 hour read
Colleen HooverWithout Merit
Fiction | Novel | 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 4-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Luck Finney, a 20-year-old man with an unusual accent, approaches Merit as she buys dog food for Wolfgang. He asks Merit for a ride to his sister’s house, and though she is suspicious of him, she decides to give him a ride anyway. As they talk, she casually mentions that she has a crush on Sagan, whom she assumes Luck doesn’t know. When she asks Luck where he is going, Luck shows her a picture of Dollar Voss; he is Victoria’s estranged brother. Merit tells Luck about the Vosses’ unconventional living situation, but Luck is fine with it.
When Merit shows Luck the guest room, she discovers Sagan’s belongings and realizes that Sagan has been living at Dollar Voss. She feels slighted that her family members didn’t inform her that someone else was living in their house. Merit snoops through Sagan’s room and looks at his sketches. One of his sketches depicts two young women stabbing each other in the back; Merit correctly assumes the women are her and Honor. Sagan comes in, catches Merit snooping, and confronts her. Merit runs out of his room crying, not understanding why she feels so emotional.
Merit texts Barnaby and asks him to buy her a trophy. Feeling awkward, she prays and asks God to distract her from Sagan.
Chapter 5 Summary
Honor wakes Merit at six o’clock at night and reminds Merit to take their mother’s dinner to her. In the basement, Merit feels angry that her mother allows her social phobia to take priority over her life with her children. Vicky confesses that she knows Merit has been skipping school, but she can’t do anything about it. She also refuses to answer the phone calls from school to discuss Merit’s absences. Vicky keeps her agoraphobia and other mental health issues a secret from everyone outside the family. To keep up appearances, she asks her children to lie. The situation upsets Merit: She wishes Vicky would confront her symptoms and participate more in their lives.
The rest of the family gathers for dinner. Moby asks what the word “bastard” means, and Merit explains: “It’s what you almost were” (92). Victoria becomes enraged, and Utah and Honor also chastise Merit for her insensitivity. Merit defends herself, saying it’s the truth, and Barnaby attempts to gloss over the situation to have a peaceful family dinner.
Victoria and Merit continue to argue, and Merit brings up Luck, referring to him as “the little brother [Victoria] abandoned” (94-95). Victoria is shocked that Merit knows about Luck, and Merit explains how she met Luck on the street and that he is currently in the house. Luck appears, and Victoria tries to kick him out. Luck, Victoria, and Barnaby excuse themselves and retreat to another area of the house to argue.
Moby is upset about the adults arguing, and Merit takes him to his room to tuck him into bed. Moby asks Merit to read him a story that Sagan wrote for him. The story, “Perspective,” is about a king who kills everyone in a town called Perspective after he believes they failed to build him a castle. A bird informs the king that the villagers did build him a castle; he couldn’t see it from his location. The King finds the castle behind a mountain and orders his army to hide the dead villagers. He never returns to Perspective again. Merit tells Sagan she finds the story morbid and inappropriate for a four-year-old, but Sagan tells Merit she is missing the story’s point.
Merit dislikes how nonchalant Sagan appears around her since he is Honor’s boyfriend, and Merit loses her composure when around him. Barnaby and Victoria announce that Luck will stay at Dollar Voss for the foreseeable future. Utah, Honor, Merit, Sagan, and Luck decide to go swimming at a hotel pool. Sagan gives Merit a pointed look when Merit only chooses to join the group at Luck’s request.
Chapter 6 Summary
Merit cannot stop thinking about Sagan and his relationship with Honor. Merit is annoyed that they finish each other’s sentences, and she believes that Honor is just biding her time with Sagan until she meets another teenager experiencing a critical illness. On the way to the pool, Sagan tells Luck that he met Honor in the hospital while being treated for an allergic reaction, and Merit feels a strong urge to expose Honor’s dating history. Luck reveals Merit is attracted to someone, but he doesn’t reveal that it’s Sagan. Hearing this, Honor hounds Merit about her crush’s identity.
Merit is jealous of Honor’s confidence as they change into swimsuits. She cannot understand how they can look and sound identical, but Honor has more sex appeal. Merit wonders if this is because she is a virgin, while Honor is not. At the pool, Merit dangles her feet in the water while wearing a t-shirt over her one-piece swimsuit. Luck tells Merit more about his background: He and Victoria share a biological father but grew up in separate homes. Luck told Victoria his mother recently died, so he is now turning to Victoria for shelter. Luck clarifies that he is partially lying: his mother died five years prior, and he has since been working on a cruise ship.
Eventually, Sagan and Merit are the only ones left at the pool. Sagan tells Merit that he is not Honor’s boyfriend, and Merit asks Sagan why he is living at Dollar Voss. Sagan tells Merit that his family situation is “kind of a depressing story’” (127-28) and tells her the Voss family is not as terrible as she thinks. Sagan brushes a strand of wet hair from Merit’s cheek, and Merit thinks the gesture is inappropriate; Merit continues to assume Sagan and Honor are romantically involved, just not labeling their relationship. She wants him to touch her again, but Sagan’s phone rings, and he abruptly leaves the pool.
Merit discovers Luck having casual sex with the hotel receptionist. Baffled, she tells Honor, Utah, and Sagan. Appearing betrayed, Luck asks Merit if she wants to have sex with her crush, discretely threatening to expose the fact that her crush is Sagan. He taunts her about her virginity, and Sagan tells Luck to stop.
Chapter 7 Summary
Back at Dollar Voss, Luck tells Merit he thinks Sagan is also attracted to her. Merit asks Luck about his sex life, and he shows her a notebook in which he records his sexual encounters. Luck has had dozens of sexual partners and hundreds of sexual encounters, which disgusts Merit. He tells Merit that his first time was horrible and thinks people shouldn’t put so much pressure on losing their virginity. Merit agrees.
Merit steals a bottle of her mother’s pain pills while she delivers her a razor and gathers her dirty dishes. When she returns to her room, she discovers a sketch by Sagan. The image is of Merit at the bottom of a pool tied to a cinder block with the caption “Coming down for air” (143). The image disturbs Merit, and she confronts Sagan. He tells Merit that he had no nefarious intentions while sketching her, and the idea just popped into his head. Merit leaves his room feeling embarrassed and wishing he would stop sketching her, but she hangs the picture on her wall.
Chapters 4-7 Analysis
Luck’s character introduces a new perspective on the Voss family and provides insight into Victoria’s background: “Our father wasn’t that involved in either of our lives, and my mother was having trouble controlling me. She thought Victoria might be able to help, so I went to live with her when I was almost fifteen” (120). Luck’s story reveals how there is more to Victoria’s background than Merit and her siblings know. Merit has a limited view of her stepmother as an unreasonable person who ruined her parents’ marriage. But Merit shows interest in learning more about Victoria’s history and family relationships when Luck arrives. Although she still resents Victoria, she grows more curious about who she is outside of their family. Merit is also interested in learning more about Luck’s life story. Luck’s nonjudgmental reaction to the Vosses’ living situation surprises Merit, and she realizes that her family situation does not have to cause her shame or insecurity, as it has in the past.
Luck also introduces the theme of The Illusion of Normality by breaking down societal pressure on sex and sexuality. He tells Merit: “Society puts a lot of weight on losing your virginity, but in my opinion, it’s better to just get it over with” (139). Merit agrees with Luck although she is judgmental about the number of people with whom Luck has had sex. Luck later reveals he is pansexual. His diverse sexual experiences allow Merit to realize that she possesses a sheltered view regarding sex and sexuality.
Sagan’s allegorical story “Perspective” also highlights this theme; everyone’s view of reality is subjective, based on their own perspective and experiences. Judging too quickly can lead to one making an unfair decision, as the king does when he has the villagers killed. As the narrative progresses, Sagan will continue to challenge Merit’s perspective, particularly when Merit fails to recognize that normality is only an illusion. Sagan quickly points out abnormalities in other individuals and families when Merit feels upset about the lack of normalcy in her life. Additionally, Sagan’s art often challenges the perspectives of those viewing it. His sketches sometimes appear to be one thing (i.e., two girls with arms draped across each other’s backs). Upon closer inspection, the image changes drastically (the girls are actually stabbing each other in the back).
Dollar Voss grows throughout the exposition to symbolize the fractured family it houses. How Barnaby originally acquired Dollar Voss (bribing the loan officer and purchasing it to spite Pastor Brian) reveals a controversial quality to Barnaby’s character. Similarly, how Barnaby grew his nontraditional family raises questions about Barnaby’s moral beliefs. He betrayed his ill wife, bringing another child into the mix. As much as Barnaby tries to make Dollar Voss look like a home, Merit believes it still resembles a church, particularly with the giant statue of Jesus Christ in the living room and the marquee in the front yard. The division of Dollar Voss into quarters symbolizes the fragmentation among the family members.
These chapters also highlight The Danger of Well-intentioned Lies. Barnaby and Victoria tell Moby well-intended lies meant to protect the child’s innocence. This practice mirrors the lies and secrets that Barnaby, Victoria, and Vicky keep from their older children concerning the acuteness of Vicky’s mental health diagnoses, Barnaby’s intimate relationship with Vicky, and Victoria’s sacrifices and love for Utah, Honor, and Merit. While they are well-intended, the lies prevent the children from developing a truthful understanding of their family and lives. The dishonesty leads to resentment and dysfunction among the older Voss children. Merit already dislikes keeping secrets for her family members, and the avoidance of honest communication among her parents and siblings leaves Merit feeling misunderstood and neglected. The thought of being asked to lie to her young brother about something as simple as a definition of a semi-bad word is too much for Merit. She instinctually believes Moby deserves honesty. Similarly, Merit craves genuine conversation with her family members about their respective problems.
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By Colleen Hoover
