Monday 16 June 2014

Can I have a summary of "The Volunteer" story in the book You Are Not A Stranger Here?

This story is about a high school student named Ted, who signs up as part of a volunteer program to visit Plymouth Brewster Structured Living Facility. He is assigned to work with a resident named Elizabeth Maynard, a person suffering from schizophrenia who has spent two decades at the facility. Ted's visits mean a lot to Elizabeth. The author writes the following at the beginning of the story: "that boy has given her hope, a hope Elizabeth never imagined she'd have again."

Elizabeth usually is compliant, and the voice of Hester, a seventeenth century woman, only comes to her once in a while. However, Ted's visits have made Hester appear more often, as Elizabeth has decided to stop taking her medicine. The story flashes between Ted's relationship with a fellow student named Lauren Jencks and Elizabeth's recollections of the past. She recalls the time she spent at a mental institution on the Connecticut shore, when her then-boyfriend, Will, came from Cambridge (Massachusetts) to visit her.


Elizabeth also recalls giving birth to Will's child and thinking of a line from a document written by one of her ancestors. The line was as follows: "sad past words to report Hester has died giving me a boy." This is how Elizabeth likely heard about Hester. In flashbacks, the reader learns that Elizabeth gave birth to a stillborn boy, who was born with an umbilical chord wrapped around his neck. While giving birth, she saw Hester holding the baby between Elizabeth's legs. After this experience, Hester never left Elizabeth.


During Ted's visits, Elizabeth takes a drive and then has a difficult time visiting a mall, as she imagines Hester becoming offended at a poster of a pilgrim. After she rips the poster off the wall, Elizabeth and Ted must quickly leave the store, and she tells him about seeing another woman in the car. The narrator reveals that Ted deals with mental illness at home, as his mother sometimes locks herself in her room and refuses to leave. Ted thinks, "Enough already with the fucking mentally ill, for Christ’s sakes, enough, but something made him come.”  The reason that Ted comes to visit Elizabeth is that she helps him through his relationship with Lauren, including his first sexual experience. In the end, however, the new administration at the facility refuse to allow Elizabeth to receive visits from Ted, and she is crushed as a result.

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