58 pages • 1 hour read
Dear Zoe
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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Naming You”
Tess DeNunzio, the 15-year-old narrator of Dear Zoe, writes letters to her younger sister Zoe, who died on September 11 while Tess was supposed to be watching her. Tess begins her story with a memory of her pregnant mother asking Tess and Tess’s younger sister, Em, to help choose a name for the baby because her mother “felt like she had this power with names she had to be careful with” (1). In Tess’s memory, they settle on Zoe because they don’t know anyone else with that name. Tess’s mother believes a unique name will make Zoe independent and confident, and Tess says it worked.
Tess’s mother had Tess when she was 19. She was married to Tess’s father while Tess was a baby, but when Tess was five, her mom married David, an attorney. They had Em, named after Emily Dickinson, when Tess was seven, and Zoe when Tess was nine. Though Zoe and Em are her half-sisters, Tess doesn’t think of them that way.
Tess feels like she has two fathers: David is the disciplinarian who loves to read and saves for Tess’s college education, and her biological father is “a mess,” but she loves him and briefly went to live with him after Zoe’s death. Once, David wrote a story about Tess, but Tess feels he misrepresented her. In David’s story, she comes off as naïve, but in actuality, Tess is more mature. Tess points out that no one event changes everything by itself and also says that Zoe could have been named anything and the events of her life would have been the same.
Chapter 2 Summary: “David & My Dad”
Tess has lived with David almost her whole life, but she still doesn’t quite understand him. She thinks he figured out how to be a dad when Em was born and now views Tess’s childhood as a “missed opportunity,” especially for physical contact. Tess feels they’re “something less than father and daughter” (7), but it’s not tragic, it’s just how it is.
Tess’s biological dad changes jobs every few months, breeds German Shepherds, and owes her mother $15,000 in child support payments. Tess used to sleep over at his place, but there were gang-related shootings, and after Tess got her period, the dog smell made her feel sick. According to Tess’s mother, her father’s biggest problem is that he “thinks the world owes him something” (8). He never tries to change her, unlike David, who threatens to take away Tess’s makeup and modify her behavior. Tess can’t imagine her biological parents together—her father occasionally works construction, and her mother takes tennis lessons—but her mother explains their relationship by saying she was trying to escape her own mother and stepfather. Tess’s parents met at a high school football game, when her father got in a fight that made her mother fall in love with him. Now, Tess’s mother thinks she was stupid, but Tess thinks the story is romantic.
For Tess, watching her two dads interact when they pick her up is funny, because they are both extra kind to each other when she’d expect them to fight. Her dad is nearly twice the size of David, who did musicals in high school. David tries to talk with her dad about football and lifting, and her dad tells David about promising job opportunities, even though they never would have gotten along in high school.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Anniversary”
Almost a year has passed since Zoe’s death, but Tess still sometimes cries like it was yesterday. She’s doing a little better, and so are her mom and David, which she noticed when she came back from her living at her dad’s, though the house is sometimes very quiet. They see a doctor together, and when Tess tries to explain why she went to live her father, the doctor asks if Tess “felt like Mom and David excluded you from their grief” (14). Tess feels the doctor was right, even though she never could have put it into words.
Tess anticipates the anniversary of September 11 will be difficult because people will mourn the victims who died in the terrorist attacks but they won’t think about Zoe. She’ll feel the usual guilt that goes along with remembering the day of Zoe’s death, but she’ll also feel guilty that doesn’t care about the victims who died because the day should have been just Zoe’s.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The opening chapters introduce the protagonist and first-person narrator, Tess DeNunzio, a 15-year-old who is coping with the death of her three-year-old sister Zoe. Structurally, the novel is an epistolary novel—meaning it is written in the form of letters—with each chapter taking the form of Tess’s letters to Zoe. Throughout the course of the book, the letters take on a confessional tone, serving as diary entries for Tess, a place where she can work out her innermost thoughts and feelings. As a character, Tess is hyper-observant, sensitive, and empathic and thinks deeply about the people in her life, especially her family members. She has a rich inner world on display in her letters.
These opening chapters also introduces Tess’s family members as central characters. Tess’s mother gave birth to Tess at 19, was briefly married to Tess’s biological father, and then married David. David and Tess’s father serve as foils, “almost like they’re one dad split in two” (3), with David occupying more of a disciplinarian role and her biological father more wayward. Tess speaks of her relationship with David matter-of-factly, but her tone betrays longing for how their relationship might have been different: “he never got to hold me when I was a baby […] he was totally different with you and Em, holding you all the time […] I’m not mad about it or anything […]” (4). David’s fictional story, in which he and fictional Tess grow closer, reveals his desire for a more intimate relationship with his stepdaughter as well. While Tess’s biological father has difficulty holding down a job, Tess loves him deeply because he doesn’t expect her to be anyone other than who she is. In addition, David displays almost no physical affection with Tess, while her father hugs Tess strongly. While Tess loves both David and her father, she doesn’t feel wholly connected to either man, and that sense contributes to Tess’s feelings of isolation as she processes her grief over Zoe.
Likewise, Tess’s position in her family is unique and further isolates her in her grief. While Em and Zoe were young, she sometimes felt like a mother to her much-younger sisters, and she has vivid memories of Zoe before she was even born, including helping name her, which she feels is unique among older sisters. Tess suggests that the name “Zoe” helped shape Zoe’s personality and fated both her and her life to turn out a certain way.
Thematically, the first three chapters introduce grief and loss as a major theme, in terms of both personal and global tragedy. The day of Zoe’s death coincides with September 11, placing Tess’s loss in direct conversation with the national loss. The coincidence of these events complicates Tess’s feelings of grief and anger: While she feels grief over the national tragedy, she also feels anger that September 11 overshadows the loss of her younger sister. Furthermore, her family experiences the loss of Zoe differently, with David and Tess’s mother excluding Tess from their grief. Tess feels extremely guilty over her role in Zoe’s death, and her role in the family becomes insecure. As a result, Tess goes to live with her father, who she feels never tries to change her.
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