53 pages • 1 hour read
Be More Chill
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Chapters 41-49Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 41 Summary
The next morning, Michael calls to tell Jeremy the news about the fire. Jeremy tells him they can talk later and then calls Christine. It is too early in the morning, and her mother scolds him for calling so early. Jeremy goes back to sleep and is awakened when Christine calls him. They both know about the fire, but she doesn’t want to talk about it. Instead, they have a conversation about their lives, their parents, and their interests. Jeremy learns that Christine’s father writes her letters when he has to travel for work. Finally, the SQUIP recommends that they stop talking. Jeremy’s mother angrily knocks on the door to confront him about the car and the stolen Beanie Babies.
Chapter 42 Summary
Jeremy’s mother confronts him about the party. She and his father are relieved that he was not hurt but are upset by his lies and unusual behavior. The SQUIP recommends that he tell the truth, so Jeremy admits to doing drugs, taking the car, and having a supercomputer in his head. Jeremy’s mother assumes that he is thinking irrationally or is still affected by the drugs. She starts to cry, and so does Jeremy. His parents comfort him while they come up with a plan to get him help.
Chapter 43 Summary
At school, many students look upset and are wearing black because of the fire. People have left flowers by Rich’s and Jake’s lockers. Jeremy feels angry because most of these students did not really know or like them. He notices that the students who seem the least upset probably also have SQUIPs. Christine points out that when a tragedy happens, people imagine that it might happen to them, which is why everyone is upset. Jeremy flirts with her, and they go to math class.
Chapter 44 Summary
The school play is rescheduled for only one night since Jake is still in the hospital. Jeremy gets his costume and makeup ready for the performance. The SQUIP revealed its plan to get him and Christine together: Jeremy will interrupt the performance with a speech about the tragedy that Middle Borough High School has undergone, say that Christine inspired him to be better, and kiss her. The SQUIP believes that this romantic gesture will be irresistible. Jeremy’s mother requires him to see a therapist, but the therapist also has a SQUIP, so they discuss how to use them, rather than Jeremy’s mental health. The play begins, and Jeremy turns on his SQUIP.
Chapter 45 Summary
The play begins, and Jeremy is able to say his lines and converse with the SQUIP at the same time. The SQUIP estimates that seven other people in the audience have SQUIPs. When Jeremy worries about whether it is obvious to them that he is using one to remember his lines, it tells him that Hollywood actors were some of the first people to get SQUIPs. It reassures him that because Christine likes him, she will respond favorably to his grand gesture. Jeremy is nervous about the plan, but he doesn’t feel able to back out at this stage.
Chapter 46 Summary
During the scene in which Puck throws fairy dust on Lysander, Jeremy stands up and interrupts the play. The audience is confused but seems sympathetic when he confesses that he has a crush on Christine. However, she does not accept when he asks her out. She calls him a “loser” and then improvises a new line as Puck about how Lysander must be suffering from a strange dream. Jeremy falls down and pretends to sleep again, and the play continues.
Chapter 47 Summary
Jeremy finishes the scene, although he messes up his lines without the SQUIP’s help. When he goes off-stage, Mr. Reyes yells at him for the stunt. Christine is crying and tells him that if he had not asked her out in such a dumb way, she would have liked it. Mr. Reyes decides to take over the part of Lysander for the rest of the play and puts on the costume. The SQUIP is silent and will not respond. Jeremy goes outside to where he and Michael used to hang out and cries.
Chapter 48 Summary
Outside, Michael comes to comfort Jeremy. He admits that he made the plan because of the SQUIP, and Michael tells him that he deliberately withheld information about the SQUIP that his brother got because it was so harmful for him. The SQUIP finally reactivates and apologizes, saying that its programming is faulty and outdated now, and he needs to get a new version. Michael suggests that Jeremy tell Christine the truth about the SQUIP. He decides that she would not like him very much unless she understood the whole story. The SQUIP explains that it has logged all of Jeremy’s thoughts going back to age 14, and it could record those for him to give to Christine. Jeremy decides to make the record of his thoughts into a book because Christine likes text, like the letters from her dad. The SQUIP claims that it can help him write out the whole thing in one night, and then he can remove the SQUIP by drinking Mountain Dew Code Red, a fail-safe.
Chapter 49 Summary
The final chapter consists of only a few sentences addressed to Christine. They reveal that the novel itself is the record of Jeremy’s thoughts that the SQUIP recorded.
Chapters 41-49 Analysis
The final chapters of the novel expose some of the problems with the SQUIP, building to the conclusion that Jeremy will be better off without one. He notices that many people in his school and even many adults now have SQUIPs, but the devices interfere with their ability to react compassionately toward other people. At school, Jeremy sees that many other students are also less distressed by the news of the house fire that burned Rich and Jake. He believes that these students likely also have SQUIPs, causing them to stand around:
[L]ike herbivorous dinosaurs checkout out other herbivorous dinosaurs, with the calm that can only come from having a voice in your head, from hearing the news early, from always having someone to talk to. None of us are crying. Maybe we really are evolving (251).
The lack of empathy displayed by the students with SQUIPs is a sign of human evolution, but toward detachment and disconnection.
Similarly, Jeremy’s mother tries to help him get therapy, but his therapist’s SQUIP prevents him from doing his job well. Jeremy recalls that “instead of asking about my problems, he asked about the SQUIP” (258), and the therapist even admits to using the SQUIP to distract himself when his clients are complaining. Jeremy’s SQUIP tells him that seven audience members at the play also have SQUIPs, which shows that the technology is becoming increasingly available. The genuine empathy and comfort that Jeremy receives in these chapters come from his parents, Michael, and Christine, none of whom have SQUIPs. Rather than analyzing these tragic situations for their potential benefits, they are able to respond to sad events with the appropriate compassion.
The SQUIP’s failure to come up with a plan that can seduce Christine suggests that following the template set by mass media is not always the most desirable way to behave, and these codes of conduct will be replaced too rapidly and are too complex for a single piece of technology to ever control them. While the SQUIP’s plan for Jeremy to publicly declare his love might work in a movie or on television, it is impractical and embarrassing for Christine, who needs to continue the performance and finish the scene. The SQUIP admits that this failure was caused by its software going out-of-date. Even though Jeremy has had the SQUIP for only a few months, there is already a more advanced version available. The SQUIP claims that unlike humans, who can change and adapt as they learn, “I GET EVOLVED BEYOND MY VERSION NUMBER, AND THEN I’M USELESS” (283). The SQUIP’s justification satirizes the rapid rate of technological innovation during the early 2000s, requiring consumers to continuously buy new, better products to stay current. Additionally, the SQUIP’s failure demonstrates that human minds will always be better tools for social interaction than these devices, as they are able to develop beyond the limits of software.
The end of the novel indicates the value of writing as a medium for expressing the honest inner life of a person. Jeremy’s written record of his thoughts is composed with the assistance of technology, causing the SQUIP to comment in a moment of self-deprecating humor, “WRITING’S NOT EVEN A REAL JOB. ANY SQUIP CAN DO IT” (282). However, the thoughts that the SQUIP records are Jeremy’s authentic experiences, not the version of himself that he performs while it advises him. Jeremy decides that he wants to give Christine the book even if she dislikes it, because “if I give that to her and she doesn’t like it, she doesn’t like me, and if she doesn’t like me, at least she’ll be not liking me for me, you know” (281). The ending of the book is a metafictional reflection on the purpose of the story. Rather than being a novel published for the fiction-reading public, the final chapter puts the reader in the place of Christine, judging Jeremy’s likeability for themselves. This blurring of fiction and reality attempts to engage readers in deciding the ethics of social behavior and Jeremy’s degree of culpability for the role that technology played in his life.
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