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Shutter Island

Dennis Lehane

Shutter Island

Dennis Lehane

  • 58-page comprehensive Study Guide
  • Chapter-by-chapter summaries and multiple sections of expert analysis
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Shutter Island Chapters 17-20 (Day 4: The Bad Sailor) Summary & Analysis

Chapter 17 Summary

Teddy scrambles back down the cliff toward Chuck’s body and stumbles across the piece of paper Chuck had offered him earlier, which turns out to be Laeddis’ intake form. But when he makes it to Chuck’s body, Teddy realizes it is not a body at all—just a large white rock covered in seaweed. Teddy calls out for Chuck but instead rouses the island’s rats, which soon cover the beach. Teddy notices a flicker of fire in one of the cliff’s caves, so he begins climbing toward what he hopes is safety.

When Teddy reaches the cave, he finds a woman wearing a patient’s uniform and holding a scalpel. She tells Teddy that she is the real Rachel Solando, the first female doctor at Ashecliffe Hospital. She explains that she had to flee after she began uncovering the hospital’s questionable practices, including the use of hallucinogenic drugs and experimental surgeries. Ashecliffe’s real goal is to create soldiers that can go out into the world and do the government’s “‘ghostly work’” (271). When Teddy asks if the doctors follow the Nuremberg Code, Rachel tells him that it has been “‘obliterated’” and everyone on the island knows it (271).

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