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The bell tower
Theodore Finch somehow climbs up the bell tower at his school and is standing on a narrow ledge six stories above the ground. This is where it all starts. “is today a good day to die” is the sentence that goes through his mind as he wonders over the consept of dying. A few feet away on the other side of the tower, also on the ledge he sees Violet Markey. In the end it is It unclear who saves who -
Class project
Finch chooses Violet as his partner for a school project where they are supposed to report on at least two wonders of Indiana. (the town they live in). This is the beginning of their wandering adventure. -
Trip to Hoosier Hill
First wandering
As a part of a school project, Violet and Finch bike their way to Hoosier Hill, the highest point in the state. They leave behind some British coins, a red guitar pick and a Bartlett High keychain and store them in a hide- a- key fake rock -
Bookmobile Park
It is Violets turn to choose a place to wander, and she chooses a Bookmobile park on a country road. This is a huge deal beacuse it is the first time since the accidet that Violet sist in a car. She explains that it was a family tradition to choose a book and not leave until everyone’s chosen book was found. Finch leaves a 20. -
Before I die wall
On the way home from the bookmobile park they stop by a big old factory building. At the far end of the building it is written “before I die” on a giant chalkboard. This is a place where people write what they want to do before they die. Both Finch and Violet write things they want to do. One of Finch's is kissing Violet. -
Bookmarks
Mrs. Finch works part time in a bookstore downtown in Bartlett. Finch and Violet continue to develop a unique relationship. Whilst wandering Finch acts as a sort of counselor for Violet. He helps her talk about her sister's death, write and travel by car again. 142 days til graduation and 8 months after her sister's death, Violet laughs for the first time since the accident. -
First visit to the Purina Tower
The same day Violet and Finch visit his moms bookstore, they wander to the Purina Tower -
Watching a Hooded crane
After not showing up at school for weeks, Finch suddenly reappears. He has a tendency to a persona, where he becomes a slightly different version of himself. Now he reappears as "Slacker Finch". When the fire alarm suddenly goes off, Finch asks Violet to meet him in the parking lot. Together they walk into the woods and to the edge of a river. That is where Violet spots a bird, a Hooded crane to be exact. It is supposed to be in Asia at this time of year, thereby it is lots. A little like them. -
Paints walls and ceiling blue
Finch suddenly has an urge to paint the walls blue because his red ones are do dark, depressing and it looks like they are bleeding. Something is wrong and Finch feels it, however he does not know what and therefore tries to fix it by painting his ceiling so that his head will stop spinning and slow down. He chooses blue because it reminds him of water, which soothes -
Roller coaster
Finch and Violet goes wandering again, now visiting a guy who built two roller coasters in his backyard, Finch rides first and loves it, so does Violet. On their way home Finch pulls over at an exit, he parks and kisses Violet. Violet wonders if this is their last wandering and he says no way. After the kiss they strip and suddenly Finch realizes that Violet is a Virgin. He decides they should go home, for now at least. -
First visit to the Blue hole
As a part of their wandering Finch takes Violet to a three-acre lake that sits on a private property. They say the lake is bottomless or made of quicksand. The talk about Finch’ family and go for a swim, however when Finch stays under the water for a long period, Violet starts to panic. Finch keeps going even though his lungs strain for air. -
Visiting the Blue hole part 2
When he resurfaces Violet is crying on the bank. He lets her take out all her anger, frustration and everything she has kept inside since her sister’s death on him. They open up to each other and Finch admits that the scar on his stomach was caused by his father. -
Bipolar
Finch is struggling to concentrate in school. He tries to make a checklist of everything good in his life, but it does not help. After school he has an appointment with the guidance counselor. The counselor asks if he is feeling suicidal, and finch tries to deny it but accidentally recites a suicide note of Vladimir Mayakovski. The counselor is alarmed and asks Finch what he knows of a disease called bipolar disease as a way of making Finish understand that he might have a condition. -
Finch swallows sleeping pills
After dinner he swallows a bunch of his mom’s sleeping pills, he quickly changes his mind and tries to make himself throw up, but it doesn’t work. Even though the pills are starting to kick inn, Finch runs to the hospital and blacks out. When he wakes up he has to fill out some paperwork where he signs off with another name. Before they can send someone in and ask questions, Finch gets up, leaves and walks home -
Life is LIfe support group
5 days later he attends a suicide support group in a nearby town to try to get help. At the support group he meets Amanda Monk, ultimate mean girl of Bartlett High. In confidence of the group she explains that she's bulimic and has tried to kill herself twice. Finch gets more frustrated by thinking that all these kids are letting themselves be defined by their mental illnesses. Finch sits through the whole meeting, but blanks out somewhere in the middle. -
Finch tells Violet about his black moods
Finch has a thing where posit-its with positive message go on the wall, and the negative ones on the floor. He rearranges the words on the wall and make songs out of them. After a while Finch says, “I get into these moods sometimes, and I can’t shake them” he describes them as black sinking moods, like being inside of a tornado, all calm and blinding at the same time. That is when Violet discovers that Finch lives sin his closet. She is worried and wants him to talk to someone. -
Finch dissapears
Prior to his disappearance, Violet was getting mysterious texts from Finch, he wouldn’t say where he was and the only contact anyone had with him, was a weekly phone call with his mother, whom does not seem worried at all. Eventually Violet stops hearing from Finch altogether. The last time V and F saw each other was on his birthday, March 21, and it ended in a fight where Violet wanted to help Finch, and felt helpless because he seemed more distant than ever. -
Finch's body is found
It all starts when Finch misses his weekly check-in. Furthermore everyone close to him receives something that resembles a goodbye message, Violet included. Violet then drives over to Finch’s house and check his room for any clues of where he might be. There she finds some Post-its that she had not noticed before. It guides her to the conclusion that he might be in one of the places where they wandered for their school project, a place with water. -
Finch's body is found
The first thing Violet sees is his car, then his clothes neatly folded and stacked on the bank of the water. After attempting to dive under and look for Finch herself, Violet dial 911 April 26. -
Funeral
May 3rd Violet stands in front of a mirror and gazes upon her own reflection. She wonders if people can actually see how sad she is, what she has been through. She takes a picture and thinks of how, if she were to post it, no one would be able to tell if it were taken "before" or "after". Theodore Finch is buried at Golden acres, the largest cemetery in town. -
Funeral part 2
At the funeral Violet notice all these people cyring. People who made fun of Finch and called him “freak”, this makes her angry. Violet is angry that no one wants to acknowledge Finch’s death as a suicide, angry at hypocrites and angry that Finch left her behind. Violet blames Finch’s parents, everyone who made fun of him, her own parents and especially herself for his death. -
Violet continues their wandering. Alone
One night, Violet reads through all her old Facebook messages with Finch. She then writes, in their notebook where they documented their wanderings, a sort of letter that she knows will never reach him and asks why she could not save him. Violet finds their wandering map and there are five more places, numbers written beside each one and decides to go to the last few stops -
Remaining wanderings 1 and
It is Violet’s first wandering without Finch and it leads her to a landmark where people throw shoes over tree branches. Violet brought two shoes, one is hers, the other one was Eleanor’s. As Violet is about to go home she spots a pair of Finch’s shoes. He was here. -
3
Next stop is an old drive-in movie theater. On the backside of an old screen, Violet sees graffiti that Finch wrote. It simply says, “I was here TF”. Violet adds “I was here too. VM”. -
2
The next stop is the world’s largest ball of paint. Violet is eager to see if Finch has left a message. Unfortunately, the ball is painted over each time someone visits so that it is ready to be repainted. On her way out, she is asked to sigh a guest book, where se sees Finch’s writing. April 3rd, he signed the guest book with a quote “Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off an away!”. Violet signs her name and write “Your mountain is waiting, so….get on your way!” -
4
The second last place is a monastery. There she looks at the shrines (manmade caves). Inside one of them, Violet fins the rock Finch and Violet exchanged whenever it was the other ones turn to pick a place. Violet takes the rock and leaves one of Eleanor’s rings in its place. Violet, Brenda, Charlie and a few other friends, meet that night at Purina Tower. This gathering is like a memorial service where they play music and remember Finch. -
The last wandering
The last wandering brings Violet to a prayer chapel created as a sanctuary for weary travelers, which is something she can relate to. Tucked inside a Bible, Violet finds a note from Finch. In fact, it is a song about how much he loves her. Expecting to find an angry note that accuses her of never being there for him and instead getting a love declaration, Violet sits down and has a long cry. Back home Violet takes comfort in playing Finch’s song on her flute.
