Chapters 9,10,11,12 &13

Chapters 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13
Chapter 9 is set in Berger’s office. Conrad is telling Berger all about a dream he had and Berger basically says, so? Conrad then continues to tell Berger how different he is, as all psychiatrists believed in dreams and that they have meanings behind them. Berger then has Conrad lay on the floor. Conrad then tells him that he knows what’s bugging him and that it’s the swim team. Conrad says he doesn’t want to be on the swim team anymore. The coach of the team is very pushy and Con doesn’t like the kids on the team any more. Conrad has decided to quit the swim team and focus on his studies. Chapter 10 is about Conrad rather than Cal. It is set in the locker room after swim team practice. Lazenby wants to invite Con to join them in watching a movie, Stillman fires at Lazenby when Lazenby says this. Still man says; “You ever think about doing anything without him?” (Guest, page 81, Ordinary People) Then the other boys cut in asking what was wrong with Conrad and why he was being the way he was. Lazenby insisted they stop criticizing Conrad as Conrad is Lazenby’s friend. After that, Stillman told Lazenby that if he hangs with a flake (Conrad), he will soon get flakey. Once the locker room was empty, Conrad cleaned out his locker and put everything in his gym bag. Conrad talked to the swim coach and quit the team. Conrad didn’t tell the other guys or his father about quitting. Chapter 11 is placed in Calvin and Beth’s home. Calvin and Beth were discussing their day and Beth went about saying Ray, Calvin’s partner, has gained twenty pounds, but his wife looks stunning. Beth says she asked Ray’s wife how she looks so good and she replied worrying and a bad marriage. This caught Calvin of guard and made him think back to when Ray and Nancy were fighting because Ray had an affair. Nancy turned to Calvin for help. Conrad got home late, and we learned that it is winter time as it is snowing outside. Chapter twelve is a loaded chapter. Lazenby approaches Conrad about quitting the swim team and Conrad gets upset. Conrad and Lazenby get in a fight and they decide not to talk to each other anymore. Conrad’s then in Berger’s office and we learn that Conrad admits to not having a good relationship with his mother. Conrad says; “My mother and I don’t connect…. She’s a very private person.” (Guest, page 97-98, Ordinary People). Berger then prompts Conrad to let his anger out and to show emotion. After the meeting with Berger, Conrad decides to go Christmas shopping. While out shopping Conrad runs into Jeannine and they decide to go for a coke. They visited for a while, exchanging favourites. On Conrad’s way home he passed by a travel agency. When Conrad sees a poster about the Laurentian Mountains he takes us back into a memory he has of skiing with Buck. Conrad was going down the moguls and wiped out real bad. Buck was over top of him immediately to make sure he was okay. In chapter 13 Conrad and Calvin went to pick out Christmas trees, they got the largest one in the lot. When they got home they started to string popcorn and hang lights. When Beth got in she brought up that she’d heard from Mrs. Lazenby that Conrad had quit the swim team. She called Conrad a liar and Conrad and Beth started yelling at each other. Conrad took off, upstairs to his room. Beth was then upset claiming Calvin is always on Con’s side and never on hers. Conrad then claims his mother hates him and Calvin is quick to say that is ridiculous and she does not hate him.










Analysis Chapter 9, 10,11,12,13
This chapter is important because we get inside Conrad’s head a little more. We learn that he doesn’t want to be on the swim team because the coach is a jerk and Con’s not friends with the kids anymore. Conrad decided to quit the swim team. Conrad was right about the guys, they were jerks. In the locker room after swim team the next day, Lazenby was going to invite Conrad along to watch a movie and Stillman snapped at him and told him he was getting flakey for hanging out with Con. Con overheard and made his final decision to quitting the swim team. Conrad didn’t tell the other guys or his father about quitting the swim team. We also learn in this section of the novel that Nancy and Ray (Calvin’s Co-worker) had a bad spiel in their marriage a while ago. Calvin had helped Nancy through it and Beth had helped Ray through it. The next day at school Lazenby approached Con about quitting the swim team. When Con confronted him about being called flakey, Lazenby got upset and told him not to worry about Stillman. Conrad then got upset again and Lazenby and Conrad decided not to talk to each other anymore. One very key aspect of this section is when Conrad admits to Berger that he and his mother do not have a good relationship. He told Berger that they “don’t connect.” (Guest, page 97, Ordinary People). Berger had asked Conrad to go home and practice letting out his anger instead of keeping it all bundled up inside. He let Conrad know that it’s okay to have a bit of a temper. This is one step of recovery that is mandatory for patients that have a past like his. It’s mandatory to send anger outside instead of turning it in upon yourself and blaming yourself. On Conrad’s way home he saw a poster of the Laurentian Ski Hill. We are then taken to an old memory of Conrad when he and Buck were skiing the Laurentian Mountains. Buck is his older brother. His older brother and he used to be very close, they shared everything. Buck died the previous year. After Conrad made it home, Calvin and Conrad went looking for Christmas trees. When they got home and started setting up the tree, Beth came in and confronted Conrad about quitting the swim team. She blamed him for embarrassing her, and lying to her. She turned everything that was wrong into her problem and never asked once if Conrad was okay or why he did it. Everything had to be about her. Conrad freaked out, he let his anger out. This is a great sign that he’s getting better and moving on. Conrad went up to his room and Beth accused Calvin of always taking Conrad’s side. This is crazy since Beth never talks to Conrad and always makes Calvin talk to him. Calvin never took anyone’s side. He just wanted to get the facts straight. When Calvin went up to Conrad’s room to talk to him about everything. Conrad told him that Beth hated him and he didn’t know why. That he thought it was because of the suicide incident. Calvin assured him it was not, and left him alone for the night.