Red Midnight Chapters 1-4 Summary from Students

I had some great students come in today to help us all to understand what was going on in each chapter.  Jared S., Jake L.,  Tanner Z., and Raffi S. all gave their time to help out!  These are their explanations of Chapters 1-4 in Red Midnight:

Chapter 1, "Soldiers in the Night" 

In Chapter 1, the soldiers in Guatemala attack Santiago's Village, Dos Vias.  Santiago sees his whole family die and he and his sister were the only ones to survive.  He found his Uncle Ramos in the bushes who was shot.  Ramos said to leave Guatemala and go to America.  They'll do this by going to his farm house on Lake Izabal.  When they get there, they'll take Ramos' cayuco, a sailboat, to escape Guatemala. 

Chapter 2, "The Cayuco"

Santiago thinks about the past and has a flashback.  He remembers going to visit Uncle Ramos at Lake Izabal and picking maiz, corn.  Ramos talks to Santiago about the cayuco and how it works.  Ramos tells Santiago that knowing how to read and write is very important, especially in Guatemala.  He says that soldiers tricked him into giving his land away because he could not read.  They used his trust to take advantage of him.  Later in the chapter, Santiago's dad wants him to stay away from the cayuco, but Santiago is still caught up with the cayuco.  When the chapter ends, Santiago sneaks out and pretends to be sailing the cayuco.  Then, a deep voice asks him, "Are you afraid to raise the sail?"

Chapter 3, "Learning to Sail"

In the third chapter, we find out that the voice was Uncle Ramos.  He was watching Santiago with his "clear, dark eyes" and seems to be angry.  Santiago apologizes, Ramos forgives him then teaches Santiago how to sail.  Ramos begins to tell Santiago how far he can sail with the boat.  He says that he can go "'To Honduras, Belize, the Yucatan, Cuba, or even the United States of America.'"  Santiago is astonished that you can actually sail to America.  Ramos then teaches him how to lift the sail, how to paddle, how to sail with the wind, and how to navigate using the North Star.  After this, Santiago learns how to sail to America.  At the end of the chapter, Santiago begins to hear about the killing of villagers across America.  The people of Guatemala are in a bad predicament:  if they help the soldiers, the guerrillas will kill them; if they help the guerrillas, the soldiers will kill them.

Chapter 4, "The Coconuts of Los Santos"

Santiago and Angelina find a horse and begin to ride it.  The horse is very hard to ride because there is no saddle and Angelina was crying.  They arrive at Los Santos and Santiago thinks he sees coconuts on the ground.  He picks one up and realizes that it's a skull.  Then, he sees his friend Carlos with his legs cut off, right next to him.  Santiago remembers kicking a football (soccer to us Americans) around with him and he's sad to think about how those legs were innocent and did nothing to deserve death.  Santiago wonders why God isn't protecting his people.