Chapter 39 Summary: Tom’s Deepest Failure and the Lake’s Dark Secret

⚠️ 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

The chapter opens with the family gossip about Lucille’s lies already spreading at church. Meg tries to apologize to Marybeth by letter, but it is returned unopened. Mr. Heidelberg (Big Tom) confronts Tom about the adoption money, leaving Tom ashamed. Tom and Lucille make a peace treaty: she will stop drinking so he can focus on his writing. They spend mornings swimming together, and Tom teaches Meg about the historical slave dogs that still roam the woods. The calm breaks when Lucille reads Tom’s manuscript and accuses him of plagiarism from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise. She mocks the writing as amateurish and lists his past failures—dropping out of Yale, failed careers. Devastated, Tom begins drinking heavily. Meg finds him drunk in the yard at dawn, singing. The next morning, Lucille is missing; she returns disheveled from the lake, saying Tom tied bags to his arms and legs and jumped into the deep water. A rescue effort finds his body. Meg imagines Tom singing as he drowned.

Key Events

Lucille’s lies about the adoption money and the urchin become known to the extended family; Meg’s apology note to Marybeth is ignored.
Big Tom Heidelberg arrives and confronts Tom in his office; Tom promises to behave.
Tom and Lucille agree to a peace treaty: Lucille will stay sober so Tom can finish his book.
Morning swimming sessions begin; Tom teaches Meg “technique” and explains the history of slave dogs.
Tom mentions plans to deliver his manuscript to Bill in New York, planning to bring Meg.
Lucille reads Tom’s manuscript and exposes it as plagiarism of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, calling the writing amateurish and unreadable.
In a drunken argument, Lucille tears down Tom’s past failures: dropping out of Yale, failed real estate, auto sales, cotton farming, etc.
Tom goes on a drinking bender, staying drunk through the night and into the next day.
Meg attempts to restore order: hiding bottles, cleaning the office, lying to Willy May and Mrs. Heidelberg about a head cold.
Tom sings in the yard late at night; Meg urges him to come inside.
The next morning, Lucille returns from the lake, frantic, reporting that Tom tied bags to his arms/legs and jumped into deep water.
A search party rows out; the boy diver finds Tom’s body. Meg imagines him singing while drowning.

Character Development

Meg continues to act as the family’s moral compass and caretaker. She lies to protect Tom and Lucille, cleans up after them, and tries to offer a second opinion on Tom’s book. Her loyalty deepens, as does her understanding of the adults’ fragility.
Tom is revealed as a fundamentally broken man. His confidence collapses under Lucille’s accusations. The chapter shows his descent from hopeful writer to suicidal drunk, clinging to Meg’s affection even as he destroys himself.
Lucille alternates between manipulative cruelty and panicked desperation. She weaponizes the plagiarism discovery to hurt Tom, then races to save him. Her earlier peace treaty proves hollow.
Mrs. Heidelberg appears briefly but poignantly: her heart is broken by Tom’s situation, and she trusts Meg to watch over him.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Plagiarism and authenticity: Tom’s manuscript is derivative; Lucille’s critique cuts to his identity as a writer and a person.
Slave dogs as historical trauma: The dogs bred to hunt runaway slaves roam the woods, symbolizing the lingering violence and fear that shape Southern life. Tom protects Meg from them, yet he cannot protect himself from his own demons.
Water and drowning: The lake, once a place of shared joy, becomes the site of Tom’s surrender. The depth he warned Meg about swallows him.
Alcohol as escape and destruction: Tom’s bender follows Lucille’s relapse; both use drink to avoid their failures, but it deepens the tragedy.
Family secrecy and lies: Meg’s web of lies to keep Mrs. Heidelberg away echoes the earlier cover-ups around the adoption money.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is the emotional climax of Tom’s arc and a turning point for Meg. Tom’s suicide shatters the fragile hope that he and Lucille could rebuild their lives. Meg loses the only adult who offered her unconditional love and a vision of a future (New York, swimming, school). The chapter also completes the revelation of Tom’s secret past—his failure at Yale and his plagiarized novel—which reframes everything we thought we knew about him. For Meg, the lesson about keeping the dogs away becomes tragically ironic: she cannot keep the worst dog, despair, from Tom.

Study Questions and Answers

1. What specifically does Lucille accuse Tom of, and how does she prove it?

Lucille accuses Tom of plagiarism, showing that his manuscript closely mirrors F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise. She reads aloud a passage from Fitzgerald’s book and compares it to Tom’s line, “An educational exorbitance that in her youth was only for the daughters of the exceptionally wealthy—showed the delicacy of her features.” The phrasing is nearly identical. She also notes that the plot—Princeton, mother’s death, move to New York, advertising job, love triangle, drunken breakdown—matches Fitzgerald’s story. Tom admits that the Fitzgerald book was a placeholder and that he will cut similar passages, but Lucille insists the entire work is amateurish and derivative.

2. How does the slave-dog story parallel Tom’s fate?

Tom tells Meg that slave dogs were bred for their bad temperament and long teeth, used to hunt runaway slaves. After the war, the dogs were turned loose, and they still roam the woods at night. The dogs represent the inescapable violence of the past and the dangers that lurk just beyond the civilized home. Tom promises Meg that no dogs will come after her while he is around. Yet by the end of the chapter, Tom is destroyed not by dogs but by his own despair—the internal equivalent of those unleashed hounds. He cannot protect himself any more than he can protect Meg from the trauma of his death.

3. What role does Meg play in the aftermath of Tom’s drinking binge?

Meg takes on the role of caretaker and protector. She hides the alcohol bottles, cleans Tom’s office, and lies to Willy May and Mrs. Heidelberg, claiming Tom and Lucille have head colds. She escorts a drunken Tom upstairs and tries to soothe him. When Mrs. Heidelberg arrives, Meg skillfully lies to keep her from discovering the truth, telling her that Tom does not want to see her. Meg also attempts to offer a second opinion on Tom’s manuscript, hoping to counter Lucille’s harsh judgment. Her efforts, though well-intentioned, cannot prevent Tom’s suicide, underscoring the limits of a child’s love and responsibility.