63 pages • 2 hours read
Garth SteinThe Art of Racing in the Rain
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
The trust and friendship that Denny and Enzo build together is interrupted by the appearance of Denny’s girlfriend, Eve. Enzo feels her driving a wedge between them: “We were both satellites orbiting Denny’s sun, struggling for gravitational supremacy” (16).
In particular, Enzo envies the human traits and physical characteristics that he lacks, as if Eve’s humanity has given her the upper hand in the relationship.
Chapter 5 Summary
Enzo starts watching television while Denny is away at work. Here he learns about life to the point of feeling existential and introspective about it in ways that were previously inaccessible.
Even as he longs to be a human, Enzo critiques Darwinism and the evolution of monkeys to humans. His philosophies bridge the scientific and the spiritual, placing particular emphasis on the existence of the soul. Enzo argues that humanity’s closest relative is not the chimpanzee, but the dog.
He also theorizes that the domestication of dogs inhibited the evolution of a potentially superior species.
