We Were Liars

E. Lockhart

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Part 3, Chapters 28-33Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “Summer Seventeen”

Part 3, Chapter 28 Summary

Cady begins to remember more of the day in summer fifteen when she had an accident, but many of the details remain unclear. She imagines a witch banging on her skull, and she takes pills to make the pain go away. She sometimes stays in bed for two days at a time.

Part 3, Chapter 29 Summary

Cady wakes up in the middle of the night and sees her Aunt Carrie outside. Carrie says she can't sleep without her partner, Ed.

Part 3, Chapter 30 Summary

Cady visits Granddad and her mother at Clairmont. She notices some of the dogs are gone. Granddad tells her they passed on. He mistakes Cady for Mirren again and complains that all the little blonde girls are gone.

Part 3, Chapter 31 Summary

Cady talks to Mirren and Johnny. Mirren refuses to tell her about summer fifteen. Mirren gives her some tiny purple rocks she’s collected. Cady tells them she wants to give away things, and they ask her if she wants to hold onto things with sentimental value, such as drawings of the dead dogs. She wants them to see her as taking charge of her life and living by principles.

Part 3, Chapter 32 Summary

Cady takes a walk with Gat, and he apologizes for his past behavior. He asks if they can start over. She at first gets angry, but they finally agree to begin again.

Part 3, Chapter 33 Summary

Cady realizes that her Granddad has erased his past by building a new version of Clairmont. All of his old possessions are gone. The Littles all have their own rooms. She mentions Gat, and Granddad gets upset. Carrie arrives to help, and when Cady asks about Johnny's nightmares, Carrie says she doesn't know what Cady is talking about.

Part 3, Chapters 28-33 Analysis

Cady's process of healing includes many misperceptions, along with some accurate insights. The misperceptions are mysterious to her. For example, Cady sees her aunt Carrie outside at night, and she thinks she hears Carrie's son, Johnny, having nightmares, but in truth, Carrie is herself mourning, and Cady only imagines Johnny's nightmares. In fact, Cady is projecting her internal emotional state into the world and onto others. A crucial turn in her healing occurs when she and the imaginary Gat decide to begin again, so that both can heal and move on.

The novel models itself on Shakespeare's King Lear, the play about a king who loses his daughters and goes mad. Cady's relationship with Granddad is crucial for her evolution as a character. Much of her interaction with Grandad has to be interpreted carefully, as there is much subtext when these two characters seem to be discussing straightforward, superficial things. Granddad makes remarkable changes slowly. Initially, Granddad is a fairly negative character, and Cady defines herself in opposition to him and to his traditional values. But he is also a flexible character who, like King Lear, suffers because of his faults. He ultimately learns from his bad behavior and is redeemed as a character. Grandad’s own redemption shows in how he treats Cady and Ed, Gat's father, whom Grandad finally allows into his home at the end of the novel. At this point in the story, the crucial index of Granddad's evolution is the changes he makes in Clairmont. He makes an entirely new life there, ridding himself of the family traditions and all the knickknacks that were the emblems of those traditions. This indicates he’s dynamic and can change.