Speak Chapter 62 Summary

Snow Day – School as Usual

• It snows almost a foot. Any place but Syracuse, New York, this much snow would mean school was cancelled.
• Hairwoman tells them about a time in the 1970s when school was closed for a whole week because there was an "energy crisis" (62.2), and it would cost too much to heat the school.
• Hairwoman looks like she wishes the school would close for a week right now. All the teachers look like they need a break.
• Hairwoman is asking the class what "snow symbolized in Hawthorne" (62.4). The class moans and groans.
• Melinda thinks that snow, in Hawthorne's novel, symbolizes "cold and silence" (62.6) and stillness. Once snow falls and sits on the ground, it becomes "as still as [Melinda's] heart" (62.6).