The Shipping News: Chapter 5: A Rolling Hitch Summary & Analysis

As Quoyle drives west along the northern coast of Newfoundland, Agnis consults a map. She’s anxious to learn if the house at Quoyle’s Point is still standing. She tells Quoyle it will be better for him to get a boat; the newspaper offices are a short two miles across the bay, when by land it’s 28 miles just from the house to the highway into town. In fact, the road to the Point is so disused that they drive past it four times before they finally find it. By then, it’s dark, so Quoyle soon decides to pull over and camp in the car overnight rather than risk the dangerously unknown road. Bunny, who wants to stay in a hotel, declares this plan (and her father) dumb. But Quoyle won’t budge.

In the morning, a heavy fog shrouds the peninsula. Near the abandoned settlement of Capsize Cove, the road suddenly improves, and the party comes upon a squat, abandoned building with an asphalt parking lot. Quoyle parks. Agnis makes a fire and brews tea. While she and Quoyle drink, a breeze shifts the fog, and Agnis catches a glimpse of the house on the point. Carrying Bunny and Sunshine on their shoulders, she and Quoyle hike the rest of the way there.

The house seems solid enough, even if half the windowpanes are gone and the paint—a sickly green color that Bunny hates—is flaking off. It’s secured to the rocky ground with steel cables. Agnis explains that a previous generation secured the house to prevent it from rocking like a ship at sea during storms. Quoyle pries open the door, and they cautiously enter. Everything is dusty and musty, but after a few minutes, it’s clear that the house is mostly sound. Agnis tears up when she finds the broom still hanging on the kitchen wall. But it disintegrates when she touches it.

Outside, Quoyle builds a fire and Agnis prepares a picnic breakfast. Bunny wonders why Petal isn’t going to live with them anymore. She’s confused because Quoyle has refused to use the word “dead,” instead telling his girls that their mother went to sleep forever. Bunny observes that she would never sleep forever. Then she walks off. On the far side of the house, she sees a white dog in the brush. Her alarmed screams bring Quoyle and Agnis running, but they see no sign of the animal. Agnis turns to the house, promising herself that the Quoyles will never be driven out of there again.