Chapter 61: Joab and Sam in the Attic
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Joab returns to the attic where Sam, still imprisoned, stands stiffly in the dress Mrs. Reed forced on him. Sam immediately asks about his mother, Adelaide, and Joab admits she and Mrs. Reed are next door at the opera house but confesses he does not know when Sam can see her. The conversation turns personal. When Joab questions why Sam’s mother allowed him to dress like a boy, the child replies simply that it makes him happy. The two trade the losses of their parents, and Sam reveals a stunning truth: he knows his mother killed his father.
As the exchange continues, Sam grows overwhelmed and struggles not to cry. Joab, trained by his brutal Mudge upbringing to see tears as weakness, finds himself hesitating. He reflects on his own past, on the murders committed by his family and his own killing of his brother Delmus, and on the morally hollow way Mr. Reed merely hid the body instead of stopping him. This internal reckoning resets his compass. Sam, fearing Joab might shoot him with the pistol Mrs. Reed supplied, spreads more than a dozen newspaper clippings across the floor—a private gallery he wants to see if he dies. The gesture, offered without plea, breaks something in Joab. He begins to cry and, instead of violence, accepts Sam’s invitation to look at the pictures together.
Key Events
- Joab and Sam wait alone in the attic; Sam is deeply uncomfortable in the dress.
- Sam learns his mother and Mrs. Reed are in the opera house but is not allowed to join them.
- Sam tells Joab his mother let him dress as a boy because it made him happy.
- Sam reveals that his mother killed his father, shocking Joab.
- Joab reflects on his family’s history of murder and his own killing of Delmus, noting Mr. Reed’s failure to intervene.
- Sam spreads out newspaper clippings as a source of comfort should Joab shoot him.
- Joab is moved to tears, refuses violence, and chooses to sit with Sam and explore the clippings.
Character Development
Joab Reed: This chapter marks the definitive break from his Mudge identity. Where once violence was reflexive, Joab now actively re-routes his thoughts. His memories of killing Delmus and Mr. Reed’s complicity sicken him and force a conscious choice. By weeping and accepting Sam’s offer of shared curiosity, Joab aligns himself with compassion rather than cruelty, fully embracing what it might mean to be a Reed.
Sam: Though frightened, Sam displays remarkable emotional honesty and resilience. He refuses to hide his identity or his feelings, and his gambit with the newspaper clippings is both a survival tactic and a declaration of self-worth. He makes himself vulnerable in a way that disarms Joab and reveals an inner world far larger than his cage.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Cycle of Violence vs. Compassion: The chapter contrasts the Mudge code—where tears invite punishment and survival means predation—with an emerging alternative. Joab’s refusal to harm Sam shatters the inherited pattern.
Identity and Belonging: Joab wrestles with what it means to be a Reed versus a Mudge. Sam’s insistence that dressing as a boy makes him happy asserts identity as a source of inner strength rather than social conformity.
Newspaper Clippings: These fragments of the wider world symbolize hope, escape, and the possibility of a life beyond the attic. They are Sam’s talisman against death and, ultimately, a bridge between the two children.
The Pistol: A gift from Mrs. Reed, it embodies the ever-present threat of violence. Joab’s decision not to use it is an explicit rejection of that threat.
Why This Chapter Matters
This quiet scene in the attic is a fulcrum for the novel. It is the moment Joab definitively rejects his family’s legacy of murder and chooses a different path. The chapter also deepens the bond between Joab and Sam, shifting them from captor-and-captive to potential allies. Sam’s revelation about his mother’s past and his vulnerability in the face of death humanizes him further, while Joab’s tears show that redemption is possible even for those who have committed terrible acts. Without this turning point, the power dynamic in the Reed household remains static and deadly; with it, the groundwork is laid for resistance.
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Sam show Joab the newspaper clippings?
Sam fears Joab will shoot him and wants to look at something that makes him happy in his final moments. However, the act also serves as an emotional test: by sharing his private collection, Sam disarms Joab with openness rather than aggression, revealing the boy’s hidden capacity for tenderness. -
What internal conflict does Joab experience while Sam tries not to cry?
Joab’s Mudge upbringing taught him to despise tears as weakness and to exploit softness. But his recent adoption into the Reed family and his guilt over murdering Delmus have thrown his identity into question. He struggles to decide whether he will be the callous son of a brutal mother or something new. His pause and eventual tears show he has chosen empathy. -
How does the attic setting reinforce the chapter’s themes?
The attic is a place of confinement—a prison for Sam and a solitary space for Joab’s reckoning. Its sparse, decaying furniture reflects the poverty of their options. In this liminal space, both must decide whether to perpetuate violence or step toward a different future. The fact that the clippings transform the bare floor into a patchwork of distant worlds underscores the possibility of change even in the most barren circumstances.