56 pages • 1 hour read
Maria PadianWrecked
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A 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 32-35
Chapter 32 Summary: “Richard”
The short passage preceding Chapter 32 describes Jenny outside of Conundrum House, where she “feels better” (280). As she sits on the ground, relaxing, a boy with brown hair comes up to her and greets her.
Armed with Richard’s realization about Exley, Haley and Richard begin trying to prove that Exley is the Dr. Feelgood poster on The Board. After failing to find a good photo, Haley and Richard get Eric, who witnessed the person who wrote on Jenny’s whiteboard, to sit in the dining hall with them and wait to see if he recognized Exley. While Richard and Eric eat, waiting, they discuss the coming day of assemblies about consent, sponsored by the college. Richard reveals that he’s attending with Haley. They are interrupted as Exley enters the hall, and Eric confirms “That’s him” (284).
Chapter 33 Summary: “Haley”
Before Chapter 33 begins, the italicized passage describes the conversation between Jenny and Jordan outside of Conundrum House. He suggests that they go on a walk.
Haley visits Gail at Out House to express her frustration that Gail had told Carrie about Haley and Richard dating. Gail apologizes, saying that she hadn’t meant to break Haley’s trust, and the two talk about relationships and dating in college. The older student gives good advice to Haley about the importance of “partnership” (291). Gail suggests that Haley “stop keeping score” (292) and just be herself. The two end the conversation on good terms.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Richard”
The italicized passage describes Jordan and Jenny walking through the woods; he compliments her dress and asks, “Do you have a boyfriend?” (293). After a moment of not responding, she says, “I feel swirly” (293).
Chapter 34 opens on Richard and Haley entering the college auditorium, which is packed with students attending the consent assembly. The presenter, Matt Trainor, is “a one-man traveling sexual-consent road show” (295). After an introduction by Gail, during which Richard notices Carrie glaring at them, Matt Trainor gets on stage and asks for a volunteer pair of a male and female student. Surprising herself, Haley volunteers herself and Richard.
On the stage, Richard and Haley serve as the examples as Matt Trainor describes what consent should really look like. As Trainor moves into his routine, which includes jokes, Haley shows a propensity for getting laughs from the audience; when Trainor asks, “Are you a couple?” (298) she quips back, “Couple of what?” (299). Though it feels slightly embarrassing, Richard and Haley make it through Trainor’s created scene, in which they practice asking one another for consent. At the end, after getting better at their use of language, the two actually kiss on stage to the applause of the crowd.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Haley”
Before Chapter 35, a very short italicized section describes Jordan laughing at Jenny’s description of feeling “swirly” (304) before inviting her to his room to sit down.
After the assembly, Haley takes Richard to lunch at the Forge to make up for “hauling him up on that stage” (305). Their newfound celebrity had made it hard to even get out of the auditorium, with people complimenting them for their performance.
At lunch, they order, and Richard proposes that they “look into each other’s eyes as [they] toast” (307). The two talk over lunch, getting to know one another on a deeper level. Richard is able to share how hard he finds it to be politically correct with his language, beginning to explore his opinion on the difference between rape and regret, saying that “One’s a crime. One’s a whoops” (310). Haley pushes back, arguing that “what happened to Jenny […] wasn’t a whoops” (311), and they are able to find some common ground. To prove their closeness, Haley chooses to share a bite of her food with Richard, something she hates doing.
Chapters 32-35 Analysis
One of the interesting facets of the structure of Wrecked is Padian’s use of the italicized passages before each chapter. Throughout the earlier sections of the book, these short narratives provide suspense and foreboding; as the novel quickens towards the resolution, the italicized passages suddenly suggest a critical truth of the novel’s plot—the truth of what happened between Jenny and Jordan—with less subjectivity. Through these passages, Padian forces even reluctant readers to empathize with Jenny’s situation, as well as to process the myriad complexities of how a rape case gets investigated and discussed on a college campus. The revealing nature of the italicized sections also more closely aligns with Haley and Richard’s individual learning processes as they begin to demonstrate greater maturity. The closer they each get to understanding the truth and acting with integrity, the clearer the italicized passages become.
Consent remains a constant motif throughout Wrecked and is a central element of both the specifics of the plot, the development of each character, and other thematic aspects of the text. The importance of consent appears through Richard and Haley’s perspective as they participate in the investigation as well as throughout their interactions with their peers and each other. The assembly scene is an opportunity for Padian to blatantly spell out some of her intentions regarding portraying consent throughout the novel: through the descriptions of the Matt Trainor presentation, it is clear that Padian wants readers to develop a better perspective on what consent is and how it can be achieved between partners. Richard and Haley, who are both somewhat naïve in their development in terms of sex and relationships, both benefit greatly from the practice that Trainor has them engage in; through their learning about consent, readers of Wrecked are primed to develop a new or more nuanced understanding of the concept.
