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- Genre: Short story; Gothic horror; Feminist literature - Title: The Yellow Wallpaper - Point of view: First person narrator, in a series of diary entries. - Setting: Late nineteenth century, in a colonial mansion that has been rented for the summer. Most of the story's action takes place in a room at the top of the house that is referred to as the "nursery." - Character: The Narrator. Description: An upper middle class woman, recently a mother, who seems to be suffering from post-partum depression. One line from the tale's conclusion suggests that her name is Jane, although there is some dispute among scholars as to its interpretation (this LitChart will simply refer to her as 'the narrator'). Her husband, John, has moved them to this colonial estate for the summer to aid in her recovery by giving her a "rest cure," which entails avoiding all intellectual effort and performing only domestic duties. She led an intellectual life, perhaps as a writer, before this rest cure was imposed by her husband, and profoundly misses creative and intellectual activities. She expresses worry about her own feelings of depression over the course of the tale. Her mental state gradually deteriorates, along with her relationship to her husband, until she suffers a complete breakdown into madness at the story's conclusion. - Character: John. Description: The narrator's husband. He is a physician of high standing, and becomes doctor to his wife. He is extremely practical, rejects superstition, and is interested only in physical facts. This leads him to dismiss his wife's concerns about her inner life, and impose his own cure – rest, food, air, phosphates, and a freedom from the distractions of life outside the domestic sphere. John treats his wife like a child in many ways, calling her his "little girl". His inability to truly recognize the inner life of his wife is made clear in her diary, and leads him to faint in shock when he realizes the true extent of her illness. - Theme: Mental Illness and its Treatment. Description: Reading the series of diary entries that make up the story, the reader is in a privileged position to witness the narrator's evolving and accelerating descent into madness, foreshadowed by her mounting paranoia and obsession with the mysterious figure behind the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. As the portrayal of a woman's gradual mental breakdown, The Yellow Wallpaper offers the reader a window into the perception and treatment of mental illness in the late nineteenth century. In the style of a Gothic horror story, the tale follows the gradual deterioration of its narrator's mental state, but it also explores the ways that her husband John's attempted treatment aggravates this decline. In one sense, then, the story is a propaganda piece criticizing a specific way of 'curing' mental illness. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of the story, suffered from post-partum depression and, in circumstances very similar to those of the story's narrator, was prescribed a 'rest cure' by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, who is mentioned by name in her tale. She underwent a mental breakdown as a result of this enforced idleness, which forbade any form of writing or work outside of the domestic sphere. The forced confinement of the story's narrator, and her husband's injunctions against writing or other activity, mirror this 'rest cure' in the author's life. John, the narrator's husband, serves also as her de facto doctor. As such, he is a model of traditional attitudes toward mental illness. He is driven purely by practicalities, prescribing self-control above all else, and warning against anything that he sees as indulging his wife's dangerous imagination or hysteria. His refusal to acknowledge his wife's concerns about her own mental state as legitimate, or to listen to her various requests – about their choice of room, receiving visitors, leaving the house, her writing or, of course, the wallpaper – ultimately contributes to her breakdown, as she finds herself trapped, alone, and unable to make her inner struggles understood. This feeling of powerlessness, of an inability to communicate, is portrayed with special horror to inspire empathy in a progressive reader, who may have been moved to reconsider methods such as the rest cure of Weir Mitchell. - Theme: Gender Roles and Domestic Life. Description: Alongside its exploration of mental illness, The Yellow Wallpaper offers a critique of traditional gender roles as they were defined during the late nineteenth century, the time in which the story is set and was written. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent feminist, who rejected the trappings of traditional domestic life and published extensively about the role of women in society, and saw the gender roles of the time as horribly stifling. The story's family unit falls along traditional lines. John, the husband, is rational, practically minded, protective, and the ultimate decision maker in the couple. He infantilizes his wife, referring to her as his 'little girl' and brushing off her complaints. However, John is not purely the irredeemable villain of the story. Rather, we see how his ability to communicate effectively with his wife is constrained by the structure of their gender roles. This is an important point: John's happiness is also ruined by the strictures of traditional domestic life. The narrator, his wife, is confined to the home, not allowed to work (or to write), and considered by her husband to be fragile, emotional, and self-indulgent. Differing readings of the text's sarcasm lead to different interpretations of her voluntary submission to this role, but it is clear that her forced inactivity was abhorrent to her. The diary becomes a symbol of her rebellion against John's commands. The willingness of John's sister, Jennie, to submit to her domestic role in the home only increases the narrator's guilt at her own dissatisfaction. The mysterious figure of a woman trapped behind the yellow wallpaper becomes a symbol for the ways in which the narrator herself feels trapped by her role in the family. The narrator's urgent desire to free this woman, and to hide her existence from John and Jennie, leads to her raving final breakdown as she tears the paper, 'creeping' around the room and over her husband – who, in a reversal of their traditional roles as strong protector and fragile child, has fainted in shock at the sight of his wife. - Theme: Outward Appearance vs. Inner Life. Description: Another major theme in the story lies in the contradiction between outward appearance and inner life.The story's form, in a series of diary entries, gives the reader a glimpse into its writer's inner life. This, in turn, allows us to watch as the narrator's husband misinterprets her condition, and as she begins to consciously deceive both him and Jennie. Our privileged view into the narrator's mind leads to an appreciation of the sarcasm and irony that lace her descriptions of her husband John and her life in the home. Even as her husband is convinced that she is improving, the reader witnesses her obsession with the wallpaper take a dangerous turn as her despair intensifies. The practically minded John is unable to grasp the realities of his wife's inner life, which exists outside of his direct observation. He assumes she is improving since she eats more at dinner, ignoring her more emotional complaints. His blindness to her inner life means that, when she ultimately breaks down completely at the story's climax, John is shocked to the point of fainting.The narrator's descriptions of her home, and in particular of the wallpaper, further highlight this contradiction between outward appearance and inner life. Many of the rooms and objects in the home and in the narrator's memory of her childhood, although outwardly inanimate, take on a sort of life. Even before the narrator becomes convinced that the wallpaper contains a mysterious figure, she describes it as having an all-pervasive, changeable, menacing life of its own, invading the whole house and hiding some evil intention. It is partly the narrator's intense need to interpret this inner life of the wallpaper that drives her to madness, a process that mirrors her attempt to interpret her own psychological condition as well as the reader's attempts to interpret her story. - Theme: Self-Expression, Miscommunication, and Misunderstanding. Description: Alongside questions of gender and mental illness in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the simple story of a woman who is unable fully to express herself, or to find someone who will listen.The narrator's sense that the act of writing, which she has been forbidden to do, is exactly what she needs to feel better suggests this stifled self-expression. Since she is unable to communicate with her husband, this diary becomes a secret outlet for those thoughts that would cause him to worry or become upset. The conversations recorded in the diary reveal the extent to which her husband John misunderstands her inner life, and the reader's ability to see this miscommunication creates dramatic irony, which arises when the reader knows more about what's going on than the characters. The reader can see both how the narrator's relationship to her husband changes dramatically over the course of her stay in the room with the yellow wallpaper, and how John is blind to this growing distance. Able to see this but, being a reader, able to do nothing about it, the reader comes to inhabit a similar position as the narrator in her isolation – of being able to perceive things but completely unable to then share them in a meaningful or impactful way.There are also moments of misunderstanding within the diary itself, small clues that signal the house's darker past. These markers create another kind of dramatic irony, since here it is the narrator herself whose knowledge is incomplete. The reader is kept in suspense as these small details, such as the gnawed bedposts or the barred windows, reveal new information about the rented house, which we know has stood empty for a long period, and was acquired inexpensively for the summer. There is an implication that the upper room has served before as a sanatorium (rather than as a nursery), and perhaps that the house is indeed haunted, as the narrator jokingly suggests in the opening diary entry. These details create an awareness of the author behind the character of the narrator, who has crafted this story to maximize its horror, and in so doing has linked the horror of a traditional gothic tale with what the author sees as the horror of the way her society treats women faced with mental illness. - Climax: The narrator suffers a complete mental breakdown, identifying herself with the woman she has hallucinated as being trapped in the yellow wallpaper and clawing at the walls as she creeps in endless circles about the room and over her fainted husband. - Summary: The Yellow Wallpaper is written as a series of diary entries from the perspective of a woman who is suffering from post-partum depression. The narrator begins by describing the large, ornate home that she and her husband, John, have rented for the summer. John is an extremely practical man, a physician, and their move into the country is partially motivated by his desire to expose his suffering wife to its clean air and calm life so that she can recover from what he sees as a slight hysterical tendency. The narrator complains that her husband will not listen to her worries about her condition, and treats her like a child. She also suspects that there is something strange and mysterious about the house, which has been empty for some time, but John dismisses her concerns as a silly fantasy. As part of her cure, the narrator is forbidden from pursuing any activity other than domestic work, so as not to tax her mind. She particularly misses the intellectual act of writing and conversation, and this account is written in a diary that she hides from her husband. They move into the room at the top of the house, which the narrator supposes is a former nursery since it has barred windows and peeling yellow wallpaper. This repellent yellow wallpaper becomes a major force in the story, as the narrator grows obsessed with deciphering its seemingly incomprehensible, illogical patterns. She continues to hide the diary from John, and grows more and more convinced that the wallpaper contains a malevolent force that threatens the whole home. From her room, she can see a shaded lane, the bay, and an overgrown garden. When she can escape the attention of her husband and Jennie, his sister, she continues her study of the wallpaper and begins to imagine she can see a mysterious figure hiding behind the top pattern. She tries to convince her husband that they should leave the house, but he insists that she is improving and sees indulging her concerns as encouraging a dangerous, fanciful nature, when what is required is self-control. The narrator's depression and fatigue continue to worsen. Her fascination with the wallpaper takes over her life. In a series of increasingly short diary entries, she describes her progress in uncovering the secrets of its pattern, as she grows increasingly paranoid about the intentions of Jennie and John. She believes that the figure is a creeping woman, trapped behind the bars of the top pattern, and becomes determined to free her, and to keep the secret of her existence from her husband and his sister. She surprises Jennie examining a scratched groove on the wall, and doesn't believe her excuse that she had been looking for the source of the yellow stains on the narrator's clothes. She begins to keep secrets even from her diary, and makes an initial, nighttime attempt to remove the wallpaper on the eve of their departure. Later, when all the furniture has been removed from the room except for the gnawed and heavy bedstand, she locks the door and throws the key down onto the front drive, and then proceeds to tear and tear at the parts of the wallpaper she can reach. Here, at the story's climax, the perspective shifts as the narrator's mental breakdown becomes complete, and in her madness she is convinced that she is the woman who was trapped behind the wallpaper. She begins to creep around the room in an endless circle, smudging the wallpaper in a straight groove. John breaks into the room and discovers her, and faints at the sight. She continues to creep endlessly around the room, forced to go over his prone body.

- Genre: Novel - Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God - Point of view: The novel is Janie's life-story, told to Pheoby Watson by Janie herself. However, throughout the novel, a third-person omniscient narrator interrupts Janie's narrations and direct presentations of characters' speech. The narrator's mode of speaking is distinctly literary in contrast to the Southern dialect of the other characters, but is nonetheless influenced by the language and imagery of the characters and their world. - Setting: The American South in the early 20th century. The novel takes place most centrally in Eatonville, Florida and in the Everglades. - Character: Janie Crawford. Description: The novel's heroine, Janie is both the narrator and protagonist of her story. Of mixed-race origins, Janie is the object of much attention for her notably light black skin and physical beauty. But behind Janie's beauty is where her true character lies: she is headstrong, determined to achieve fulfillment on her quest for independence, spiritual nourishment, and self-expression. - Character: Tea Cake. Description: Of her three husbands (Logan Killicks and Jody Starks being the first two), Tea Cake is Janie's one and only true love throughout the novel. Twelve years younger than Janie and of much lower social status, Tea Cake appears initially as a risky candidate for marriage. However, he treats Janie with far more respect and affection than either of her other husbands, though all is not perfect in their marriage as Tea Cake at times lies and once beats Janie. Upon their meeting, Tea Cake engages Janie in lively conversation and asks her to play checkers, treating her as an equal player. Tea Cake satisfies Janie's desire for sexual fulfillment and self-expression, allowing her to arrive at the horizon at the novel's end. - Character: Jody Starks. Description: Jody Starks is Janie's handsome, wealthy, ambitious, and power-hungry second-husband. Meeting Jody Starks prompts Janie to leave her first husband, Logan Killicks, who she felt treated her as nothing more than an animal. Upon meeting Jody, Janie feels that she catches a glimpse of the horizon. Although Jody initially flatters Janie by focusing on and complimenting her beauty, he too ends up demoralizing her, treating her as an object upon which to exercise his desire for control and power rather than as a partner of equal standing in the relationship. - Character: Logan Killicks. Description: A wealthy farmer and land-owner, Logan Killick's is Janie's first husband. Their marriage is arranged by Janie's grandmother Nanny, a former slave who desires financial security and social status for Janie, and thinks that goal is more important than paying any attention to her granddaughter's own individual desires. Logan forcefully demands that Janie work behind the plow alongside him on the field, making her feel dehumanized and disrespected. Janie ends up leaving Logan for Jody Starks. - Character: Nanny Crawford. Description: A former slave, Nanny is Janie's grandmother, a woman predominantly characterized by traditional perceptions about gender and marriage. Specifically, Nanny focuses on the importance of upward mobility and financial security for women, especially black women, and sees that goal as attainable only through marriage and the primary factor in selecting a husband (as opposed to, say, love). Although Nanny only wishes the best for her granddaughter, Janie feels tremendous frustration at various points throughout the novel for the limitations that Nanny's traditional worldviews have imposed upon her life and her particular desire to seek independence and freedom. - Character: Leafy Crawford. Description: Leafy Crawford is Janie's mother, whom Janie never knew. She is the daughter of Nanny and Nanny's slave-master, who raped Nanny just before the end of the Civil War. Leafy is herself raped by her teacher, getting her pregnant, and she begins to drink every night preceding Janie's birth, and ultimately runs away after giving birth to her, leaving Nanny to take care of her granddaughter. - Character: Pheoby Watson. Description: Pheoby Watson is Janie's closest friend in Eatonville, and repeatedly defends Janie against the mean-spirited gossip of the townspeople. Pheoby is the character who listens to Janie tell her story – the body of the novel – and in this way, is the character in the novel who most actively recognizes Janie's newfound capacity for self-expression. - Character: Sam Watson. Description: Sam Watson is Pheoby's husband and a frequent participant in the conversations that unfold on the porch of Jody's store in Eatonville. Sam Watson voices particular concern on Janie's behalf as she begins to see Tea Cake publicly, worrying that Janie will end up like the poor widow Mrs. Tyler, who was cheated out of her money by her younger lover called Who Flung. - Character: Captain Eaton. Description: A principal donor of Eatonville's initially existing fifty-acres, Captain Eaton is perhaps the first ambitious entrepreneur to set foot in Eatonville. However, when Jody and Janie arrive to Eatonville, Jody purchases more land from Captain Eaton and proves himself more desirous of public control, usurping the Captain's former role of authority over the town. - Character: Hezekiah Potts. Description: Hezekiah Pott's is a loyal employee at Jody's store, and voices his judgments of Tea Cake to Janie as she begins to see him around the store following Jody's death. Hezekiah also attempts to act with Jody's sense of authority and control over the store after his death, which Janie simply finds amusing, not threatening. - Character: Mr. and Mrs. Robbins. Description: Mr. and Mrs. Robbins are townspeople in Eatonville and patrons of Jody's store. When Mrs. Robbins comes to the store one day to beg for a bit of meat and the on-looking men on the porch make fun of her, Janie stands up for Mrs. Robbins and tells the men they don't know anything about women. - Character: Annie Tyler and Who Flung. Description: Annie Tyler is the infamous widow of Eatonville, who was cheated and left by her younger lover Who Flung. Townspeople of Eatonville warn Janie of this tale as she begins to date Tea Cake, and she too finds herself worrying about whether or not she will end up like Mrs. Tyler at the beginning of her marriage to Tea Cake. - Character: Mrs. Turner. Description: Mrs. Turner is Janie and Tea Cake's awkward looking and often disrespectful neighbor in the muck, who attempts to befriend Janie and alienates Tea Cake. Mrs. Turner repeatedly suggests that Janie go out with her brother, who she says is much better than Tea Cake because of his intelligence and lighter skin. Despite her own identity as a black woman, Mrs. Turner exhibits extremely racist attitudes against people of her own race, highlighting the often paradoxical and inexplicable nature of racism. - Character: Dr. Simmons. Description: Dr. Simmons is the white doctor in the muck who tells Janie of Tea Cake's contraction of rabies after the dog bites him during the hurricane. After Tea Cake's death, Dr. Simmons gives a testimony in defense of Janie after she is called to court, telling the jury that Tea Cake was dangerous and Janie was right to kill him in self-defense. - Theme: Gender Roles and Relations. Description: Their Eyes Were Watching God explores traditional gender roles as one of its main themes – specifically the way that stereotypical ideas about relationships between men and women empower men and disempower women. The novel's plot is driven by Janie's series of relationships with different men: a kiss with Johnny Taylor, followed by marriages with Logan Killicks, Jody Starks and finally, Tea Cake. Logan Killicks and Jody Starks see Janie as defined by her relationship with them, and expect her to be obedient, silent and proper. Jody sees her as a kind of ornament that bolsters his social standing and that helps to justify his efforts to assert control over everyone, men and women alike.Tea Cake, in contrast, defines himself not by political power but rather by his physical strength and ability to have fun. Even while Tea Cake treats Janie as an equal, there still exists a certain power struggle in Janie's relationship with him, as her increasing ability to recognize her needs as an individual throughout the novel emerges in response to Tea Cake's treatment of her. Thus it is still possible to see Tea Cake as having a degree of control over Janie until the moment of his death. In each of her relationships, we watch Janie lose parts of herself under the forces of male domination.The men are not the only characters who see the traditional take on gender relations (strong men, obedient women) as necessary and worthwhile. Nanny, as a former slave who endured brutal conditions in her life, is understandably more concerned with material well-being than self-expression. She therefore sees marriage as a means to gain status and financial security for her granddaughter, and does not believe that a black women can gain independence without a man. But Janie has different concerns, separating her from Nanny and other women who accept the traditional gender roles on display in the novel. Janie seeks self-expression, and authentic love based on mutual respect—a goal she ultimately achieves in her relationship with Tea Cake and, even more so, after his death, when she has fully come to know herself and can speak her mind and tell her own story. - Theme: Voice, Language and Storytelling. Description: Janie is both the protagonist and narrator of her story, recounting her life experiences to her friend Pheoby after arriving back to Eatonville at the end point of her journey. Janie's experiences within her marriages, a central subject of her story, are what drive her to recognize that what she most actively seeks is a voice for herself—to be someone who can speak and be listened to. The distinctive personalities of Jody and Tea Cake in particular bring to light Janie's progress toward finding a voice. While Jody stifles Janie and does not allow her to express herself, Tea Cake earns Janie's attraction precisely by acting as her equal, by being someone who listens.Janie's full discovery of her own voice emerges in Chapter 19, the climactic trial scene immediately following Tea Cake's death. In this scene, Janie-the-narrator noticeably decreases her interruptions of the narrative itself, instead allowing herself as a character to provide continuous testimony. This shift marks her recognition of herself as an individual with a unique voice, one that she owns and can control without supervision from a man. Janie's story can be read not only as recounting her experiences to a friend, but also as a triumph in and of itself. That is, her goal and desire throughout the novel is to find a voice that is her own and to use that voice to express herself as a person. So being able to tell her own story, to be both the narrator and protagonist, marks the achievement of that ambition.Their Eyes Were Watching God not only explores the theme of language and storytelling at the level of narrative content, but also through its form. There is a clear split between the narrator's literary style and the dialect of the black American South used by Janie and the characters in her community. This split is deliberately challenging to read, indicating Hurston's attempt as the author to equalize these different forms of communication. By writing the novel in this way, Hurston endows the black community she seeks to portray in the novel with a literary "voice" that was previously unrecognized or seen as un-literary and not worth listening to. - Theme: Desire, Love, and Independence. Description: Their Eyes Were Watching God focuses its plot both on Janie's series of romantic relationships as well as on Janie's individual quest for self-fulfillment and spiritual nourishment. In the novel, Janie's marriages are what most concretely impede upon her individual quest, but in doing so they actually force Janie to become aware of what it is that she wants for herself as an individual. In the cases of Jody and Tea Cake, Janie interprets her initial sexual appetite for these men as a sign of love, and as a result, a reason for marriage. Given that Jody entirely strips Janie of independence, his death allows her to move toward a recognition of herself as a self-possessed individual. Janie's attraction to Tea Cake initially emerges from her feeling that he gives her exactly what Jody did not: a sense of equality. However, her eventual marriage to Tea Cake still has its problems and impinges on her personal independence.For instance, Tea Cake steals Janie's money and spends it on food and alcohol for his friends; he causes Janie to feel intense jealousy by sneaking off with Nunkie and then proceeds to comfort Janie through sex, rather than by listening and validating her emotions directly. After Tea Cake's death, though, Janie realizes that despite difficulty, there were real elements of their marriage that gave her a sense of individual fulfillment and equality with him. As a result, even when Tea Cake is no longer alive, Janie is able to express her continued feeling of individual fulfillment, as she remains nourished by the spirit of Tea Cake, who she still loves, but is able to live on her own. At the end of the novel, Janie realizes the possibility of coexistence between love and a sense of self-fulfillment and independence. - Theme: Power, Judgment, and Jealousy. Description: Different characters in the novel struggle to find a way to cope and thrive as individuals within communities and within the natural world. Janie searches for individual fulfillment by attempting to find her own voice and independence; Jody seeks total control (through acting as Eatonville's mayor or by forcing Janie to wear her hair in a headscarf out of irrational jealousy); Tea Cake desires a fun-loving approach to life, bordering on the pathological (stealing Janie's money without thinking anything of it, for example, or facing down the hurricane, ultimately paving the way toward his death). Of course, the novel most extensively explores Janie and her life-long attempt to tune out judgment from the world around her and find power in her own voice. Janie's search for independence reveals her desire to detach from the pressures of judgment and jealousy from her husbands and townspeople and to think for herself. The lessened pressure of a power struggle having to do with judgment and jealousy in Janie's marriage with Tea Cake is what ultimately permits Janie to find fulfillment at the end of the novel. In this way, the end of the novel tells us that Janie's search for independence emerged, at least in part, of her ability to tune out the evils of judgment and jealousy that ultimately arose in response to her drive for freedom. - Theme: Race and Racism. Description: Despite its references to race, racism is not the central theme of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Instead, Hurston weaves race and racism into the society and culture in which Janie lives, but chooses to focus more on Janie's life experiences as a human being than as a black woman. In some ways, by not exclusively or predominantly focusing on race, the novel can portray race and racism in the American South in the early 20th century with great complexity.Janie's unusual and beautiful appearance as a fair-skinned (¼ white) black woman living in the black American South sparks attention from the various communities she encounters throughout the novel, some of which are marked by racist attitudes. For instance, the character of Mrs. Turner presents a highly complicated instance of racism, as Mrs. Turner is a black woman who is nonetheless extremely racist against blacks, particularly darker-skinned blacks.Mrs. Turner scorns Janie's relationship with Tea Cake and repeatedly begs Janie to date her light-skinned brother. Given her identity as a black woman, Mrs. Turner's racism against blacks indicates that race is not a marker of real difference. Those who espouse superiority of one kind over another can find any pretext, any trait, to base those assertions on. Racism in the novel can be understood, then, as a set of rather ridiculous prejudices that exist in society, not a universal or stable system based on truth, which in turn makes its brutal effects (such as slavery in general and the rape of Nanny and its aftermath), particularly devastating. - Climax: The climax of the novel arguably unfolds in Chapter 18, during the hurricane. It is in this scene that Janie and Tea Cake are situated in clear opposition to the forces of nature, and find themselves fighting against the will of God for survival. - Summary: Their Eyes Were Watching God focuses on the experiences of Janie Crawford, a beautiful and determined fair-skinned black woman living in the American South. The novel begins when Janie returns to Eatonville, Florida after having left for a significant amount of time. She is met by the judgmental gossiping of Eatonville's townspeople, whose conversations focus on the fact that Janie had left town with a young man named Tea Cake. Amidst their gossiping, Janie's friend Pheoby Watson stands up for Janie and goes to greet her friend. Janie tells Pheoby her life story, including what happened in the time since she initially left Eatonville, which is the story of the rest of the novel. Janie spends her childhood being brought up by her grandmother Nanny, a former slave who, despite her controlling nature, has only the best intentions for her granddaughter. Before buying a new home for herself and her granddaughter, Nanny raises Janie in the backyard home of Mr. and Mrs. Washburn, a friendly white couple whom Nanny began working for after she was granted freedom. Nanny wishes for Janie to find improved social standing and financial security in life, and so when she sees Janie kissing a boy she quickly arranges for Janie to marry the wealthy farmer Logan Killicks.Janie is not content with her marriage to Logan Killicks, but hopefully wishes that she will grow to love Logan. Unfortunately, her hopes are instead met by abuse by Logan, whom she feels treats her as an animal. Thankfully, one day Janie meets the handsome and ambitious Jody Starks, who courts her and eventually encourages her to run away from Logan. Janie complies, they marry, and head off together to Eatonville, Florida.In Eatonville, Jody seeks political power and entrepreneurial control over the town, becoming both the mayor and the owner of the main store in town. Janie feels love for Jody at the very early stages of their relationship, but ultimately comes to feel stifled by his desire for control and power – especially because he regards Janie as nothing more than an accessory to all of his success.Jody eventually becomes ill and his treatment of Janie worsens along with his deteriorating health. Finally, Janie speaks up for herself and Jody violently beats her in front of everyone in the store. While Jody is on his deathbed, Janie ceases to be silent, and tells Jody all about how terrible he made and makes her feel. Soon after these conversations, Jody dies. Following Jody's funeral, Janie does not feel as though she is in a state of mourning, but instead feels free and excited about her life and fulfilling her dreams for the first time in decades. She begins to wear her hair down – not in the mandatory head rag Jody made her wear – and white clothing, to alert potential suitors to her new availability. One day while Janie is working in Jody's former store, a handsome young man named Tea Cake walks in, flirts with Janie and invites her to play checkers with him. Despite Janie's initial ambivalence, she is charmed and spends the rest of the evening with Tea Cake. Because of Tea Cake's younger age and lower social status, the townspeople worry about Janie going out with him, but Janie disregards their judgment and listens to her feelings instead. She and Tea Cake eventually run off together to the Everglades and get married.Janie and Tea Cake's married life together in the Everglades (or "the muck") is not perfect: he steals money from her, whips her once to assert power over her, and wrestles playfully with another girl in town named Nunkie. A woman in town named Mrs. Turner causes tension in their marriage, too, as she repeatedly tells Janie to leave Tea Cake for her lighter-skinned brother, demonstrating tremendously racist views. That said, Janie feels better with Tea Cake than she had felt with either of her other husbands: Tea Cake treats her as an equal and their marriage is built on authentic love and mutual respect. In the muck, they have many friends and host frequent informal parties at their home.Their happy life in the muck comes to an end one day a massive hurricane hits the area. During the storm, a rabid dog attacks Tea Cake and infects him with the disease. At first, Tea Cake is unaware of his condition, but quickly worsens and begins to go mad. Janie calls for a doctor who tells her of his disease, but assures the worried Janie that he will send for medicine. Janie realizes, however, that in his ill and manic state, Tea Cake has convinced himself of Janie's infidelity, and has been hiding a loaded pistol beneath his pillow. Janie is forced to kill Tea Cake in order to save her own life. She is brought to court, but found innocent by an all white, male jury after delivering a heartfelt testimony about her true love for Tea Cake.At the end of the novel, Janie returns to Eatonville – this return is the point at which the novel starts – and concludes her story to Pheoby. Despite her sadness about Tea Cake's death, Janie tells her friend that she is happy to be back, now feeling that she has reached the horizon and has access to her dreams. Tea Cake, Janie feels, is still a presence in her life, as their love provided her with the fulfillment of her desire for a voice and a sense of independence, things she had never known before him.

- Genre: Science Fiction - Title: There Will Come Soft Rains - Point of view: Third person omniscient - Setting: August 2026 in Allendale, CA—the aftermath of a nuclear explosion - Character: The House. Description: The house—an artificially intelligent, automated machine—is the main character of the story. Despite being inhuman, it has a complex personality. The house's character traits are embodied by the different machines inside it (some of which feature so prominently that they can be considered characters in their own right, such as the clock, the robot mice, and the voice reading poetry). At first the house demonstrates more docile features of its personality. It seems affectionate, since it misses the family. It also appears to be industrious when it goes through the motions of getting everyone ready. From the description of how the house shoos away animals, the reader even gets the sense that the house is prudish. When the dog appears, the reader sees a new, darker side of the house. It handles the dog brusquely and seems more concerned with cleaning the mud it tracks in than with tending to the dog's needs. When the dog dies, the house callously sweeps its remains into an incinerator. From the way voices direct the family's every step, the reader begins to suspect that the house has some kind of obsession with control and order. When a tree branch finally falls on the house, causing a fire, the house frantically tries to ward it off, throwing all of its systems into overdrive to fight the fire to no avail. The house demonstrates so many of the worst traits that technology brings out in people, becoming a moral warning against blindly following the next new tech craze. Its death at the hands of nature is meant to remind the reader that nature is permanent, while technology is temporary. - Character: The Dog. Description: The dog—the story's only living character—appears on the house's doorstep at noon, shivering. The house recognizes it and lets the dog in, which suggests that it was once the family pet. The story goes on to say that the dog used to be large and fleshy but has since been worn away by sickness and hunger in the aftermath of the nuclear explosion that killed the family that once occupied the house. Even from the first moment the house encounters the dog, the reader suspects that the house does not like it. At the very least, the house is disgusted by all the mud that the dog tracks inside and cleans it up using robot mice. The dog searches for its family, realizes that no one is home, smells some pancakes cooking in the next room, and dies in a lonely frenzy. As soon as the house discovers that the dog is dead, it quickly disposes of the body. The dog's brief and pitiable appearance in the story creates juxtaposition between the loving world the reader lives in and the heartless, mechanical realm of the story. - Character: Clock. Description: The clock is part of the machinery of the house, but it features so prominently that it is a character in its own right. The clock demonstrates a solicitous attitude—it is afraid no one will hear it—at the very beginning of the story when it announces 7:00 a.m. Its concern, combined with its state of being alone in the house, ingratiates the clock to the reader. However, as the day wears on, timestamps in the story calling out the hour suggest that the clock is more complicated than a lonely machine that misses its residents. As it continues to call out minutes and hours throughout the day, the house responds by initiating new activities. Through this dynamic between the clock and the house, readers discover that the clock wields great power over the house. It decides what , and when. When the house begins to die, readers learn that the clock has a strong attachment to this power. It continues to cry out the time, even though its words no longer initiate new activities. When, with its last words, the clock declares that a new day has started, readers see a pathetic figure reaching for power that has finally escaped its grasp. The clock reminds the reader of how quickly time passes. Its grim fate also clues the reader into what sort of future awaits someone who is constantly trying to control the world around them. - Character: Robot Mice. Description: These mice, which are part of the house's machinery, display the house's dark side. Like the clock, they seem innocent enough at first, and they are quite useful, since they are able to reach hidden dust that would be difficult and unpleasant to clean by hand. However, when the sickly dog returns home after the nuclear explosion, the mice seem annoyed to have to deal with a mess, rather than relieved at the return of one of the house's occupants. They clean up after the dog without compassion, and when the dog dies, they hurry to clean up after it, not even pausing to mourn. The robot mice show that there is a limit to how humane a machine can be. - Character: The Voice Reading Poetry. Description: This character is part of the house's machinery. At 9:05 p.m., the voice addresses Mrs. McClellan (the mother in the McClellan family), projecting from the ceiling in the study. It offers to read a poem of her choosing, implying that this has long been part of the house's nightly routine. When she makes no reply, it selects a poem at random that, the voice recalls, happens to be her favorite: There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale. Though the voice seems very serious as it reads this poem about the demise of mankind, for the reader it is odd to hear emotional poetry read by a machine. Of course, this odd situation pales in comparison to what happens after the house catches on fire. When it becomes clear that the house is going to burn, the voice randomly begins to read poetry again, apparently oblivious to both the content it is reading and the circumstances surrounding it. This character represents the limits of technology, as well as the idea that the need to always do things in a certain way can blind one to reality. - Character: The McClellan Family. Description: This is the family that lived in the house before the nuclear explosion (they are dead before the story begins but referenced throughout). The white silhouettes of the McClellan father, mother, son, and daughter appear on the side of the house as a reminder of happier times. Readers never meet the McClellans, but they learn more about them based on how the house caters to their needs. For example, the fact that the house serves a lot of hearty, standard American foods (such as pancakes, bacon, eggs, and toast) suggests that the McClellans' were, at least in some ways, a typical middle or upper class family. The family also had artistic preferences regarded as cultivated or fine by contemporary standards. For instance, Mrs. McClellan used to listen to poetry on a regular basis, as is evidenced by the scene with the voice reading poetry in the study. Additionally, the family owned paintings by Picasso and Matisse, which burn during the fire. By presenting the family as ordinary yet refined, Bradbury suggests that what happens in the McClellan home is not unique; no one is safe from the perils of technology. - Character: Fire. Description: Fire is portrayed as a clever and worthy adversary of the house. Even when snake-like tubes release fire repellant, the flames wrap around the outside of the house and attack the attic (the house's brain). The fact that the fire ultimately conquers the house underscores the immense power of nature is in comparison with anything humans create. - Theme: Life vs. Technology. Description: "There Will Come Soft Rains" narrates a day in the life of a home whose automated artificially-intelligent functions, such as making meals and cleaning, continue to operate after its human residents (the McClellan family) have perished in a nuclear explosion. As such, the story centers lifelike technology—both anthropomorphized and animalistic—and relegates actual living beings to the fringes of the tale. In doing so, Bradbury creates an eerie confusion between life and technology, showing the extent to which technology has blended with and taken on the characteristics of humans and animals. Bradbury imbues the house with distinctly human and animalistic characteristics. Many of the house's automated functions have the form of robotic animals. For example, "robot mice" and "copper scrap rats" clean the house, "twenty snakes" fight the house fire with a "clear cold venom of green froth," and the nursery is full of artificial animals (such as "iron crickets" and "butterflies of delicate red tissue") for the amusement of the children. The house also has humanlike form in that it has many "voices"—including a voice that tells the weather, a voice that give reminders of the time, and even a voice that reads poetry aloud. Its attic (which seems to be a control center for the artificially-intelligent machinery) is also described as a "brain." When the house fire begins to reach the attic, the house activates many mechanisms to protect its most vital "organ," much like the human body protects the brain. The house is most obviously humanlike, though, in its performance of daily tasks such as cooking meals, cleaning, and even reminding the (now absent) residents of birthdays, anniversaries, and bills that must be paid. The house therefore attempts to maintain human life (by feeding people, for example), and it also provides an essential social function (sparing people the rudeness of missing a birthday, say). This shows that the house is integrated into human life at all levels, from the most basic (survival) to the most rarefied (reading poetry to the human residents). The blend of anthropomorphic and animalistic elements suggests that the house exists in a space between life and machine; it performs essential human functions (indeed, human life is reliant on it) and the technology itself takes humanlike and animalistic forms, although Bradbury is still careful to describe it as mechanical. The house's technology maintains its humanlike functions after the people it is intended to serve are gone, which shows that the technology itself is imprinted with human life but also inhumane. The story takes place after the human family has died, but the house carries on as if its residents are still living; it continues to cook, voice reminders about the day, lay out martinis for the parents, provide entertainment for the children, and so on. Bradbury does not portray this, however, as a series of automated functions that are oblivious to their own futility. Instead, Bradbury shows the house as being almost sentient. When the radiation-poisoned family dog returns home, for example, Bradbury writes that, "the dog ran upstairs, hysterically yelping to each door, at last realizing, as the house realized, that only silence was here." From the phrase "as the house realized," readers are left to infer that the house knows that its human inhabitants are gone, yet it continues to operate as though people were home—not out of obliviousness, but rather out of a sense of purpose beyond serving humans. In other words, while the human inhabitants must have assumed that the house existed for them and because of them, the house shows that it operates with utter indifference to human life for a purpose that remains mysterious. Ironically, it's the humanlike sentience that Bradbury gives the house that enables readers to perceive its inhumanity. The house carrying on its functions is eerie if it isn't sentient, but callous and even sinister if it is. Giving the house the human trait of sentience, then, allows technology to be judged for its behavior. The house's inhumanity is perhaps most clear in its treatment of the family dog, which is clearly suffering from radiation poisoning and panicked to find itself in a world utterly hostile and changed. While the house has the capability to care for humans by drawing baths and cooking food, it makes no attempt to aid the dog. In fact, the mice that clean up the dirt that the dog tracks in are "angry at having to pick up mud, angry at inconvenience." Furthermore, when the dog dies, the robot mice instantly whisk its body into the furnace without any hint of disturbance. Although American pets are commonly considered to be part of the family, the house expresses only anger at the "inconvenience" of the dog's existence, and when the dog dies, the house expresses nothing at all. Readers, of course, are left to wonder how the house "felt" about its human inhabitants—perhaps the house was also angry at the inconvenience of their messy lives and felt nothing when they died. Bradbury's sinister conflation of technology with human and animal life—particularly through his ascription of sentience to the house—demonstrates the extent to which Bradbury sees humans and machines as having merged in some fundamental way. The human family who lived in the house depended on its technology to survive, and the human imprint on the technology carries on after they are gone (in that the technology continues to carry out human functions). Importantly, his vision is not a utopian one in which technology helps humans to live the best possible life. While the house at first seems to enable an idyllic ease and leisure, the house's cruel indifference to the fate of the humans and animals that it resembles suggests that technology blending with life is sinister. This becomes an even more dystopian vision in light of the fact that humanity itself has been annihilated by cutting-edge technology: the atomic bomb. - Theme: Death, Control, and Time. Description: Set in a post-apocalyptic landscape, this story presents death as pervasive. The reader encounters the death of the McClellan family, their dog, their city, and the house. Related to this relentless dying, Bradbury emphasizes the omnipresence of time, structuring the story around the house's automated announcement of each hour of the day. The ever-ticking clock announcing every hour suggests the McClellan family's tendency towards efficiency and control down to the minute. When coupled with the unpredictability and finality of death, however, this obsession with controlling time appears both misguided and futile. Bradbury depicts multiple instances of death to underscore that there is no way to control or subdue it. Death can come in "one titanic instant," as it does for the McClellan family. The father, mother, and two children were all engaged in regular occupations when an atomic bomb exploded. Their bodies incinerated, and all that remains are their white silhouettes on the side of the house. Nothing in the story suggests that the family knew that this moment would be its last. In particular, the ball pictured midair "which never came down" emphasizes how instantaneous this death was—faster than gravity. Death is also indifferent. When the family dog approaches the house, Bradbury quickly establishes it as a sympathetic figure by saying it is "whining, shivering" and that it "ran upstairs, hysterically yelping" in search of its owners. Its lonely end, then, leaves the reader with a sense of loss, and underscores the unfeeling, indiscriminate nature of death. And above all, death is final. In only a few moments, it can undo work that took centuries to create. When the house catches on fire, for example, the flames start "baking off the oily flesh" of "Picassos and Matisses," destroying artwork by two of the most influential painters of the 19th and 20th centuries. Death not only destroys life, then, but even the legacy human beings would attempt to leave behind. Closely linked to the inevitability and unpredictability of death is the unstoppable march of time. The existence of death means that everyone's time is limited and fundamentally beyond their control. Nevertheless, this society seeks to measure and optimize time whenever possible. This is reflected in the structure of the story, which is firmly rooted in the passing of hours. It opens with the date, followed by an alarm clock announcing that it is 7:00 a.m. Every few paragraphs, a robotic voice again announces the time. The clock further highlights the extent to which the McClellans attempted, before their deaths, to control every aspect of their day. In each hour, the house has something new planned for the family. First, they eat breakfast, then they go to work, then the house cleans up after them, and so forth. So meticulous is the house about time-keeping that if it is in any way interrupted, it becomes irritated. For example, when the dog enters, it is followed by "angry mice, angry at having to pick up mud, angry at inconvenience." The dog requires additional time and attention, disturbing the house's planned schedule for the day. Of course, this schedule is already absurd, given the death of the house's inhabitants. This suggests the naïve futility of attempting to meticulously control every moment of one's day—and, it follows, of one's life. There will always be disruptions, the most devastating and final being death itself. Bradbury holds no sympathy for this desire to control time because he recognizes that it is futile—death and time progress regardless of any and all efforts to the contrary. By naming the story after There Will Come Soft Rains, a poem by Sara Teasdale that is also read out during the short story, Bradbury makes his point of view clear. Teasdale offers a placid image of the world, complete with lovely scenes from nature, that is the result of humans destroying one another in a great war. This beautiful yet grim image of the future reveals that death will have its way with humans and that time will continue to march on without them. - Theme: Nature vs. Technology. Description: The automated house of Bradbury's story presents itself as the perfect environment for human beings—a space that readily caters to nearly every imaginable need. To do so, however, it relies a great deal on the natural world, both for inspiration (many of its automated functions, such as the robot mice, are based on animals) and for the raw materials to keep running. By having the house ultimately succumb to a fire and be destroyed by the natural world, Bradbury suggests that nature is more powerful than whatever man can create. Bradbury physically establishes the animosity between the house—a symbol of technology—and the natural world. The house protects its residents from the forces of nature: its walls close out harsh weather, its kitchen machines spare humans from hunting and foraging in the wilderness, and the cleaning mice ward off the chaos of the outdoors, cleaning up the mud, dust, and hair that accumulate in a natural environment. This house even seems to take its responsibility to battle nature a bit too far. It shuts itself whenever "lonely foxes and whining cats" get too close. Comically, the narrator describes the stern response of the house to a sparrow brushing up against the window: "No, not even a bird must touch the house!" This protective impulse turns sinister when the house dispassionately disposes of the family dog's carcass, treating the pet as nothing more than some smelly bio-matter. When nature threatens to destroy it, technology is able to put up a comprehensive defense. For instance, when a fallen tree causes a house fire, machines come out in full force to battle the hostile foe. Mechanical doors shut against fire in an act of self-defense. "Blind robot faces" spray green fire repellent. And when fire-fighting fails, voices cry out in warning, as a lookout might upon spotting enemy troops. Yet even as technology tries to subdue nature, it can't help but rely on it. This technology is created in nature's image and fueled by natural resources. Machines in the house are often likened to animals, suggesting that nature has already created perfect "machines" that humanity simply is attempting to copy for its own ends. Furthermore, technology cannot exist without the raw materials that nature provides: the house has been built out of oak, wired with metal tubes, and it's powered by the natural force of electricity. The house ultimately fails because its water reserves are depleted, meaning that it can't put out the fire that consumes it. Despite presenting an alternative to the natural order, technology ultimately looks weak compared with nature. After a day of fussing over the artificial environment that the house has created, the home settles in for the night. While the house is sleeping, nature launches its attack by letting a tree fall on the home, causing the fire. Though the house attempts to defend itself, the fire is described as "clever" and ultimately overpowers the upstart domicile. Bradbury seems to suggest that the victory is justified—that the arrogance of technology is finally being subdued. The eventual ease with which technology is outdone by nature suggests that it was arrogant and foolish to attempt to challenge the natural order in the first place. In the end, nature can persist without technology, but the reverse is not true. The poem by Sara Teasdale paints a picture of nature persisting even when everything men ever created has died away. Since nature is vast and self-sustaining, it cannot brake or run out of fuel the way machines do. And even in the face of the overwhelming and devastating effects of technology—the atom bomb, which has reduced the natural world to a radioactive wasteland of "rubble" and "ashes"—Bradbury suggests that nature will prevail. There are still trees, birds, foxes, cats, and dogs at the end of the story, implying that nature may, in time, thrive once again. Meanwhile, people and their technology have been wiped from the face of the Earth, showing that nature is the ultimate winner of this struggle. - Climax: Fire consumes the last house standing - Summary: After a nuclear explosion kills a California family but leaves their artificially intelligent house intact, the house continues to act as though nothing has happened. The day starts at 7:00 a.m. with the ringing of a clock. The clock is afraid that no one will hear it, but it begins to direct the day anyway, declaring that it is breakfast time. The kitchen begins to prepare a standard American breakfast using a variety of automated appliances. Over the course of the meal, the house announces a number of important details, such as a birthday, anniversary, and the payment status of certain bills. The house seems highly organized and concerned with the wellbeing of the family, both physically and socially. After breakfast, the house ushers non-existent children off to school, letting them know what weather to expect on their way out. Once the house completes this morning send-off, it cleans up breakfast with alacrity. Small robot mice emerge from nooks and crannies throughout the house and begin to vacuum, dust, and sweep. Once they have gathered all that they can carry, these tiny machines carry their loads to a chute that leads to the incinerator. Soon, the house is pristine and the mice disappear. During the lull of late morning activity, the narrator pans out to observe the house's exterior and the city as a whole. On the side of the house, silhouettes show four human figures engaged in typical outdoor activities. These figures were left by the McClellan family, since they were standing outside when the atomic bomb landed on Allendale. Their bodies protected those parts of the house from the full blast of the bomb, but the rest of their home is covered in charred particles. In the entire city, this is the only house that remains. At night, the city emits a powerful, radioactive glow. At noon, a surprise visitor arrives. It is the family dog. With any other animal, the house would haughtily forbid it from entering, but the technology that runs the house is intelligent and recognizes the dog, even though it is a shell of its former self. While the house lets the hunger-panged and sore-covered dog in, the pet receives a rude reception when robot mice emerge again to collect the mud it tracked inside. The mice seem irritated to have to go to the trouble since the house had already been cleaned. In contrast with the house's somewhat chipper efficiency, the dog is beside itself upon realizing that the family is no longer there. When pancakes begin to cook in the next room, the dog goes into a frenzy at the scent and dies. With morbid tidiness, the robot mice return again in a flurry. Sparks escape from the incinerator. Minutes later, the dog's body is nowhere to be found. Content to find the interior clean again, the house sets up a variety of activities for the absent family to enjoy. First, for the adults, it serves martinis, tiny sandwiches, and bridge cards on a small table outside. Next, for the children, it plays an elaborate safari-themed scene on the walls of the nursery. As night approaches, the house draws baths, lights a cigar, and offers to read Mrs. McClellan some poetry. When no reply comes, the voice reading poetry selects a poem by Sara Teasdale called There Will Come Soft Rains, which describes a beautiful country scene in a post-apocalyptic world where mankind no longer exists. Late at night, a tree falls into the kitchen, spreading cleaning supplies and quickly starting a fire. The house tries to contain the fire by closing doors. It also sends in the robot mice to put out the fire with water. This works well enough until the house's water reserves are exhausted. The fire regains momentum and heads upstairs, where it burns paintings by Picasso and Matisse. The robot mice break into the attic to access a reserve of green fire repellent. This sprays across the flames like a bunch of writhing snakes and succeeds at holding back the fire for a moment. Then the fire wraps around the house and targets the tank of fire repellent. It explodes, and the odds irreversibly turn in fire's favor. Machines cry out, some in terror, others executing their ordinary job such as one voice reading poetry or another declaring the time. Machines break down one by one, falling silent as their wires incinerate. The fire compromises the attic's structural integrity, causing it to fall down on the main floor, which falls into the cellar and sub-cellar. The last machine left as the sun rises is the clock, declaring the new day.

- Genre: Novel / Tragedy - Title: Things Fall Apart - Point of view: Third person omniscient - Setting: Pre-colonial Nigeria, 1890s - Character: Okonkwo. Description: The novel's main character and an influential clan leader, Okonkwo fears becoming an unsuccessful, weak man like his father, Unoka. As a result, Okonkwo is hardworking and aggressive, traits that bring him fame and wealth at the beginning of the novel. This same fear also causes Okonkwo to be impatient and brash, however, leading to his eventual downfall when he can't adjust to the changes occurring in the clan. - Character: Nwoye. Description: Nwoye is Okonkwo's eldest son. Nwoye resembles his grandfather Unoka, in that he's drawn to gentleness and music, even though he recognizes that his father disapproves. This tension between Okonkwo and Nwoye leads to an eventual split when Nwoye becomes one of the clan members who leave the clan to join the Christians. - Character: Ikemefuna. Description: Ikemefuna is the ill-fated boy the Mbaino sacrifice to Umuofia in order to prevent war. Ikemefuna is unaware that his father had a hand in killing one of the daughters of Umuofia and doesn't understand why he's taken away from his mother and sister. He settles into Okonkwo's household for three years and comes to consider Okonkwo his true father. Nwoye looks up to Ikemefuna, and the two become inseparable. At the end of three years, the clan decides that the boy must be killed, and Okonkwo deals the killing blow. - Character: Ogbuefi Ezeudo. Description: Ezeudo is oldest man in the village and a great orator. He warns Okonkwo not to take part in the killing of Ikemefuna, but Okonkwo pays no heed. Ezeudo passes away shortly afterwards, and Okonkwo accidentally kills one of Ezeudo's sons when his gun splinters at Ezeudo's burial. Okonkwo and his family are exiled for seven years. - Character: Ekwefi. Description: Ekwefi is Okonkwo's second wife and the mother of Ezinma. Once the village beauty, Ekwefi ran away from her first husband to live with Okonkwo. Ezinma is her only surviving child, and the two share a close relationship. Having lost her first nine children to death in infancy, Ekwefi fears that she will lose Ezinma too. - Character: Ezinma. Description: Ezinma is Okonkwo's eldest daughter and Ekwefi's only child to survive past infancy. Ezinma resembles her mother who was once the village beauty. She understands her father well, and he in turn wishes that she had been born a son. Ezinma also shares a close relationship with her mother, who considers Ezinma to be a companion as well as a daughter. - Character: Mr. Brown. Description: Mr. Brown, the first white missionary to travel to Umuofia, institutes a policy of respect and compromise between the church and the clansmen. He engages in long religious discussions with Akunna in order to understand the Igbo traditions, and he builds a school and a hospital in Umuofia. Unlike Reverend Smith who arrives later, Mr. Brown avoids resorting to violence and harsh methods of enforcing church beliefs, attempting to use his understanding of the Igbo faith to convert clansmen. - Character: Reverend James Smith. Description: Reverend Smith replaces Mr. Brown after the latter departs for health reasons. Unlike Mr. Brown, Reverend Smith is impatient and strict, showing no respect for indigenous customs or culture. He criticizes the way Mr. Brown interacted with the Umuofia people before his arrival, and he encourages extreme tactics to provoke change in the clan. - Character: District Commissioner. Description: The District Commissioner shows up in Umuofia after Okonkwo murders a white man towards the end of the novel. The District Commissioner plans to write a book on his experiences in Nigeria, and the title he chooses—The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger—reveals his superior attitude towards the Igbo people, whom he treats as objects of study rather than as actual people with their own complex customs and beliefs. - Theme: Tradition vs. Change. Description: The novel's title is a quote from a poem by the Irish poet W.B. Yeats called "The Second Coming": "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." Much of the novel centers on Umuofia traditions of marriage, burial, and harvest. Achebe's decision to use a third-person narrator instead of writing the book from Okonkwo's perspective demonstrates just how central the idea of tradition is to the book, since the third-person narrator can more objectively describe facets of Umuofia society—their love of proverbs or how they make judicial decisions, for example—to the reader than Okonkwo could as an insider to these rituals. As the quote in the epigraph suggests, though, these traditions that form the center of Umuofia society cannot survive in the face of major changes occurring around them. As the white men enter the clans and impose their world order upon them, Umuofia society spirals apart. Okonkwo and his son Nwoye also symbolize tradition and change, respectively. Okonkwo's character represents tradition, since he holds conventional ideas of rank, reputation, and masculinity in high esteem. As the book progresses, however, Okonkwo begins to fall out of favor with the clans, and his descent signals the crumbling of traditional Umuofia society. His adherence to tradition also drives him to kill his own surrogate son, Ikemefuna, driving away Nwoye in the process. Nwoye feels cold when he contemplates certain aspects of Umuofia society—such as leaving infant twins out to die and the idea of sacrificing innocents like Ikemefuna—and this pushes him to join the Christians when he's given the chance later in the novel. - Theme: Fate vs. Free Will. Description: From the start, Okonkwo's will seems to drive his ascent in Umuofia society. He rises from being the son of a debtor to being one of the leaders of the clan, thanks to his hard work and aggression. He becomes known for his wrestling prowess, and we are told that this cannot be attributed to luck: "At the most one could say that his chi or personal god was good. But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed."However, once things start turning sour for Okonkwo, he begins to blame his fate. This begins with Ikemefuna's death. Ikemefuna, along with the infant twins of the novel, represent the most straightforward victims—they aren't given a chance to act, but are instead acted upon violently. ("The ill-fated lad was called Ikemefuna.") Okonkwo blames the Oracle for his part in murdering Ikemefuna, though it could be argued—and is argued by the clan's oldest member, Ezeudu, and by Okonkwo's neighbor Obierika—that he had a choice in whether to take part or not. Later, when Okonkwo's gun splinters and he accidentally kills one of Ezeudu's sons, Okonkwo faces exile. Although his crops do well in the neighboring clan and he is allowed to return in seven years, Okonkwo is completely discouraged by the experience, and we find a reversal of the earlier quote: "A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi. The saying of the elders was not true—that if a man said yea his chi also affirmed. Here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation." - Theme: Language. Description: Language is a vital part of Umuofia society. Strong orators like Ogbuefi Ezeugo are celebrated and given honorable burials. Because clan meetings are so important for organization and decision-making, these speakers play an important role for society. Storytelling is also a form of education for the clan—whether they're masculine war stories or feminine fables, storytelling defines different roles for clan members and moves them to action. Even western religion takes hold because of story and song: when Nwoye first hears a hymn, it marks the beginning of his transition from clan member to Christian.The white District Commissioner also notes the importance of language to the Umuofia, but in a less generous light. When speaking with Obierika, he thinks: "One of the most infuriating habits of these people was their love of superfluous words," suggesting both the white men's condescension towards the Umuofia and how white language and culture will come to overtake that of Umuofia. At the end of the novel, the District Commissioner mentions the title of the book he plans to write about his experiences in Nigeria: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger. The District Commissioner's proposed title here is itself wordy and grandiose—i.e. superfluous. But what distinguishes it from the Umuofia language is that it's book-learned—and it will be written down. The ability to read and write in English begins to represent power, as the white men provide more financial incentives for learning their language and more clan members choose to enroll in their schools.Achebe's decision to transcribe several words from the Igbo language throughout the novel takes back some of this power, however, by suggesting that there are African ideas that cannot be adequately described in English. Achebe also uses repetition and idioms to create a more African style while writing in English. To add to this, what colonial rule and education unwittingly gave Nigerians was a common language with which to communicate with one another—by writing in English, Achebe is telling a story that people across Nigeria can comprehend, and by shaping it to his purposes, Achebe is claiming what was originally imposed. - Theme: Masculinity. Description: Okonkwo dedicates himself to being as masculine as possible, and through his rise to become a powerful man of his tribe and subsequent fall both within the tribe and in the eyes of his son Nwoye, the novel explores the idea of masculinity. Okonkwo believes in traditional gender roles, and it pains him that his son Nwoye is not more aggressive like he is. As a result, it's revealing that he expresses the wish that his daughter Ezinma were a boy—from this we know how fond he is of her. Additionally, in a meeting towards the very beginning of the book, Okonkwo insults a man without title by calling him a woman, demonstrating how much masculinity is valued when ranking those in Umuofia society. Ultimately, though, Okonkwo's adherence to masculinity and aggression leads to his fall in society—he becomes brittle and unable to bend with the changes taking place in his clan. In keeping with this principle of masculinity, Okonkwo forces himself to kill his own surrogate son, murder the white man against his better judgment, and hang himself before a punishment can be imposed by others. Okonkwo's aggression makes him weak in the end—it leaves him with no room to maneuver against the more subtle ways of the white man.Nwoye struggles with this idea of masculinity, as he wants to please his father by being aggressive and traditional, but ultimately, he's repelled by the violence in Umuofia rituals and joins the Christians. Nwoye's departure can also be linked to this idea from Okonkwo's uncle, Uchendu, after the family is exiled from Umuofia: "'It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut.'" Likewise, after being beaten by his father, Nwoye leaves to seek solace in the more feminine and seemingly gentle Christian religion. - Theme: Religion. Description: Religion is the main arena where both cultural differences and similarities play out at the end of the novel. Religion represents order in both societies, but they manifest differently. While religion in Umuofia society is based on agriculture, religion is seen as education in the white man's world. As a result, the gods in Umuofia society are more fearsome, since clan members are at the mercy of natural cycles for their livelihood. Mr. Brown, the white missionary, condemns this idea of fearing your god, but in fact the white man's religion takes root using fear tactics as well. When clan members break certain laws or displease the white men, they're locked up, starved, and beaten.The dialogue between one of the clan leaders of a neighboring tribe, Akunna, and Mr. Brown reveals how much both systems of religion have in common. Akunna agrees, for example, that their wooden carvings of deities are just that—wooden carvings—but he likens it to the figure of Mr. Brown: he's also just a conduit or symbol for the western God. Akunna expresses what the narrator has already suggested—that the Umuofia people only pretend to believe in certain aspects of their religion, such as the masked gods who are really tribe members wearing masks. This dialogue about religion does a lot to carry out Achebe's mission of depicting Nigerian society as one that's far from primitive—depicting it instead as a culture with mythologies and rituals and an understanding of the mythologies behind those rituals. It's also one of the moments when more similarities than differences are stressed between the two cultures.Religion also returns us to the Yeats poem quoted in the epigraph. The poem uses plenty of ominous Biblical language in describing an apocalyptic scenario, which parallels the situation in the novel where religion is the vehicle for the fall of Umuofia society. Western religion breaks order in the Umuofia society by taking in outcasts and clan members without title and giving them power. By taking power away from the clan's authorities, western religion destroys the clan's old methods of justice and order, creating an apocalyptic scenario for the clan's former way of life. - Climax: Okonkwo's murder of a court messenger - Summary: As a young man, Okonkwo becomes one of the greatest wrestlers in the clan. Okonkwo values strength and aggression, traits he believes are masculine, and his worst fear is to be thought of as feminine or weak, like his father, Unoka. Okonkwo's wealth and status within the tribe grow, and he becomes one of the greatest men in the land, with three wives and a large stock of yams. He treats his family with a heavy hand, believing that the only emotion worth showing is anger. Okonkwo is particularly worried about his eldest son, Nwoye, in whom he sees signs of laziness reminiscent of Unoka. One day, the clan settles an argument with a neighboring village by demanding the sacrifice of a virgin and a 15-year-old boy named Ikemefuna, who lives with Okonkwo's family for the next three years. While living with Okonkwo's family, Ikemefuna becomes very close to Nwoye, sharing folktales and encouraging him to enjoy masculine tasks. Okonkwo approves of his influence on Nwoye and grows fond of Ikemefuna himself. Ikemefuna soon starts to call Okonkwo "father." After three years, when the oldest man of the tribe, Ezeudu, informs Okonkwo that Ikemefuna must be killed, he advises him not to participate in the killing, since "the boy calls you father." Okonkwo ignores this advice, fearing that others will find him weak or effeminate, and he proceeds to strike the killing blow when they take Ikemefuna out to be killed the next day. Soon, Ezeudu passes away, and his funeral celebration draws the entire clan. During the burial, Okonkwo's gun explodes, killing Ezeudu's 16-year-old son. Having killed a fellow clansman, Okonkwo has no choice but to flee the clan with his family. Because the crime is a "female," or accidental, crime, they may return in seven years. During their time in exile, Okonkwo and his family work hard to start a new farm in Okonkwo's motherland, Mbanta. His mother's kinsmen treat them kindly, but Okonkwo is extremely discouraged by the circumstances. He plans for the day he can return to his rightful place in Umuofia. While he works in Mbanta, the white men begin to appear among neighboring clans, causing stories to spread about their power and destruction. When they finally arrive in Mbanta though, the clan is fascinated but finds their religion ridiculous. Nwoye, however, is captivated by the hymn he hears on the first day, and soon joins the Christians to get away from his father, who is outraged. When Okonkwo finally returns to Umuofia, the white men have changed his clan as well. Mr. Brown, a white missionary who is popular for his patience and understanding approach, has built a school and hospital, and many clan members are enrolling their children in the school so that they can one day become clerks or teachers. However, soon after Okonkwo's return, Mr. Brown leaves the country due to health reasons, and Reverend Smith replaces him. Reverend Smith is uncompromising, encouraging acts among the converted clan members that provoke the rest of the clan. When Enoch, a fanatical convert, rips the mask off of one of the clan's masked egwugwu during a ceremony, the clan retaliates by burning down the church. Reverend Smith reports this transgression, and the District Commissioner tricks the clan's leaders into meeting with him before handcuffing them. The clan leaders, including Okonkwo, suffer insults and beatings before they are released once the village pays the fine. The morning after their release, the clan leaders speak of war before they are interrupted by the arrival of court messengers. Full of hate, Okonkwo confronts the leader, who says that the white man commands the meeting to stop. In a flash, Okonkwo strikes down the messenger with his machete. Seeing that none of his clansmen support him in his violent action, Okonkwo walks away and hangs himself. When the District Commissioner comes to fetch Okonkwo the next day, the clansmen lead him to his hanging body instead, saying that they cannot touch it, since it's an abomination for a man to take his own life. The District Commissioner finds this custom interesting, making note of it for his book on Nigeria, which he plans to title The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.

- Genre: Novel, Speculative Fiction - Title: Things We Didn’t See Coming - Point of view: First Person - Setting: A bucolic country hamlet, a flooding cabin, a desert, a fire-ravaged oil town, and various others. - Character: The Narrator. Description: The unnamed narrator is the only character who appears in all of the novel's interlocking stories, surviving (and sometimes thriving) as a variety of crises are thrown at him. At an early age, the narrator learns from his Dad to "think defensively": to live with paranoia and survival at the front of one's mind, and to prioritize one's own self and family above the lives of others. These skills allow the narrator to build a routine life as a petty jewelry thief during eras of crime and pandemic, and again as a government administrator when floods or fires sweep the land. The narrator is particularly skilled at balancing his selfish survivalism with "genuine honesty, kindness and patience," a middle ground that endears him to powerful government figures like Juliet and Karuna. Though the narrator has a model of healthy, lifelong love in his Grandma and Grandpa's marriage, his own father's divorce from his mother Cate perhaps creates a template for his relationship with on-again-off-again girlfriend Margo, who draws the narrator in even as she causes him pain. Ultimately, the narrator's namelessness—and his ability to adapt and profit from so many different crisis situations—sets him up as a kind of everyman, just as much a mirror for the reader as he is a character of his own. - Character: Margo. Description: Margo is the narrator's on-again-off-again girlfriend, whom he meets when both are stealing jewelry from an abandoned store. Like the narrator, Margo is flexible, adaptive, and able to survive even under extreme duress. Unlike the narrator, Margo craves solitude, and she frequently disappears without saying a word to the narrator—to find drugs or ex-lovers in the city, or just to be by herself once the couple decamps to the desert. Though the narrator remains intensely loyal to Margo, she frequently has affairs, temporarily leaving the narrator for the more easygoing Shane; later, after they have entered into a practical union contract, she flaunts her intimacies with powerful senator Juliet and many of the people on Juliet's staff. The narrator, almost chemically attracted to Margo, is also conflicted in his feelings about her. On the one hand, he admires that she "knows all the nuts and berries" and "the value of everything," that she is a "real survivor"; on the other hand, the narrator constantly misses Margo and wishes for more consistency from her, admitting that as long as he has known her, he has never "known peace." - Character: Dad. Description: Dad, whose first name is Otis, is the narrator's father and Cate's former husband. Dad is a paranoid survivalist; even before any of the real crises of the novel have begun, Dad is anxious about the (ultimately unimportant) Y2K scare. But Dad's anxiety is shown to be useful as more and more disasters strike, though it also alienates him from Cate and other major figures in his life. By the end of the novel, Dad has survived nearly all of the other characters, though he lives on a farm by himself, billing himself as a shaman and refusing medicine, money, or even a roof over his head. Throughout Things We Didn't See Coming, Dad and the narrator are shown to have a special bond, symbolized by their matching bright green eyes. Dad also passes on to the narrator an ability to "think defensively" (as he puts it)—meaning that both Dad and the narrator anticipate future disasters and act quickly, putting their own interests above all others. - Character: Cate. Description: Cate is the narrator's mother, and the daughter of Grandma and Grandpa. When the novel begins, Cate is married to Dad, though she is disturbed by his paranoia around the Y2K scare—and livid about the lack of care he demonstrates for others in his hit-and-run incident. Despite Cate's love of and dedication to the narrator, she is aware that he feels closer to his father (and indeed, the narrator often expresses distrust of Cate, both as a 10-year-old boy and as an adult). When the Barricades are erected, Cate wants to live in the city while Dad wants to live in the country, so the two divorce. After years spent trying (and failing) to eke out financial security, Cate dies, though the narrator never lingers on this loss. - Character: Grandpa. Description: Grandpa is Grandma's husband, Cate's father, and the narrator's grandfather. Unlike the narrator's Dad, Grandpa prides himself on rational calm; Grandpa likes to say that "everything will be fine until it's not. Then we can worry." After years of living with his wife in a bucolic country town, Grandpa's liberalism leads him to move to the city, away from the increasing conservativism of rural areas. Grandpa's worldly past stands in contrast to his elderly life, where (having lost his driver's license) he is homebound and alone, caring for Grandma in the late stages of her dementia. The narrator is often struck by Grandpa's deep love for Grandma, and by the youthful rebelliousness—deciding to run away, participating in an RV heist, and cursing at passers-by—that overtakes Grandpa on the family's quick, illegal jaunt to the country. After Grandma briefly gains and then loses her lucidity, both grandparents overdose on pills, Grandpa's quiet protest against what both his world and his marriage have become. - Character: Grandma. Description: Grandma is Grandpa's wife, Cate's mother, and the narrator's grandmother; she is also Dad's mother-in-law, though she is skeptical of Dad's catastrophism. As a longtime public-school teacher, Grandma feels passionately that individuals owe more to each other than they do to any state or administrative whole. Grandma spends most of her life in the countryside, growing her own vegetables, making pancakes, and wearing her favorite wool dress. In old age, however, Grandma develops severe dementia, and she is unable to communicate with any of her family members; though the family assumes Grandma has stopped understanding them, she in fact remains aware of the personal and political change happening around her (like the institution of the Barricades). Grandma loves and mentors the narrator, though in a rare moment of lucidity, she also wants to use him for his criminal expertise. Like Grandpa, Grandma dies by taking all of her various pills at once. - Character: Jeph. Description: Jeph is a 14-year-old boy, and the only surviving child in a rural community dedicated to natural healing. When the narrator first enters Jeph's community, Jeph is newly orphaned, having lost his parents in quick succession. As the one young person in the community (and as someone presumably, though never openly, in grief), Jeph is allowed to behave badly; the narrator is often the target of his cruel, crude comments. In an ultimately successful attempt to get the narrator to drive him to the city, Jeph runs an assay on the narrator, leveraging the narrator's privileged medical knowledge for his own purposes. Jeph's combination of teenaged arrogance and excitement to see the world reflects that 14-year-olds, too, still experience youth and adolescence under apocalyptic circumstances—as the narrator puts it, Jeph "is, after all, a growing boy." - Character: Juliet. Description: Juliet is a wealthy heiress and a prominent Senator, responsible for representing nearly a third of her unnamed nation. Juliet came to prominence by arguing for urban-rural reconciliation, "peace," and the end of the Barricades; her lascivious body and sexual appeal also helped her growing fame. In addition to her political acumen, Juliet is widely known for her sexual and pharmaceutical experiments. When she meets Margo and the narrator at a flesh club, she takes them in, wanting to be associated with a heterosexual couple as a means of bolstering her public image. Juliet has intimate relationships with both Margo and the narrator (though it is implied that she prefers Margo romantically and sexually). While Juliet elevates the narrator to a life of great status and adventure, he never feels comfortable in their arrangement, given how quickly she could change her mind. - Character: Shane. Description: Shane is one of Margo's lovers, and the man she temporarily leaves the narrator for. Shane works in the Rescue unit of the government (Central), and he is easy-going and calm where the narrator is antsy and bureaucratic. Before realizing Margo's betrayal, the narrator gravitates towards Shane as a relaxing friend, and the loss of their friendship is one of the many parts of this betrayal that stings. Years later, Margo returns to the narrator, abruptly ending things with Shane; the narrator feels a great deal of guilt that he will now hurt Shane the way Shane once hurt him. - Character: Liz. Description: Liz is Jenna's mother and one of the two women that the narrator encounters during a bad flood. Liz comes from privilege, but she winds up sheltering with her daughter in someone else's abandoned home, getting drunker and drunker on the wine left in the wine cellar. Liz sleeps with the narrator, and the two form a momentary intimacy—before Liz, realizing that the narrator has lied to them about what kinds of weaponry he has, shoots him in the leg. The narrator respects the commitment Liz has to Jenna, though he wonders "what it's going to take to make them give up on each other, turn them into survivors." - Character: Jenna. Description: Jenna is Liz's daughter and one of the two women that the narrator encounters during a bad flood. Though Jenna understands that her mother is a liability, she does not want to leave her, still haunted by the memory of her father's abandonment. And even as she gets more and more starved for food and warmth, Jenna refuses to engage in either her mother's alcoholism or the narrator's scrappy survivalism; instead, the narrator reflects that "she's exactly the kind of romantic who's got no instinct to make it." - Character: Karuna. Description: Karuna is the primary interviewer the narrator encounters when he applies for a job in the new government. Outwardly, Karuna seems emotional, volatile, and inappropriate, confessing past traumas to the narrator and admitting that she sometimes steals from the government's vaults. Eventually, however, it becomes clear that Karuna is simply testing the narrator by setting him up with difficult moral quandaries (which he then has to navigate with Francis and Jeannie). - Character: The Psych Doctor. Description: The psych doctor is one of the narrator's colleagues in Brownlee, when the narrator works in the Verification unit of the government (Central). Since the psych doctor is assigned to deal with disaster victims all day, at night he drinks to excess, desperate to escape from the loss and pain he has just witnessed. The psych doctor is one of the few confidantes the narrator has in the novel, though he also gently mocks the narrator's claims of "chemical" attraction to Margo. - Character: The Sick Man. Description: The sick man is one of many victims of a deadly flu epidemic. He and the narrator meet when the sick man stumbles on the camp the narrator shares with Margo; the sick man is angry, raving at his bad luck and physical discomfort, though the narrator reflects that he was probably "once a good man." The sick man eventually dies, leaving Margo and the narrator to worry that he has contaminated them. His identity as a "barely surviving humanist in an inhuman world" continues to haunt the narrator after the sick man's death. - Character: The Nurse. Description: The nurse works with the narrator to lead tour groups filled with wealthy, dying adventurers; her job is to provide the medications, treated air, and immunized water that allow the tourists to survive their trip. The narrator is often frustrated with the nurse for siding with the tourists against him. - Character: Anthony. Description: Anthony is a member of the narrator's tour group—and notably, he is one of the only tourists who has lived long enough to go on more than one expedition. Anthony is kind and patient, and he cares about the narrator more than most of the other tourists seem to. In one touching moment, Anthony rests his hand on the narrator's, but both of them have too many bodily scars to feel the physical contact—symbolizing the ways in which medical and climate crises have impeded human relationships. - Theme: Morality and Survival. Description: Early on in Steven Amsterdam's apocalyptic novel Things We Didn't See Coming, the unnamed narrator and his Dad are involved in a car accident. Though the woman in the totaled car wants help from the narrator and his family, Dad, panicking that the world is about to end, just keeps driving. Despite his mother Cate's insistence that he should "not learn one thing" from Dad's decision, the narrator mimics this behavior for the rest of the story: stealing, lying, and refusing care to the sick, "thinking defensively" whenever disaster seems near. And tellingly, over the course of the novel, both the narrator and Dad are able to survive floods, famines, and political strife, while Cate dies early on.  In many ways, then, the narrative suggests that basic morality is at odds with endurance, especially during a crisis—something that might be a cruel choice under normal circumstances can be "a good choice for the apocalypse." But at the same time, as the narrator strives to get a government job or to join a rural community of healers, he is praised not for his selfishness but for the flickers of "genuine honesty, kindness, and patience" that have emerged from years in crisis; as one job interviewer puts it, what sets the narrator apart is that he has managed to survive "without excessive theft." In other words, Things We Didn't See Coming suggests that the narrator survives global tragedy not because he is a particularly good or bad person, but because he strikes a moral balance, practicing kindness only when he can afford to—and avoiding "excess" cruelty when he cannot. - Theme: Apocalypse vs. Routine. Description: Over the course of Steven Amsterdam's episodic book Things We Didn't See Coming, nearly a dozen apocalypses intersect and overlap. The unnamed narrator, along with his sometimes-girlfriend Margo and his paranoid Dad, must face political conflict, food shortages, toxic air, rampant floods, deathly influenza outbreaks, oil fires (and the arsonists who start them), and the lifelong health consequences of each of these events. Yet as the various crises catalyze and bleed into each other, the narrator begins to internalize a lesson from his Grandpa (who survived World War II and the atomic bomb, among other twentieth-century disasters): "it's always been the end of the world," Grandpa argues, so "let's go about our business." As the narrator navigates these increasingly dangerous apocalypses, the tragedies begin to blur together, and it becomes difficult to differentiate between moments of calm and moments of crisis. Moreover, the narrator continues to default to "business" as usual, building daily routines amidst crisis and getting lost in quotidian questions about how to earn extra money or whether a pretty receptionist is flirting with him. By juxtaposing the narrator's calm perspective with the dire circumstances he describes, Amsterdam's evenly-paced book forces readers to examine how they instinctively adjust to and routinize their own experiences. After all, anyone living through pandemic and drought and political conflict shares something with the narrator, all "go[ing] about their business" as the world continues to end. - Theme: Body as Currency vs. Body as Liability. Description: Many times in Things We Didn't See Coming, Steven Amsterdam's apocalyptic novel, characters see their bodies as determinative of their future success (or failure). In a massive flood, an older woman named Liz worries that she will not be strong enough to be accepted into still-dry communities; during an era of political conflict, the unnamed narrator and his partner Margo use their bodies to seduce powerful senator Juliet into protecting them. A deadly flu sweeps through the cities, and characters alternate between quarantining and going to debauched "flesh clubs," desperate either to protect their bodies or to exploit them for money and connections. Throughout the ever-changing crises of the novel, bodies are treated as either a liability or a currency in the quest for survival, something to monitor (with intensive medical tests known as assays) and control (with ever-evolving medications and purifiers). The novel thus makes clear that personal endurance hinges on the difference between an ailing body and a healthy one. But more importantly, Things We Didn't See Coming also shows that whether someone is using their body as currency or trying to hide potential physical liabilities, any such objectification is destructive and dehumanizing. Indeed, this focus on physical strength requires everyone to sacrifice relationships, moral codes, and interiority—to protect their bodies at the expense of their inner selves. - Theme: Wealth, Privilege, and Value. Description: Over the course of Steven Amsterdam's episodic book Things We Didn't See Coming, massive floods destroy entire communities, fires lead to food shortages, and a deathly pandemic spreads through the nation's cities. Yet even as the world around them collapses, the characters still treasure fancy tapestries, antiques, and (most of all) diamond jewelry. Those who cannot afford food cling to their expensive goods, which retain value on various black markets even as entire economies and governments collapse.    On the one hand, the recurring, symbolic presence of diamonds and other valuables during unimaginable crises hints at the fruitlessness of capitalist systems: despite the scarcity of necessary food and water, sought-after jewelry still costs more. On the other hand, however, the characters' persistent focus on luxury items reveals just how enduring these capitalist hierarchies are, despite their absurdity. Indeed, more than any environmental or political event, the stability of the unnamed narrator's life is determined by how much wealth he has—when he shacks up with an heiress named Juliet, for example, she sweeps him into a world of plant life and clean air, both of which have become expensive commodities. Ultimately, then, Things We Didn't See Coming suggests that capitalist systems of value will outlive humanity itself, as a wealthy few hoard all the resources necessary for survival. And more than that, the novel shows that survival itself can become a commodity, a "diamond bracelet" only a wealthy few can afford; what might feel like apocalypse to those without wealth is nothing but an inconvenience to those with privilege. - Theme: Care and Companionship under Crisis. Description: The unnamed narrator of Stephen Amsterdam's novel Things We Didn't See Coming, which details a series of overlapping apocalypses, spends much of the story alone. His solitude comes in part from a belief that it is important to "travel light […] when push comes to shove": to be flexible and adaptive, ready to adjust to each new crisis without having to consult with another person. Yet as the narrator gets increasingly entangled with Margo, his only serious romantic partner, he comes to crave something other than bodily safety—he wants commitment and fidelity, a guarantee that she will "protect my heart." The contrast between physical safety and emotional care is an essential one throughout the narrative. Early on, the narrator's own parents split when his Dad prioritizes logistical security (relocating to the countryside) over his wife Cate's desires for community and excitement. Later in the story, the government, acknowledging how difficult basic survival has become, changes the laws around marriage: the new laws implement "practical unions," which legally obligate partners to care for each other but which can be renewed or defaulted on every 18 months. And though the novel ends with the narrator reuniting with his father, the rare moment of tenderness between them is written as a death scene—in this one moment of love for the narrator, all Dad can do is close his son's eyes, releasing him from the obligation to survive. Things We Didn't See Coming does suggest that crisis requires people to take care of each other on the level of physical health and logistical safety. But in making care an obligation, these apocalypses render true companionship—and the vital emotional safety that comes along with it—impossible. - Climax: As he copes with another bout of cancer, the narrator reunites with his off-the-grid father. - Summary: It's New Year's Eve, 1999, and the unnamed narrator's Dad is rushing the family off to his in-laws' house in the countryside. Dad is nervous about an error in computer programming (colloquially known, though never named in the novel, as the Y2K Scare); Dad fears that the error will cause a total collapse in global infrastructure right when the year changes to 2000. The narrator's mother Cate is concerned more about her husband's obsession, though the narrator privately sides with his father. While they are driving to Grandma and Grandpa's house, Dad hits a car going the opposite direction. Dad refuses to stop—and instead engages in a hit-and-run, much to Cate's horror. That night, the narrator realizes that Dad is not in his room, so he goes looking for him in the woods, eventually finding him just as midnight strikes. Though there is no evidence that any sort of crisis has taken place, Dad continues to believe that danger is nigh. A few years later, the narrator—recently arrested for petty theft—has been sent to live with his grandparents. Grandma has advanced dementia, and Grandpa recently lost his driver's license after several near-accidents on the road. Life is hard for other reasons, too: the city where they all live is now cut off from the countryside by the Barricades, which also divide city people from the clean air and nutritious bounty grown in rural areas. In addition to rationing food, all city dwellers are also forbidden by the government (known as Central) from traveling; only those with rural IDs can visit the countryside. One day, Grandma has a sudden bout of lucidity. On a whim, she insists that they all take a trip to the country; she also reveals that despite seeming to be out of it, she has been aware of all the political changes from the last several years. Grandma is able to talk their way past the security guard at the Barricades, and the three family members engage in a crime spree, stealing food and an RV. Just as Grandpa and Grandma decide that they want to escape to the country forever, Grandma slips back into incoherence. As they hold hands, the two grandparents take all of their pills at once, killing themselves. The novel again jumps through time. Now, the narrator works for the Land Management bureau, evacuating people during a spate of giant floods. Two of the women he is evacuating, Liz and her daughter Jenna, refuse to move from the house they have started squatting in. Liz has grown increasingly dependent on alcohol (the house has a wine cellar), while Jenna is a "romantic," hesitant to engage in any of the messy behavior necessary for survival. The narrator hopes to shoo the women away and steal their wine, but—after a brief sexual tryst with Liz—the pair sees through his plan, shooting him in the leg and stranding him in the flooding country. More years pass, and a deadly flu is now sweeping the nation, forcing people to flee their homes and quarantine. The narrator is camping out in the desert with his longtime girlfriend Margo, whom he met when they were both stealing diamond jewelry from the same store. Margo has a habit of disappearing, sometimes to get drugs or have affairs and sometimes just to be alone. This particular morning, Margo has walked off, leaving the narrator without their gun—a scary fact, given that a sick man has just arrived at their campsite. The narrator avoids the sick man until Margo comes back, but both still fear that they have gotten the virus from afar, especially because the man has touched all of their belongings. The sick man dies, and Margo and the narrator leave their campsite. The story skips to the narrator's time in Brownlee, a town ravaged by fires, oil drilling, and Brazilian bugs with threatening one-inch stingers. The narrator again works in government, approving disaster victims for cash grants so they can relocate. Years ago, Margo left the narrator for a man named Shane, but now she has found the narrator in Brownlee, and she asks him to run away with her. After some hesitation, the narrator agrees, forging IDs that will allow him to escape with Margo to some new town. Though the narrator is excited for this reunion, he is deeply traumatized from his work with all the disaster victims. Several years later, the narrator and Margo have entered into a practical union contract with each other and shacked up with Juliet, a wealthy, powerful, and sexually voracious senator. The narrator is part political aide, part sexual plaything for Juliet, but given her flighty personality (and her frequent experimentations with new drugs), he craves some guarantee of stability. With Margo, the narrator hopes to get Juliet to sign onto their next practical union contract, though Margo inadvertently ruins the plan with her lack of subtlety. In a moment of drugged ecstasy, Margo and Juliet set a forest on fire, one of Juliet's favorite activities. The narrator realizes that Margo will never bring him peace. More time passes, and now the narrator is living in a secluded rural community, working as a security guard. He is also in charge of a snotty boy named Jeph, a recently orphaned teenager who is the only surviving young person in the community. Secretly, Jeph has run an assay, or a series of medical tests, on the narrator, revealing that the narrator will soon suffer from several debilitating illnesses. Jeph and the narrator make a deal: if the narrator helps Jeph visit the city, Jeph will use his inheritance to pay for the narrator's treatments. After the narrator has been cured, Jeph decides he wants to stay in the city—so the narrator abandons him. The narrative jumps again: a new government is being formed, backed by foreign investors, and the narrator is interviewing for a job. His interviewer, Karuna, is volatile, sharing her own personal tragedies and encouraging the narrator to steal some of the diamond jewelry the government has archived. At the end of his interview, the narrator realizes it has all been a test; his willingness to keep quiet about Karuna's behavior, rather than report it to her bosses, is what gets him the job. Years later, the narrator works as a tour guide for wealthy people with terminal illnesses, taking them skiing or rafting or to go rock climbing. The narrator himself is struggling with cancer, and he finds himself overcome with an urge to see Dad, who is now billing himself as a shaman. Despite his clients' complaints, the narrator changes up the itinerary, bringing everyone to his Dad's garden home. On the way over, the narrator finds himself unable to stop coughing; when he arrives, greeted by his Dad's familiar green eyes, he realizes how sick he's been, slipping in and out of consciousness. With tenderness, the tour group lifts the narrator up, and Dad—who is still alive despite refusing all modern drugs—gently closes his son's eyes.

- Genre: Young Adult Novel - Title: Thirteen Reasons Why - Point of view: First Person - Setting: A small, unnamed town in the United States - Character: Hannah Baker. Description: Hannah Baker is the novel's protagonist. She ends her own life before the beginning of the novel, leaving behind a set of cassette tapes for 13 specific people to listen to. Though Hannah ends her life because she feels like she has no control over what happens to her or how people think of her, the tapes are her way of reclaiming control by telling each person on her list how their actions hurt her. Hannah's tapes demonstrate the danger of spreading rumors: no matter how small a single rumor may be, it can chip away at someone's sense of self by letting other people judge them unfairly. Clay, the novel's narrator, considers the tapes unfair, because some of the people on Hannah's list might've been kinder to her if they'd known how hopeless she felt. But Hannah feels abandoned, neglected, and misunderstood by almost everyone in her life, which explains why she found it so hard to reach out and get help when she most needed it. Her story also stirs up feelings of guilt, regret, and anger amongst her listeners—feelings that some of them, like Marcus and Zach, respond to by blaming Tyler instead of changing their own behavior. On the other hand, Hannah's tapes hold a shred of hope: they prompt Clay to reach out to Skye, another girl who he's noticed isolating herself just like Hannah did, because he resolves not to let Skye's story end the same way as Hannah's. - Character: Clay Jensen. Description: Clay is the novel's narrator and Hannah Baker's love interest. As he listens to Hannah's tapes, he wanders through their small town, piecing together his memories with Hannah's stories. At first, Clay doesn't think he deserves to be on Hannah's list: he doesn't think he's done anything wrong, and he also thinks Hannah is being unfair by listing the other names. But as he continues listening, he begins to understand that each person on Hannah's list impacted her deeply. Even when he learns that he's only on the list because Hannah loved him, he still considers himself partially at fault for her death. While some of the others on Hannah's list, like Marcus and Alex, would rather throw stones at Tyler's window than reflect on their own behavior, Clay's willingness to take responsibility for his actions sets him apart from them. Clay represents the hopeful side of the novel by showing that people can learn from tragic events. When he notices that his middle-school crush, Skye, is behaving similarly to Hannah, he reaches out to her, because Hannah's story taught him that his help could make a vital difference. - Character: Justin Foley. Description: Justin Foley is the first name on Hannah's list. He's a senior at Hannah's school, but in his sophomore year, he was Hannah's first kiss. After that kiss, he spread rumors about Hannah being sexually provocative, effectively beginning a snowball effect that would cause Hannah's reputation to deteriorate amongst her peers. A couple of years later, Justin reappears in Hannah's taped story at a big party, where he lets his friend, Bryce, into the bedroom where Jessica is in bed, drunk and unconscious, knowing Bryce wants to have nonconsensual sex with Jessica. Justin stands by as Bryce rapes Jessica, emphasizing that he values his male friendships more than his romantic partners and highlighting the gender inequality that harms many of the novel's female characters. - Character: Alex Standall. Description: Alex is the second name on Hannah's list. During Hannah's first few weeks of freshman year, he and Jessica meet her at Monet's to vent about their days at school, though the group quickly disperses. Alex is the author of the "Who's Hot/Who's Not" list, voting Hannah "Best Ass in the Freshman Class." His quick transformation from being Hannah's companion to someone who objectifies her for others' entertainment is one of the first things that makes Hannah feel like her reputation is out of her control. Alex is also one of the earliest of Hannah's listeners to throw a rock at Tyler's window, demonstrating that instead of processing his guilt by changing his own behavior, he'd rather blame other people for Hannah's death. - Character: Jessica Davis. Description: Jessica is the third name on Hannah's list. She and Hannah form a bond thanks to their guidance counselor's suggestion that they buddy up, and though Hannah never thinks of her as a friend, she's one of her first companions at school, and Hannah admires her boldness and beauty. After finding her name under "Worst Ass" on Alex's list, Jessica believes the rumors about Hannah being sexually suggestive with Alex (with whom Jessica had a brief relationship) and scratches Hannah on the face, leaving a scar—a physical reminder that Hannah can't control what other people think of her. Hannah witnesses Bryce raping Jessica at a party in their junior year. Her inability to help Jessica is one of the major contributors to her decision to end her life, which means that Jessica represents Hannah's loss of control both in the face of rampant rumors and under pervasive misogyny. - Character: Tyler Down. Description: Tyler is the fourth name on Hannah's list. With Courtney's help, Hannah catches Tyler taking photos of her through the cracks in her bedroom blinds. His invasion of Hannah's privacy means she starts to keep her blinds completely closed, where before she left them slightly open so she could fall asleep looking at the stars. Tyler therefore prompts Hannah's loss of hope and freedom. Many others on Hannah's list single Tyler out and throw rocks at his window, judging his creepiness to be worse than their more casual misogyny and neglect, and putting the blame on him for Hannah's death rather than seriously considering what she tried to tell them. In this way, Tyler's character reinforces the idea that some acts of sexism and bullying are easier to excuse because they seem like a normal part of life, even though they might be just as harmful as Tyler's "Peeping Tom" behavior. - Character: Courtney Crimsen. Description: Courtney Crimsen is the fifth name on Hannah's list. She offers to help Hannah identify the person taking pictures of Hannah through her bedroom window. After they work together to discover that it's Tyler, though, Courtney keeps her distance from Hannah, leading Hannah to realize that Courtney values her reputation of being a nice person more than she values actually maintaining a friendship. Courtney later asks Hannah to go to a party with her, but Hannah quickly realizes Courtney is just pretending to be friendly so that Hannah will give her a ride. Courtney is another person who spreads rumors about Hannah being overtly sexual, which further increases Hannah's distrust of everyone around her. - Character: Tony. Description: Tony is Clay's school friend, though before Clay listens to the tapes, the two aren't particularly close. Clay plans to borrow Tony's Walkman from him so he can listen to the tapes, but he gets nervous about Tony finding out about the tapes and steals the Walkman instead. Eventually, Tony reveals to Clay that he has the second set of tapes, meaning he's the one who could make Hannah's story go public. By following every listener to make sure they listen to the tapes and pass them on, Tony shows that he values Hannah's story, but also that he feels a sense of responsibility because he was the one who gave her the recording equipment that allowed her to make the tapes. He also proves himself a caring friend when he listens to Clay's emotional outburst while they're in Tony's car together. - Character: Marcus Cooley. Description: Marcus is the sixth name on Hannah's list. He first appears in the novel when he offers Clay a rock to throw at Tyler's window, assuming Clay has listened to the tapes and thinks Tyler deserves to be singled out for his "creepiness." Marcus's decision to blame Tyler for Hannah's death instead of seriously considering how his own actions hurt her demonstrates how guilt and fear can be used as fuel for destruction. By blaming Tyler, Marcus lets himself off the hook for touching Hannah without her consent, and in doing so, he plays a small part in allowing a culture of gender inequality and disrespect to continue. His abuse of Hannah is also the first moment that pushes her to consider suicide: once he takes away her power over her body, she feels as though her whole life has been taken out of her hands. - Character: Jenny Kurtz/The Cheerleader. Description: Jenny Kurtz is the 11th name on Hannah's list. She first appears when she prints out the names on Hannah's Valentine's list, and Hannah thinks Jenny seems genuinely sweet and excited for her. This lines up with Clay's perception of Jenny as a caring person after he witnesses her distress when she hears about Hannah's death. But Jenny's story is complicated: when driving Hannah home after a party, she loses control of her car and knocks over a stop sign. Hannah tries to stop her from driving any further, but Jenny drives off, leaving Hannah behind. During the few hours in which there's no stop sign on that intersection, Clay witnesses a fatal car crash there, meaning that Jenny's crash and her decision not to take responsibility for it leads to someone's death. Jenny's character reinforces the idea that though someone might not intend to cause serious harm, their lack of self-awareness and choice to avoid accountability can lead to often irreparable damage. - Character: Bryce Walker. Description: Bryce is the boy who rapes Jessica and sexually assaults Hannah. Hannah doesn't name Bryce on her list or identify him in relation to Jessica's rape because she assumes he'd refuse to pass the tapes on, which means Bryce never hears how his actions made Hannah feel. His presence in the novel highlights that attitudes of gender inequality, including blaming women for their involvement in sexual encounters rather than holding men accountable, can lead to women feeling totally powerless and unsafe. - Character: Mr. Porter. Description: Mr. Porter is one of the guidance counselors at the high school most of the novel's characters attend. When Hannah meets with him to describe how hopeless she feels, he fails to provide the support she needs or to persist in trying to help her, making him the 13th name on her list. Mr. Porter is one of the many adults who fail to sufficiently support or protect Hannah, which contributes to her feeling neglected and unimportant. - Character: Zach Dempsey. Description: Zach Dempsey is the seventh name on Hannah's list. He approaches Hannah after Marcus leaves her alone in Rosie's, though she's visibly upset and unable to talk to him. After Zach leaves Hannah's table, she hears his friends taunting him for his failure to connect with her. Soon after that incident, Hannah finds Zach stealing her notes of encouragement from her paper bag at the back of Peer Communications class—notes that were the only scrap of hope she felt she could rely on. Hannah understands Zach's theft as revenge for the fact that she showed no interest in him at Rosie's. She confronts Zach, but his failure to respond to her makes her feel even more neglected and devalued: not only does he think she doesn't deserve the compliments he stole, he also thinks she doesn't deserve an explanation for his behavior. He's yet another person in Hannah's life who doesn't respect her feelings, and whose actions deprive her of hope. - Character: Ryan Shaver. Description: Ryan Shaver is the eighth name on Hannah's list. He edits the Lost-N-Found Gazette at high school, a publication that distributes notes he finds around school. In it, he prints a poem he stole from Hannah after earning her trust, effectively allowing people all over the school—even teachers—to analyze Hannah's words without giving her credit. In doing so, Ryan becomes one of the many people who rob Hannah of her agency and self-expression, making her feel as though she can't even own her own thoughts. - Character: The Elderly Man. Description: The elderly man is the driver who hits a high school senior's car the night of the party thanks to the missing stop sign that Jenny knocked down only minutes earlier. His presence in the novel allows Clay's compassion for others to shine: when Clay witnesses the crash, he takes it upon himself to run to the man's house to tell his wife he's okay. This, in turn, connects Hannah and Clay in an unexpected way: his house is the same house Hannah lived in when her family first moved to town, which makes Clay and Hannah's connection feel more intense, perhaps even bound by fate, despite the fact that they only had one in-depth conversation. - Character: Clay's Mom. Description: Clay's mom interrupts Clay several times while he listens to the tapes, usually to offer help, comfort, or food. Thanks to her persistence, Clay is at least subconsciously aware that she loves and cares for him—something Hannah doesn't feel in her own life, partly because her mother is often distracted from caring for her. Clay's mom's concern for him is something he echoes in his concern for other people, particularly Skye, who he resolves to reach out to at the end of the novel. - Character: Skye. Description: Skye was Clay's middle-school crush. Over the course of her high school years, she's become quieter and less involved, preferring to wear baggy clothing that makes her seem like she's hiding. Clay finds her difficult to talk to, but Hannah's tapes help him to see that Skye might be feeling the same way that Hannah was before she ended her life, so instead of letting Skye shut him out, Clay makes the effort to engage with her. Skye's name is the last thing Clay says in the novel, demonstrating Clay's commitment to learn from Hannah's death. - Character: Hannah's Mom. Description: Hannah's mom appears very little in the novel. She and Hannah's dad are too preoccupied with the stress of their small business to pay much attention to Hannah. When Hannah gets a dramatic haircut, her mom doesn't notice, which allows Hannah to conclude that even the people who should care about her the most aren't fully invested in her. - Character: Wally. Description: Wally works the day shift at Blue Spot Liquor and regularly sells Hannah candy bars after school. When a boy from school grabs Hannah's butt in the store, Wally makes a noise that shows his anger, but doesn't intervene any further. While it's clear he cares about Hannah, he contributes to her feeling neglected by failing to help her in any concrete way. - Theme: Rumors and Reputation. Description: From Hannah's first weeks at high school, she realizes she can't control other people's impressions of her. When her classmate Justin spreads a rumor that Hannah's first kiss, which he and she shared, went beyond just kissing, he's the first to chip away at the positive image Hannah's classmates have of her. Justin's rumor causes Hannah's cherished memory of her first kiss—something that made her feel happy and hopeful—to become a source of anxiety and frustration. Similarly, when another classmate, Alex, decides to write a "Who's Hot/Who's Not" list, putting Hannah on the "Hot" side and Jessica, his ex-girlfriend, on the "Not" side purely for revenge, he invites everyone who reads the list to judge Hannah and Jessica without their consent. Not only does the list make Hannah feel like she has even less control over the way others see her, but it destroys Hannah and Jessica's friendship—a bond that made Hannah feel safe during her first few weeks in a new town. And when Courtney invites Hannah to a party just to make sure Hannah thinks she's a nice person, without really caring about her at all, she breaks Hannah's trust not just in her, but in everyone who appears to offer Hannah kindness. Though these individual actions and others like them might not seem like a big deal, for Hannah, they accumulate until she feels like she has no way to express her true self or form meaningful connections. Due to a reputation she had no part in building, and due to other people's obsession with their own reputations, Hannah feels hopeless and isolated, and these feelings contribute to her decision to end her own life. Thirteen Reasons Why thereby shows how rumors can destroy a person's reputation, take away their sense of control, and ultimately cause them to disassociate and lose their sense of self—and in extreme cases like Hannah's, this can lead people to desperate actions like suicide. - Theme: Gender, Sexualization, and Agency. Description: Thirteen Reasons Why suggests that when men take advantage of women, feeling that they're entitled to view, touch, and judge women's bodies without their permission, they help to maintain an environment of gender inequality that disempowers and distresses women. When Justin spreads the rumor that Hannah let him touch her sexually (when the truth is that they only kissed), not only does everyone believe Justin instead of Hannah, but it's Hannah, not Justin, who faces mockery and judgment for what (according to Justin) happened between them. Similarly, Alex's "Who's Hot/Who's Not" list allows people to objectify and ridicule the female students included on the list—while Alex suffers no consequences for including them on the list and objectifying them without their consent. Though the novel's male characters often suggest, encourage, and control these sexualized situations, they face relatively few repercussions, either emotionally or practically. For example, when a boy grabs Hannah's wrist to stop her from leaving Blue Spot Liquor—then tells her to relax, claiming that he's "just playing"—he simultaneously touches her against her will and invalidates her perfectly justified feelings of panic and powerlessness. As a result, in addition to feeling physically trapped, Hannah is also unable to take control of her emotional reality. Furthermore, Hannah doesn't bother to name Bryce, the boy who she knows raped Jessica at a party, on her tapes, because she knows he would try to bury the story—and would probably succeed in doing so. So when it comes to Bryce's sexual advances on Hannah, she feels both physically and emotionally disempowered—she allows him to touch and have sex with her without verbally consenting. That decision echoes her decision to almost completely give up on her own life. This sense of powerlessness illustrates that her inability to fight back against unfair treatment she's dealt—mostly because of her gender—leads Hannah to believe that her life is utterly out of her control. The novel therefore demonstrates that society with a foundation of gender inequality can lead to situations of intense emotional and physical harm, leaving women feeling desperately disempowered. - Theme: Guilt and Blame. Description: Thirteen Reasons Why focuses on a few tricky questions about guilt and blame: how do our actions affect other people, and should we hold ourselves responsible for their decisions? Though Hannah deliberately chooses the 13 people who she considers most closely tied to her decision to end her life, sending them a package of tapes on which she tells each of them how they hurt and neglected her, she acknowledges throughout the tapes that these people and their actions are inextricably tangled—no single person is to blame for her despair. And, while she wants the listeners to understand the ways their actions hurt her, she's also aware that she's the only one who can make decisions for herself. While other people's actions profoundly affect Hannah's safety, happiness, and sense of self, she also has some agency in her story. Put simply, there's no one thing or person to blame for Hannah's death—not even herself. But when many people on Hannah's list hear Hannah telling them how they made her feel, their guilt turns to attitudes of anger and blame rather than productive, empathetic actions. In this way, the novel shows how, when characters decide to blame others without attempting to change their own behavior, they lock themselves into a cycle of anger and ignorance. When Clay arrives at Tyler's house, one of the starred locations on Hannah's map, he finds that Marcus, another member of Hannah's list, is offering rocks to anyone who turns up, encouraging people to throw them at Tyler's window. Clay refuses—he can see that Marcus is doing this because he wants to put the blame for Hannah's death on Tyler and remove it from himself—but other people who received the tapes before him take Marcus up on his offer. It's clear that many of the people on Hannah's list would rather blame Tyler for the part he played in Hannah's distress than think critically about how their own actions affected her. Blaming someone else allows them to behave as though they didn't do anything wrong, which shows that blaming others rarely leads to constructive change. In contrast, Clay chooses not to interpret Hannah's tape about him as her attempt to blame him for her death. Instead, he learns from the regret he feels for not trying harder to reach out to her, and he uses what he learns by watching out for Skye, a girl who he's noticed has become less confident and present over the past few years. Clay's actions demonstrate that when someone realizes the important role they play in others' lives, they can process their guilt in productive and caring ways, rather than turning it against others in the form of blame. - Theme: Parental Care and Attention. Description: Through its contrasting depictions of parental behavior, Thirteen Reasons Why shows that the support of reliable and attentive parental figures and mentors is vital to teens' mental health. Hannah feels neglected and dismissed by her parents and other caregiver figures in her life. Her parents are absent from most of the novel, rarely speaking to her or checking in on her, and they don't even notice when she has a dramatic haircut. They're stressed about their business and often go out of town—in fact, they're away the first night she hears Tyler taking pictures of her through her bedroom window, and Hannah feels helpless, unable to even pick up her phone out of fear. Similarly, when Hannah attempts to tell Mr. Porter how hopeless she's feeling, his lack of empathy, along with his advice to try to ignore the sexual assault she experienced, makes Hannah feel misunderstood and invalidates her experiences. Mr. Porter lets Hannah down in her most desperate moment, and this seems to give her the final nudge toward giving up on her own happiness. An apparent lack of support from her parents and authority figures contributes to Hannah's decision to end her own life. By contrast, even though the novel only follows Clay for one night, Clay's mother is an unshakeable presence. She interrupts Clay multiple times while he listens to the tapes at home, and she calls to check in on him as he travels around town visiting places on Hannah's map. Her presence interrupts Clay's frantic mindset, allowing him to take a breath and assess how he's feeling as he listens to Hannah's tapes. It's impossible for Clay to feel abandoned or totally alone—the way Hannah ends up feeling—because his mother is an attentive caregiver. Similarly, Tony's character first appears in the novel alongside his dad as they work together to improve Tony's car. While Tony's dad frustrates him, it's clear he's a supportive and present parent, someone Tony can rely on. Though Clay and Tony are deeply upset by Hannah's death and the information on the tapes, the support of present, attentive parental figures helps Tony and Clay to avoid hopelessness, and because of this, they're able to comfort those around them who are most in need, like Skye—and each other. - Climax: Hannah witnesses Bryce raping Jessica. - Summary: Clay, a high school junior, arrives home after school to find a package addressed to him resting against the front door. He opens it to find a set of seven tapes, each side numbered one to thirteen with the final side left blank. He begins to listen to the first side. On the tape, Hannah Baker introduces herself. Clay is shocked: Hannah ended her own life weeks ago. She tells her listeners that she's chosen the 13 of them because they each contributed to her decision to kill herself. After each person listens to the tapes, they should send them on to the next person on the list; otherwise, someone will publicly distribute a second set of the tapes. Clay thinks he must've received the tapes by mistake, but she describes the map that each of her listeners should've received, which matches a map he received in his locker a few weeks ago. Hannah encourages her listeners to visit the starred places on the map if they want to understand her better. On the first tape, Hannah names the first person on her list: Justin Foley. Justin was Hannah's first kiss in her freshman year, but soon after their kiss, Justin started spreading rumors that made people at school think Hannah encouraged Justin to do more than kissing. The rumors ruined a precious memory for her, helping Hannah's reputation to spiral out of her control. After listening to the first tape, Clay goes to his friend Tony's house to borrow his Walkman. He starts to follow Hannah's map while listening to the tapes. He arrives at the first star on the map: it's the first house Hannah lived in when she moved to this town, but it's also the house Clay visited a month ago when he witnessed a car crash involving an elderly man and had to run to the man's home to tell his wife he was okay. On the second side of the tape, Hannah names Alex Standall. Alex was the author of a list called "Who's Hot/Who's Not" in freshman year, naming Hannah under "Best Ass." The day the list spread around school, Hannah went to Blue Spot Liquor to buy her usual candy bar and as she was paying, a boy walked in and grabbed her butt. On the next tape, Hannah names Jessica Davis. After the "Who's Hot/Who's Not" list was published, naming Jessica Davis under "Worst Ass," Jessica confronted Hannah: she'd heard rumors about Hannah and Alex getting romantically involved. When Hannah tries to tell Jessica that Alex only pitted them against each other on the list to get back at Jessica because he and Jessica had had a relationship and broken up, Jessica slaps Hannah on the face, leaving a scar. Next, Hannah names Tyler Down. A couple of years ago, she and Courtney Crimsen discovered he was taking photos of Hannah through her slightly open bedroom blinds. When they caught him—thanks to Courtney's plan of luring him in by saying sexually suggestive things before suddenly opening the blinds—he zipped up his pants and ran away. After that, instead of leaving her bedroom blinds ajar so she could fall asleep watching the stars, Hannah kept them tightly closed. On the next tape, Hannah names Courtney Crimsen. Courtney seems perfect from the outside, but Hannah thinks she's only pretending to be nice. The day after Courtney and Hannah caught Tyler, Hannah expected Courtney to treat her more like a friend, but Courtney mostly ignored her. Then, the day of a big party, Courtney asked Hannah if they could go together. Hannah agreed, but quickly realized that Courtney just wanted a ride to the party. At the party, she found out Courtney was spreading the rumor that Hannah had something sexual hidden in her bedroom drawers. She left the party without Courtney. Clay arrives at Tyler's house. There, he finds Marcus Cooley, who offers him a rock to throw at Tyler's window. Clay realizes Marcus must appear later in the tapes—he must feel like Tyler deserves the blame for Hannah's death. Clay calls Marcus a "dick" and walks away. On the next tape, Hannah describes the Oh My Dollar Valentines, an annual event at school that involves people filling in surveys about their romantic preferences and then paying to find out their best matches. The day the matches came out, Hannah got a phone call from Marcus, who told her she was on his list of matches and invited her to a date at Rosie's. Hannah waited at Rosie's for more than half an hour before Marcus arrived. He took her to a booth at the back of the diner and started touching her under her skirt without her consent. Hannah started to feel like she'd never get control of her life. Clay heads to Rosie's but stops at the movie theater where he and Hannah worked together last summer. He realizes that he could've really connected with Hannah here, but he didn't try hard enough. On the next tape, Hannah explains that after Marcus left her at Rosie's, Zach Dempsey sat down opposite her. She stayed silent for several minutes before he went back to sit with his friends, who laughed at him for failing to connect with her. Later, Hannah found out Zach was stealing the compliments from her paper bag in Peer Communications (a class at school in which everyone is encouraged to share notes of encouragement). On the tape, she tells Zach that he took away the only form of hope she felt she could rely on. After that, she dropped a question about suicide in the teacher's paper bag, and when the class discussed it, they seemed annoyed that the person who suggested the topic didn't come forward. Looking back, Hannah wonders if she suggested the topic as a way of reaching out for support. Clay begins the next tape as he sees Tony walking out of Rosie's and getting in his car but not driving away. On this tape, Hannah reveals that the poem everyone at school was sharing around and analyzing in English class was actually hers—Ryan Shaver, the editor of the Lost-N-Found Gazette, stole it from her and made copies. Clay leaves Rosie's. Tony calls him over and tells him to get into his car, revealing that he has the second set of tapes. On the next tape, Hannah tells Clay he's not on the list because he did anything bad to her, but because she wanted to go out with him. She says that the next few tapes will focus on a big party a few months ago. That party was the only time she and Clay really connected, but even though they got along well and started to kiss each other, she couldn't bring herself to fully open up to him and instead pushed him away. The next tape continues the story of the party: after Clay left the empty bedroom where he and Hannah were kissing, Justin brought Jessica in and tucked her into bed. Jessica was too drunk to even talk properly. After Justin left the room, he let Bryce Walker in, and Bryce raped Jessica, who was unconscious by then, while Hannah hid in a closet. On the next tape, Hannah says that Jenny Kurtz, a cheerleader from school, offered to drive her home from the party. During the car ride, Jenny crashed into and knocked over a stop sign. Hannah tried to get her to call the police, but Jenny refused and left Hannah on the side of the road. Hannah tells Jenny that, by brushing off the accident, she got away with more than knocking down a stop sign, because while the stop sign was missing, two cars collided at that intersection, resulting in the death of a high school senior (this is the same collision Clay witnessed). On the penultimate tape, Hannah admits that she's a vital part of her own decision to end her life. She tells the listeners about another party after the big one she just described. She didn't attend this party, but she walked past the house afterward and saw Courtney and Bryce in the hot tub. They invited her to join them, and she did, though she knew she shouldn't. In the hot tub, Bryce started to touch her and eventually have sex with her. She didn't resist him, but she didn't consent, either. Clay arrives at Eisenhower Park which contains the rocket slide where Hannah had her first kiss. He climbs up the rocket and plays the final tape. On this tape, Hannah records her meeting with Mr. Porter, a guidance counselor at school. She tries to tell him how hopeless she feels and to explain the sexual assault she experienced in the hot tub, but he tells her she might need to just move on. Hannah thanks Mr. Porter and leaves; he calls after her, but ultimately leaves her be. Clay plays the unlabeled B side of the tape, on which Hannah only says, "Thank you." Clay leaves the park and goes to the post office to mail the tapes. By now, it's morning. When he arrives at school, he sees Skye (his middle-school crush, who he's noticed becoming more distant and antisocial) walking down the hall. As she fades from view, he decides to go after her, calling her name.

- Genre: Novel, Historical Fiction - Title: This Other Eden - Point of view: Third-Person Omniscient - Setting: Apple Island (off the coast of Maine) - Character: Ethan Honey. Description: - Character: Esther Honey. Description: - Character: Matthew Diamond. Description: - Character: Bridget. Description: - Character: Patience Honey. Description: - Character: Benjamin Honey. Description: - Character: Eha Honey. Description: - Character: Zachary Hand. Description: - Character: The Sheriff and Deputy. Description: - Character: Theophilus Lark. Description: - Character: Candace Lark. Description: - Character: Thomas Hale. Description: - Character: Iris McDermott. Description: - Character: Violet McDermott. Description: - Character: The Governor. Description: - Character: Bernard Richardson. Description: - Theme: Family. Description: - Theme: Eugenics and Racism. Description: - Theme: Survival and Community. Description: - Theme: The Power of Art. Description: - Climax: The Apple Islanders get evicted by the Maine government. - Summary: In the late 18th century, the formerly enslaved Black man Benjamin Honey marries the white Irish woman Patience, and the two of them settle on an island off the coast of Maine. Life on the island is difficult, with little food, but through persistence, Benjamin manages to grow an orchard of apple trees on the island, earning it the name Apple Island. The settlement on Apple Island continues to grow, with other families joining it. Then one day, a little over 20 years from the initial settlement, a hurricane strikes and causes a massive flood across the island. All of the members of the Honey family take shelter by climbing a tree, but the flood soon sweeps the tree away with the family members in it. As the water rises, Patience's head goes under, but she keeps her arm in the air, holding a patched-together flag that represents the island. The water never submerges the flag. By the time the flood waters recede, many Apple Islanders have died, the buildings have been wiped away, and the original orchard is gone. But the Honeys don't leave the island, and soon, they rebuild. Many years later, in the early 20th century, Esther Honey is the great-granddaughter of Benjamin and Patience. She lives in a shack with her son, Eha, and his children, Ethan, Tabitha, and Charlotte. Eha built the shack himself, under the guidance of Zachary Hand, an old man who lives on the far side of the island and spends most of his time carving depictions of Bible stories onto a hollow tree. Eha's father is Esther's own father—he raped her, and Esther considered drowning Eha on the day of his birth. Instead, she decided to keep Eha but kill her father, pushing him off a bluff when he wasn't paying attention. Other residents of the island include Candace and Theophilus. They are rumored to be siblings in an incestuous relationship and who have several children, including a daughter named Rabbit, who eats unusual things. There's also Iris and Violet, who are unmarried sisters who live together with several adopted children. Things begin to change on Apple Island one day when the white mainlander Matthew Diamond sets up a school for the islanders. Matthew Diamond holds some racist views but also seems to have a genuine interest in the islanders, encouraging Ethan in particular to study art. Ethan begins making drawings in his free time, and eventually Matthew Diamond arranges for Ethan to stay with his friend Thomas Hale in Massachusetts, where Ethan will be able to draw the landscapes and take art classes. Ethan agrees to go to stay with Thomas Hale, but he finds that when he gets there, Thomas Hale doesn't let him inside the house, forcing him to stay in the barn. Shortly after arriving, Ethan begins to bond with Thomas Hale's Irish maid, Bridget. She is fascinated by Ethan's drawing, and he takes an interest in her after she starts singing an Irish lullaby that he recognizes from Apple Island (since the Honeys all have Irish heritage through Patience). Shortly after Ethan does a portrait of Bridget, the two of them start having sex. One day, Bridget sees drawings and photos of Ethan's relatives and realizes, based on the dark skin of his relatives, that Ethan isn't fully white but is actually mixed race. Shortly afterwards, Thomas Hale witnesses Bridget going to see Ethan in his barn at night and throws Ethan out of his home. Ethan disappears, never returning home but possibly becoming an artist who moves to France. Meanwhile, a pregnant Bridget comes to Apple Island to see Esther, who invites Bridget into the Honey family. Committees from the government, including even the governor himself, have been coming to see Apple Island and evaluate the residents. Although Matthew Diamond believes the plan is to renovate the island, in fact, the government ends up evicting all of the original Apple Islanders. This is mostly due to popular eugenicist ideas, which suggest the Apple Islanders are "inferior." The eviction notices are traumatic for many of the Apple Islanders. A sheriff and deputy come to take away Rabbit and put her in a school for the "feebleminded." Candace tries to stop them, but in the ensuing struggle, the sheriff and deputy accidentally kill Rabbit, causing grief across the island. Eventually, most islanders come to accept their fate. Eha takes apart the Honey shack piece by piece, preserving the pieces to take on a raft to the mainland. The Honeys even let the arthritic Esther stay in her rocking chair as they tie her in place in the raft. Iris and Violet leave on a separate raft with their adopted children. They all go to the mainland to start new lives. When the white mainlanders come to destroy all evidence of the original Apple Island settlers, digging up graves and burning houses, the only remaining islander is Zachary Hand. He walks out into the water while holding up a flag.

- Genre: Bildungsroman - Title: This Side of Paradise - Point of view: Third Person - Setting: Saint Paul, Minnesota; Princeton, New Jersey; New York City - Character: Amory Blaine. Description: Amory Blaine is the protagonist of This Side of Paradise. Born to parents Beatrice and Stephen Blaine, Amory spends most of his childhood traveling around Europe and the United States with Beatrice. When he is 13, he goes to live with family in Minneapolis. Two years later, he is sent to St. Regis, a boarding school in Connecticut. He then attends Princeton University but leaves in his senior year to fight in World War I, where he serves as a bayonet instructor. After the war, he moves to New York City and lives in an apartment with Thomas Parke D'Invilliers and Alec Connage, two of his friends from Princeton. By the end of the novel, Amory finds himself alone and impoverished in New York. His roommates have both moved out, leaving Amory unable to afford rent. By this point, Amory's mentor, Monsignor Darcy, and Amory's parents have died, leaving him with little money. All of his romantic affairs have been unsuccessful, and he is companionless. Despite his unfortunate circumstances, Amory demonstrates remarkable personal growth over the course of the novel. Though in his youth Amory is haughty, self-involved, lazy, and cruel, by the end of the novel, he refocuses his energy on being a better, more trustworthy, and self-aware man. - Character: Beatrice Blaine. Description: Beatrice Blaine is Amory's mother. Born Beatrice O'Hara, she grows up traveling around Europe and learning about art and culture. She has a love affair with Monsignor Darcy but declines to marry him because of his lower-class background. Instead, she marries Stephen Blaine, Amory's father, for money and status, and they have a loveless marriage and spend much of their time apart. Beatrice raises Amory in the manner of her own upbringing, and Amory attributes much of his haughty disposition to his mother's influence. When Amory is a young teenager, Beatrice has a nervous breakdown and sends Amory to Minneapolis to live at her father's Lake Geneva estate. When they reunite two years later, Beatrice reveals that her health problems were the result of excessive drinking. She also laments Amory's Americanized, bourgeois disposition, wishing that he could have attended traditional schools in England instead of St. Regis. Toward the end of her life, Beatrice invests the remainder of her money in railroads, which proves to be an unwise investment. She donates the rest of her money to the Catholic Church, leaving Amory with no inheritance except for the Lake Geneva estate. Beatrice dies during the war. Amory later compares the women he loves to Beatrice, who seems to provide a model of feminine love that influences Amory's romantic pursuits. - Character: Rosalind Connage. Description: Rosalind Connage, the younger sister of Alec Connage, has a brief but passionate love affair with Amory that leaves him devastated for the rest of the novel. The two meet at Rosalind's debutante ball, where they are immediately infatuated with each other. Rosalind is beautiful, clever, sophisticated, and flirtatious, and she has many male suitors whom she tires of easily. Rosalind and Amory are in some ways male and female counterparts: they are both intelligent, attractive, vain, selfish, and charming. And while they're both prone to infatuation, they're also quick to change their minds. But their different social positions ultimately leads to the disastrous end of their relationship. As a woman from a respectable, wealthy family, Rosalind is expected to marry a wealthy man who can give her a luxurious lifestyle. Amory, as an educated man from a respectable family, is supposed to provide money for his wife—but his vanishing inheritance and lack of income make this impossible. Eventually, Rosalind chooses to marry Dawson Ryder, a wealthy bachelor who convinces her that she will grow to love him. Rosalind promises Amory that he is the only man she will ever love and that their love was "the first real unselfishness" she ever experienced—however, because of his poverty, their marriage would make both of them miserable. Rosalind's abandonment sends Amory into a self-destructive drinking binge. - Character: Monsignor Darcy. Description: Monsignor Darcy is a Catholic priest who lives in upstate New York. He is close mentor to Amory. Monsignor Darcy had had a passionate love affair with Beatrice before she decided to marry Stephen Blaine for his background and money. This affair caused Darcy to have a "spiritual crisis" and convert to Catholicism. Amory visits Monsignor Darcy before he starts at St. Regis, and they immediately become close. They maintain a written correspondence throughout Amory's life. Monsignor Darcy helps guide Amory through the process of coming of age. Monsignor Darcy introduces Amory to the concept of a "personality" versus "personage," an idea that frames Amory's quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement. Amory trusts Monsignor Darcy's advice more than anyone else's, and Monsignor Darcy considers Amory a "reincarnation' of himself, implying that he considers himself to be like a father to Amory. Amory is very saddened by Monsignor Darcy's sudden death later in the novel—much sadder than he was after his own father's death. During Monsignor Darcy's funeral, Amory realizes that he wants to be a better man whom people trust, like many people trusted Monsignor Darcy. - Character: Thomas Parke D'Invilliers (Tom). Description: Thomas Parke D'Invilliers (Tom) is a close friend of Amory's at Princeton. Later, Tom, Amory, and Alec Connage live together in New York. Amory is first introduced to Tom by his poetry, published in the Nassau Literary Magazine, which Amory and Kerry consider pretentious. When Amory meets Tom in the dining hall, however, they quickly establish a friendship based on their shared interest in literature. Tom is intellectual and bookish and at first disinterested in becoming part of the social scene, but Amory succeeds in Tom "conventional," encouraging him to change his appearance and discuss popular subjects. However, Tom resents his transformation and finds the Princeton social scene superficial and hierarchical, and he believes that without Amory's intervention, he could have become a great poet. After the war, Amory and Tom live together in New York, where Tom is a newspaper writer for The New Democracy. Tom and Amory share a sense of aimlessness and dissatisfaction. Tom moves out of the apartment when his mother becomes sick, which is the last time Amory sees him. - Character: Burne Holiday. Description: Burne Holiday is a close friend of Amory's at Princeton and the younger brother of Kerry Holiday. While Amory is initially closer with Kerry, Amory and Burne develop an intimate friendship during their senior year. Burne is intelligent, quiet, and eccentric, and he doesn't care about traditional markers of status at Princeton or about becoming part of the social scene, Many of his classmates consider him strange or even pretentious, but in fact he is simply contemplative. Burne also has a leadership role on the Daily Princetonian. In his senior year, Burne convinces much of the student body to resign from their clubs in an attempt to reform and equalize the Princeton social system. Amory has a deep admiration for Burne because of his intelligence, principles, and "earnestness," and they develop a deep friendship when Amory feels dissatisfied with and alienated from the Princeton social scene. Amory also admires Burne's sense of humor. Burne is the only person whom Amory believes is his intellectual equal. Amory also introduces Burne to Monsignor Darcy, indicating the strength of their friendship. When the war starts, Burne, a self-declared pacificist and socialist, refuses to fight. He leaves campus to return home when all his friends and classmates are enlisting in the army and is never heard from again. Amory often wonders what became of him and misses his company. - Character: Isabelle Borgé. Description: Isabelle Borgé is Amory's first love. Isabelle is beautiful, sophisticated, and charming, and she has a reputation for being flirtatious and kissing men. Isabelle and Amory are mutually infatuated when they first meet, and they exchange letters during the spring of Amory's sophomore year. Though Amory's letters are passionate, he finds Isabelle's lacking and "unsentimental." When Amory visits Isabelle's family in Long Island, they kiss for the first time and argue afterward. Amory realizes that he does not love Isabelle but instead is attracted by her "coldness." Isabelle, meanwhile, accuses Amory of being self-centered, "conceited," and excessively harsh. Throughout the rest of the novel, Amory compares the other women he loves to Isabelle, and he insists that Isabelle meant nothing to him "except what [he] read into her." Amory's treatment of Isabelle reveals his cruelty toward others and his obsession with chasing beauty. - Character: Eleanor Savage. Description: Eleanor Savage is a woman with whom Amory falls in love during a summer trip to Maryland after the war. Eleanor lives with her grandfather in the countryside. She was born and raised in France was sent back to Baltimore after her mother's death. After coming out as a debutante, Eleanor's partying and free-spirited behavior offended her relatives, and they sent her to the countryside. Eleanor and Amory have a whirlwind romance, sharing a love of literature and poetry and frolicking in the countryside together. Eleanor is highly intelligent and critical of the status quo, especially the social construct of marriage and gender norms. During their last night together, Eleanor attempts suicide by riding her horse off a cliff but throws herself off at the last minute, which causes Amory to fall out of love with her. Eleanor's beliefs, as well as the dissolution of their relationship, reinforce Amory's skepticism and pessimism about love. Amory considers Eleanor his last "wild" romance, and he credits the end of their relationship with destroying "a further part of him that nothing could restore." - Character: Clara Page. Description: Clara Page is an impoverished, widowed cousin of Amory's whom Monsignor Darcy urges Amory to visit in Philadelphia. Amory eventually falls in love with her. Unlike Amory's other loves, Clara is virtuous, kind, and grounded. Amory wants to marry Clara, but she refuses him because she wants to devote her time to her two children and vowed never to marry again. Clara also claims that she has never been in love and could not marry a clever man like Amory. Amory, meanwhile, considers Clara to be too good for him. Clara knows Amory well and is an excellent judge of his character, and she sets Amory on a path to becoming a "personage." Amory's relationship with Clara is the most distinct and least destructive of all his love affairs. - Character: Dick Humbird. Description: Dick Humbird is a classmate and friend of Amory's at Princeton. Dick comes to Princeton from St. Paul's, another elite New England prep school, and Amory initially desires his friendship. Amory tries to model his behavior after Dick's, believing that everything Dick does seems proper and effortless. Amory is eventually shocked and disappointed to learn that Dick does not come from old money—Dick's father had been poor and became wealthy through real estate in Tacoma. When Dick dies in a car crash while driving drunk near Princeton, Amory is horrified and realizes that Dick's wealth did not prevent him from dying a gruesome, "unaristocratic" death. Later in the novel, when running from what he thinks is the devil, Amory sees an apparition of Dick's face. - Character: Kerry Holiday. Description: Kerry Holiday is Amory's first friend at Princeton; they live in the same house during Amory's freshman year. Kerry is also Burne's older brother. Kerry and Amory bond over their initial frustrations with the Princeton social scene, feeling like they are not accepted because they are middle class. They become close and have a rowdy, lively friendship. Kerry is the first of Amory's classmates to leave school to join the war, where he later dies. - Character: Alec Connage. Description: Alec Connage is a friend of Amory's at Princeton. Later on, Alec, Tom, and Amory live together in New York. Alec is also the brother of Rosalind and Cecilia. He disapproves of Amory's relationship with Rosalind, knowing that Amory is sensitive and predicting that Rosalind will break Amory's heart. Amory takes the blame when Alec breaks the law in Atlantic City, though he knows that Alec will resent him for it. - Character: Stephen Blaine. Description: Stephen Blaine is Amory's father. He's described as "an ineffectual, inarticulate man." Growing up, Amory is much closer with his mother, Beatrice. Amory is rather emotionless when Stephen dies. Stephen gained his money from his two older brothers, who had been successful brokers in Chicago. Beatrice marries Stephen for convenience and status, and they do not love each other. - Theme: Youth, Innocence, and Coming of Age. Description: This Side of Paradise is primarily a coming-of-age novel, or bildungsroman: it traces Amory Blaine's development from childhood to adulthood, losing his youth and innocence along the way. Despite depicting youthhood nostalgically and romantically, the novel does not glorify youth in and of itself: rather, it suggests that losing one's innocence is necessary for self-knowledge and responsibility to others. In short, it suggests that many virtues are gained in the process of coming of age. The virtues of becoming an adult are perhaps best exemplified by Monsignor Darcy's distinction between "personality" and "personage": "personality" refers to a person who is a constant, unchanging entity, and "personage" refers to a person who gathers experiences and learns from them. As Amory grows up throughout the novel, he becomes increasingly reflective and self-aware, and he learns to accept his flaws rather than dislike himself for them. He also dramatically shifts his attitudes regarding other people: while at the beginning of the novel he is selfish and cruel, by the end of the novel he recognizes and regrets his cruelty and wants to be a person other people rely on. Amory also begins the novel relishing his youth and believing his years at Princeton and his romance with Isabelle Borgé are the high points of his life. After the war, feeling that his innocence has been lost and his youth abandoned, Amory feels despondent and behaves self-destructively. But by the end of the novel, while Amory still feels nostalgia for his lost youth, he knows that he does not ultimately want to return to a state of innocence: rather, he recognizes and celebrates the pleasure of maturing, realizing that he can still cherish the good times he's had while also leaving behind this youthful period of his life. There is a sense, therefore, that he has become a "personage," or at least is in the process of becoming one—that is, he accepts that reaching maturity means accepting a certain sense of continued development, change, and growth. - Theme: Friendship and Masculinity. Description: In many ways, friendships between men are at the heart of This Side of Paradise. Many of Amory's deepest, most significant relationships are with his friends from Princeton, including Thomas Park D'Invilliers, Burne Holiday, and Dick Humbird. While these relationships are all platonic, the novel suggests that admiration, aspiration, and even desire are central to these friendships: Amory (as well as the rest of the boys) seems to want to emulate his male friends, in addition to wanting to be around them. The novel suggests that this particular combination of, and tension between, identification (that is, seeing oneself in the other) and desire (that is, wanting to be like the other) that exists in friendships between men creates a unique and intense form of intimacy. Amory spends much of the novel in all-male environments—St. Regis', Princeton, and the army—that seem to create a particular atmosphere of camaraderie and masculine social life. Amory expresses a particular admiration for and desire to emulate Dick and Burne: regarding the former, Amory admires him as the center of attention of his social groups, thinking his conduct seems effortlessly proper and even aristocratic, an ideal to which Amory himself aspires, saying he never wants to seem like he has worked hard for what he has. When Dick dies, his memory continues to haunt Amory, who references him repeatedly throughout the novel. Regarding Burne, Amory wants to emulate his intelligence, principle, and idiosyncrasy. Amory and Burne take long walks at night together, an intimate activity Amory pursues with only one other character in the novel, Eleanor Savage, with whom he is romantically involved. While Amory self-consciously seeks companionship in women, then, it is in his male friendships that he is able to express himself most honestly. - Theme: War, Modern Life, and Generations. Description: The experience of World War I is central to This Side of Paradise. Though the years of the war themselves are absent from the novel (except for the brief interlude in the middle), the years leading up to the war seem to foreshadow it, and the years following the war are thoroughly defined by the aftermath of the conflict. The novel sketches a portrait of a new generation that is profoundly distinct from its predecessors, and it explores a period marked by progress and the sense that the war has ushered in a completely new era. In this way, the novel argues that World War I was a crucial turning point in history that acutely shaped the lives of those who lived through it—and particularly those who fought in it, like Amory and his friends. On a broader level, the novel's exploration of the war and modern life gives way to an illustration of Amory's generation, which struggled to find its way forward in the midst of so much change and was therefore dubbed the "Lost Generation." Indeed, the word "generation" appears nearly 20 times over the course of the novel, often in characters' own words referencing themselves. Exemplified by Amory and his friends, this generation, the novel argues, was defined by its disorientation, aimlessness, and rebellion against old cultural values: "My whole generation is restless," Amory explains. Amory and other characters in the novel make frequent reference to Victorian values and the rejection thereof, particularly regarding the war and sexuality. There is a sense that Amory's generation, given their historical circumstances, have a particular urge to rebel against their predecessors given the rapid technological and societal changes they witness and the traumatizing violence they experience. Indeed, World War I is often thought of as a historical turning point that reveals the horrors of modernity, and this influence on the characters in the novel is evident and profound. There is also particular sense that after the war, the world that the "Lost Generation" inhabits has undergone a complete break from the world preceding it: the world moves faster, and "progress" is the guiding concept of the era. This Side of Paradise thus captures the spirit of a generation that has been thrust into modern life by the war. - Theme: Money and Class. Description: Class status and class mobility—both upward and downward—are central concerns in This Side of Paradise. Amory starts the novel with a middle-class, moneyed family, but by the end he has no inheritance. The novel ultimately hints at the meaninglessness and futility of chasing money and worshipping class hierarchy: wealth is shown to be impermanent and undependable, and it's also implied in the novel that a person's financial status is no guarantee of integrity, character, or happiness—and in fact, often quite the opposite. Amory's views on money, class, and hierarchy shift dramatically over the course of the novel. He's initially enthralled by luxury and aristocratic tastes and values, and he wants to go to boarding school because it will gain him entrance into elite society, and he chooses Princeton because it seems idyllic and "aristocratic." But when he arrives at Princeton, he feels out of place for being "middle class," wishing that he had been born at the top of the class hierarchy and saying he does not want to appear to work for anything. Amory particularly idolizes Dick Humbird, who seems to him the model portrait of an aristocrat to which Amory aspires. But Amory is shocked to learn that Dick's father came from poverty and made a fortune, revealing the superficiality of the virtue that Amory assigned to Dick's lineage. And when Dick is killed in a car accident, Amory realizes that Dick's money didn't protect him from a gruesome death, which he views as "unaristocratic," "close to the earth," and "squalid"—in short, Amory sees that money and status could not buy Dick dignity. Later in the novel, despite the rapid diminishing of his family's fortunes due to bad investments, Amory cannot come to terms with his vanishing wealth and quits his low-paying advertising job because he finds it meaningless. With his declining class status, Amory also learns that money often infuses a certain superficiality into romantic relationships: when Rosalind Connage leaves him to marry Dawson Ryder, a wealthier man whom she does not love, he further sees the injustice of class hierarchy. By the end of the novel, Amory believes in socialism, a system of belief that contrasts with the capitalistic, money-obsessed ethos of American culture. While he still dislikes and fears poverty, he sees that a social and economic system that prioritizes money will always punish those who live for love or other deeper, less superficial values. - Theme: Love and Sexuality. Description: Amory is prone to falling deeply in love and feeling passionately attracted to women. Indeed, he is enamored with four women over the course of the novel: Isabelle Borgé, Clara Page, Rosalind Connage, and Eleanor Savage. Youth sexuality and romance are increasingly permitted in Amory's surrounding cultural landscape, though they are still considered inappropriate by elders. The novel suggests that despite the relative sexual freedom that Amory, his friends, and his lovers enjoy, love and sexuality in and of themselves aren't capable of providing meaning, purpose, or comfort. Amory comes to realize throughout the novel that love and sexuality are not exempt from any of the world's social problems. When Rosalind leaves him because he has no money, he learns that love is governed by the same rules of class hierarchy that often made him feel inferior at Princeton. What's more, Eleanor articulates the burdens that love, sexuality, and marriage place on women in this era: even though she is highly intelligent, she is destined to marriage, which will inevitably be to an upper-class man who is her intellectual inferior. For women, therefore, love is like a cage confining them in a fixed and rather unrewarding social position. And for both men and women, love essentially becomes little more than a way to achieve class mobility. Sexuality is also a tool with which the government can punish citizens, such as when the detectives in Atlantic City try to catch Alec Connage having sex with a woman who is not his wife. By the end of the novel, Amory realizes that he has been chasing love and sex for the wrong reasons: instead of seeking women for the personal fulfillment that their love and companionship could bring him, he was chasing them for their superficial beauty. Amory eventually realizes that his quest for beauty has corrupted rather than improved him, turning him away from his ideals and further ensnaring him in the restrictive social norms he has repeatedly tried to overcome throughout his life. The novel is, therefore, quite pessimistic about love and sexuality, emphasizing the virtues of self-sufficiency and individual personhood. - Climax: Amory walks from New York to Princeton to reflect on his youth. - Summary: Amory Blaine is born to middle-class, Midwestern parents. He spends most of his childhood traveling with his mother, Beatrice Blaine, and developing a taste for luxury. When Amory is 13 years old, Beatrice sends him to live with his aunt and uncle in Minneapolis. Amory struggles in school—he is well-educated and cultured, and his classmates consider him pretentious. After two years in Minneapolis, Amory is both egotistical and insecure. Beatrice agrees to send Amory to St. Regis, a boarding school in Connecticut. Before starting at St. Regis, Amory visits Monsignor Darcy, a Catholic priest in upstate New York, a friend of Beatrice's, who immediately becomes a mentor to Amory. Amory has a difficult time at St. Regis, but his experience improves in his second year, especially as he becomes a school football star. At the end of his senior year, he decides to attend Princeton. When Amory arrives at Princeton, he feels left out of the social scene, which is dominated by groups of upper-class boys from other elite New England prep schools. Amory soon befriends Thomas Parke D'Invilliers (Tom), who writes poetry for the school newspaper and shares Amory's interest in literature. In his sophomore year, Amory becomes popular in the Princeton social scene. On his winter break in Minneapolis, he meets Isabelle Borgé, a beautiful young socialite. They immediately become mutually infatuated. That spring, Amory neglects his schoolwork and devotes most of his energy to partying, socializing, and maintaining a romantic correspondence with Isabelle. Amory remembers this period as one of the happiest times of his life and the high point of his youth. Near the end of the semester, Dick Humbird, a fellow student whom Amory admires, dies in a car crash. Amory travels to Long Island to visit Isabelle. After they kiss for the first time, they argue; Amory realizes that he doesn't love her, and he ends their affair. At the beginning of the next year, Amory fails an exam and reverts to the lazy, rebellious manners of his youth. He is removed from his extracurricular activities and withdraws from the social scene. Amory's father, Stephen Blaine, dies, and Amory worries about his family's diminishing wealth. On a visit to Monsignor Darcy, Amory feels dispirited, but Darcy convinces him that he should not give up on college. World War I has begun, and Amory's friend Kerry Holiday leaves Princeton to enlist in the army. On a trip to New York City, Amory believes he sees the devil watching him. In Amory's senior year, he becomes close friends with Burne Holiday, Kerry's strange brother. Amory begins to enjoy college again, though he develops a reputation for being eccentric. Amory visits his poor, widowed cousin, Clara Page. He falls in love with her, but she refuses to marry him. When the United States enters the war, Amory enlists and leaves Princeton with sadness. In a brief interlude during the war, Beatrice dies, leaving Amory penniless. In a letter to Tom, Amory reveals that their friends Kerry Holiday and Jesse Ferrenby have died in the war, while Burne has gone missing. After the war, Amory moves to New York City and lives in an apartment with Tom and Alec Connage, another friend from Princeton. Amory falls in love with Rosalind Connage, Alec's beautiful, materialistic, and selfish younger sister, and they soon talk about marrying. Amory takes a job at an advertising agency to make enough money to satisfy her, but she breaks off their engagement because of his lacking finances. Devasted, Amory spends week drinking excessively to avoid his pain. He quits his job, which he finds meaningless. Prohibition of alcohol begins, forcing Amory to confront his feelings uninhibited. Amory revives his interest in reading literature, yet he still feels aimless and bored. Amory and Tom lament the state of contemporary writing and intellectual life. Amory goes to visit an uncle in Maryland, where he meets Eleanor Savage, a beautiful and intelligent young woman who shares his interest in poetry. Amory and Eleanor spend much of the summer enjoying their love affair in the countryside. On the couple's last night there, they argue about marriage and atheism. In a fit of anger, Eleanor attempts suicide by riding her horse over a cliff, though she stops herself at the last minute. This event ruins their love. In Atlantic City, Amory meets Alec and agrees to spend the night with him and another woman in a hotel room. When detectives knock on their door trying to catch an unmarried man and woman having sex with each other, Amory takes the blame for Alec. The police don't arrest them, but their misdeed is published in a newspaper. In the same newspaper, Amory learns that Rosalind is engaged to Dawson Ryder, a much wealthier man. Soon after, Amory learns both that his family's money has run out and that Monsignor Darcy has died. In New York, as he prepares to return to Princeton, Amory reflects on his life and character. He begins to get over his egotism and wants to focus on being a better man. Amory decides to walk to Princeton because he cannot afford a train ticket. On the way, a man who turns out to be Jesse Ferrenby's father gives him a ride. They discuss politics and modern life, and Amory declares his support for socialism and his rejection of the values of his era. At Princeton, he feels nostalgia for his youth and realizes that the only thing he can know with certainty is "himself."

- Genre: Realism - Title: Through the Tunnel - Point of view: Close third-person - Setting: A foreign seaside - Character: Jerry. Description: The protagonist of the story, and its only named character, Jerry is a young English boy on vacation with his mother to a coastal town in a foreign country. He is eleven years old and his father is dead. When Jerry's mother decides to spend another day at their usual beach and he sets off on his own down to the separate rocky bay, he is seemingly happy to be alone. When he sees a group of older boys, though, Jerry is eager to impress them with his swimming abilities. When the boys ignore him, diving underwater and swimming through a tunnel in a rock, Jerry becomes determined to do the same and spends the remainder of the story preparing to perform this task. By the end of the story, Jerry has proved his abilities to himself, and no longer seeks the approval of the older boys. Thus, his journey "through the tunnel" is symbolic of the journey all children must go through—from dependence on their parents to a degree of independence. In this way, "Through the Tunnel" is a coming-of-age story in miniature, as it portrays Jerry's courageous feat as a universal one: that of making the passage from childhood to young adulthood. - Character: Mother. Description: Jerry's mother is a widow on vacation with her son. She spends her vacation days sunbathing and relaxing at a crowded beach while Jerry goes off to explore the rocky bay. Midway through the story, Jerry's mother buys him a pair of goggles, but otherwise doesn't interact with her son again until the story's end, when she remarks on various changes in his physical appearance—a gash on his head, his pale skin—as they eat lunch in their villa. She hesitantly allows her son a greater degree of independence than she has in the past, worried that perhaps she dotes on him too closely, and by the end of the story seems to understand that Jerry has established a healthy sense of independence from her. - Character: Older boys. Description: The only other people in the story are a group of local older boys that Jerry encounters during his first day exploring the rocky bay. They are bigger than Jerry, don't speak English, and are very familiar with the features along the shore. Their initial act of swimming through the tunnel is what prompts Jerry to undertake the feat himself. By the end of the story, Jerry no longer seeks the affirmation or acceptance of this group of boys—suggesting that self-assurance relies not on proving oneself to others, but rather to oneself. - Theme: Childhood and Maturity. Description: "Through the Tunnel" is the story of Jerry, a young boy who is training to make a physical passage through an underwater tunnel, but it is also a story about a boy preparing (unbeknown to him) to make the passage from childhood into young adulthood. As the story opens, in the time before Jerry has attempted to swim beneath the rock and through the tunnel, he is still a boy. By the time the story has ended and he has accomplished this grueling task after a long period of preparation, and has made a significant step toward maturity. Making his way through the tunnel is one way for Jerry to test himself and prove that he is no longer merely a child, but a young adult who can withstand physical pain and emotional strife. When Jerry first observes the group of older boys swimming, Lessing notes that "they were big boys—men, to Jerry." Jerry fails to impress them with his simple swimming and diving. After watching the boys dive deep into the water and re-emerge on the other side of a massive rock after a long stretch of time, Jerry understands that only by performing this trick himself will he find acceptance among their ranks. After an extensive training period, Jerry makes his final attempt to swim through the tunnel. He experiences a long, head-numbing darkness while making his way through the tunnel, but eventually emerges into the sunlit green water on the other side, a newly self-actualized person. Making his way home afterwards, Jerry "could see the local boys diving and playing half a mile away. He did not want them. He wanted nothing but to get back home and lie down." Once he has accomplished the difficult task all on his own, he no longer feels compelled to impress the other boys—suggesting that self-assurance relies not on proving oneself to others, but rather to oneself. Jerry's growth is marked not only by this physical feat, but also by his increasing physical and emotional distance from his mother. In the beginning of the story, Jerry's existence is defined by his proximity to his mother, but as the story progresses, she essentially disappears from the narrative. The story's opening paragraph sets up Jerry's relationship with his caring, if overly concerned, mother. They are walking along a path that forks in two: one direction goes toward the "crowded beach he knew so well from other years" and the other leads to a "wild and rocky bay." For the remainder of the story, the familiar beach represents Jerry's life under his mother's watch and the rocky bay represents Jerry's desire for independence. Lessing writes that, after stopping for a moment to ponder the rocky bay, "contrition sent [Jerry] running after [his mother]. And yet, as he ran, he looked back over his shoulder at the wild bay; and all morning, as he played on the safe beach, he was thinking of it." During his first day alone at the bay, he occasionally swims out to check in on his mom to make sure she's still on the beach. Yet once Jerry is absorbed with the activities of the older boys, his thoughts about his mom all but disappear. From that moment onward, he is only focused on improving his swimming abilities. After seeing that the group of local boys are able to pass through the cave because of their ability to hold their breath underwater for long stretches of time, Jerry is determined to improve his own endurance. Lessing tells readers early on that he is already a good swimmer, but learning how to hold his breath, sink easily to the bottom of the seafloor, and squeeze his body through the tunnel are all necessary skills for Jerry to safely make his way through the tunnel. After having his mother buy him goggles, he begins to explore the underwater tunnel. He uses heavy stones to help him sink down to the opening of the tunnel and then sets to work on improving his breathing. He spends time practicing on land, and is "incredulous and then proud to find he [can] hold his breath without strain for two minutes." The very thought of this stokes his excitement for "the adventure that was so necessary to him." At the opening of the story, the reader sees Jerry as a young boy under the close supervision of his mother. During his training period, he suffers from occasional nosebleeds and dizzy spells. By the story's end, when Jerry ultimately does make it through the tunnel, he emerges from the water unable to see, with his nose gushing blood and his head visibly banged-up. Each of these minor physical ills is a sign of his strenuous journey from innocence to young adulthood. Jerry's struggle to swim through the tunnel sets him on the path to gaining the confidence of a mature young adult. Having proven himself in this way, he loses his desire to impress the other, older boys, signifying a newfound self-assurance in himself and his own abilities. Confirming the symbolism of the bay as a proving ground for Jerry on a physical as well as deeply personal level, Lessing finally writes that, after this point, "it was no longer of the least importance to go to the bay." - Theme: Solitude vs. Community. Description: From the story's first sentence, when Jerry's attention is split between going to the crowded beach with his mother or to the rocky bay by himself, Lessing creates a sharp contrast between solitude and community. Throughout the story, Jerry seems to be privately weighing the burdens and benefits of being surrounded by others in a community against the difficulties—and, he discovers, the joys—of being alone. Although Jerry decides to explore the isolated strip of rocky bay without the supervision of his mother, he immediately encounters a group of older boys whom he watches with admiration and awe. He tries to impress them in a variety of ways and gain admission into their tight-knit group of friends. When he first sees the boys swimming, he feels a strong desire to be among them. "To be with them, of them, was a craving that filled his whole body," Lessing writes. He experiences a few fleeting moments of camaraderie swimming with the boys, and although they quickly go off without him, the urge to be included is what initially drives Jerry to train himself to swim into the tunnel. When Jerry first sees the group of local boys, it is observed that they are "burned smooth dark brown". No mention is made of Jerry's skin tone, but readers know that his mother's naked arm is "very white in the sun," so it's likely that the young English boy's complexion is similar. At the end of the story, after the end of a vacation spent swimming outside, the mother lays "her hand on [Jerry's] warm brown shoulder," subtly suggesting that he has "earned his stripes," so to speak—becoming more like the daring locals. Like the various physical injuries that he receives in the process of training to swim through the tunnel, Jerry also experiences a deep sense of loneliness that shades his time alone at the wild bay. When he first floats out to get a look at the crowded beach from his side of the promontory, Jerry searches the crowd for the sight of his mother. "There she was," Lessing writes, "a speck of yellow under an umbrella that looked like a slice of orange peel. He swam back to shore, relieved at being sure she was there, but all at once very lonely." Jerry is excited to be all alone, even as he is nervous and perhaps even frightened about the independence that he has obtained in that moment. Jerry and his mother are from England, and are vacationing in a foreign country. When Jerry encounters the older boys, he is left out of their group not only because of his inability to swim beneath the rock and through the tunnel, but also because of his lack of understanding their native language. In a panic, Jerry "look[s] up at the group of big brown boys on the rock and shout[s], 'Bonjour! Merci! Au revoir! Monsieur, monsieur!'" It remains unclear whether the boys are in fact French, but they decide to ignore Jerry's unimpressive attempts to communicate with them. In this way, Jerry's time spent at the bay is characterized by his solitude—partially willed as he cautiously distances himself from his mother, partially unwilled as he yearns for inclusion among the locals. Although he is initially hesitant to explore the rough and unfamiliar landscape of the rocky bay without the guidance and support of his mother, Jerry's decision to venture forth on his own shapes his eventual transformation over the course of the story. He experiences a succession of rich feelings—isolation, camaraderie, struggle, and accomplishment—that he wouldn't have necessarily felt if he had taken the comfortable route of going to the beach with his mother. In writing Jerry's narrative in this way, Lessing suggests that true inner development can only happen when a person is able to directly confront their physical or emotional boundaries on their own, without the comforts—or constraints—of community. - Theme: Nature. Description: Aside from a few short passages that are set in the villa, this story takes place entirely outside at the seashore. More than acting as a mere backdrop for human action, though, the natural world has an integral relationship to Jerry's psychological development within the narrative. The ocean, as Lessing describes it, is both beautiful and unforgiving, a site for tranquility and for risk-taking adventure. Lessing's language lyrically captures both the scenery of the coast and the potential dangers lurking beneath the surface of the water. As Jerry's emotions toggle between joy and fear, doubt and confidence, the surrounding environment plays an important role as it reflects his varied emotional states on his path toward a newfound maturity. The crowded beach and the rocky bay represent two approaches to appreciating not just the ocean, but the natural world at large. The beach is a site of leisure and easy relaxation, while the rocky bay—at least as Jerry experiences it over the course of the story—is a place of adventure and exploration. Early in the story, Lessing writes that going to the beach revolves around a "routine of swimming and sunbathing," which Jerry's mother seems perfectly happy with, while Jerry has grown somewhat bored with this routine through his many repeated visits to the area. When he first reaches the rocky bay on his first day alone, Jerry uses his time to aimlessly swim and relax. It's only when the older boys arrive to dive to the bottom of the rock and through the tunnel that Jerry begins to see the bay as a site for adventure and pushing the limits of his physical abilities—marking a shift in his own relationship to the natural world from a passive one to one that is much more active and engaged. The ocean, as Lessing frequently depicts it throughout the story, is a potentially harsh environment—one that can inflict pain on humans who don't take its threat seriously. As he begins to train for his swim through the tunnel, the fear and uncertainty that Jerry experiences are mirrored in the variety of physical dangers lurking just beneath the surface of the water. In his earliest stages of acquainting himself with the rock and trying to find the tunnel, Jerry experiences the immensity of the obstacle before him: "he could see nothing through the stinging salt water but the blank rock," Lessing writes. It takes some experimenting for him to figure out that he needs to use a heavy rock to sink to the opening of the tunnel and then swim through it. As he makes his first attempt at entering the tunnel, he encounters darkness and a further sense of confusion when something "soft and clammy" touches his mouth, and he sees "a dark frond moving against the grayish rock;" panic fills him, as he thinks "of octopuses, of clinging weed." This sensation of panic and confusion accompanies him on his successful swim through the tunnel, as well; he feels the slimy ceiling of the tunnel and again imagines an octopus waiting for him inside. In this way, the natural environment reflects Jerry's fearful and vulnerable state of mind. Throughout the story, Lessing describes the ocean in vivid poetic language that emphasizes the beauty of the environment surrounding Jerry's adventures and also conveys the sense of freedom that he gradually gains through his exploration of the rocky bay. Lessing's lyricism helps convey to the reader that Jerry's process of self-discovery is not only concerned with physical challenges and emotional turmoil, but also with his increasing awareness of the natural world outside of himself. When Jerry first goes into the water with his new goggles, Lessing helps readers see through his eyes with her crisp descriptive writing: "It was as if he had eyes of a different kind—fish eyes that showed everything clear and delicate and wavering in the bright water." Moments like this help the reader inhabit Jerry's perspective as it widens to encompass more of the world around him. Similarly, when Lessing writes of the small fish populating the water—ones that might go unnoticed by characters in other stories—she shows Jerry completely immersed in a new and alien environment in a moment of nearly ecstatic observation: "Fish again—myriads of minute fish, the length of his fingernail—were drifting through the water, and in a moment he could feel the innumerable tiny touches of them against his limbs. It was like swimming in flaked silver." If his life before setting out to swim the tunnel was relatively closed under his mother's supervision, once Jerry sets out on his own at the rocky bay, he is able to expand his understanding of the natural environment and his own position within it. Through her stylistic choices, Lessing makes the complex exterior world of the ocean mirror Jerry's inner developments through the story. Just as the setting can be tranquil and picturesque one moment, then harsh and somewhat violent the next, Jerry goes through a full range of corresponding emotions as he moves through the environment. This gives readers the opportunity to experience both the challenges and the rewards of his task, as Jerry struggles to venture through the darkness of the narrow tunnel and ultimately make it out into bright, open ocean on the other side with an ecstatic sense of accomplishment. Rather than acting as a mere backdrop for Jerry's activities, the natural world both influences and reflects his psychological maturation through the arc of the story. - Climax: After many days of training, Jerry swims through the underwater tunnel - Summary: The story begins with Jerry and his widowed mother on vacation from their native England to a coastal town in an unnamed foreign country. They seem to have visited the area many times before, as they already have a routine in place of visiting a certain popular beach. On the stroll down to this beach, Jerry notices the "wild and rocky bay," set apart from their usual area and down a separate fork in the path. Partly out of a sense of adventurous curiosity and partly out of a desire to spend time away from his doting mother, Jerry sets off on his own to explore the rocky bay. Already a strong swimmer, Jerry goes into the water and drifts far enough out that he can see his mother in the distance, just a small dot on the crowded beach. On his way back to the rocks, Jerry sees a group of local older boys who are diving and playing in the water. They motion for him to join them, so he does. Once the boys realize that he can't speak or understand their native language, though, they ignore him. The biggest boy dives into the water and doesn't come up for several moments. Jerry is surprised and yells out to the others, but they don't seem concerned about the other boy's disappearance. When the boy eventually surfaces in the water on the other side of a large rock, the rest of them follow suit and dive off the rock. Jerry goes in after them but can only see the surface of the rock. When they, too, suddenly reappear on the other side of the rock, Jerry realizes that they must have passed through an underwater tunnel. As the boys prepare to perform the feat again from the diving wall, Jerry is desperate for their approval. He flails about and tries speaking to them in broken French, but they are unimpressed. One by one, the boys dive into the water and seemingly disappear. Jerry counts off the minutes, shocked at the length of time they are underwater. When he gets to one hundred and sixty, the boys reappear on the other side of the rock again and go back to the shore, ignoring him all the while. After Jerry returns to the diving rock, the boys leave to another area on the shore and he cries to himself. Throughout the following days, Jerry spends all his time contemplating how he can get through the tunnel. He gets his mother to buy him a pair of goggles, he practices holding his breath, both underwater and on land, and learns to use a boulder to help sink himself into the opening of the tunnel. In his training process, he suffers nose bleeds and experiences nausea, starting to worry that this will happen to him as he is making his way through the long underwater tunnel. When his mother says they'll be returning back home in four days, Jerry decides that his opportunities to make his passage are disappearing and decides to make the attempt two days before they leave. When the day comes, Jerry employs all the tricks he has been practicing. When he is finally inside of the tunnel, his lungs start aching, his eyes burn, and he gets excessively lightheaded. A crack in the rock letting in the daylight gives him the illusion that his ordeal is over, but he is only partway through. When he eventually does make it through to the other side and emerges above the surface of the water, he is desperate for air and bleeding from a gash on his head, but feels elated at his accomplishment. Returning home, he sees the group of older boys, but feels no desire to win their approval any longer. He falls fast asleep when he gets home, and awakes when his mother returns. She asks about the gash on his head, but he doesn't tell her of his courageous feat—only that he can hold his breath for over two minutes. She tells him not to overdo it, but he has no desire to return to the rocky bay again.

- Genre: Fiction - Title: To Build a Fire - Point of view: Third-person omniscient - Setting: The Yukon Trail, Canada - Character: The man. Description: The protagonist is a lone hiker on a side trail in the Yukon Territories. His age and other physical details included are not provided. He seems to be a young adult to middle-aged. He has a beard and is in good physical condition. Despite his self-confidence in his hiking abilities, he does not seem to be a very experienced hiker, as he ignores the advice of the old man at Sulphur Creek about traveling on such a cold day. While he is practical and resourceful and both competent and rational, he is not a "thinker" and passes his time walking without any deep thoughts or particular appreciation of the landscape he passes through. He is also not imaginative, and because of that seems not to have much of a sense of the possibilities or consequences that can arise either from his actions or by chance. He reacts with initial calm and confidence when he falls in the water and then loses his fire, but as the situation unravels he first panics and then falls into resignation. His generic personality and characters traits (with the exceptions of his lack of his imagination and his over-confidence) and his lack of a name seem to allow him to be a stand in for many different types of people. The reader, therefore, might imagine him or herself in the protagonist's situation. - Character: The dog. Description: The man's traveling companion is a wolf-like dog with a gray coat, an animal native to the area, and described as not so different from a wild wolf. The dog, unlike the man, does not want to travel on such a cold day, knowing instinctively that it ought to hide and wait out the bitter cold. The dog operates based on instinct. When its feet get wet, the dog quickly chews away the ice forming between his toes. It does not do this because it knows the consequences of frozen feet, but because its deep instinct instructs it to do so. Likewise, the dog relies on the man only because the man provides warmth and food. At the end of the story, once the dog smells death as he approaches the man's body, the dog abandons the body to find other humans in the camp. The dog's relationship with the man is shown to be impersonal and unemotional. The dog is incapable of caring about the man. His character, such as it is, is defined by instinct for survival. - Theme: Instinctual Knowledge vs. Scientific Knowledge. Description: Jack London's short story is an example of Naturalism, a literary movement that focuses on the realism of human experiences, and often engages with the broad theme of "man versus nature." London's unique take on this larger literary idea is through the topic of knowledge. Two types of knowledge are discussed throughout the short story: instinctual knowledge and scientific knowledge. The first is associated with the dog and the second with the man. These two figures represent a larger distinction between nature and humans. The dog cannot understand or reason, but his instincts direct his survival throughout the story. The man, on the other hand, relies on information gained from others, on logic, and on tools and technologies (matches and a knife). This scientific or rational knowledge clouds the man's instinctual knowledge, and gives him confidence in his ability to protect himself from the natural elements with the resource of fire. Because of this confidence, he ignores the dog's instinctual knowledge that the weather is too cold to safely travel. In this way, the man is presented as separate from nature, and distant from his biological instinct for survival, because he understands the world scientifically rather than instinctually. Ultimately, the conclusion of the story shows a triumph of instinctual knowledge and trust in one's nature over confidence in logic and reason, as do other Naturalist texts. - Theme: Chance and Human Error. Description: The man's initial mistake of traveling alone in weather that is far too cold for independent hiking does not ensure his fate of freezing to death. The gradual deterioration of the man's conditions involves both chance and human error. The man is careful and prepared for the streams of water under the snow that will soak him and threaten his survival. Yet, he stumbles into an unexpected stream that was essentially invisible before he fell into it. This shows that even a prepared and observant person may fall prey to chance. When the man builds a fire, it is extinguished by snow falling from a pine tree, an devastating accident that is both human error and chance: the man could have been more cautious, but the snow might not have accumulated in that area, and might not have fallen in such a way as to put out the fire entirely. The interaction of chance and human error creates the chain of events leading to the man's death. This theme demonstrates that London's Naturalism does not prescribe "fault" to either nature or humans, only acknowledging the error in underestimating the power of chance to provide unaccounted for circumstances. - Theme: Fight for Survival vs. Acceptance of Death. Description: As the man's situation deteriorates, his emotional state oscillates between determination and acceptance. In certain moments, he seems to foresee his approaching death and in other moments he seems to have faith in his survival. These shifting reactions represent universal human themes of optimism and denial. When the snow falls on his fire, the man's initial shock reflects his certainty of his death, but his calm reaction and productive response seem optimistic. As a living being, he instinctively wants to continue to live, and so he refuses to give up, and fights for his survival. As he repeatedly drops the matches, he attempts to innovate. When the matches fail, his thoughts quickly turn to the price he'd pay for survival: killing the dog to warm his hands. This thinking reflects a man in a desperate situation, forced to think quickly and willing to kill for his own survival. After he is unable to kill the dog, a "certain fear of death" comes over him. This fear causes him to panic and run, an act of desperation. His repeated running and falling shows the back-and-forth between his fight and his acceptance. His final fall triggers his acceptance of death and he sits in the snow, waiting. His final imaginative visions resemble accounts of near-death experiences by survivors of such situations. The shifts between the man's perspective on his life and death, his need to struggle and his stages of acceptance, reflect the larger aspects of Realism in London's work. The story traces the internal response of any human to a life-and-death situation, engaging with universal ideas of how humans react with fear and acceptance. - Theme: The Power of Imagination. Description: Early in the story, the man is identified as not being a "thinker" and as "unimaginative." He is aware of the world around him and of the terrible cold, but he does not imagine the possible outcomes of this cold. Because the man eventually dies due to his initial mistake of traveling on such a cold day, his failure to imagine possible outcomes of his choice is linked to his inability to survive. Imagination could have saved his life. This theme connects to the theme of Chance and Human Error, as several of the man's errors seem linked to his inability to imagine the outcome, as when he builds a fire under a snowy tree, or strikes all the matches at once, with dreadful consequences. Had he been more imaginative, more open to the possibilities of what could result from his actions and from the terrible cold, he might have avoided these mistakes.At the end of the story, in the moments of the man's death, his imagination suddenly flourishes. He imagines the boys finding his body in the snow, and he contemplates the certainty of his own death. These imaginative acts are linked to his acceptance of his death. Before, when the man was focused on survival, he considered only the resources at his disposal and what they could achieve. Once he accepts his death, he begins to imagine and to imaginatively apply the wisdom of the old man at Sulphur Creek (that no one should hike alone in weather below 50 degrees) to his own situation. - Theme: Indifferent Nature. Description: Throughout the story, the natural world is presented as unemotional and unaware of the fate of the man. This literary depiction of nature reflects Naturalism's understanding of a harsh, yet realistic natural world. Contrary to other literary movements, Naturalism views nature without sentiment and without projecting human characteristics of love, care, and agency onto the natural world. This understanding of nature is clearly embodied in the character of the dog that is indifferent to the man and his fate. To the dog, the man is a source of food and protection only, and not a companion. The dog cannot feel any emotion about the death of the man, and the dog quickly seeks out other humans who will provide the food and shelter it needs. One human is indistinguishable from another in the dog's mind. Many people who emphasize a unique connection between a specific human and a specific animal view dogs and other pets sentimentally. Therefore, the relationship, or lack thereof, between the man and the dog in this story effectively communicates London's theme of the indifference of nature. Naturalism rejects the literary movement Transcendentalism, an influential philosophy in American thought, which emphasized unique connections between nature and humanity and focused on the souls of humans as open to the influence of nature as a spiritual force. - Climax: Snow suddenly falls from a tree and puts out the man's fire he built after falling into the water. From that point onward, his rapidly freezing body prevents any attempts at survival. - Summary: In northern Canada, a solitary hiker and his dog depart from the main Yukon trail. At the end of their day hike, the man will be reunited with his traveling companions, who he refers to as "the boys," at the Henderson Camp. The man is a newcomer to this area and unfamiliar with the extreme cold temperatures. A weather forecast of fifty degrees below zero does not mean much to the man, who is competent but lacks imagination. Such extreme temperatures promise discomfort, but do not cause him to reflect on the risks, his own death, and his role in the natural world. The man, therefore, thinks very little as he walks, considering only his destination for the evening, and his lunch, which he carries inside his jacket against his skin to keep it from freezing. He chews tobacco as he walks, and his spit freezes in an icicle from his mouth in the extreme cold. The temperature is, in fact, seventy-five degrees below zero. The dog's natural instincts tell it that it is unsafe to travel in these weather conditions. The dog is anxious. It feels it should curl up beneath the snow and wait out the cold. It expects the man to do the same: stop traveling and build a fire. As the man walks, he is looking carefully for places where the ice and snow might conceal hidden water. The creek he follows is frozen solid, but streams run from the hillsides under the snow and these small pools can be liquid even in the coldest temperature. Falling through the ice and getting wet would be dangerous and would delay his travel because he would need to stop to build a fire to warm himself. He shies away from a place where he feels the ice move. Once, sensing danger, he sends the dog over a patch of ice first. The dog falls through and the water on its feet and legs freezes instantly. The dog chews the ice from between its toes. It does not know the consequences of frozen feet, but it is directed by its survival instinct to remove the ice. The man arrives at a divide in the creek where he stops to eat his lunch. In the few minutes that he removes his mittens his hands grow numb. He realizes he cannot feel his toes and feet, and the ice frozen around his mouth in his beard obstructs his eating. He laughs at his own foolishness; he forgot to first build a fire to warm himself. He remembers meeting an old man at Sulphur Creek who gave him traveling and safety advice. He had scoffed at the man's stories of the cold temperatures, but now acknowledges that the man was right: it is extremely cold. He builds a fire, melts the ice from his face, and eats his lunch. The dog sits near the fire enjoying the warmth. When the man moves on, the dog does not want to leave the fire, drawn to its safety. For half an hour, the man does not observe any telltale signs of water under the snow. Then, without warning, the ice breaks and he falls through. He is soaked to the knees. He curses the delay, but knows he must stop to build a fire and dry his clothes, another piece of instruction from the old man at Sulphur Creek. The man gathers wood and constructs his fire among some pine trees at the top of a bank. He moves carefully, understanding that he needs to be successful at his first attempt to build a fire. As the fire roars to life, the man congratulates himself on proving the old man at Sulphur Creek wrong. The old man had cautioned that no one should travel alone in temperatures of fifty degrees below zero. And yet, the man had provided for himself even after an accident. Any man should be able to do the same, he believes. The man starts to remove his frozen moccasins, when, suddenly, snow falls from the pine trees above onto the man and his fire. The man had disturbed the snow piled on the trees as he gathered wood for his fire, and the heat from the fire had done the same. The fire is smothered in an instant. The man is shocked, but he starts to rebuild his fire out in the open, wishing for a companion who could have helped him in this situation. The man reaches into his pocket for the tree bark he uses to light a fire, but he cannot grasp it, or tell where it is, because his fingers have grown numb and lost all feeling. He puts on his mittens and beats his hands in an attempt to restore feeling. He looks jealously at the dog, which is protected by its body's natural resources. Eventually the man retrieves the tree bark, but he cannot handle the matches. He drops the pack and individual matches. He lights one match by holding it in his mouth, but the smoke in his nose causes him to drop the match into the snow. The man can only hold the full pack of matches between numb hands, so, in desperation, he strikes the whole pack at once. He can smell his flesh burning as he holds the lit bundle of matches to the tree bark. Once the bark is lit, he drops the burning bundle into the snow. He carefully adds grasses and wood to the small flame, which promises life. He realizes that he will lose some fingers and toes, even if he is able to build a second fire. But his numb hands are clumsy and he scatters the coals of the fire, extinguishing it. The sight of the dog inspires a crazy idea. The man heard of a man who survived a winter storm by killing an animal and crawling inside the corpse for warmth. He thinks that he could kill the dog, warm his hands inside its body, and try again to build a fire. The man catches the dog by wrapping his arms around it, but realizes he physically cannot kill it. His hands cannot grasp his knife. The man realizes now that the situation has become one of life or death. In a panic, he begins to run down the trail. He imagines that he could run far enough to reach the camp and the boys who could save him. But he lacks the endurance for running, and his frozen feet and legs have lost all feeling. He stumbles and falls, then runs again. Eventually he lies in the snow, resting. The thought that more and more of his body is freezing soon sends the man running again. After the last time he falls, the man sits quietly, reflecting on meeting his death with dignity. He thinks that he has been running around ridiculously rather than accepting the inevitable. He grows sleepy. He imagines the boys finding his body on the trail the next day. He feels separate from himself, and looks at his body in the snow from the boys' perspective. He murmurs aloud to the old man at Sulphur Creek that he was right: no man should travel alone in these temperatures. Finally, the man falls into a peaceful sleep. The dog watches the man, puzzled by his inactivity, until, moving closer, it smells death. The dog howls, while evening arrives and stars appear in the sky. Eventually, the dog turns and runs down the trail toward the camp where it seeks fire and food provided by other humans.

- Genre: Novel of Consciousness - Title: To the Lighthouse - Point of view: Multiple - Setting: Isle of Skye, Scotland 1910-1920 - Character: Mrs. Ramsay. Description: Beautiful, charming, and nurturing, Mrs. Ramsey holds the Ramsay family together as she holds together every social context she enters by her charisma and instinct for putting people at ease. Mrs. Ramsay also holds To the Lighthouse together, for the novel's shape is structured around her: her perspective dominates Chapter 1 and, even after she dies in Chapter 2, Mrs. Ramsay remains central in Chapter 3 as the surviving Ramsays manage their grief and Lily revisits her memories of Mrs. Ramsay and makes peace with her ghost. For her own part, Mrs. Ramsay exalts in the beauty of the world and, though she insists she is no thinker, frequently reflects on the nature of time and human experience. An eager matchmaker, Mrs. Ramsay is also, as Lily sees, an artist who can make out of the fleeting moment "something permanent" - Character: Lily Briscoe. Description: Observant, philosophical, and independent, Lily is a painter pitied by Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay in Chapter 1 for her homeliness and unattractiveness to men. Still, though Mrs. Ramsay thinks nothing of her painting and wants her to marry, she admires Lily's independence. In Chapter 3, Lily struggles (and eventually succeeds) in painting the picture she had first attempted in Chapter 1, all the while revisiting memories of Mrs. Ramsay and contemplating the great mysteries of life, death, art, and human experience. - Character: Mr. Ramsay. Description: As brilliant and passionate as he is petty, bossy, and demanding, Mr. Ramsay is a victim of his own mercurial moods and is always shifting in the opinion of those around him. Characters loathe his imperiousness and neediness, then admire his courage and dignity. In Chapter 1, Mr. Ramsay adores Mrs. Ramsay and his children but struggles with angry outbursts and self-doubt about his career. In Chapter 3, Mr. Ramsay remains just as needy of female sympathy (especially since Mrs. Ramsay is no longer around to dispense it) but wishes, looking back, that he had not been so quick to anger. - Character: James Ramsay. Description: One of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay's children, James is as bitter and resentful of his father as a six-year-old in Chapter 1 as he is as a sixteen-year-old in Chapter 3. Yet, by Chapter 3, James has learned to distinguish between his father's person and his father's imperious moods and can identify some of his own similarities to Mr. Ramsay. - Theme: Time. Description: To the Lighthouse explores time at every scale, tracking the intricate thoughts and impressions within a single lived second while also meditating on the infinity of geologic time stretching back into the past and forward into the future beyond the span of human knowledge. Between these two extremes, the novel presents the different measures of time out of which individual experience is composed. Part 1, The Window, and Part 2, The Lighthouse, occur almost in "real time," as the action described takes place within a period more or less equivalent to the period of time it takes to read the section. Within these sections, each character's perspective picks up on an immense range of detail and the observant Mrs. Ramsay and Lily are especially conscious of the unique specificity of each moment. The novel also explores the vacation time of the Ramsays and their guests, for whom the scenes of the novel are lived within a "break" from their normal lives in London, and the circular, ritual time of communal activity and habit, as the characters repeat the daily routines of walks and dinners, react to one another in predictable ways, and repeatedly profess long-held opinions. Zooming out from daily life, To the Lighthouse reflects on time's larger frameworks as Mrs. Ramsay considers the irretrievable time of childhood and she, along with Mr. Ramsay and Lily, confront human tininess in the course of the Earth's existence. Yet Mrs. Ramsay and Lily (and, though he has his doubts, Mr. Ramsay) believe that it is possible to make "something permanent" out of the moment, and thus Lily paints to partake of eternity as Mrs. Ramsay orchestrates lived experience until it becomes as transcendent as art. In Part 2, Time Passing, the "real time" of The Window accelerates to breakneck speed and the section spans a whole decade in just a few pages. Without much attention to detail, this view on time lacks the particularity and complexity of time in The Window and is characterized only by a barebones framework of events. Thus, the enormity of Mrs. Ramsay's, Prue's, and Andrew's deaths, and of World War I, are reduced to one sentence parentheticals. As committed as it is to capturing an experience of lived time, To the Lighthouse is just as interested in the relics that linger after experience, and the novel holds up many different forms of memory. There is the history book memory of impartially and sparely recounted event as demonstrated in the bullet-like plot points of Part 2, Time Passing. There is the circular memory Mrs. Ramsay has thinking back on her youth, recognizing in her children's youth their own future memories, and feeling life to be a cycle of marriage and childbearing passed on from generation to generation. There is the living memory of Mrs. McNab and Lily as their recollected images of Mrs. Ramsay appear visible on the surface of the present world. To the Lighthouse ultimately demonstrates the inadequacy of clock time to measure human experience: life is not felt, Woolf shows, second by orderly second. Instead, one minute seems to drag on an eternity while the next two decades speed by. One is one second aware of a human lifespan as a long, luxurious stretch and the next second perceives it to be an infinitesimal fraction of Earth's much more enduring existence. Memories return in the present and live on, sometimes seeming never to have passed. - Theme: The Meaning of Life. Description: Characters throughout To the Lighthouse question life's ultimate meaning and supply different answers based on their own perspectives and on the circumstances that surround their questioning. Mrs. Ramsay understands the meaning of life to be family and domestic happiness, while Mr. Bankes and Mr. Tansley understand it to be work and professional success. Mr. Ramsay vacillates between these answers, finding ultimate meaning sometimes in family, sometimes in philosophy. Lily thinks life's greatest meaning lies in making art. Yet even as each character's thoughts and behavior seem to present a loose argument for each "meaning," no character ever feels personally confident or satisfied with one answer. Their moments of conviction are always shadowed by doubt. Thus, Mrs. Ramsay despairs at the start of dinner in The Window, feeling her marriage, her family, and her life are hollow and worthless. Thus, Mr. Ramsay continually doubts himself, one moment disparaging his family life, the next moment his professional life, and forever relying on Mrs. Ramsay for sympathy and praise to soothe his spirits. Thus, Mr. Tansley experiences bitter anguish and hurt at the dinner table, proving how much weight he actually gives to the very world of human relations he calls meaningless. Thus, Lily repeatedly turns on herself, belittling her life choices and criticizing her painting. No matter where the characters of To the Lighthouse find meaning in their lives, those meanings are integrally related to the theme of Time. A character's perspective on life is always affected by that character's relationship to time. When characters feel that human action transcends mortality to endure the ages or when they are able to luxuriate in the present moment and feel the breadth of a human lifespan, then they are able to feel life is meaningful, worthwhile. Thus, reading Sir Walter Scott, Ramsay feels that the ongoing torch of human accomplishment passed from person to person is much more meaningful than the identity of each individual torch carrier. Thinking this way, he no longer worries about his own achievements and feels happy knowing that his work in philosophy will be carried on by other thinkers in the future. On the other hand, Mr. Bankes, on tasting Mrs. Ramsay's beef dish at dinner, is finally grounded in the pleasure of the present moment and can thereby see the merit in domestic rituals he'd previously considered meaningless. There is, ultimately, no one meaning of life and, instead of reaching for one, the novel shows that meaning is subjective, contingent upon circumstance and perspective. Each life, then, contains many "meanings," which shift and change from year to year, from moment to moment. - Theme: The Nature of Interior Life. Description: Written as a stream of consciousness, To the Lighthouse constantly investigates the contours and patterns of human thought through its form and style. While writing within the perspective of a single character, Woolf's sentences leap back and forth between various impressions, memories, and emotions, formally illustrating the associative nature of an individual mind. Lofty thoughts stand on par with everyday ones. Mrs. Ramsay's mind alone leaps between thoughts on the nature of compassion, the relationship between men and women, household budgeting, her children's futures, the state of her society, and the state of the beef dish she'll be serving at dinner. Emotions, too, flash quickly in and out so that Mrs. Ramsay's indignation at Mr. Ramsay's exclamation "damn you" is restored to admiration just a few seconds later when he offers to double-check on the weather he has so adamantly insisted will be poor. While capable of such quicksilver change, the mind is also capable of extended preservation, so that Mr. Tansley's insult floats in Lily's mind ten years later even after she's forgotten who said it. Over the course of the novel, Woolf is also constantly leaping back and forth between the minds of different characters. Though everyone's mind shares an associative, eclectic tendency, individual minds are also distinguishable enough from one another that Woolf sometimes doesn't even have to indicate that she's leapt from one person's perspective to another's, as when the text jumps from Lily's to Mrs. Ramsey's mind at the end of dinner in The Window. Likewise, Mr. Ramsay's stream of consciousness is immediately distinguishable from Mrs. Ramsay's in its lack of particular, material detail (the flowers, stars, and other such quotidian beauties that Mrs. Ramsay laments his inability to notice). As it slides in and out of different characters' minds, the novel's figuration further suggests that the divide between internal and external life might not be so rigid after all. Repeating metaphors of the mind as a pool of water and as a beehive transform abstract, private thought into a concrete, shared element of the natural world. Every aspect of the novel speaks to the diversity of interior life: the diversity of disparate thoughts within an individual stream of consciousness as well as the diversity of different thoughts and thought patterns that characterize different individuals' streams of consciousness. Lily's reflection towards novel's end that in order to see Mrs. Ramsey clearly a person would need "fifty pairs of eyes" (since each of those pairs would have such different insights into her character) can be read as a description of the novel itself: written through many separate pairs of eyes to achieve the most complete possible vision. - Theme: Art and Beauty. Description: As it examines the nature of interior life, so To the Lighthouse examines the nature of art and beauty, giving credence to commonly accepted understandings even as it puts forth alternative definitions. Weaving in pieces of a Sir Walter Scott novel and the lines from a Shakespeare sonnet, To the Lighthouse showcases the beauty of canonical art masterpieces, and in the person of Mrs. Ramsay, the novel presents a traditional ideal of human beauty. Indeed, Mr. Bankes imagines her "classical" beauty on the other end of the telephone. The power of such beauty—in both art and humans—can work for good. The literature the characters read gives joy and consolation, as Mrs. Ramsey delights in the loveliness of the sonnet's words and Scott's prose frees Mr. Ramsey from anxiety about his public image. Further, such artworks can inspire faith in an all-encompassing human project. After reading Scott, Mr. Ramsey no longer cares whether it is he or someone else who "reaches Z" – someone will, he knows, and that's enough. Mrs. Ramsay's human beauty likewise consoles and inspires: those around her admire her and feel strengthened by her spirit. Mr. Tansley is filled with happiness just by sharing Mrs. Ramsay's presence and attempts to be kinder and more generous for her sake. Paul attributes his courage to propose to Minta to Mrs. Ramsay's effect upon him. Still, beauty can also exert less positive influences. Lily observes that beauty can reduce and obscure, concealing the complexity of life beneath it. Admiring Mrs. Ramsay's beauty, Lily tries to see past it to "the living thing" that so animates her. As it considers the nature of beauty, the novel also considers beauty's makers. The characters of Mr. Carmichael and Lily afford a view on art in the process of being created by as-yet unestablished artists. In each case, beauty springs unexpected from unlovely circumstances. Out of the opium-addicted, shuffling Mr. Carmichael of The Window springs the incongruous sublimity of his poems, which meet with such apparent success subsequently. Through Lily's meager existence, self-doubts, and despair arrives the painting she completes in the novel's last section. Yet the novel does not limit the making of beauty to the production of fine art objects. It understands human conduct and daily life as a form of art also. Thus Mrs. Ramsey's orchestration of herself, her family, and her guests is repeatedly described in terms ordinarily applied to artistic composition and Lily recognizes Mrs. Ramsay's person as an aesthetic force, a masterpiece. In broadening our understanding of art and beauty, the novel shifts the emphasis from finished product to process – rather than limiting "art" to concrete, enduring, delimited artifacts, the novel shows that art can also be a spirit, a frame of mind, a form of vision. Thus, Lily ends the novel satisfied even though she knows that her painting itself will not be immortalized, will almost certainly be forgotten. She feels content knowing that she has participated in art and beauty just by making the painting, just by having "her vision." - Theme: Gender. Description: Though the novel's stream of consciousness jumps from perspective to perspective, the theme of gender remains in focus as each character considers gender roles and relations from his or her own standpoint. Mrs. Ramsey delights in her womanhood, successfully fulfilling the traditional female roles of caregiver, homemaker, beauty, comforter of men. Lily, on the other hand, resents those same traditional roles, resisting the pressure to fill them and then, when she succeeds in such resistance, feeling her defiant pride undercut by anxiety and self-doubt. Having successfully refused to give Mr. Ramsay the female sympathy he craves in The Lighthouse, for example, Lily thinks she must be a failure as a woman and, wracked by regret, spends the rest of the morning trying to make it up to him. Among the male characters, Mr. Tansley and Mr. Ramsay aspire to strength, chivalry, and intellectualism, trying to inhabit the traditional male role of female protector and evincing an enduring prejudice against female "irrationality" and "simplicity." Still, even as the men look down on women, they depend on them. Mr. Tansley and Mr. Ramsay are both utterly reliant on Mrs. Ramsay and other female characters for praise and crave female sympathy to keep their egos afloat. Even when Mr. Ramsay recognizes this need as a weakness in himself, he remains unable to overcome it and thus demands of Lily in The Lighthouse the same sort of support he'd demanded from his wife ten years earlier in The Window. Aside from considering men and women's individual gender roles, the novel also considers the gender relations within a marriage and presents two models of domestic union. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay represent the conventional ideal (indeed, Lily thinks they have suddenly transcended themselves and become a symbol as they stand on the lawn). Though the marriage of course possesses its gender-bending quirks—Mr. Ramsay is emotionally needier, Mrs. Ramsay, more emotionally restrained—it generally operates as a conventional heterosexual romantic partnership: Mr. Ramsey is the "rational" breadwinner, Mrs. Ramsey the "comforting" homemaker. They love one another deeply and act as a team. Within this model, both are happy. Mrs. Ramsay especially praises the virtues of marriage and her eager matchmaking attempts to set up all single characters in a marriage like hers. Though not seen first-hand, Minta and Paul's marriage as imagined by Lily in The Lighthouse presents a point of contrast with the Ramsay marriage. It's hinted in The Window that Minta is not entirely happy about being betrothed to Paul, and the subsequent marriage is rife with struggle and argument. Yet, over the years, relations between Paul and Minta are repaired by something that would traditionally be considered a marriage disaster: Paul takes a mistress and, thereafter, he and Minta are a team again. Remembering Mrs. Ramsay in The Lighthouse, Lily imagines holding up the example of Minta and Paul as well as of her own contented, unmarried life as evidence that Mrs. Ramsay was wrong to advocate so single-mindedly for conventional marriages. Indeed, the novel presents marriage and gender alike as complex, continued negotiations between the sexes, each facing a set of expectations that seldom fit but are nevertheless worked around, worked through, and reinvented. - Climax: Mrs. Ramsay's vision of eternity at the dinner table - Summary: In a summerhouse on the Isle of Skye, James is enraged when Mr. Ramsay insists he won't get to go to the Lighthouse the next day. Mr. Tansley echoes Mr. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay tries to preserve James' hope. She reflects on Mr. Tansley's charmlessness, then recalls his confiding in her about his poverty. Lily struggles to paint on the lawn. She agrees to accompany Mr. Bankes on a walk and they discuss the Ramsays. Meanwhile, Mr. Ramsay argues with his wife about the Lighthouse again, aggravating James. Mr. Ramsay meditates by the sea. After walking, Mr. Bankes admires Mrs. Ramsay and Lily considers the vivacity distinguishing her beauty. Lily explains her painting to Mr. Bankes. Meanwhile, Mrs. Ramsay wishes Cam and James could stay small, thinking she's not pessimistic (as her husband says), just realistic. She worries about Nancy, Andrew, Paul, and Minta on their walk. After James goes to bed, Mrs. Ramsay watches the Lighthouse, thinking, a sight which saddens Mr. Ramsay. She walks with him, chatting affectionately. Mr. Bankes and Lily walk, too, discussing painting, then the Ramsays. They come upon Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay who seem suddenly symbolic in the spell of evening. On the cliffs, Nancy, Minta, Paul, and Andrew have separated and reunited awkwardly on the sight of Minta and Paul embracing. Their return is delayed by Minta's lost brooch, which Paul chivalrously determines to find. He has successfully proposed to Minta. Minta sobs for more, Nancy feels, than the brooch. At the summerhouse, Mrs. Ramsay lets Jasper and Rose help her dress and is relieved when the walk party returns. Though she despairs at dinner's start, Lily helps her manage small talk and the conversation eventually carries the night into an orderly beauty that Mrs. Ramsay believes partakes of eternity. Mr. Tansley and Mr. Bankes flounder, then find footing at the table. Lily feels burned by lovestruck Paul's indifference, and decides not to marry. After dinner, Mrs. Ramsay coaxes Cam and James to sleep, sends Prue, Paul, Minta, Lily, and Andrew off on a walk, then joins Mr. Ramsay reading. She feels transported by a sonnet. After reading, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay say little but still express their deep love for one another. Nights pass, then the season. Mrs. Ramsay dies suddenly. The house stays empty. Prue marries, then dies in childbirth, and Andrew dies in World War I. Mr. Carmichael gets famous. Mrs. McNab eventually gives up on caring for the house, which falls into disrepair. Then, after ten years, Mrs. McNab receives word to prepare the house and laboriously does so. Lily and Mr. Carmichael return. The first morning back, Mr. Ramsay forces the teenage Cam and James to go to the Lighthouse with him. Lily fails to avoid him before they leave. During an awkward conversation, Lily feels Mr. Ramsay silently pleading for her sympathy and feels like a defective woman for not giving it. Mr. Ramsay sets off with a resentful Cam and James and Lily feels guilty. She tries to paint but is distracted by thoughts of Mrs. Ramsay and questions life's meaning. At sea, Cam and James have a pact of silence against their father's imperious bossiness. Cam doesn't break it even as she's tempted to give in to her father's attempts to engage her, admiring him as she does. Lily considers Paul and Minta's failed marriage and her own singleness and wants to show the matchmaking Mrs. Ramsay how wrong her instincts were. Suddenly, Lily tears up at Mrs. Ramsay's ghost and life's senselessness. She looks for Mr. Ramsay's sailboat, wanting to give him her sympathy. At sea, James inwardly contrasts his father and mother. Cam feels spontaneously joyous and loves Mr. Ramsay. On land, Lily observes how little one can know of other people's lives and reminisces about the Ramsays. She reflects that the greatest skill is to see the world as simultaneously ordinary and miraculous. At sea, Mr. Ramsay finally gives James the praise he craves, but James conceals his joy. Reaching shore, Mr. Ramsay leaps eagerly towards the Lighthouse. On land, Lily and Mr. Carmichael agree Mr. Ramsay has reached the Lighthouse. Lily paints a final line and is satisfied, even knowing her painting will be forgotten. She has had her vision.

- Genre: Story Collection, Dark Comedy - Title: Trainspotting - Point of view: The point of view shifts between first person (with different narrators) and third person. - Setting: Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland - Character: Rent Boy. Description: Rent Boy, whose real name is Mark Renton and who also goes by Rents, lives in Leith and is friends with a group that includes Sick Boy, Spud, Begbie, and Second Prize. Like many of his friends, Rent Boy is a sometime heroin user who goes through cycles of heavy usage followed by attempts to kick his habit (often by taking a train to London to stay with friends). Rent Boy has a strained relationship with his family, partly due to his drug use and partly due to how his brother Billy was a bully to Rent Boy as kids. Out of all his friends, Rent Boy is the most well-read. He is also arguably the most cynical, partly due to his chronic depression, which gets worse during periods of heroin withdrawal. Rent Boy finds "mainstream" society like politics and the workforce unbearable, and he mostly survives by obtaining money through petty scams and crimes. Rent Boy struggles both in his relationships with women and with understanding his own seeming bisexuality, and this reflects his larger struggle to connect with other people in general. At the end of the novel, Rent Boy betrays all his friends, stealing the money they from a heroin deal and running away to start a new life in Amsterdam. Rent Boys final actions show how he has grown apart from his old life and needs to move on. Rent Boy's conflicted feelings at the end of the novel reflect his conflicted feelings about Scotland—while he is excited about starting a new life, he regrets having to leave behind certain parts of his old one. - Character: Begbie. Description: Begbie, whose real name is Francis Begbie and who also sometimes goes by "the Beggar," is part of Rent Boy's friend group, although no one in the group likes him very much. Begbie is a violent bully, always looking for an excuse for a fight and often disappointed when the other person backs down from his challenge. He has a child with his ex-girlfriend June but refuses to get involved and act like a father. This represents the continuation of a cycle—Begbie's own father is a frequently drunk old man who hangs out by Leith's abandoned train station. Although Begbie is one of the few characters in the group who doesn't use heroin, his behavior is even more erratic than theirs (partly due to his heavy drinking). During crimes and schemes, Begbie is extremely paranoid, although even he doesn't realize at the end of the novel that Rent Boy is planning to betray him during a heroin deal and walk off with the money. Begbie represents the violent dark side of life in working-class Edinburgh, and his constant presence in the friend group, despite everyone's dislike of him, represents how difficult it is to avoid this dark side. - Character: Sick Boy. Description: Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson (sometimes also called "Simone" as a joke) is one of Rent Boy's closest friends, although the two joke about being enemies then grow apart for real over the course of the novel. Rent Boy claims that Sick Boy's nickname originally meant sick in the sense of twisted but it takes on new meaning after Sick Boy starts doing heroin and gets sick during withdrawal periods. Among his friends, Sick Boy has a reputation for having sex with almost any woman he wants, including Lesley, whose son Dawn is implied to be Sick Boy's. After Dawn's death, seemingly of sudden infant death syndrome while Sick Boy and Lesley are high, Sick Boy starts controlling his drug use, although he continues to have casual sex and often uses sex as an excuse to scam women out of money. Sick Boy views relationships as transactional and eventually starts his own informal business of managing local sex workers, many of whom use heroin. Near the end of the novel, Sick Boy has grown so distant from Rent Boy that he considers cutting off their friendship, but Rent Boy beats him to it by running off with the money on their last heroin deal. Sick Boy represents how addiction—both drug addiction and other addictions like sex—can take over a person's life and cause them to manipulate other people and compromise on their personal morals. - Character: Spud. Description: Daniel "Spud" Murphy is perhaps the most agreeable member of Rent Boy's friend group, but his somewhat innocent personality causes the other group members to take advantage of him. His nickname "Spud" (like a potato) reflects his essentially passive personality and how both his friends and his heroin addiction control his life. Spud lives off of unemployment benefits, and Rent Boy coaches him how to fail job interviews so that he can continue to receive benefits. But even Rent Boy's advice isn't enough to keep Spud out of jail after the two of them get caught stealing from a bookstore with a plan to resell the books later. At the end of the book when Rent Boy betrays all his friends, Spud is the only one he regrets hurting. Nevertheless, Rent Boy carries out the theft anyway, symbolizing how in the tough life of working-class Edinburgh, easygoing characters like Spud make themselves a target for more predatory or amoral characters. - Character: Davie Mitchell. Description: Davie Mitchell is a resident of Leith who is friends with Tommy and peripherally knows Rent Boy and some of his other friends. Davie Mitchell doesn't use heroin, and perhaps as a result, the sections of the novel he narrates are often more self-contained than some of the other sections. Despite abstaining from heroin, Davie still lives a fairly reckless life, at one point getting blackout drunk and creating a huge mess at his girlfriend Gail's house. Later, Davie contracts HIV, leading him to enact a long revenge plot against Venters, the man who indirectly gave Davie HIV. Davie seems like a respectable man on the surface, and so his shocking stories represent the dark side lurking underneath polite Scottish society. - Character: Tommy. Description: Tommy is an old friend of Rent Boy's and also a friend of Davie Mitchell. At the beginning of the story, he does almost every drug but stays away from heroin. He and his girlfriend Lizzy split up after Tommy turns down seeing a movie with her to go to an Iggy Pop concert instead. Depressed after the breakup, Tommy asks Rent Boy for some heroin. Somewhat reluctantly, Rent Boy gives it to him, and Tommy soon becomes addicted. By the end of the story, Tommy is HIV positive and seems unlikely to last through the winter. Tommy's situation represents the consequences of heroin use and causes Rent Boy to reconsider both his own actions and the nature of his relationships with his friends. - Character: Second Prize. Description: Rab McLaughlin (a.k.a. Second Prize or Secks for short) is a member of Rent Boy's friend group. Like Begbie, Second Prize doesn't use heroin, but he drinks so much that his own struggles with addiction are similar to a heroin user's. After a brief but promising career in soccer, Second Prize got deeper and deeper into drinking. He often picks and loses fights in pubs, which is how he got the nickname Second Prize, and his nickname perhaps also signifies his lower standing within the friend group. Second Prize represents how heroin is not the only thing controlling the lives of the characters and how other addictions can be just as damaging. - Character: Dawn. Description: Dawn is the infant child of Lesley who dies of what seems to be sudden infant death syndrome while several characters (including Dawn's likely father, Sick Boy) are high on heroin. The incident weighs heavily on all of the characters, causing several of them to make pledges to give up their addictions, although many of these lofty plans fall through. Dawn's death represents the death of innocence, partly due to addiction, but perhaps even more due to random chance, providing evidence for the bleak and pessimistic worldview that many characters like Rent Boy share in the story. - Character: Billy. Description: Billy is one of Rent Boy's brothers (along with Davie Renton). He bullies Rent Boy as a child and has much more conservative, pro-British views than Rent Boy. When Billy dies serving the British army in Ireland, many hail him as a hero, but Rent Boy maintains that Billy was an idiot who didn't even know why he was fighting in Ireland in the first place. Billy forces Rent Boy to examine his own conflicted ideas about Scottish identity, since as much as Rent Boy hates the British nationalism that Billy embodies, Rent Boy also sees London as an escape from the bullying behavior of people like Billy in Leith. - Character: Lesley. Description: Lesley is an acquaintance of Rent Boy's who has a traumatic experience when her infant child Dawn dies while she and some friends are high on heroin. Although Matty declares that Dawn died of sudden infant death syndrome, Lesley still feels guilty, and the incident also weighs heavily on Sick Boy, who was mostly likely Dawn's father. Lesley remains troubled for the rest of the novel, overdosing in an apparent suicide attempt and ending up on life support. - Character: Johnny Swan. Description: Johnny Swan is a dealer who earns the nickname "Mother Superior" due to how heroin users like Rent Boy and Sick Boy come to him to cure their withdrawal. Johnny falls so deep into his addiction that he recklessly shoots heroin into an artery and has to have his leg amputated as a result. Seeing Johnny with one leg, still addicted, helps convince Rent Boy that he needs to get out of Scotland and avoid becoming like Johnny. - Character: Dianne. Description: Dianne is a teenage girl who Rent Boy picks up at a nightclub and has sex with. Rent Boy didn't pay attention to her age because he was on speed and Dianne was wearing a lot of make-up, but after seeing her in the morning, he reconsiders his life choices, at least temporarily. The incident may be one of many factors in Rent Boy's decision to get out of Leith, although he continues to have a conflicted relationship with his own sexuality. - Character: Stevie. Description: Stevie is a friend of Rent Boy's who doesn't use heroin. After confessing his feelings to a woman named Stella, he waits nervously for her to get back to him with an answer on New Year's Eve. When she calls to say she loves him, he goes to meet her at the train station. Stevie lives in London, and the mostly happy ending of his story suggests that perhaps his move away from Leith helped him escape the fate of the other characters. - Character: Matty. Description: Matty is the first major character in Rent Boy's circle of friends to die during the timeline of the novel. He doesn't realize that he has HIV, and he gets a serious brain infection from the feces of a kitten he spontaneously adopts. Matty's seemingly random death illustrates how precarious life is in Leith and how death often comes prematurely to the novel's young characters. - Character: Hazel. Description: Hazel is Rent Boy's longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend at the beginning of the novel. She and Rent Boy rarely have sex because her father sexually abused her as a child, and she seemingly suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. After four years, Rent Boy splits up with Hazel, and she mostly disappears from the novel, illustrating how casually many of the male characters in the story treat the female characters. - Character: Davie Renton. Description: Davie Renton was Rent Boy and Billy's brother; he was fully paralyzed and died before the events of the novel. Other kids made fun of Davie's condition, and they made fun of Rent Boy and Billy as a result. Davie's paralyzed condition has strong parallels to Rent Boy's own condition while high, particularly during the "Junk Dilemmas" interludes in the book. - Character: Gi. Description: Gi (short for Giovanni) is a gay older man from Italy who meets Rent Boy at an all-night pornography theater in London. Gi had to leave Italy when word got out that he had a secret lover: his wife's younger brother. The male members of his wife's family beat up both Gi and the younger brother, and the younger brother later killed himself. Rent Boy has mixed feelings toward Gi, sometimes feeling sympathy and other times feeling disgust, perhaps reflecting Rent Boy's own conflicted feelings about his possible bisexuality. - Character: Venters. Description: Venters is an HIV-positive man in Davie Mitchell's support group. Despite his diagnosis, Venters lives recklessly and soon ends up in hospice care. Davie pretends to be Venters's friend, but really, he is plotting revenge on Venters because Venters raped a woman who went on to accidentally give Mitchell HIV. Mitchell pretends to brutally murder Venters's son Kevin then murders Venters for real with a pillow. While Venters is undeniably a despicable character, his story raises questions about to what extent Davie Mitchell's also-extreme actions might or might not be justified. - Character: Kelly. Description: Kelly is a friend of Rent Boy's who works as a bartender. She likes him at the beginning of the story, and for a brief period of time they have a relationship, but it ends when Rent Boy goes to London. Over the course of the story, Kelly experiences catcalling and rude treatment from men. While the novel largely portrays a male perspective, Kelly helps expand the perspective and reveal some aspects of Leith life to which many of the male characters are oblivious. - Character: Alison. Description: Alison is a member of Rent Boy's friend group, although she remains antagonistic toward Rent Boy himself most of the time. She is particularly good friends with Kelly. She has sex with Sick Boy and Spud, although like Rent Boy, she has conflicted feelings about her friends and sometimes seems to dislike them. Like Kelly, Alison helps balance the male-dominated perspective of the book. - Character: Sharon. Description: Sharon is Billy's girlfriend who is pregnant with his child when Billy dies serving in the army. Billy beat her, but she still felt loyal to him and wanted to change him. Sharon and Rent Boy have sex in the bathroom at Billy's funeral, and while Rent Boy initially enjoys doing something taboo, he is later horrified at the thought that he might not be as different from his brother as he thought. - Character: Kevin. Description: Kevin is the son of Venters and Frances, and he's the only person that the cruel Venters really cares about. To get back at Venters, Davie Mitchell stages photos that make it look like he brutally tortured and murdered Kevin. The whole experience makes Davie wonder if he went too far in his revenge, but Kevin doesn't seem too affected by the experience, and Davie goes on with his life. - Theme: Addiction and Society. Description: Most of the characters in Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting struggle with some form of addiction, often a dependence on heroin. The novel explores drug culture in Scotland in the late 1980s, depicting elements of it with realism and specific details, but it also explores metaphorical addictions and how these are similar to and different from physical addictions. The novel portrays addiction as both a constant state and a cycle. Some of these cycles play out in the short term, like how Sick Boy's name reflects that he (and the other heroin-using characters) experience extreme withdrawal—a literal sickness—if they go too long without using heroin. Other cycles play out over a longer time frame, like Rent Boy's seemingly endless cycle of quitting heroin, trying to get his life together, then relapsing again. As Rent Boy sees it, however, addiction is often about more than drugs—rather, it's an attempt to deal with the emptiness of the world they see around them. Unemployment is high in Scotland during the time when the story is set, and the jobs that are available are often so unfulfilling that Rent Boy and Spud learn how to specifically fail at job interviews in a way that will allow them to keep their unemployment benefits. Rent Boy's depression (which gets worse during withdrawal periods) leads him to despise all politicians in all parties and reject consumerist culture around him, raising the question of whether Rent Boy's drug use causes his dissatisfaction with society, or whether the pain of living in a flawed, dissatisfying society has contributed to his drug use. While other characters are generally less pessimistic than Rent Boy, they too often feel alienated from the mainstream, which they sometimes express through their alternative taste in clothes (the all-black-wearing Nina) and music (such as the musicians Lou Reed and Iggy Pop). Trainspotting offers a bleak depiction of drug addiction, but it also suggests that perhaps the most important part of drug culture is understanding the social conditions that make drugs seem like an appealing option in the first place. - Theme: Scottish Identity. Description: Most of Trainspotting is set in Leith, a largely working-class neighborhood of Edinburgh. Welsh wrote most of the book in different varieties of Scottish English, which is how most of the characters in the story speak. This focus on Scottish identity helps convey pride in Scottish culture. One of the most significant elements of Scottish culture in the book is how Scotland differs from England. Although Scotland and England are both part of the UK, characters in the book like Rent Boy feel strongly that his Scottish identity is more important than his British identity, which Rent Boy rejects so strongly that he doesn't even like it when a pub's name in London changes to "the Britannia." Not all Scottish characters feel the same way as Rent Boy, however. In fact, it's Rent Boy's own brother Billy who joins the British army to fight on behalf of Britain in Ireland, where he dies (perhaps without even appreciating the full context for the conflict). Billy died during the Troubles, a decades-long conflict between the largely Protestant British loyalists who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom and largely Catholic republicans who wanted a unified and independent island of Ireland. For Rent Boy, the historical parallels between Scotland and republican Ireland are clear, since both have fought for independence from England, and so by joining the British army, Billy betrayed his own heritage. Still, Rent Boy also has mixed feelings about Scotland. On the one hand, he believes that patriotism in general is bad, a belief he puts into action when he leaves Scotland for good at the end of the novel. Rent Boy says that the main reason he leaves is violent, sexist Begbie, who stands for everything bad about Scotland that Rent Boy can't escape while he's there, namely his drug addiction. Yet Rent Boy can't help feeling loyal to him. Ultimately, Rent Boy realizes that his loyalty to Begbie is holding him back, just as his environment in Scotland was holding him back by encouraging him to stay in cycles of addiction. The empty train station in Leith symbolizes how Rent Boy's surroundings keep him from moving on. Trainspotting thus depicts a nuanced view of Scottish identity, using the specific culture of working-class Edinburgh to dramatize the nation's larger struggle to reconcile its position as part of the UK with the desire of many of its residents to obtain greater autonomy and ability to self-govern, similar to how Rent Boy and the other characters seek greater control over their own lives. - Theme: Friendship. Description: Most of the characters in Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting are part of the same loosely defined friend group. They follow a mostly unspoken code of conduct where loyalty to friends is one of the most important virtues, although not all of the characters can live up to this standard. Many of the characters genuinely like each other, at least some of the time, and their trips to pubs or concerts can be joyous. Other times, however, characters have ulterior reasons for maintaining friendships. Rent Boy's relationship with dealers like Johnny Swan and Mike Forrestor, for example, is mostly transactional, since Rent Boy just uses them to fuel his heroin addiction—in fact, he doesn't even like Forrestor as a person. Many events in the story test the limits of friendship, questioning where the limit should be. Rent Boy, for example, gives Tommy heroin when Tommy requests it for the first time after his breakup with Lizzy, which ultimately starts a chain of events that leads to Tommy getting HIV. Rent Boy wonders how much guilt he bears for what happens to Tommy and whether it was his responsibility as a friend to set limits for Tommy or whether Tommy is simply suffering the consequences of his own decisions. Begbie, meanwhile, remains friends with most of the main characters in the story despite the fact that most of them don't like him and make fun of him behind his back. Begbie is more violent than Rent Boy, Sick Boy, Spud, and the others, but they only occasionally try to stop him and more often are complicit in his violence. Begbie takes advantage of their loyalty, pushing the whole group to do things that make them uncomfortable. Ultimately, the only way Rent Boy can imagine escaping Begbie's influence is by leaving Scotland for good, which he does at the very end of the novel. Trainspotting depicts the power of friendship and how it can help people endure hardship but also how loyalty to friends can be harmful and force people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do. - Theme: Sex, Libido, and Gender Norms. Description: Though characters frequently put heroin above all else, sex is often nearly as important to them. Sick Boy is notorious for his ability to have sex with almost any woman, whereas Rent Boy and particularly Spud tend to be less successful in their attempts—and constantly anguish over it. Sex is so important to Johnny Swan that it's the first thing on his mind even after he gets his leg amputated. Many sections of the novel take place in pubs, where the characters all try to find a sexual partner before the end of the night, further emphasizing the central role that sex plays in their lives. In addition, the sexual encounters in the novel often highlight the unequal relationship between male and female characters. When Begbie impregnates June, she's the one who has to care for their child. Meanwhile, Lesley largely takes the blame for the seemingly accidental death of her young child, Dawn, even though Sick Boy was likely the father but took no responsibility for the child. Kelly deals with catcalling and harassment from men throughout the novel, Tommy and Second Prize witness a man violently beating a woman in a crowded pub, and Gi, a gay man, also suffers due to ideas about masculinity in his home country of Italy. The experiences of all these characters show how ingrained traditional gender roles are in their society—and how these norms have the potential to inflict harm on characters whose gender or sexual orientation places them on the margin of society. In addition, Trainspotting portrays the intensity and power of libido, particularly in young men, to show how sexual desire can have wide-ranging social consequences, helping to define and enforce gender role, often in negative ways. - Climax: Rent Boy runs off with his friends' money. - Summary: In Leith (a port neighborhood of Edinburgh, Scotland) in the late 1980s, Rent Boy and Sick Boy begin experiencing heroin withdrawal symptoms. They go to see their dealer, Johnny Swan, a.k.a. "Mother Superior." At Johnny's place, Alison tells Rent Boy he should go see Kelly, who is feeling bad after having an abortion, but instead, Rent Boy just goes back and watches more Jean-Claude Van Damme. Eventually, Rent Boy gets tired of managing his addiction and decides to try to go to a new apartment and quit cold turkey. The withdrawal symptoms get to be too much, however, and in his desperation to feel better, he ends up using opium suppositories, only to lose them in a fit of diarrhea and have to dig back through the toilet for them. One day, while Rent Boy, Sick Boy, and several other characters are high, their friend Lesley comes in and announces that her baby, Dawn, has died, seemingly of sudden infant death syndrome. The event shakes everyone, particularly Sick Boy, who likely was Dawn's father. Many of them promise to swear off heroin. Second Prize and Tommy, two more of Rent Boy's friends, witness a scene in a pub where a man violently assaults a woman. When they try to intervene, however, they're shocked to hear the woman defending her abusive boyfriend. In a similarly violent pub scene, Rent Boy goes out with his "friend" Begbie (whom he actually despises) and their girlfriends, and Begbie impulsively throws a glass at a stranger's head to start a fight. Begbie often picks fights with strangers and seems disappointed whenever they don't fight back. Although Rent Boy successfully kicks his heroin addiction for a while after Dawn's death, eventually he relapses. Soon after, Tommy comes to visit him and asks for some heroin. Tommy has just broken up with his girlfriend, Lizzy. Although Rent Boy is reluctant at first, he eventually gives Tommy some heroin, sending him down the path to heavy addiction. Rent Boy and his friends continue to do drugs and act recklessly. In one situation, a desperate Rent Boy decides to go home with one of the last remaining women at a nightclub. As it turns out, however, the "woman" (Dianne) is actually a girl of about 14 who is still in school. On another occasion, Rent Boy and his sweet-natured friend Spud rob a bookstore to resell the merchandise but get caught. Rent Boy manages to talk his way out of jail time, but Spud goes away to prison for six months. Partly due to his drug use, Rent Boy has a strained relationship with his family, and so when he hears that his brother Billy dies while fighting for the British army in Ireland, Billy doesn't feel any particular grief. He feels that his brother betrayed his Scottish identity by joining the British army, and partly as a result of these complicated feelings, he ends up having sex in a bathroom with his brother's very pregnant former girlfriend. Ren Boy has a complicated relationship with sexuality. Later, when he meets an older gay man in London named Gi, he feels simultaneous disgust and sympathy, inspiring him to consider his own potential bisexuality. Rent Boy later learns that one of his old friends Matty has died from complications of HIV, after getting an infection from the feces of a kitten Matty spontaneously adopted. Rent Boy comes back from London to Leith for Matty's funeral and sees some of his old friends, many of whom he's grown apart from. Later, Rent Boy returns to Leith again and visits Tommy, who has contracted HIV from sharing needles and who seems likely to die soon. Rent Boy also goes out walking with Begbie at an abandoned train station where they run into a drunken old man who jokingly asks them if they're "trainspotting." Rent Boy later realizes that the man was Begbie's father. On their walk back from the train station, Begbie beats a man up, seemingly at random, and Rent Boy makes no move to stop him. Several characters including Rent Boy, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud, and Second Prize take a bus to London for one big heroin deal. Despite tensions within the group, the deal succeeds, and they make a lot of money. While they're all out celebrating, however, Rent Boy walks off with the money for himself and books a flight to Amsterdam. While Rent Boy is nervous about starting a new life and has some regrets about hurting Spud by taking his share of the money, he is excited about getting a second chance in life.

- Genre: Fiction - Title: Transcendent Kingdom - Point of view: First Person - Setting: Stanford, California in the present; Huntsville, Alabama 15-25 years ago - Character: Gifty. Description: Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate studying the neuroscience of addiction and depression. Her mother and father (the Chin Chin Man) immigrated to America from Ghana after the birth of Gifty's older brother, Nana. Gifty's childhood is marked by trauma and loss: first her father returns to Ghana alone, Nana becomes addicted to heroin and dies of an overdose, and her mother falls into several deep depressions. As a young child, Gifty is driven, serious, pious, and literalistic. She worries about her ability to follow the Bible's commands and she approaches Christianity as a checklist to complete, with tasks like praying successfully, reading the whole Bible one summer, memorizing scriptures, and performing charity work with the church. As a teenager and college student, Gifty clings to her sense of legalism and orderliness to protect herself from more trauma. To avoid repeating her mother and brother's perceived mistakes, she avoids alcohol, drugs and sex. She denies herself intimacy with everyone, including her best friend Anne. As an adult, Gifty pursues science because it is orderly and rule-bound. She knows that if she performs her experiments the right way and repeats them enough times, she'll get the answers she's seeking. In many ways, Gifty doesn't see herself very well. She claims that she went into neuroscience because it was hard, when it's clear that she also wants to find answers to the pain and suffering experienced by her family (but is unwilling to admit this). She says she doesn't believe in God, but she can't stop listening for him. And she doesn't think that she needs other people, even as she slowly learns to accept the friendship and help of her colleague Katherine and lab-mate Han. Initially, Gifty feels that she is has a million contradictory selves, but this is an artifact of her own denial and unwillingness to see herself in the way that others, like Nana, Anne, Katherine, and Han, see her. - Character: Mother. Description: Gifty's mother was born in Ghana and raised there in a Pentecostal Church, which taught her the importance of religious faith. She married later in her life, by Ghanian standards, because God told her to wait until she met the Chin Chin Man. When they initially struggle to have a baby, she meets the challenge with prayer, and emerges victorious when their son, Nana, is born. Wanting a better life for Nana, she brings the family to the United States, where she works as a home health aide. She is surprised to find herself pregnant with Gifty at the age of 40. After the Chin Chin Man leaves his family and returns to Ghana, Gifty's mother holds herself and the family together by faith. However, she falls into a major depression after Nana's accidental death and she attempts suicide. In addition to her deep and abiding faith, Gifty's mother is stubborn, persistent, and driven. She loves her children dearly, although she doesn't know how to express it—or can't, since she expends so much of her time and energy on survival and taking care of her clients. Unlike other immigrant parents, she doesn't press her children into fulfilling certain stereotypes or expectations, although she certainly understands that they are both gifted, and she does expect them to live up to their potential. Gifty thinks of her mother as unsentimental and stingy—for example, she only participates in the diasporic Ghanian community if the meetings are close to home. Gifty frequently describes her mother as callous. Yet, she also understands that calluses are the hard parts of a person that develop to protect the body from trauma, and in retrospect, she's able to see how her mother's difficult circumstances shaped her. - Character: Nana. Description: Nana is Gifty's older brother; he dies of a heroin overdose when he's a teenager. He was born in Ghana as and was his mother's miracle child; after years of infertility she fasted and prayed for days, then found herself pregnant. It's for Nana's sake that she brought her family to the United States. Nana is a bright, happy, and athletic child. From a young age, Gifty looks up to and idolizes him. Because he's six years older than her, Nana becomes her primary caregiver during her childhood, first as their parents' marriage falls apart (when he protects her from overhearing their fights) and later, after the Chin Chin Man has returned to Ghana, while their mother works. Nana is perceptive. He works out on his own that their father isn't coming back, and he is quicker to see the close-mindedness and racism in the way that Christianity is practiced in the family's church. But he's also prone to perfectionism (like Gifty) and there are signs of unaddressed hurt in his life long before he becomes addicted to opioids. For instance, he tries to tell himself that he doesn't care about what his absent father thinks, even though it's clear that he does. And when he begins to play basketball, he spends hours and hours each day playing pickup games and shooting hundreds of practice shots in a row in the family's driveway. When Nana is injured during a basketball game, he is given a prescription for OxyContin and becomes addicted. Initially, he approaches sobriety the same way he approached everything else in his life, with the belief that by his own efforts he can overcome the challenge. But he repeatedly fails to remain sober on his own, and he relapses within a day after leaving an inpatient rehab program. Nana's death by accidental overdose causes Gifty's loss of faith, their mother's depression, and inspires Gifty to study science. - Character: Father/The Chin Chin Man. Description: Gifty's father, the Chin Chin Man, received his nickname because he would buy achomo, or "chin chin," from Gifty's grandmother. He was raised Catholic but after his marriage to Gifty's mother, he joined her Pentecostal Church. His easygoing nature and devotion to their son, Nana, led to the family's immigration, at his wife's request, to America. However, he isn't happy in the states, where he is treated with racist suspicion. When Gifty is still small, the Chin Chin Man leaves his family and returns to Ghana, where he eventually remarries. The Chin Chin Man represents a frequently ignored immigrant story: the non-triumphant, unsuccessful immigrant. He comes to America and loses his dignity, his community, and his happy marriage. But he can't simply return to his old life, either: when he returns to Ghana, he loses his connection with his beloved children, who stay in the U.S. with their mother. When Gifty visits the Chin Chin Man in Ghana, it's clear that he doesn't have any idea of how to connect to the life or the children he left behind in America any longer. - Character: Anne. Description: Anne is one of Gifty's closest friends from her undergrad degree program. They meet in an Integrated Science course at Harvard, where they are assigned to the same lab group. Although Gifty had taken a great deal of notice of Anne, she herself didn't come to Anne's attention until she defends religious belief one day in class. Anne, intrigued, befriends Gifty. The two share an intense, intimate, and almost sexual friendship despite the differences in their upbringings. Anne is an atheist, multiracial, and outspoken in her opinions. But she is also the first person to truly see and appreciate Gifty for who she is. Despite their different attitudes towards faith, she tells Gifty that she loves Gifty best when she's defending religion, because that's when she's the most authentic. Nevertheless, Gifty decides to reject this intimacy, allowing their friendship to die when Anne graduates and goes off to medical school. - Character: Raymond. Description: Raymond is a man with whom Gifty shared a romantic relationship early in grad school. The son of an African Methodist Episcopal preacher, Raymond studies Modern Thought and Literature and likes to throw elaborate dinner parties where he and his friends discuss and theorize about the world. Gifty finds him intensely attractive, but she struggles to open up to him and tell him about her family and her past. He and his friends also stand for a certain intellectualism that endlessly discusses problems in the abstract rather than coming up with solutions for them in reality. In this way, Raymond represents an intellectual approach to life that, like the religious approach characterized by P.T. and Pastor John, fails (at least in Gifty's estimation) to address the concrete problems of the world, unlike the science she herself pursues. - Character: Katherine. Description: Katherine is one of Gifty's colleagues in the neuroscience program. She has taken time away from her psychiatric practice to get her Ph.D. because she is passionate about helping people for whom conventional and established therapies have failed. She is also vocal about being a woman in STEM and she openly confesses her ongoing conversation with her husband about when or whether to have a baby. Thus, unlike Gifty, Katherine can articulate the connection between her life and her current studies, is comfortable in her femininity, and doesn't feel that an academic career path necessarily precludes familial intimacy. She takes Gifty under her wing as a friend, gently making herself available and baking Gifty a lot of tasty food once she learns about Gifty's mother's depression. It's Katherine to whom Gifty finally confesses that she's not okay when she learns to ask for help. - Character: Han. Description: Han is Gifty's lab partner at Stanford, where his research involves imaging the neural circuits involved in reward expectation. He is shy and reticent with Gifty at first, and his ears turn red when she talks to him. Over time, however, he becomes more open with her and invites her to parties at his home, where he is much more relaxed and personable. It's clear that he like Gifty, and that his blushing is, in part, a response to her, although she doesn't notice this and is surprised when he asks her out on a date. Eventually, Han's good sense of humor and quiet friendship allows Gifty to open up about her mother's illness and Nana's death. By the end of the book, Han and Gifty are a well-established couple. - Character: Pastor John. Description: Pastor John is the head pastor of the Pentecostal First Assemblies of God Church in Huntsville, Alabama. Pastor John and his wife briefly take Gifty in while her mother is in the psychiatric hospital. He is the link that keeps Gifty connected to and informed about her mother, first when she is sent to Ghana as a child and later when her mother falls into her second depression while Gifty is in grad school in California. Like many of the other representatives of religion in the book, Pastor John's espouses a literalistic interpretation of the Bible and shuns science as an attack on his faith. Yet, his beliefs aren't unshakable and they do change in response to circumstances, such as when he becomes more forgiving and less harsh about extramarital sex after his own teenage daughter becomes pregnant. Because he remains faithful to Gifty and her mother and offers them more support than anyone else after Nana's death, Gifty retains a certain affection for him. - Character: P. T.. Description: P.T. is the youth pastor at First Assemblies of God Church when Nana and Gifty are children there. His real name is "Pastor Tom," but he goes by P.T. in an attempt to seem approachable to the youth. He tries to act like he thinks teenagers act, which includes going by "P.T." instead of his real name, and addressing Nana by made-up slang that he thinks sounds "black." He tries to make God seem "cool" and thus makes himself into "God's bouncer." But in his unwillingness to grapple with challenging questions, such as those that Nana pose in Youth services, he demonstrates a certain shallowness in the way that the Pentecostals of Gifty's youth practice and understand their religion. This contributes to her loss of faith. - Character: Ryan Green. Description: Ryan Green is a schoolmate of Nana's and attends the same church as Gifty and her family. He has wormed his way into the position of P.T.'s protégé, despite being the biggest drug dealer in the high school. Even though Gifty doesn't realize that at the time, she notices and is bothered by the contrast between his overtly enthusiastic religious performance when others are watching and his meanspirited behavior towards her in private. Ryan is a foil for Nana, who was only accepted in his community as long as he demonstrated his athletic brilliance. In contrast, Ryan is wholly accepted by the church despite his flaws. - Character: Aunt Joyce. Description: Aunt Joyce is Gifty's mother's sister; she lives in Ghana. Gifty stays with Aunt Joyce when her mother is recuperating from her first depression after Nana's death. Gifty is surprised to find out about her aunt, since her mother rarely talks about her family or her life in Ghana. Joyce is a large, no-nonsense, and loving woman who reflects the person Gifty's mother could have been had she experienced less pain and trauma in her life. - Theme: Science and Religion. Description: The narrator and protagonist of Transcendent Kingdom, Gifty, grew up in a Pentecostal church. Following her brother Nana's untimely death of a heroin overdose, she becomes a scientist who studies the neurological basis of addiction and depression. The religious and scientific communities around Gifty think of themselves as polar opposites but having had one foot in each world allows her to see their true similarities. Both attempt to answer big, difficult questions, like the meaning of existence and how people make (good) decisions. Both require the faith and loyalty of their followers, and, ultimately, both fail to answer all the questions they raise. Gifty's research question—essentially, "can we control our thoughts?"—can be read as a religious question about whether it's possible to live without sin or as a neuroscientific question about the subconscious. Gifty's church shunned science, believing that it would destroy the faith of believers; in college, her classmates expressed an equally uncritical atheism and rejected religion. However, the novel shows that both religion and science require faith to keep going. And Gifty recognizes that for her mother and many others, religious faith can be a lifeline in times of trial and sadness. In many ways, Gifty realizes, religion and science just provide different ways of naming the same yearnings. In Gifty herself, a scientific and a religious approach to life frequently overlap. As a child she created an experiment to see if she could literally pray without ceasing. And she looked for the confirmation of her prayers in real life. As an adult she still has a sense of the divine and the transcendent, but the lab becomes is her holy place. Although science offers her a new way to understand her place in the world, Gifty ultimately realizes that it is just as limited as religion in its ability to answer humanity's burning questions. She may be able to change her mouse subject's behavior, but that doesn't mean that she will understand why it behaved a certain way in the first place. Transcendent Kingdom suggests that both science and religion raise more questions than they can answer, so Gifty's experiences of transcendence, ultimately, lie within herself rather than in the overarching framework of either religion or science. - Theme: Self-Discovery, Identity, and Individuality. Description: Years after her brother Nana's accidental death of a heroin overdose, 28-year-old Gifty thinks that she's abandoned her religious upbringing and youthful belief in God for a life of science. But as she cares for her deeply depressed mother, it gradually becomes apparent that she is still stuck in childish patterns. Thus, Transcendent Kingdom traces Gifty's final steps towards self-acceptance and maturity. The novel suggests that to complete the process of accepting herself and becoming an adult, Gifty needs to finish the process of developing her identity separate from her mother. When Gifty left Alabama for college, she wrote in her journal that she was going to invent a new Gifty to take with her. Yet, the novel shows that despite this vow, she's still stuck in her childhood roles and patterns. Importantly, even as an adult, she overidentifies with her mother and what she believes her mother wants or needs. This keeps Gifty from feeling like she can or should ask other trustworthy adults in her life for help, as when 11-year-old Gifty chose not to tell anyone, even the kind and sympathetic school librarian, about her mother's depression or how much Gifty herself needed love and support. Gifty repeats the same pattern later in life, initially concealing her mother's visit and illness from Katherine, Han, and her other graduate colleagues. But though Gifty thinks she alone knows what her mother needs and how to care for her, there are signs that perhaps Gifty doesn't know her mother that well after all. The most notable sign is that Gifty's mother calmly accepts Gifty's career in science, despite the fact that by choosing science, Gifty essentially rejects her mother's deeply held faith. While caring for her mother as an adult, Gifty ultimately comes to understand her overidentification with her mother through a psychoanalytic theory of child development, in which the final phase of an infant's development occurs when the infant realizes—and accepts—that she and her mother are separate people. Gifty's mother seems to have already done this work; she long ago accepted Gifty's turn from religion to science. But for Gifty to make this leap herself requires an act of long-delayed teenage rebellion, in which she sneaks of the apartment while her mother sleeps to confront her own fears and insecurities. Gifty can only complete the coming-of-age process and discover who she is as an adult when she also accepts the many ways in which she differs from her mother (such as in her inability to find the answers she needs in religion) as well as their similarities. - Theme: Addiction, Depression, and Control. Description: When she was in middle school, Gifty's teenaged brother, Nana, died of an accidental heroin overdose. Following his death, Gifty's mother fell into a deep depression. Many years later, Gifty is studying neuroscience, hoping to unravel the science behind addiction and depression. She understands that these are two sides of the same coin: addiction means that the brain doesn't have enough restraint against reward seeking, and in depression, it has too much. As a child, Gifty intuits that restraint is at the heart of avoiding addiction. But the novel shows that her initial attempts at self-control are nearly as devastating as her brother's addiction and her mother's depression. In the end, Gifty's research into addiction and depression is important precisely because her story demonstrates how little control people have over themselves and their behavior. As the novel slowly reveals, there were hints that Nana was prone to addiction before his injury; there was something inherent in his brain chemistry or character that made him vulnerable. For example, when he started playing basketball, he would spend hours every day practicing his free throws. Like Gifty's limping mouse, which isn't actually hurt but learns to limp in anticipation that it will experience an electric shock when it tries to seek out a reward, there was something in Nana that self-control couldn't touch. Yet in response to her brother's addiction, Gifty became an extremely rigid rule-follower, practicing the restraint she subconsciously wishes he had. She imagines alcohol as a dangerous stranger, trying to tempt into dark alleys. She doesn't drink, do drugs, have sex, or skip class. She believes (incorrectly) that her rules will save her, her brother, and her mother from harm. But they don't: Nana still dies and her mother attempts suicide. And in the process, the novel suggests that Gifty becomes addicted to restraint itself. When her friend Anne tries to repair a harm to their relationship, Gifty ignores her, feeling proud of her restraint rather than sad over losing an important relationship. Ultimately, this is why Gifty's later success in changing the addicted mouse's behavior (it finally stops seeking its reward) is so important and powerful: Gifty can finally accept that it sometimes takes an outside force, rather than a person's self-restraint, to moderate or change one's behavior. - Theme: Trauma, Caretaking, and Intimacy. Description: As a child, Gifty assumed a caretaking role for her drug-addicted older brother, Nana, and then for her deeply depressed mother. As an adult, she can't relinquish her caretaker role or accept intimacy until she realizes that accepting care from others doesn't make her weak, which only happens after her experiments on the neuroscience of addiction are successful. In this way, the book shows both the importance of caretaking in intimate relationships and outlines why Gifty struggles to accept intimacy herself: forced into taking care of others whom she saw as weak, Gifty must first confront her own limitations and learn that needing help doesn't make a person weak. Life circumstances required Gifty to fill adult caretaking roles early in life. She, not their mother, rode with Nana to the hospital after his injury. And it was Gifty who made Nana coffee in a misguided attempt to rouse him from his stupor and nursed him while he came down from his highs. When their mother became depressed after Nana's death, 11-year-old Gifty took on the cooking and cleaning in addition to school. A rules-oriented child, Gifty thought she needed to cultivate personal strength as a defense against depression and addiction. But strength, the novel shows, is isolating. Because she wants to believe that she doesn't need help, she rejects an important friendship with Anne and a romantic partnership with Raymond, leaving her alone and without anyone to support her. But Gifty's experiments prove that strength of character alone won't protect against "mental weakness." This knowledge—in addition to the loneliness and isolation of caring for her mother as she suffers yet another depression—begin to break down Gifty's barriers. To escape the apartment she now shares with her mother, Gifty attends a party thrown by her lab mate, Han. This act of camaraderie allows them to talk more at work, until Han overcomes his shyness and asks Gifty on a date. At the party, Gifty is so desperate to fix her mother's depression that she tries to tell a colleague, Katherine, about it. It takes a few more failed attempts, but eventually Gifty asks Katherine for help. Through her neuroscientific experiments, Gifty comes to realize that mental strength isn't the answer to life's pain, and that being depressed or addicted doesn't make a person weak. And by developing friendships with Katherine and Han (and later, a long-term romantic relationship with Han), she begins to realize that accepting help and support from others is essential to her mental health. Indeed, it helps her heal from the trauma she experienced as a child, when she was forced to take on a caretaking role long before she was ready to do so. - Climax: Gifty's mother escapes the apartment, and Gifty asks for help finding her. - Summary: As Gifty plugs away at the experiments necessary for her doctoral thesis about the neurological pathways of addiction and depression, she receives word from Pastor John that her mother is experiencing another major depressive episode. Gifty asks Pastor John to put her mother on a plane to California so she can take care of her mother. As Gifty splits her time between taking care of her mother and working on her experiments, she reminisces about her childhood and considers the way religion and science have shaped her life. Gifty's mother wanted to give her first-born son, Nana, a better life, so she immigrated to America from Ghana when he was a baby. Soon after, Gifty's father, the Chin Chin Man, followed them. Gifty herself was a surprise baby, born when her mother was 40. In America, Gifty's mother worked as a home health aide. By the time Gifty was born, her father was working as a school janitor and was the primary parent for the children while their mother worked the night shift. But when Gifty was still a preschooler, the Chin Chin Man went back to Ghana for a visit and never returned. Soon after coming to Alabama, Gifty's mother joined the Pentecostal First Assemblies of God Church, a primarily white church, since she didn't yet know enough about America to realize that churches there have either Black or white congregations. Gifty was raised in this church; as a child she accepted its teachings without question. She had her come-to-Jesus moment there in middle school. After their father left, Nana became Gifty's primary caretaker. Gifty adored and looked up to her big brother, who made sure that she was well fed, taken care of, and loved. Gifty was a serious, religiously minded, and rules-oriented child; she aspired to be a preacher's wife or a movie star when she grew up. Nana was a gifted athlete who played soccer from a young age. But soccer was the Chin Chin Man's favorite game, and Nana stopped playing after he left. Eventually, he joined the high school basketball team, where he instantly became a star player. But, after being prescribed OxyContin for some torn ligaments, he became addicted to opioids. Gifty became Nana's caretaker during the years he was addicted, and he died of an accidental overdose while still in high school. At his funeral, Gifty lost her faith in God. After Nana's death, Gifty's mother fell into a deep depression. Eleven-year-old Gifty initially attempted to nurse her mother through it on her own. But when her mother attempted suicide and was involuntarily committed, Gifty was sent to Ghana to stay with her Aunt Joyce while her mother recovered. It was her mother's and brother's experiences with addiction and depression that inspired Gifty to study science in college at Harvard and pursue her doctoral degree in neuroscience at Stanford. She studies reward-seeking behaviors in mice, hoping to find a way to interfere with addiction through optogenetics (using light to influence a neural pathway). Back in the present, while Gifty obsesses over her research experiments, she cares for her mother and tries to avoid intimacy with her colleague Katherine and her lab-mate Han. Her early experiences in her family and church, as well as with a college friend Anne and a serious boyfriend named Raymond, have made her suspicious of friendship and intimacy. She is unwilling to share her personal history, talk much about her mother's current illness, or ask for help. Nevertheless, Han invites Gifty to parties, and after she accidentally blurts out some of the truth to Katherine, Katherine makes a point of being kind and caring towards Gifty. Katherine often brings her baked goods and offers her support. Just as Gifty's experimental research is reaching its conclusion and she thinks that her life is back on track, she returns to her apartment to find her mother missing. Fearing her mother might attempt suicide again, Gifty calls Katherine in a panic, admits that she isn't okay, and asks for help. The two women soon find Gifty's mother sitting by the side of the road. After she brings her mother home, Gifty bathes her mother gently. Her mother looks into Gifty eyes and tells her that there's nowhere she could go where God isn't with her; Gifty shouldn't worry about her. After her mother falls asleep, Gifty leaves the apartment and drives around the city, feeling for the first time since she was five that she no longer needs to take care of her family members after a lifetime of caring for Nana and her mother. In an epilogue that takes place sometime later, Gifty has finished her graduate work and has a career as a research neuroscientist with a lab at Princeton University. She and Han are a couple. And she has resolved, at least to her satisfaction, her desire for the "transcendent," which she finds in the world—and people—around her. Yet, she still clings to the memory of her religious upbringing. Gifty often sits in the sanctuary of the local Episcopal Church, where she looks at the image of Christ on the cross, thinks about her past, and tries to make sense of her life.

- Genre: Novel, children's adventure story - Title: Treasure Island - Point of view: Most of the novel is told in the first person from the perspective of an older Jim Hawkins who is setting down the tale of Treasure Island. For several chapters, however, the point of view shifts to that of Dr. Livesey, who relates a number of events happening while Jim was elsewhere and thus couldn't have known what was going on. - Setting: Britain (on the Bristol Channel) and Treasure Island (apparently somewhere in the Caribbean, although the plants on the island make that unclear) - Character: Jim Hawkins. Description: The protagonist of Treasure Island is a boy whose family owns the Admiral Benbow inn, presumably somewhere in South West England. Jim is used to having a certain amount of responsibility at the inn, where he helps out his father and mother, but he's still not quite prepared for the adventures that await him on board the Hispaniola. Jim, however, is naturally clever and quick-witted: he is able to think fast and hide from danger when he needs to, such as from the pirates on the road or in the apple barrel on the ship deck. At the same time, Jim has a streak of the rebel's attitude and finds it difficult to always accept authority—even if he tends to feel guilty about breaking the rules later on. Robert Louis Stevenson portrays Jim as a special but not superhuman boy: he cries when he becomes overwhelmed, for instance, and must deal with the fear and confusion that arise from his adventures. As an adventure story "for boys," Treasure Island creates a main character who is relatable but also, when thrown into exciting, extraordinary conditions, proves himself worthy of them. - Character: Long John Silver. Description: The sea-cook on board the Hispaniola, Long John Silver soon turns out to be a notorious pirate, who has lost his leg in some kind of unspoken battle when he was part of Captain Flint's group of buccaneers. We're first introduced to the man only in rumor, through Billy Bones's fear of a one-legged man. Jim, for his part, immediately likes Silver, who treats him kindly and invites him into his confidence. Soon, though, it becomes clear that what Silver excels at is precisely manipulating people into trusting him. Silver cares more than anything else about ensuring his own survival, and will do whatever it takes to save himself—even if that means betraying one group, then turning around and betraying another. Jim is initially repelled by this behavior and disillusioned by Silver's pragmatic lack of morals. Ultimately, however, he (and the book as a whole) maintain a certain respect for this man, who is clever and nimble enough to evade death or punishment just by plotting and conniving. - Character: Billy Bones ("the captain"). Description: The first pirate we meet in Treasure Island, Billy Bones stays at the Admiral Benbow inn for a length of months. He is often drunk on rum and scares the other patrons with his tales of life on the sea, but Jim thinks this is rather good for business. While he cuts a frightening figure himself, Billy Bones is even more afraid of other pirates, including Captain Flint and Long John Silver, and he's well aware that still others, including Black Dog, are scheming to get at the knowledge of Treasure Island hidden in his sea chest. This captain serves as Jim's introduction to the world of pirates and the treasure they oversee. - Character: Doctor Livesey. Description: The doctor responsible for taking care of Jim's father is also one of the first to recognize the significance of the treasure map that Jim has taken from Billy Bones' possession. He, along with Squire Trelawney, outfits the Hispaniola in order to sail after the fortune. The doctor is an intelligent man, loyal to those loyal to him, and he isn't exempt from the fascination with wealth and treasure that motivates so many characters in the book. He thinks of pirates as uniformly low, crude, murderous creatures, and has far less sympathy for them than Jim does, for instance. - Character: Squire Trelawney. Description: A good friend of Dr. Livesey, Squire Trelawney is also present at the unveiling of the treasure map, and it is he who tells everyone just how frightening and powerful a pirate Captain Flint was known to be. It's the squire who takes on ownership for the Hispaniola, and he does feel a great deal of responsibility for the voyage, but he can also be a little too wont to gossip and chatter. This leads Long John Silver (as well as many others at the Bristol port) to hear about the treasure hunt, giving him the chance to manipulate Trelawney such that much of the crew ends up being composed of pirates loyal to Silver. - Character: Captain Smollett. Description: The captain hired by Squire Trelawney to head the Hispaniola, Smollett is stern and strict. Immediately he is suspicious of the sea voyage, partly because he hasn't been in charge of everything, but partly because he (rightly) senses that some subterfuge is afoot. At first, Jim despises Smollett, who seems bent on ruining his fun, but after Jim learns of Long John Silver's treachery, the captain can suddenly be seen in a much better light. For the rest of the book he is a dependable ally, though by being wounded he loses his ability to guide the enemies of the pirates directly. - Character: Jim's mother. Description: Also responsible for the Admiral Benbow inn, especially after her husband's death. Jim's mother has a sharp sense of fairness: when she and Jim discover some of Billy Bones' gold, she insists on counting out exactly what he owed her, not a cent more. While Jim clearly loves his mother, he also realizes that, once she hires an apprentice to help at the inn, she doesn't really need him any more, encouraging him to find his own way in the world. - Character: Captain Flint. Description: While this character never appears in person in Treasure Island, Captain Flint, a notorious pirate, haunts its pages (as he haunts the fears of many of the characters within it). It was Flint who buried the notorious treasure on the island, before killing all six of the pirates who helped him hide it—presumably so that they wouldn't be able to go back and find it. Although he is dead by the time of the events, many of the pirates continue to fear him, wondering if he's still able to wreak havoc on those who are alive. - Character: Captain Flint (parrot). Description: Long John Silver named his pet parrot after the notorious pirate captain. Silver seems genuinely fond of the creature, who, according to him, has traveled all around the world with the pirates. In the book, the parrot also serves as a means of alerting Jim and his friends to the presence of Silver, as he constantly squawks, "Pieces of eight!" and other pirate phrases. - Character: Ben Gunn. Description: Formerly a member of Captain Flint's crew, Ben Gunn was abandoned on Treasure Island three years before Jim and the Hispaniola arrived. It was he who found and hid the treasure, a mystery that Jim discovers only at the end. Gunn is so grateful to have met Jim and found him friendly that he pledges full loyalty to his side. - Theme: Fortune and Greed. Description: The plot of Treasure Island is structured around the hunt for a fortune of massive proportions. The existence of this fortune tempts nearly all the characters in the novel—few are exempt from such a dream, from Long John Silver and Captain Smollett to Jim Hawkins himself. Importantly, the story never really challenges this desire. The pirates might be the murderous enemies of the protagonist, but not because they are greedy while the others remain selfless and unconcerned with money. Treasure is instead, throughout the book, considered as an unquestioned good. It's something that can be sought and striven after without this search implying greed or sin.Still, the idea of treasure functions in another way in the book, too, playing off the double meaning of the word "fortune," which can mean both "wealth" and "fate." At one point, Israel Hands declares that the voyage on the Hispaniola might always have been cursed with bad fortune—that death and destruction were, perhaps, fated to follow all those on board the ship. The fact that some sailors perish while three mutineers, not to mention the five survivors of the captain's side, survive is due in part to their ingenuity but also to whether they enjoy good fortune or bad. The treasure chest, rather than making up part of a larger system of morality in the book, simply lies in wait, ready for the lucky ones who discover it. Similarly, the fortunes of the characters in Treasure Island are subject to the whims of treacherous life on the sea. - Theme: Father Figures and "Becoming a Man". Description: While Treasure Island is certainly an adventure story, it's also about Jim Hawkins growing up and learning to navigate a dangerous, unfamiliar world. Jim's father dies near the beginning of the novel, leaving him without a figure who can guide him through this process. As we are reminded midway through the book, Jim is "only a boy" at the time of this tale. Some of the more questionable decisions he makes, like sneaking away from camp late at night, can be understood as part of his process of growing up.The book doesn't tend to consider Jim's mother as able to set an example of "manhood" for Jim—indeed, Robert Louis Stevenson made the active decision to exclude nearly all women from the entire tale, as part of writing an adventure "for boys." As a result, Jim is left to align himself with a number of different adult men over the course of the novel. At first, he mimics the behavior of others on the Hispaniola in considering Captain Smollett a fun-hating, overly strict authority figure; only little by little does he come to respect him as a leader. Dr. Livesey is another male role model for Jim, and certainly the most straightforward in terms of guiding him to make good decisions.Most surprising, perhaps, among the potential father figures in Jim's life is Long John Silver. As a pirate and would-be mutineer, Silver is not exactly an obvious role model—and yet Jim, and correspondingly the book's readers, come to admire the pirate in his courage and ultimately his fondness for Jim. More than anything, Long John Silver is independent, refusing to play by anyone else's rules, and he is strategic in his decision-making. It is this independence and quickness of spirit that inspires Jim. Growing up, in this book, is not quite a matter of learning what is right and wrong, or learning to be responsible for other people; instead, it's about becoming a clever, independent person who can be responsible for him- or herself. - Theme: Deception, Secrecy, and Trust. Description: From the very beginning of Treasure Island, the reader is thrust into a realm of valuable secrets, conniving plots, and betrayal. Jim is remarkably successful at navigating this world of deception. From concealing himself with his mother beside the road while pirates ransack the Admiral Benbow to hiding in an apple barrel and spying on Long John Silver as he spins plans for mutiny, Jim often gains knowledge by spying and overhearing. We are not meant to judge Jim negatively for his ability to deceive: instead, we admire him for using the logic of deception to his own advantage.Nevertheless, this fact about the world of the novel does mean that it's never easy to know exactly whom to trust. Even after learning of the planned mutiny of the Hispaniola crew, for instance, Jim hears them cheer the captain's announcement of drinks for everyone and finds it hard to believe that they actually desire his death. When Long John Silver approaches his enemies' camp on Treasure Island, holding a Flag of Truce, everyone must still remain suspicious of the brief peace, never knowing if it's all a ploy.In order to survive in such a world, a person must always remain one step ahead of his enemy—like Jim on the deck of the Hispaniola with Israel Hands, as the latter pretends to work with Jim while really plotting to kill him. Only by using deception himself (rather than being fooled, or even prizing honesty) can Jim enter the world of adults and begin to play by their game. - Theme: Courage, Adventure, and Pragmatism. Description: If there's anything that makes Long John Silver admirable despite his despicable qualities, it's his courage in the face of danger. Jim notices this aspect of Silver's character as he watches the pirates threaten to mutiny once again, this time against Silver, who remains calm and cool even though he is outmatched. Jim watches and learns from Silver how to act in a real adventure. Indeed, Jim has sailed with the crew of the Hispaniola in search of adventure itself, even if he's not initially certain what that means—and even if he sheds tears at leaving what he knows in pursuit of the exciting unknown. The titles of the various sections, including "My Shore Adventure" and "My Sea Adventure," help to structure the book around this very category. In the majority of these cases, the adventures can be understood as isolated, detachable events, less important in terms of driving the plot forward than as lively episodes in Jim's life. It is through these events, nonetheless, that he makes the leap from childhood to adulthood. He realizes, fighting Israel Hands, that the pirate games he once played back home in Black Hill Cove have now become reality, and it only is by following the lesson of Long John Silver and becoming courageous himself that he can hope to survive. In an adventure story like this one, then, what is right and wrong is less important than the courage and resourcefulness with which one responds to danger. It may be Israel Hands who claims not to see what's "good" about goodness, but Jim too embraces a pragmatic, realistic attitude to challenges. To outwit his enemies requires a survival-first attitude, one that Jim masters gradually over the course of the plot. - Climax: Having found the x-marks-the-spot, but with no treasure to be seen—merely an excavation site—the pirates are ready to mutiny against Long John Silver (and kill Jim along with him) when Silver kills George. The doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn then emerge from their hiding place in the woods and they send the other pirates racing off. - Summary: The protagonist of Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins, has been asked by his acquaintances Doctor Livesey and Squire Trelawney to write down his recollections. He begins by discussing the "Admiral Benbow" inn that his family owned when he was a boy, not far from the English port of Bristol. One day a strange, ragged-looking, and intimidating man arrives: he asks only to be called captain, and asks Jim to keep a lookout for a man with only one leg. The captain spends much of the time drunk on rum, and after a pirate named Black Dog comes to see him, he is so nervous that he has a fainting fit. Afterwards, he tells Jim that Black Dog was after something in his sea chest: if he ever dies, he tells Jim, the boy should find what's in it and follow the instructions inside. Soon Jim's father falls ill and dies. The very day after the funeral, a blind man (Pew) arrives and gives the captain the black spot, which deposes him from power among the other pirates. Shocked, the captain falls down dead. Since he hasn't paid his rent for months, Jim and his mother decide to break into his sea chest chest and seize what they're owed, even though they're now afraid of being alone at the inn, given the various people who have pursued the captain. But they succeed in opening the chest: Jim's mother counts out some of the gold, while Jim grabs a small oil-cloth packet. Hearing voices, they rush out of the house and hide by the road: it's a group of pirates who seem to be looking for what Jim has seized. Later, Jim makes his way to the squire and doctor, who help him open the oil-cloth bag: there's a map of an island with a place marked on it that holds treasure. The squire and Dr. Livesey are thrilled: they decide to get a ship together and travel to the island in order to find the treasure, enlisting Jim as the cabin boy. The squire is responsible for discreetly hiring a responsible, loyal crew, though he's been unable to keep quiet about the purpose of the ship's journey. Still, he's optimistic about the crew and especially about the ship cook, Long John Silver. Jim is initially suspicious when he hears that Silver has only one leg. But once he meets the man, Silver's clean-cut appearance and kindly demeanor reassures him that Silver can't have anything to do with the other pirates. He much prefers Silver to Captain Smollett, who is strict and rule-abiding—the squire, too, is displeased with the captain. Nonetheless, after the ship, called the Hispaniola, embarks on its voyage, little goes wrong initially—other than that the mate, Mr. Arrow, proves useless, and eventually drinks so much that he falls overboard. Jim enjoys being included on the voyage, and especially appreciates the welcoming attitude of Long John Silver, who often invites Jim into his cabin to sit with him and his parrot, named Captain Flint (after an infamous pirate). But one evening, Jim manages to overhear Silver talking with the other crewmen about a plan to mutiny: Silver will lead other members of the crew—many of whom, it turns out, are pirates—in taking over the ship and obtaining the treasure for themselves. As soon as he can, Jim tells the squire, doctor, and captain about these plans. When the ship soon arrives at Treasure Island, the captain decides to allow a few of the pirates to go to shore in order to gain time for them to plan a defense. Jim, too, sneaks off to the island, where in the midst of exploring he meets a former pirate named Ben Gunn, who has been marooned there for three years. The crewmen loyal to the captain manage to sneak off the Hispaniola and make it to an old log house, which they make into their fort—while the pirates have secured the ship, even though there's not one of them who can satisfactorily steer it. Long John Silver comes to the log house to propose that the captain surrender and allow the pirates to get the treasure, but the captain staunchly refuses. Silver angrily retreats, and the first battle takes place not long after—while the captain's group kills more pirates than vice versa, they are still at a disadvantage in terms of numbers. The doctor goes off to meet Ben Gunn, and Jim begins to grow restless. Although he acknowledges that he is acting immaturely, Jim decides to sneak off and attempt to find the small white boat that Gunn had mentioned to him. He does find it, and once he sees the lights of the Hispaniola, now captain-less and rocking side to side, he paddles out to it. Finding aboard a pirate, Israel Hands, who is wounded and has killed his mate, O'Brien, in a drunken rage. Jim and Israel initially work together in order to navigate the ship back to shore, but the pirate soon begins to plot to kill Jim too. After a fight, Jim manages to shoot Hands dead and get the ship ashore, where he docks it, hidden in an out-of-the-way part of the island. When he arrives back to the log house, it turns out that the pirates have taken it over, and he's taken prisoner. But after Jim declares his lack of fear, Long John Silver seems to take a greater liking to Jim, and defends him from the other pirates. It also becomes clear that the pirates are growing dissatisfied with Silver as their leader, and now debate giving him the black spot. At the same time, the pirates continue to allow the doctor to stop in periodically in order to tend to their wounds. The doctor gives Jim and Silver an enigmatic message about the treasure. He's finally given the treasure map to the pirates, though Jim and Silver can't imagine why. The pirates, though, are not concerned about this, and—dragging Jim by a rope—they march across the island. After hearing a voice mentioning Darby (one of Captain Flint's pirates) they're almost too scared to go on, until Silver cries that it's the voice of Ben Gunn. Finally the pirates reach the x-marks-the-spot on the map—but there's only a hole with no treasure. Quickly recognizing his own peril, Silver immediately begins to back away with Jim at his side, and when one of the pirates, George Merry, starts to declare mutiny against Silver, Silver shoots him and another. The other pirates race away through the trees, just as the doctor and Ben Gunn emerge themselves. As they walk back to their hiding place, they tell Jim that, in fact, Ben Gunn had found this treasure during his time on the island, and had hidden it elsewhere—which is why the doctor had given the treasure map to the pirates. After the crew loads up the Hispaniola (thanks to Jim's ability to hide it out of sight), they sail away, leaving the remaining pirates ashore. While Jim feels more positively about Long John Silver, the others continue to be suspicious of him, and none of them is surprised when Silver slips away at the first port where they stop. The rest of the crew makes it back to Bristol unscathed, where each spends his part of the fortune according to his own character. Jim vows never to return to Treasure Island.

- Genre: Novel, Realism - Title: Tsotsi - Point of view: Third Person - Setting: South Africa - Character: Tsotsi (David). Description: Tsotsi, Tsotsi's protagonist, is a young Black man in South Africa under apartheid. He leads a gang, whose other members are Boston, Butcher, and Die Aap. At the novel's beginning, Tsotsi has no memories of his past and identifies with the stereotype tsotsi, meaning gang member or "thug." When Boston asks too many questions about Tsotsi's past, Tsotsi violently beats him. Afterward, Tsotsi encounters a terrified young Black woman, who gives him a baby in a shoebox and runs away. The baby triggers in Tsotsi the memory of a yellow dog. Tsotsi decides to care for the baby, hoping to regain more memories. Caring for the baby changes Tsotsi. Though he plans to rob and kill Morris Tshabalala, a crippled beggar, he finds himself overcome with sympathy and spares Morris's life. Later, he coerces a young mother, Miriam Ngidi, into breastfeeding the baby, and a chance comment from her triggers the rest of his memories: when he was 10, he was named David and lived with his mother and a yellow dog. One night, the police arrested his mother because she didn't have a pass that apartheid laws required Black South Africans to carry. After her arrest, David became homeless, lost his memories due to trauma, and joined a child gang. His experiences in gangs led him to swear off sympathy for other human beings. After regaining his memories, Tsotsi seeks out Boston and asks what is happening to him. When Boston tells Tsotsi he is asking about God, Tsotsi goes to a church, where he discusses religion with the church gardener, Isaiah. At the same time, Tsotsi continues to seek help from Miriam in caring for the baby. When Miriam asks to adopt the baby, Tsotsi refuses and hides the baby in the ruins of a demolished township. The next morning, he wakes up intending to tell Miriam his real name, when he sees bulldozers approaching the ruins—the white population has complained about Black people resettling in the ruins, and now the ruins are being destroyed. Tsotsi sacrifices his life trying to rescue the baby. - Character: The Baby. Description: The baby is a Black male infant. His frightened, desperate mother hides the baby in a shoebox, shoves the shoebox at Tsotsi, and runs away after Tsotsi waylays her—seemingly with the intent of raping her—in a grove of bluegum trees. The baby triggers a lost memory in Tsotsi of a yellow dog, so Tsotsi brings the baby back to his room in hopes of regaining more memories. Inside the box, Tsotsi discovers the baby is wrapped in "a torn petticoat and an old pair of blue bloomers." This detail—that the baby was wrapped in a woman's castoff clothes—suggests that the baby's mother was very poor and may have abandoned him because she could not support him financially, which further suggests that the baby is, like Tsotsi, a victim of Black families' legal and economic oppression and destruction under apartheid. Caring for the baby alienates Tsotsi from the other members of his gang, Butcher and Die Aap, and Tsotsi ultimately decides to give up gang life. Tsotsi coerces a young mother, Miriam Ngidi, into breastfeeding and caring for the baby. Though initially the dirty, sickly baby repulses Miriam, she begins to care for him and offers to adopt him. Tsotsi, who has given the baby his childhood name—David—and come to associate him with his childhood self, refuses and hides the baby in the demolished ruins of a Black township. When a nearby white township demands that the ruins be razed again, Tsotsi sacrifices his life trying to save the baby, but—although the novel does not say so explicitly—it seems likely the baby dies, too. - Character: Boston. Description: Boston—whose full name is Walter "Boston" Nguza—is a member of Tsotsi's gang, which also includes Butcher and Die Aap. As a child and young man, Boston was small and studious with glasses. While attending a teachers' training college on scholarship, he repeatedly came in first in his class but was expelled before graduation because he tried to rape a female student. Unwilling to tell his "very proud," hardworking mother about his expulsion, Boston wrote her that he had graduated early and was looking for a job in Johannesburg. While seeking work, Boston encountered Johnboy Lethetwa, in danger of being arrested under apartheid law after already having been jailed once for unemployment. Boston forged an employer's signature in Johnboy's passbook, after which Johnboy convinced Boston to go into business with him forging the passes and permits that apartheid demanded Black people carry—a detail illustrating how apartheid's unjust laws force Tsotsi's Black characters toward crime. Boston becomes involved in shebeen subculture, develops a drinking problem, and has a brief, failed romance with a shebeen proprietress, Marty. After the police arrest Johnboy, Boston's intelligence wins him a place in gang life despite his reputation for being a cowardly alcoholic. As the novel opens, he is trying and failing to resist Tsotsi's plan that the gang rob and murder a man on the train. After the gang murders Gumboot Dhlamini, Boston vomits. Later, he asks Tsotsi whether he knows what decency is and poses a series of questions about Tsotsi's life, spurring Tsotsi to beat Boston unconscious. After Tsotsi adopts the baby and spares Morris's life, however, he finds Boston recuperating in Marty's shebeen, takes Boston back to his own room, and questions him about the experiences he is undergoing. Boston tells Tsotsi that Tsotsi is changing and that, by asking questions about it, he is asking questions about God—a conversation that seems to motivate Tsotsi to learn more about religion. Though seeming to reconcile with Tsotsi, Boston refuses to stay with him. Instead, he leaves Tsotsi's room the next morning. Tsotsi never sees him again. - Character: Miriam Ngidi. Description: Miriam Ngidi is an 18-year-old mother of an infant son who gets her water from a public tap down the street from Tsotsi's room. During her pregnancy, her husband Simon, who was participating in a bus boycott, vanished while walking to work one morning. Because, during apartheid, bus boycotts were associated with Black South Africans' protest against their political oppression and economic exploitation, the novel may be implying that white supremacists—perhaps policemen—killed Simon for participating. In that case, Miriam's family is another example of apartheid destroying Black families and taking Black parents away from their children. After her husband's disappearance, Miriam becomes antisocial and stingy, caring only for her own child. Tsotsi coerces Miriam into cleaning and breastfeeding the baby he has adopted by threatening her infant son. At this point, her chance comment (that a dog would treat its puppies better than this baby's mother treated him) triggers Tsotsi to regain his memories. Though at first Tsotsi's sickly, dirty adoptive son repulses Miriam, she has a change of heart after praying and hearing a voice ask why it should grant her prayer if she won't feed babies—an episode suggesting that Miriam's new generosity and sympathy are religiously motivated. After hearing the voice, Miriam offers to adopt and care for Tsotsi's baby. Although Tsotsi may be developing feelings for Miriam—toward the novel's end, he resolves to tell her his birth name, David Madondo—he fears she will take the baby and so hides him in the ruins, an untrusting decision that ultimately leads to his own death and likely the baby's as well. - Character: Morris Tshabalala. Description: Morris Tshabalala is a beggar who plies his trade around a street intersection called Terminal Place. He lost his legs in a gold mining accident, for which he blames white South Africans, who under apartheid reap the economic benefits of Black labor. Now he walks around on his hands, which are hardened and have little sensation left. When Tsotsi comes to Terminal Place looking for a victim to rob and kill, he steps on one of Morris's hands. Morris curses and calls Tsotsi a "whelp of a yellow bitch"—a chance choice of words that reminds Tsotsi of the mysterious yellow dog in his memory. Deciding to kill Morris, Tsotsi stalks and terrifies him over the course of an evening. Although Morris eludes Tsotsi by following two white men pushing a stalled car and later hides in a restaurant, he has to emerge when the restaurant closes, at which point Tsotsi corners him down a dark street. Yet, having observed Morris for many hours, Tsotsi has begun to sympathize with him—the first time Tsotsi can remember sympathizing with one of the targets of his violence. Instead of killing Morris, Tsotsi engages him in a long conversation about Morris's life, his disability, and his desire to live. When Morris asks Tsotsi why Tsotsi has to kill him, Tsotsi realizes he doesn't have to—he has a choice whether to commit acts of violence. He decides to spare Morris's life, a decision that decisively alienates him from his old, stereotyped identity of violent gang member and motivates him to discover more about who he truly is. - Character: Die Aap. Description: Die Aap is a member of Tsotsi's gang, which also includes Boston and Butcher. "Die Aap" means "monkey" in Afrikaans (the language of South Africa's white minority Afrikaner population), a stereotyped and offensive nickname for a Black man that supposedly derives from Die Aap's "long arms." That Die Aap chooses to go by this nickname suggests he has internalized white South African racism under apartheid. Tsotsi recruited Die Aap for his gang to exploit Die Aap's physical strength. Die Aap tends to agree with Tsotsi and follow him unquestioningly. He participates in Gumboot Dhlamini's murder by pinning Gumboot's arms while Butcher stabs him. After Tsotsi comes into possession of the baby, Die Aap and Butcher lobby Tsotsi to do another job with them, which leads to Tsotsi stalking but eventually sparing Morris Tshabalala. When Tsotsi begins to drift away from the gang, Die Aap is confused and worried. Eventually, Die Aap visits Tsotsi's room and tells him Butcher has joined another man's gang. He suggests that he and Tsotsi recruit a new gang. Tsotsi refuses and tells Die Aap to leave, a decision that marks Tsotsi's definitive break with gang life. - Character: Butcher. Description: Butcher is a member of Tsotsi's gang, which also includes Boston and Die Aap. Tsotsi recruited Butcher for his gang because of Butcher's skill at violence, for which Butcher is nicknamed. Toward the novel's beginning, he is the one who actually kills Gumboot Dhlamini, by stabbing him in the heart with a sharpened bicycle spoke while Die Aap pins Gumboot's arms. Along with Die Aap, he encourages Tsotsi to pick another job for them after Tsotsi finds the baby, which leads to Tsotsi stalking but then sparing the life of Morris Tshabalala. Believing that Tsotsi killed Morris without him and Die Aap, Butcher becomes dissatisfied with Tsotsi's leadership and, after several failed attempts to meet up with Tsotsi, eventually joins another gang. - Character: Isaiah. Description: Isaiah, an elderly Black man, takes care of the church garden and rings the church bells for the Church of Christ the Redeemer in the Black township. His immediate supervisor is the racist, condescending Miss Marriot, while his ultimate supervisor is the Rev. Henry Ransome. Tsotsi, after discussing God with Boston, sits on the sidewalk outside the church, where Isaiah sees him and offers him tea. When Tsotsi asks questions about the church, God, and Jesus Christ, Isaiah gives him a somewhat confused account of Christianity and invites Tsotsi to come to the evening service when he hears Isaiah ringing the bells. Although the novel does not explicitly state this, it implies that Tsotsi takes Isaiah up on his invitation the night before Tsotsi's death. - Character: David's Mother (Tondi). Description: Tondi is the mother of David (i.e., Tsotsi when he is 10 years old). She is a comforting presence who likes to hum and sing. She takes care of David and shares the family's food with an elderly woman who is economically and socially dependent on her. All David's life, his mother has been telling him about his absent father and promising him that his father would return. The night before David's father returns, however, white police raid David's neighborhood, arrest his mother for not having a pass required of her by apartheid law, and take her away in a van. Her arrest precipitates David's homelessness, memory loss, and eventual membership in a child gang, which leads to David becoming Tsotsi. - Character: Elderly Woman. Description: The elderly woman lives with David and David's mother (Tondi), though she does not seem to be related to them. David esteems the elderly woman because he notices that adults esteem her and because she seems to perceive him accurately. At the same time, he's afraid of her because one time, she caught him misbehaving and pinched him until he cried. After David's mother is arrested, the elderly woman finds David and puts him to bed. The next morning, she tells David to wait at the house for his father while she goes to look for David's mother and tries to bring her home. While the elderly woman is gone, David's father arrives at the house without explaining who he is and scares David so badly that David runs away, eventually becoming Tsotsi. - Character: Gumboot Dhlamini. Description: Gumboot Dhlamini works in the mines near Johannesburg and lives in one of its townships. He came to Johannesburg from far away in South Africa, where he lived with his pregnant wife, to make some money. After a year working in the mines and writing letters to his wife at home, he has almost saved enough money that he feels he can return to her. Then Tsotsi, searching for someone his gang can rob and kill on the trains, spots Gumboot because of his bright smile, colorful tie, and full pay packet. On the train, Die Aap pins Gumboot's arms while Butcher stabs him with a bicycle spoke, Boston steals his money, and Tsotsi insults him as he's dying. The Rev. Henry Ransome, presiding over Gumboot's funeral at the township's dilapidated cemetery, finds himself disturbed that he doesn't even know the dead man's name. Gumboot's short life, violent death, and anonymous burial point to the cruelty of life for poor non-white workers under apartheid. - Character: Rev. Henry Ransome. Description: Rev. Henry Ransome is a white priest who presides over a church in the Black township, the Church of Christ the Redeemer. Early in the novel, he serves at Gumboot Dhlamini's funeral but is disturbed that he doesn't even know the murdered man's name. The Sunday after the funeral, he finds himself getting angry at parishioners filing into the church, thinking that his services are "no good," and recalling once again that he didn't know Gumboot's name. Nevertheless, he prays for help and goes to the church to do his job. Though Rev. Henry Ransome is somewhat condescending toward the Black church gardener Isaiah, Isaiah likes him because he showed Isaiah how to ring the church bell and then left him to the task without further interference—unlike the other white church employee, Miss Marriot, who constantly interferes with Isaiah's work. - Character: Marty. Description: Marty runs the shebeen where Boston drank when he first began his criminal career with Johnboy Lethetwa. Marty liked that Boston had manners, and they became romantically involved. Their relationship ended, however, after Boston's first gang job where the gang murdered someone. Boston, horrified at the murder, took out his self-hatred on Marty, and so she ended their romance. After Tsotsi beats Boston unconscious for asking too many personal questions, Boston finds his way to Marty's shebeen, where—still badly injured—he drinks and sleeps. Marty is on the verge of kicking Boston out of her establishment when Tsotsi comes looking for him to ask about the personal changes he, Tsotsi, is undergoing. Marty at first harshly criticizes Tsotsi for beating Boston but, when Tsotsi says he just wants to talk to Boston, allows Tsotsi to take Boston away. - Character: Soekie. Description: Soekie is a 50-something woman who runs a shebeen that Tsotsi and his gang frequent. Though she is "coloured"—that is, mixed race, which was its own legal classification under apartheid—she lives in the Black township. Rumor has it that she was born in one of the city's white neighborhoods but her mother, presumably a white woman, rejected her mixed-race daughter. Soekie has repeatedly tried to contact her mother but has received no reply, not even information she has requested about her date of birth. Soekie's background serves to emphasize how white supremacy and apartheid tear families apart. - Character: Petah. Description: Petah is a member of the homeless child gang that David joins after his mother's arrest. Petah invites David to sleep in the same pipe as him, discourages David from leaving the gang when David remembers his mother told him to stay at home and wait for her, and encourages David's plan to pick a new name. Much later, after David has chosen the name Tsotsi and lost his childhood memories due to trauma, he sees Petah, beaten up, being dragged along by a policeman. Petah calls out to him, but Tsotsi no longer remembers who Petah is and, determined to repress his lost past, refuses to respond. - Character: Miss Marriot. Description: Miss Marriot is Isaiah the church gardener's racist white supervisor. Her condescension and disrespect toward Isaiah—for example, she calls him a "naughty boy" even though he is elderly—indicate that while apartheid harms Black South Africans' lives even when they are not experiencing direct interpersonal racism, direct interpersonal racism also characterizes Black-white social relations in the novel. - Character: Cassim. Description: Cassim is an Indian shopkeeper whose shop Tsotsi enters hoping to buy milk for the baby. Cassim, suspecting Tsotsi is a gang member, is terrified. He tricks Tsotsi into leaving the store by giving him a tin of condensed milk, whose label Tsotsi can't read, and telling him it's milk for babies. - Theme: Apartheid and Racism. Description: Tsotsi represents South African apartheid (a system of legally enforced segregation and discrimination) as a racist structure that destroys Black South Africans' lives—even when they aren't experiencing direct, interpersonal racism. Many of the Black characters' lives are destroyed by racist apartheid laws despite having little direct contact with racist white people. For example, the Black South African protagonist, Tsotsi, lost his mother in childhood because white police rounded up Black people, including her, whom they suspected of living or working in white areas without the required pass. While one of the policemen did display clear racist attitudes—he called Tsotsi's mother "kaffir," a South African racial slur—it was the law, not his individual beliefs, that empowered him to destroy Tsotsi's family. Tsotsi's mother's abduction propelled Tsotsi into homelessness and gang membership. In this sense, though Tsotsi rarely interacts with white people, the racist and white supremacist structure of apartheid changed the direction of his whole life. Other Black characters similarly suffer from the racist economic and legal structures of apartheid, whether or not they come into regular contact with racist white people: the beggar Morris Tshabalala is crippled in a mining accident as a Black worker in an industry where the profits and gold go to white people. The young mother Miriam Ngidi experiences the disappearance of her husband during his participation in a bus boycott—and although the novel does not explicitly state this fact, major bus boycotts in apartheid South Africa were often protests by the Black population against segregation and economic exploitation of Black workers, which exposed protesters like Miriam's husband to retaliatory racial violence. And Tsotsi's fellow gang member Boston becomes a criminal after he forges an employment history for an acquaintance who will go to jail due to racist apartheid laws unless he can prove he has a previous employer. Thus, Tsotsi represents how a racist legal and economic structure like apartheid can harm oppressed people independent of and in addition to the interpersonal prejudice they experience. - Theme: Parents and Children. Description: Tsotsi suggests that the inhumanity of South African apartheid (a period of enforced racial segregation) is clearest in how it separates parents from children. The novel represents family as fundamental to human fellow feeling and moral development. At the novel's beginning, the gang-leader protagonist, Tsotsi, cannot remember his childhood or anything about his family. He begins to remember his past and thus his own humanity when he starts taking care of—acting as a father toward—an abandoned baby. As Tsotsi remembers more of his childhood, especially his mother, he develops newfound sympathy toward other people, realizing, "Every single person in the world had a mother." Thus, throughout the story, the novel portrays an awareness of family ties—biological or adopted—as essential to fellow feeling. Throughout the story, South African apartheid destroys Black families. As a child, Tsotsi loses his mother to a police raid whose purpose is to prevent Black people without special passes from living or working in white areas. Miriam Ngidi loses her husband, and her young baby loses his father, when her husband disappears while participating in a bus boycott—and bus boycotts in apartheid South Africa were usually protests by Black workers against apartheid and its economic exploitation of Black people, which exposed the protesting workers to violence by the white supremacist state. Finally, the demolition of Black homes at the urging of the white township leads to Tsotsi's death and—it is implied—the death of his adopted baby, as Tsotsi has hidden the baby in an abandoned home and, when the bulldozers come, he is killed trying to save the baby. This pattern throughout the story—in which family is fundamental to humanity, and apartheid destroys families—implies that one of the greatest evils of apartheid lies in its depriving Black children of their parents. - Theme: Identity and Memory. Description: In Tsotsi, characters have three kinds of identity, one false and two true: the false identity of stereotype, and the true identities of individual history and of universal human belonging. Memory is necessary to reject a false, stereotyped identity in favor of true individual and group identities. In the novel, these different identities, false and true, play out in the protagonist's, Tsotsi's, life. Tsotsi's real name is David, but after a traumatic experience in his childhood, in which policemen abducted his mother and he ended up homeless, he lost most of his memories and rejected his true identity. When he joined a group of homeless children who scavenged and stole their food, a shopkeeper called him a tsotsi—a word meaning "gangster" or "thug"—and he took this stereotyped identity as his name. When he is Tsotsi, a stereotype without a memory or history, people do not recognize him as a human individual. As a gang leader, his potential victims—for example, the shopkeeper Cassim and the beggar Morris Tshabalala—find him so frightening that they literally cannot see or remember his face. Their inability to see Tsotsi's face represents how his stereotyped identity strips him of his true identity. Once Tsotsi begins to remember his past and sympathize with other people, however, he gradually recognizes himself as a member of humanity: he sees himself dimly reflected in a shop window and realizes his reflection could represent not only himself but his fellow gang members Boston and Butcher, or even his potential victim Morris Tshabalala. By connecting his own image with those of other human beings, Tsotsi is coming to realize one of his true identities—as a human being like other human beings. Finally, when Tsotsi fully regains his memories and decides, counter to the tsotsi stereotype, to become an adoptive father to a baby, he reclaims his full name and individual identity: David Madondo. Thus, Tsotsi suggests that to reject the false identities that stereotypes impose on us, we need to remember our individual histories and embrace our group identity as human beings. - Theme: Hatred, Sympathy, and God. Description: Tsotsi suggests that hatred and sympathy are two essential ways that people can relate to one another: hatred rejects human connection, while sympathy embraces human connection. At first, the gang-leader protagonist, Tsotsi, hates people who try to connect with him or otherwise remind him of his own humanity. For example, Tsotsi feels "cold hate, utterly merciless" for fellow gang member Boston when Boston asks him about his feelings and his past trauma. Tsotsi senses that Boston is trying to bring "light" to the darkness of his interior life, and he rejects this attempt by physically attacking Boston. By contrast, when Tsotsi begins to feel sympathy for the crippled beggar Morris Tshabalala, he images his sympathy as a lighted candle that allows him to really see Morris—and also to really see Boston, the gang's former victim Gumboot Dhlamini, and the baby Tsotsi has adopted. In this way, the novel suggests that hatred and sympathy are equal and opposite tendencies in human relationships: hatred is the dark rejection of connection, whereas sympathy is the bright embrace of connection. Throughout, the novel subtly connects sympathy to the idea of God, and toward the novel's end the connection becomes explicit. Tsotsi attacks Boston after Boston insists Tsotsi has a soul—suggesting that Tsotsi's hatred leads him to reject both sympathy and religious ideas like "soul" as a package deal. After Tsotsi beats Boston, Boston tells him that one day, he'll have feelings, and "God help you that day." These words about God resonate with Tsotsi: after leaving the bar where he beat Boston, he passes a church, which leads him to panic and sprint away. Later, when Tsotsi has begun to remember his past and feel sympathy for others, he finds Boston and demands Boston explain why this change is occurring in him. Boston tells Tsotsi that Tsotsi is asking about God. Tsotsi then questions a church gardener named Isaiah about God and (the novel implies) accepts his invitation to attend church. Finally, Tsotsi dies sacrificing his life attempting to save the baby he has adopted—reminiscent of Jesus Christ's sacrificing his life on the cross. Thus, Tsotsi not only suggests hatred and sympathy are essential human behaviors but also suggests human sympathy is mysteriously connected to God. - Theme: Habit vs. Choice. Description: In Tsotsi, characters become stuck in habits, or patterns of behavior, because they do not recognize they have choices. Only once characters recognize their power to change are they able to take some control over their lives. At the novel's beginning, the gang-leader protagonist, Tsotsi, accepts his own criminal behavior and other people's fear of him as an immutable, natural fact, "feeling in this the way other men feel when they see the sun in the morning." It is only when he begins to care for an abandoned baby, an action that doesn't "fit into the pattern of his life," that he begins to realize he has agency over his behavior. Caring for the baby leads him to realize, in turn, that even though killing people is "as natural in the pattern of his life as waking and sleeping," he doesn't actually have to commit acts of violence. This realization allows Tsotsi to spare the life of the beggar Morris Tshabalala, whom he thought he had to kill. By contrast, other members of Tsotsi's gang, Butcher and Die Aap, never realize their own power to choose. When Tsotsi, their leader, abandons them, they try to maintain their gang-life habits as best they can: Butcher joins another gang, while Die Aap tries to convince Tsotsi to form a new gang with him. Thus, Tsotsi suggests that people do have the power to choose and change—but only if, like the character Tsotsi, they consciously recognize that they have such power. - Climax: Tsotsi dies trying to save the baby he has adopted. - Summary: Four Black South African gang members—Tsotsi, Boston, Butcher, and Die Aap—are sitting in Tsotsi's room, waiting for night, when Tsotsi suggests they kill a man on the train. Sadistic Butcher and stupid Die Aap agree. Intellectual, cowardly Boston resists for a moment but eventually submits. The men murder a worker, Gumboot Dhlamini, who left his wife behind to work in the city and had almost earned enough to return to her. After the murder, Boston vomits. The gang goes to a shebeen where they and a drunk woman are the only customers. Tsotsi thinks how he hates Boston, because Boston asks questions about his past that Tsotsi doesn't know the answers to—Tsotsi has no memories of childhood. Butcher and Die Aap take the drunk woman outside and rape her. Alone with Tsotsi, Boston asks him whether he feels sympathy for the gang's victims, asks about Tsotsi's past, and, finally, whispers that Tsotsi must have a soul. Tsotsi attacks him. Butcher and Die Aap reenter the shebeen and pull Tsotsi off Boston. Tsotsi leaves. Boston's words echo in Tsotsi's mind. To distract himself, he runs until he's exhausted and stops under some bluegum trees to rest. He spies a young Black woman carrying a shoebox approaching the bluegums. As she passes, he pins her against a tree and shoves a knee between her legs, but a noise from the shoebox shocks him into stepping back. The woman shoves the shoebox at Tsotsi and runs. Inside the shoebox is a baby. The next day, Saturday, Tsotsi goes to buy milk for the baby. Terrified of Tsotsi, the store owner Cassim tricks him into buying condensed milk to get him to go away. Tsotsi goes back to his room and feeds the baby. Worried Butcher or Die Aap will catch him taking care of a baby, Tsotsi hides the baby in the ruins near the white neighborhood. There, Tsotsi remembers that the night before, the baby triggered a memory of a yellow dog. He realizes he's hoping the baby will trigger more memories. When Tsotsi returns to his room, Butcher and Die Aap are waiting for him in the street. Butcher and Die Aap bother Tsotsi about the gang's plan for the night until he tells them they'll go to the city. In the city, Tsotsi identifies a target, a beggar named Morris Tshabalala who lost his legs in a mining accident and moves around on his hands. While stalking Morris, however, Tsotsi realizes he feels sympathy for his victim. Instead of killing Morris, he has a long conversation with him. When Morris asks Tsotsi why Tsotsi has to kill him, Tsotsi realizes he doesn't have to and spares Morris's life. On Sunday morning, Tsotsi goes to check on the baby in the ruins. Ants have swarmed the opened condensed milk tin and the baby's shoebox. Tsotsi kills the ants on the baby's face, bundles the baby up, and leaves. Down the street from Tsotsi's room, people are filling buckets at a communal water tap. Among them is a young mother, Miriam Ngidi, and her baby. After Miriam returns to her room, she hears a knock on the door. When she opens it, Tsotsi forces his way inside and threatens to kill her baby if she doesn't cooperate with him. He brings her to his room and demands she breastfeed the baby he has adopted. After Miriam cleans and breastfeeds the baby, she asks where his mother is. When Tsotsi doesn't answer, Miriam says that "a bitch in a backyard would look after its puppies better" and leaves. This incident triggers a flashback in Tsotsi. In the flashback, Tsotsi is a 10-year-old named David, living with his mother and a yellow dog pregnant with puppies. His mother tells him that after a long absence, his father will be returning the next day. That night, David wakes up to policemen raiding the neighborhood. They break down his family's door. One policeman demands his mother's pass and calls her a slur. Before she can answer, the police drag her outside and put her in a van. When the vans are full, the police drive away. The next morning, David falls asleep and wakes to someone pounding on the door and yelling the name "Tondi." David runs and hides in the back yard. He hears the intruder come into the yard. The yellow dog snarls at the intruder, and the intruder kicks her. After a neighbor tells the intruder the police took Tondi, the intruder leaves. David sees the intruder has broken the yellow dog's back legs. She crawls toward David, gives birth to dead puppies, and dies. David runs away from home. He is wandering the streets when a gang of orphans finds him and invites him to join them. One orphan, Petah, asks David's name. David tells him but says that David is "dead" now. Later, while scavenging for food with the orphan gang, David hears a shopkeeper call him a "tsotsi." He chooses Tsotsi as his new name. On Monday, Tsotsi wakes to Die Aap knocking on his door. Tsotsi hides the baby and asks Die Aap what he wants. Die Aap tells Tsotsi that Butcher is angry with Tsotsi and has joined a different gang. Die Aap suggests he and Tsotsi form a new gang. Tsotsi refuses and tells Die Aap to leave. Tsotsi finds Miriam and brings her back to his room. When Miriam asks the baby's name, Tsotsi tells her it's David. When Miriam asks whether Tsotsi is the child's father, he tells her David didn't know his father. Miriam tells Tsotsi the baby is sick and asks to adopt and care for him. Tsotsi refuses, saying the baby belongs to him. Tsotsi hides the baby in the ruins and goes looking for Boston. Tsotsi finds Boston unconscious in a shebeen. He carries Boston back to his room and goes to buy food. When Boston wakes up in Tsotsi's bed, Tsotsi explains to Boston about caring for the baby and sparing Morris's life. He demands that Boston tell him what is happening to him. Boston tells Tsotsi that he's changing. When Tsotsi asks what has changed him, Boston tells Tsotsi he's now asking about God. Boston sleeps in Tsotsi's bed that night, and the next morning, even though Tsotsi wants him to stay, he leaves. The next day, Tsotsi is sitting on a sidewalk outside a church when the church gardener, Isaiah, offers him some tea. Tsotsi asks Isaiah about the church and about God. Isaiah explains as best he can. He then invites Tsotsi to come to church that evening. Later, Tsotsi carries baby David to Miriam's and tells her the baby vomited up the milk she left. Miriam gets medicine for the baby. She restates her desire to care for the baby. Tsotsi begs her not to take the baby from him. He leaves the baby with her when he hears church bells ringing—presumably to attend the service Isaiah invited him to—but comes back, takes the baby, and hides it again overnight. The next morning, Tsotsi wakes up thinking he needs to tell Miriam his real name, David Madondo. He is walking through town when he hears bulldozers. White people have been complaining about Black people moving back into the ruins, so bulldozers have come to raze the ruins again. Tsotsi runs to save the baby, but a bulldozer knocks a wall on top of Tsotsi and kills him. When his body is dragged from the wreckage, there is a "beautiful" smile on his face.

- Genre: Young Adult "Issue" Novel - Title: Turtles All the Way Down - Point of view: First person, narrated by Aza - Setting: Indianapolis, Indiana, 2010s - Character: Aza Holmes. Description: Aza is the sixteen-year-old protagonist of the novel. She has struggled for most of her life with anxiety and OCD. She spends much of her time wondering if she's real or not and as a child, developed a compulsion to test if she's real: she presses her thumbnail into the pad of her middle finger, opening up a cut that she believes proves her reality. However, she also fears bacteria, particularly C. diff. She has to compulsively re-open her finger wound, clean it, and re-bandage it several times per day to keep it clean and free from bacteria. Aza's fear of bacteria sends her into what she terms "thought spirals," in which her fearful thoughts take over her mind and send her into a panic. At these times, she doesn't feel as though she's in control of her own thoughts. Aza resists taking her medication regularly, as she doesn't like the feeling that something else is determining who she is and how she behaves. Beginning a romantic relationship with Davis sends Aza's thought spirals into overdrive—particularly when they kiss, as Aza can't stop thinking about Davis' bacteria entering her body. These factors, coupled with her discovery of her best friend Daisy's insufferable fanfiction character Ayala, precipitate Aza's mental breakdown. After Aza is hospitalized following a car crash, Mom catches her drinking hand sanitizer. The confrontation finally enables Aza to admit that she is not well and needs help. In the weeks following the crash, Aza takes a new medication regularly and becomes more comfortable with the fact that her illness is always going to be a part of her. She realizes she's never going to be completely well, and that she will have to struggle to come to terms with being an "integrated plurality" rather than a singular "I." At the end of the novel, the reader learns that the novel is the product of Aza's third mental breakdown later in life, and that a psychiatrist told her to write her story down. The act of writing teaches Aza that she will go on, and that she is deserving of love. - Character: Daisy. Description: Daisy is Aza's best friend. She is bubbly, outgoing, and absolutely loves boys and Star Wars. Her life motto is "break hearts, not promises." She writes weekly installments of an ongoing fanfiction about Chewbacca's love life and is diligent about replying to reader comments about the story. The story features a character named Ayala, who shares all of Aza's personality traits that Daisy finds insufferable. When Daisy hears that Pickett Engineering is offering a reward for information that helps the investigation to find the disappeared Mr. Pickett, Daisy ropes Aza into her plan to find Mr. Pickett and get rich. When Davis gives Aza and Daisy money to keep quiet about what they discover about Mr. Pickett, Daisy uses her half of the money to get on more equal footing with Aza: she quits her job at Chuck E. Cheese's, buys a car, and buys a laptop. When Aza tells Daisy that she finds these choices irresponsible, Daisy finally admits that she thinks Aza self-centered, spoiled, and thinks she's a horrible friend. They make up after Aza recovers from their car accident, and Daisy decides to kill off Ayala in her fanfiction. Daisy is adamant throughout the novel that being poor doesn't make a person noble. - Character: Davis Pickett Jr.. Description: Davis is Aza's love interest. He comes from a very wealthy family; his father, Davis Pickett Sr., owns the largest engineering firm in Indianapolis. His mother died when he was a child, and he originally met Aza at "sad camp," a camp for children who have lost a parent. He has a plastic Iron Man figure that he's loved since he was a child, and he keeps it for comfort throughout the novel. When Davis's father mysteriously disappears after he's accused of fraud and embezzlement, Davis is thrust into the role of a parent to his thirteen-year-old brother, Noah. He struggles to fill this role alone, but tries to separate himself from other people because he fears people just want to be close to him for his money. He loves astronomy and is blind to the privileges afforded to him because of his wealth. Although he abandons his social media channels after his father disappears, Aza discovers Davis' private and well-hidden blog, where he writes poetry and short musings about his life. More than anything, Davis wishes that his father had been, or would be, a true father figure to him and Noah. He feels unloved because Mr. Pickett leaves his entire estate to a reptile named Tua rather than his sons. When Aza tells Davis that she may have discovered his father's body, Davis finally decides to go to the police and give Noah closure. He moves to Colorado with Noah and finishes high school at a public school after realizing that being a good brother to Noah is more important than money. - Character: Mom. Description: Mom is Aza's mother. She's a math teacher at Aza's high school and is a widow—Aza's dad died of a heart attack about eight years before the beginning of the novel. Although Mom does everything she can to help Aza, such as encouraging her to go to therapy and asking her about her sessions, she doesn't truly understand Aza's anxiety. She encourages Aza to "just not think about" whatever triggers her thought spirals and continues to ask Aza about her mental state, even though neither of these things helps Aza at all and sometimes even makes Aza feel worse. Nevertheless, Aza and her mother are very close and have a mutually respectful relationship. - Character: Davis Pickett, Sr.. Description: Davis Pickett, Sr. is one of the most successful businessmen in Indianapolis, though he disappears mysteriously right before the start of the novel after the police try to arrest him for fraud and embezzlement. He owns Pickett Engineering, the engineering firm that was commissioned to design a tunnel system to keep the sewers from overflowing into the river when it rains, though his firm never completed the project. Despite his financial success, Mr. Pickett is cold and generally disliked: Daisy discovers that he's been accused several times of workplace misconduct and has been sued a number of times, and Davis tells Aza that his father has never been there for him. On the extreme end of his un-fatherly tendency, Mr. Pickett makes news by willing his entire estate to his pet tuatara, Tua, and not leaving his sons any of his money. Pickett Engineering offers a $100,000 reward for information leading to Mr. Pickett's discovery, which Aza and Daisy decide to try to win. Aza spends weeks puzzling over notes from Mr. Pickett's cell phone and fears that she inadvertently discovered his body in the Pogue's Run tunnel—one of the tunnels that Pickett Engineering constructed and never finished. Aza relays this information to Davis rather than go to the police herself. - Character: Mychal. Description: Mychal is a classmate and friend of Aza and Daisy, and for a short time he's Daisy's boyfriend. He's a talented art student, though he's often very uncertain of himself. His photographic work Prisoner 101 is accepted to a pop-up gallery in an unfinished section of the Indianapolis sewer system, where it's positively received by critics and other artists. - Character: Noah. Description: Noah is Davis' younger brother. At thirteen, he still believes that his dad, Mr. Pickett, loves him, and he becomes depressed and starts acting out after his father disappears. He asks Aza to keep looking for his father even after Davis asks Aza not to. Aza feels bad for Noah and promises him she'll keep looking. - Character: Dr. Singh. Description: Dr. Singh is Aza's therapist. She uses both cognitive behavioral therapy and medication to help control Aza's anxiety and OCD. She encourages Aza to remind herself that her thoughts are just thoughts and don't actually control her, though Aza struggles greatly to accept this. According to Aza, Dr. Singh's catchphrase is that whatever Aza is experiencing is "not uncommon." After Aza's mental breakdown, Dr. Singh encourages Aza to take her medication and reminds her that she will get through this difficult time. - Character: Dad. Description: Dad is Aza's father, who died of (presumably) a heart attack while mowing the lawn about eight years prior to the start of the novel. Mom describes her husband as "a worrier" like Aza, and thinks that he would've understood Aza's anxiety better than she does. He enjoyed taking cell phone photos of the sky through tree branches, and Aza keeps his phone in working order so she can revisit the photographs on the phone. Aza's car, Harold, also belonged to Dad. - Character: Tua. Description: Tua is Davis Pickett Sr.'s female tuatara, a very primitive species of reptile. She's about 40 years old and is expected to live to at least 150 years old. She's also set to "inherit" Mr. Pickett's fortune upon his death, though the money will actually go to the foundation that cares for her. Davis is scared of Tua and resents her because his father favors her over his own children. - Character: Ayala. Description: Ayala is a character in Daisy's Chewbacca fanfiction stories. She's modeled after Aza and shares her worrying personality. She's a horrible character who ruins everything for the other characters. Azyala serves as a point of contention in Aza and Daisy's friendship when Aza discovers that Daisy has been writing stories that paint Aza (through the character of Ayala) in an unfavorable light. - Theme: Identity, Selfhood, and Mental Illness. Description: While questions of identity are par for the course in coming of age novels and young adult novels alike, Turtles All the Way Down goes a step further in exploring the subject of identity. Rather than simply questioning who she is, Aza is consumed by more fundamental and heady questions about whether she exists at all and how much control, if any, she has over her own thoughts, actions, or circumstances. Aza's questions of identity and control are complicated by the fact that she struggles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), a mental illness that makes her feel as though she's not in control of her own thoughts. Aza conceptualizes her OCD as a demon or evil alter-ego that rises up at intervals to remind her about the teeming bacteria inside and around her, the wound on her finger, or the dangers of kissing (and sharing bacteria with another person). The demon is only one instance in which the reader sees that Aza think of herself as a being who isn't singular: rather, she sees herself as possessing many separate and different identities. These multiple identities are represented by the different names Aza responds to, as well as the voice of the demon itself. To Mom and to Davis, Aza goes by her first name, while to her best friend Daisy, she's Holmesy, and to other students at school, she's Ms. Holmes' daughter. In Daisy's fanfiction stories, Aza's personality shows up in a character named Ayala—and although Aza hates Ayala, she begins to consider Ayala a part of herself. These different names crystallize Aza's belief that she's not in control of herself as a single, autonomous being. The voice of her demon takes this one step further, as the demon truly exists only in Aza's head—it's actually a part of her own mind, not just a different name that people call her. Particularly when she's in the hospital after a car accident, the text of the novel becomes a block of dialogue between Aza and her demon as they argue about drinking hand sanitizer, underscoring the way in which Aza's very sense of self is split into distinct personae. Although Aza's questions about identity are complicated by her demon, she's entirely unable to think of herself as a single autonomous person even when her demon is quiet. She tells the reader early on that the human body is about 50% bacteria, or organisms that are decidedly not human. Although this is objectively true, this fact is only terrifying to her because of her struggles with mental illness. It's significant that Aza thinks of herself as being made up not only of different identities, but literally of different beings. She's obsessed with the relationship between her bacteria and her self, and becomes particularly agitated when she learns that the brain and the bacteria in one's stomach communicate with each other. For Aza, this is proof that she's not in control of her own thoughts: her bacteria are running the show. They have actual power to influence what and how she thinks, and there's no way for her to know which thoughts are truly hers and which thoughts belong to the bacteria. Aza suffers another bacteria-related identity crisis when she kisses Davis. After a frantic internet search, Aza learns that Davis' bacteria will not just be inside her forever, but will actually permanently alter her microbiome. This is terrifying for Aza. It was one thing for her to know that she herself is made up of multitudes, but it's another thing entirely for her to learn that other people have the ability to actually add to and alter her identity. Aza's therapist, Dr. Singh, humors Aza's musings about singularity and her paranoia about who's actually running her mind during their therapy sessions. However, Dr. Singh encourages Aza to see herself as an "integrated plurality" and uses the metaphor of a rainbow that is made up of many colors. Although it takes Aza the entirety of the novel to see the wisdom of Dr. Singh's suggestion, that's eventually what happens: Aza begins to integrate her different identities by taking her medication, something she was previously afraid of doing. Dr. Singh also tells Aza regularly that Aza's questions about identity "aren't uncommon," which alludes to the overarching idea that although Aza's struggle with mental illness is unique and makes her journey towards identity particularly difficult, the struggle to integrate seemingly opposite identities into one singular being is a struggle that all young people face. At the end of the novel, adult Aza suggests that she did indeed manage to integrate her many identities into a cohesive whole—and indeed, the novel itself, written by Aza, is a testament to that. - Theme: Chaos vs. Order and Control. Description: Simply by nature of Aza's mental illness, she's extremely interested in making order out of the chaotic situations in which she finds herself. Often, the novel examines the idea of "order" through circular or spiral patterns: not only is Aza's name a circle of sorts (her name goes from the beginning of the alphabet to the end, then back again), but she often describes her intrusive thoughts as "thought spirals" that leave her with little control over her thoughts or actions. In this way, Aza's word choice illustrates her attempt to make meaning and order out of what feels like chaos. Aza's mental illness in particular complicates her quest for creating order our of chaos, as she often becomes a prisoner of her own spiraling need—and failure—to find a sense of control over her thoughts and her body. When readers meet Aza, she's reasonably functional: she's able to eat, drive, go to school, and respond to Daisy's questions. However, as she begins seeing Davis romantically and refuses to take her medication regularly, Aza slowly begins to spiral in on herself until she has spiraled so tightly, she nearly fractures into two people. In that fractured state, she's not in control of herself anymore—rather, her "inner demon" is in control, and she's at the mercy of its whims. It's important to note that Aza's relationship to medication is one that's grounded in her fear of something else controlling her. In this case she's afraid of the medicine controlling her, just as she fears that bacteria are controlling her. Aza is so intent on figuring out if she's actually the one in control, she refuses to do the one thing that could offer her some degree of relief and a degree of control over her destructive thought spirals: taking her medication. After her mental breakdown in the hospital, Aza is able to "loosen" her spiral, becoming less anxious, controlling her intrusive thoughts, and involving more people in her life than just herself and her paranoid brain. When Aza isn't so caught up in her own spirals of thought, she's able to connect more with Mom and Daisy, and in doing so she becomes a better and more engaged friend. By changing her medication and making an effort to take it every day, she's also able to obtain a degree of control over her own thought spirals and experience fewer of them. The idea of circling also encompasses the cyclical nature of mental illness like the OCD that Aza experiences. OCD isn't something that Aza will ever fully recover from, and the novel makes this very clear: she'll never fully get "better." Aza can only slow down the spirals by taking her medication, staying in therapy, and using breathing exercises. However, intense bouts of OCD return to Aza in adulthood: in the final chapter, readers learn that the novel is written by Aza sharing the story of how she got to the point where she is in the present. At that point in her life, she has been hospitalized for her mental illness two more times. This serves as a final reminder that, for Aza, life is made up of circles, spirals, and the time in between. Although the chaotic spirals themselves are inescapable and at times terrifying, the very act of naming them and describing her experience allows her to create order out of chaos, giving her a sense of safety and control in her life. - Theme: Language and Meaning. Description: All the characters in Turtles All the Way Down are intensely interested in the English language. They're all very well read, and the novel is filled with allusions and references to a number of classic novels, like F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night and Shakespeare's The Tempest. The characters are also interested in the mechanics of language itself. They ask questions about parts of speech and sentence structure, as well as the words the English language offers to describe different intangible things. As the characters borrow language from authors, poets, and each other, borrowing words from others to create meaning out of their own lives through language becomes, for the characters, an integral part of the process of forging identities. Many of Aza's questions about language have to do with her inability to describe her pain and her thought spirals to her friends or her therapist, let alone to herself. Her therapist, Dr. Singh, offers the insight that although pain is undeniably real, there are few words to truly describe the depths or the particulars of someone's pain. This leads Aza to one of her scariest questions: if she doesn't have the words to describe herself, is she even real? In this way, Aza creates an equivalence between being real and being able to articulate the meaning of one's experience. In turn, Aza wonders if she's not just unreal, but fictional and literally made up of words written by someone else. As Aza continues to question her own reality, her increasingly intense thought spirals—along with her inability to articulate her feelings—lead her to feel increasingly isolated. Daisy and Davis, on the other hand, use language as a tool for processing their emotions, by writing Star Wars fanfiction and poetry, respectively. Daisy's weekly Chewbacca installments allow her to mentally escape from reality while making sense of what reality throws at her. Her characters take on the qualities of individuals in Daisy's real life, and the anonymous online platform gives her the opportunity to write what she actually thinks about those individuals. Davis, on the other hand, uses his blog as a public diary. He follows a very specific format in which he respond to a quotation (usually from a novel or from Shakespeare) with a short musing about his life that loosely ties in with the quote. In both cases, Daisy and Davis find a sense of purpose and some relief from their daily struggles by putting their thoughts not just on paper and out of their heads, but literally into the public sphere of the internet. Notably, John Green himself has said about his own novel that he achieved a similar sense of purpose and relief by engaging with Aza, writing her story, and sharing it with others. This idea that language can be healing echoes throughout the novel: Davis achieves a sense of closure for himself through writing on his blog, and Daisy eventually kills off Ayala, the character who resembles Aza, in order to make amends with Aza. Meanwhile, Aza continues seeing Dr. Singh for talk therapy to manage her illness and her intrusive thoughts. Dr. Singh, however, has a very specific idea of how language can be used to heal and bring closure and comfort. She often nitpicks Aza's word choice when Aza describes her mental illness and encourages her to use language that paints her as more powerful than the illness. In this way, Dr. Singh makes it abundantly clear to Aza that the specific language people use is very important. Language can give a person power or take their power away. In this sense, Dr. Singh suggests that language not only helps people understand their reality—it can also help change a person's reality. The fact that Aza chooses to write a book is perhaps the ultimate testament that she internalizes this lesson about the importance of language. - Theme: Privilege, Power, and Wealth. Description: Turtles All the Way Down presents a cast of characters from a variety of different financial backgrounds. Davis's family is exceptionally rich: they collect art, have a golf course on their property, and built an onsite sanctuary for Mr. Pickett's pet tuatara, Tua. Aza and Mom, by contrast, are solidly middle class—Aza's mom works as a high school teacher, and Aza has a car. Finally, Daisy works at Chuck E. Cheese's to earn money so that she can one day afford to attend night school, shares a bedroom with her younger sister, and types her Chewbacca fanfiction on her phone because she doesn't have a computer. As the characters interact with each other and encounter problems that money can't solve and others that it can, they learn how wealth can make people blind, but doesn't have to determine everything about who a person is. Although Davis leads a very comfortable life because of his family's financial situation, he feels trapped by the reputation and the name that accompany his wealth. His father, Davis Pickett Sr., is one of the most powerful men in Indianapolis, but also one of the most hated. Davis is well aware of his father's reputation and fortune and therefore fears that anyone who befriends him is doing so because of his money. He believes that others see him as having an immense amount of power because of his financial situation. While it's certainly true that Davis can afford to drive a luxury car and is guaranteed to attend a prestigious private college, the actual degree of power that he has is far less than people think he has. Rather than leave his money in a trust for Davis and his brother, Noah, Mr. Pickett instead leaves all of his money to Tua, a lizard-like reptile with a lifespan of up to 150 years. This makes Davis feel unloved by his father, which is notably not a problem that the money itself can solve. Even after Mr. Pickett's disappearance, Davis speaks about his father as though he was often absent and never loving. For Davis, the issue is less about the money and more about the fact that his father was never there for him. Both Aza and Daisy are shocked at their good fortune when Davis gives them $100,000 to not go to the police with the information they have regarding his father's disappearance. The girls split the money evenly, but both do very different things with it. For Aza, her future after high school suddenly opens up as she realizes that, with the money from Davis, she'll be able to more easily afford to go to college and can possibly even afford to go out of state. For her, her newfound wealth is freeing, though she feels no compulsion to spend any of it right away. Daisy uses her money to "catch up" financially with Aza: she quits her job at Chuck E. Cheese's and buys a car and a laptop—actions that Aza sees as misguided and irresponsible. What Aza doesn't realize is her own privilege in comparison to Daisy. Daisy's life is much harder than Aza's because Daisy doesn't have the same financial advantages as Aza, such as a car, a computer to use for schoolwork, and the privilege of not needing to work. This is verified later, when Daisy remarks how much easier school is when she's not spending all of her non-school hours working. Rather than come to clear conclusions about how money is best spent or used, the novel instead focuses on the simple fact that possessing money can make a person powerful, though it can also make them blind. When Davis decides to move with Noah to Colorado to attend public school while Noah attends a special school for troubled boys, it's a choice to put love and his relationship with his brother over what his money can buy for him. Similarly, Daisy's parents force her to create a college savings account for her little sister with some of the money she received from Davis. Both Daisy and Davis share their financial power with others, ultimately using their financial power to alleviate someone else's burden. - Climax: When Aza suffers a mental breakdown and drinks hand sanitizer in the hospital - Summary: Aza addresses the reader and wonders if she's fictional. She sits in the school cafeteria eating and says that the human body is made up of about 50% bacteria. Aza has anxiety problems and can barely concentrate on the conversation around her: her best friend, Daisy, is talking with another friend, Mychal, about Mr. Pickett, who mysteriously disappeared after being accused of bribery and fraud. Aza wonders if she has C. diff, a serious bacterial infection, and she opens a crack in her finger and re-bandages it. After school, Aza and Daisy head to Applebee's to do homework. They hear on the radio that Pickett Engineering is offering $100,000 to anyone with information about Mr. Pickett's disappearance. Daisy reminds Aza that she knows Mr. Pickett's son, Davis, and the two decide to sneak onto the Pickett property to access a motion-activated camera that might have captured Mr. Pickett's departure. Daisy and Aza paddle down the White River in Aza's canoe. At the Pickett residence, Aza downloads a picture of Mr. Pickett from the camera before the security guard, Lyle, catches them. Daisy tells Lyle that their canoe has a hole in it, and that they know Davis. Lyle takes the girls to Davis, who remembers Aza. Davis introduces the girls to Malik, who cares for the tuatara, Tua, that lives on the property. Davis drives Aza and Daisy home. Later that night, Daisy shows Aza an article online that says Tua will inherit the Pickett estate when Mr. Pickett dies. The next day, Aza drives around the circular freeway for a while before heading home. She meets Daisy at Applebee's after Daisy gets off work at Chuck E. Cheese's, and the two begin to look for clues about Mr. Pickett's disappearance. Aza finds Davis' social media channels, but he stopped posting after his dad disappeared. Daisy phishes a junior reporter and obtains the missing person report for Mr. Pickett. At school the next day, Aza reads the report and realizes that she and Daisy know more than the police since they have the picture from the motion-activated camera. Aza insists on talking to Davis before they go to the police. She and Davis text that night. The next morning, Daisy tells Aza that she agreed to go on a date with Mychal, but made it a double date with Aza and Davis. Aza invites Davis and he agrees to come. After school, Aza has an appointment with Dr. Singh, her psychologist. Aza wonders aloud if she's soulless and insists she's crazy, though she lies and says she's taking her medication regularly. As the session goes on, Aza's stomach hurts and she fears she has a C. diff infection. On date night, Aza's mom insists that Aza be careful with Davis because wealth makes people careless, but Aza brushes her off. At Applebee's, Aza floats in and out of the conversation, which is mostly about Star Wars and the fanfiction stories that Daisy writes. After dinner, Davis suggests they go to his house and watch a movie since he has a theater in his house. When the group gets to the Pickett mansion, Mychal and Daisy look at the art while Davis shows Aza the theater in the basement. Davis uses the sound system in the house to tell Mychal and Daisy that he and Aza are going outside and then leads Aza to the golf course. He points out stars and takes her hand. Aza admits that she hates living inside a body, and tells him that she opens the cut on her finger to prove to herself that she's real. The conversation turns to the subject of Davis' father. Davis insists that he can't trust Aza and Daisy to keep quiet. He leads Aza to a cottage, where he pulls $100,000 out of cereal boxes and gives it to her. Aza runs back to the house and interrupts Daisy and Mychal kissing. On her way out of the house, Davis' little brother, Noah, asks Aza if he can give her the notes from his dad's phone to help her search. He cries, and she suggests he go to bed. Aza texts Daisy in the morning and they agree to meet at Applebee's. Aza researches items from the list of notes off of Mr. Pickett's phone, but is stumped by the phrase "the jogger's mouth." She gets to Applebee's early and goes through her dad's old phone. He liked taking pictures of the sky through branches. She remembers how he died: he just dropped dead while mowing the lawn. Daisy arrives and Aza shows her the money. Daisy nearly cries and believes she'll be able to go to college and quit working at Chuck E. Cheese's. They eat and order more expensive items than they usually do, and tip their server, Holly, very well. Davis's lawyer, Simon Morris, calls Aza the next day. He explains that he set up an appointment for her to deposit her money, and explains that Mr. Pickett won't be legally dead for another seven years if they don't find his body. On the way to make the deposit with Daisy, Aza's mind begins to spiral. She changes her Band-Aid several times before Daisy finally encourages her to finish driving to the bank. After they deposit their money, Aza drops Daisy off. When she gets home, Aza takes a pill to help her deal with feelings of panic. Aza avoids her mom and accepts an invitation from Davis to watch a meteor shower on Thursday. On Thursday, Aza finds Daisy in the school parking lot with a new, orange VW Beetle. Aza thinks this is an irresponsible purchase, but Daisy hands Aza a guide to colleges and Aza spends the day engrossed in the guide. Aza and Daisy to go Aza's house after school, where Daisy pulls out a newly-purchased laptop. Aza is disapproving, but Daisy insists that Aza knows nothing about being poor. When Davis arrives to pick Aza up, Aza's mom insists on talking to Davis. She tells him that his money doesn't entitle him to Aza, which makes him cry. Aza apologizes for her mom in the car. Davis and Aza pick at dinner and then go outside to look at the sky, even though it's cloudy and they can't see the meteor shower. Davis admits that he writes poetry, and Aza kisses him. They kiss until Aza begins to panic about Davis' bacteria inside her. She frantically checks her phone and finds out that Davis' bacteria will be inside her forever. Davis suggests they watch a movie and they both try to act normal. After Davis finally takes Aza home, Aza's mom sings Aza a lullaby to help her fall asleep. Aza and Davis decide to unofficially date. She has an appointment with Dr. Singh the next day, and she tells Dr. Singh about her panic attack while kissing Davis. She says that she fears she's a fictional story told by her body and her out-of-control thoughts. Dr. Singh insists that Aza is indeed real, but that she gives her thoughts too much power. Aza and Davis text later that night, and Aza enjoys it. On Monday, they see each other again at Davis' house. Davis says that Noah got suspended for bringing pot to school. They watch Jupiter Ascending and kiss in the theater, but Aza has to stop. She goes to the bathroom and drinks hand sanitizer, and Noah catches her on her way back downstairs. He asks why his dad isn't contacting him, and Aza feels her spiral tightening. Later, Aza successfully discovers Davis' secret blog. The two facetime (that is, talk over a video call), and Aza feels close to Davis. They continue to facetime nightly for weeks. One night, Aza decides to read Daisy's fanfiction. One character, Ayala, is horrible: she's anxious and ruins everything. Aza realizes that the character of Ayala is modeled after her and that Daisy sees her as useless and helpless. Aza and Daisy watch a movie after school the next day, and the two argue a little before Daisy goes to hang out with Mychal. Later that night, Aza goes to see Davis. Davis says that he read Daisy's fanfiction and likes Ayala. He's spinning his Iron Man action figure and tells Aza about how the galaxy is a spiral. Aza tells Davis about her spirals, and then the two swim in the heated pool. Afterwards, Davis shows Aza his telescope. He tells her that he looks at the stars to remember his mom. When she gets home, Aza checks Davis' blog and then reads more of Daisy's fanfiction. She comes across a Wikipedia article about how gut bacteria communicate with the brain, which she finds horrifying. She drinks hand sanitizer and wonders if she's a threat to herself. Aza's mom wakes Aza up the next morning. Aza is sick and exhausted. She thinks she's never going to get better. On the way to Applebee's after school, Aza confronts Daisy about the fanfiction. Daisy angrily talks on and on about how Aza is exhausting, spoiled, and a bad friend. Aza turns to Daisy and yells that she can't escape from her mind. They rear-end the car in front of them, and two cars behind them collide into Aza's car. Aza is dizzy with pain, but knows she has to get her dad's phone out of her car's trunk. The phone is broken. A firefighter assures Aza she's okay and Aza blacks out. She wakes up in the hospital. The doctor finally tells Aza and her mom that Aza lacerated her liver and will need to stay in the hospital for several days. Aza panics and is afraid she'll get C. diff. She tries to distract herself, but her brain tells her she's going to die. It tells her to get up and drink hand sanitizer. Aza does, and Mom catches her as Aza starts vomiting. Aza realizes she's not possessed: she herself is the demon. When Aza wakes up the next morning, she tells her mom that she's in big trouble. Aza offers an alternate ending in which she walks into the sunset with Davis or Daisy. In reality, Dr. Singh arrives and tells Aza she has to take her medication and that she will survive. She continues to check on Aza even after she goes home from the hospital. Aza doesn't accept visitors for the two weeks she spends in bed, and returns to school in December. Daisy meets her at the steps of the school and tells her everything that happened in the last two weeks. They eat lunch outside together, and Daisy tells Aza a story about a woman who insisted that the world rests on the back of a turtle, which rests on the back of another turtle: turtles all the way down. Aza thinks it perfectly describes her mental state. Later that night, she tells her mom about the money Davis gave her and agrees to meet Davis for dinner. At Applebee's, Aza panics again about Davis' bacteria and tells him they can't be in a relationship because this is as "better" as she's going to get. The next day, Daisy invites Aza to go with her and Mychal to an art show in the sewer. Aza agrees. At the show, she and Daisy walk through the sewer and view the work. When Aza gets anxious, she asks Daisy to take a walk and explains to her that walking in a sewer with light isn't scary, but feeling constantly in the dark is. The two talk at the opening of the Pogue's Run tunnel until they realize they're in "the jogger's mouth." They remember the stench and walk back to the gallery to get Mychal. At home that night, Aza tells her mom that she fears she discovered Mr. Pickett's body. Aza tells Davis the next day, and Davis cries. Davis doesn't text Aza again. Months later, Aza sees on TV that the police discovered Mr. Pickett's body in the Pogue's Run tunnel. She texts Davis, who tells her that he and Noah told the police. In April, Davis knocks on Aza's door. He gives her a gift—it's the spiral painting by Pettibon—and tells her that he's moving to Colorado. Aza then addresses the reader directly, explaining that she didn't know at that time that she would go on to grow up and have children, though she'd get too sick to care for them twice. She wrote this story when a psychiatrist asked her to write how she got where she is now. She learned through writing that she would always go on as a singular being.

- Genre: Science Fiction - Title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Point of view: First Person - Setting: Across the world's oceans - Character: Professor Pierre Arronax. Description: Pierre Arronax is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. He is a 40-year-old Frenchman who is a professional naturalist (an expert in the field of natural history) and an assistant professor at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. He is the author of a book entitled Mysteries of the Unsounded Depths Undersea. At the time the novel begins, he has just spent six months doing fieldwork in Nebraska and is looking forward to returning home to France. However, his desire to go back home is interrupted by the sighting of the mysterious "monster" (which turns out to be Captain Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus) and his invitation to join Commander Farragut aboard the Abraham Lincoln in order to track down the monster. This results in the Abraham Lincoln attacking the Nautilus and sinking in the process, presumably killing Farragut and enabling Captain Nemo to take Arronax and his crewmates, Conseil and Ned Land, captive on the submarine. The subsequent delay in Arronax's journey home, at times seemingly endless, invokes that of Odysseus in Homer's the Odyssey. Arronax is an intelligent and dignified man whose life is totally dedicated to the pursuit of science. Indeed, scientific research is less his job than it is his whole reason for being. Arronax has a boundless curiosity about the world, and is the most adaptable character in the novel. This allows him to treat his capture by Captain Nemo and life aboard the Nautilus with open-minded enthusiasm, rather than simply horror. However, this becomes problematic when Arronax's co-captors—particularly Ned—become fixated on escaping. Arronax remains unsure about trying to escape, which is both a result of his relatively timid nature and his strange attachment to Nemo. Although by the end of the novel Arronax is largely horrified by Nemo, he still retains a degree of affection and sympathy for him, and expresses the idea that the two have an irrevocable bond. - Character: Captain Nemo. Description: Captain Nemo is the commander of the Nautilus, a submarine that he built in secret and on which he lives. Nemo is a highly mysterious person. His real name and national origin are never revealed, and neither are his exact reasons for choosing to live in a state of self-imposed exile underwater. There are hints that Nemo might be a member of an oppressed and/or colonized group of people, and several interpretations of the book cast him as being from India. Nemo certainly feels a great deal of sympathy for oppressed people, although he contradictorily behaves in a rather tyrannical manner himself. He is unusually intelligent, highly educated, and extremely wealthy, having studied engineering in Paris, London, and New York. He seems to have been victimized by a mysterious nation represented by the ship that appears at the end of the novel, upon which Nemo takes violent revenge. There are hints that whatever nation or imperial power the ship represents may have killed Nemo's family, including a wife and children, although this is not directly confirmed. The novel leaves open the question of whether Nemo is a hero or villain. Much of his behavior—including keeping Arronax, Ned, and Conseil captive, exercising tyrannical rule over his ship, and seeking violent revenge against the mysterious power that he claims wronged him—could certainly be seen as villainous. At the same time, Nemo also has a calm, gentle, and thoughtful side. During the course of the novel, he becomes increasingly despondent, possibly suffering some kind of mental breakdown. Nemo's final fate remains unknown—it is possible that he dies in the whirlpool in which the Nautilus is caught in Norway, but also plausible that he manages to survive. - Character: Ned Land. Description: Ned Land is a highly talented harpooner from Quebec who joins Professor Arronax, Arronax's servant Conseil, and Commander Farragut aboard the Abraham Lincoln in pursuit of a sea "monster." Like Arronax, Ned is about 40, and Arronax feels a connection with him due to their linked countries of origin (Canada and France). In most other ways, the two men are incredibly different. Ned is bold and brave, with a warrior-like quality to him. However, he is also substantially less intelligent than all the other main characters in the novel, and does not share Arronax and Nemo's enthusiasm for science. Of all three captives, Ned is most suspicious of Nemo and most eager to escape the Nautilus. He forms a close bond with Conseil, whom he affectionately nicknames "little cabbage." - Character: Conseil. Description: Conseil is a 30-year-old Flemish man who works as Arronax's servant and joins him on the Abraham Lincoln expedition. He is devoted to Arronax almost to the point of parody, several times attempting to sacrifice his own life in order to save that of his "master." Aside from being selfless and compassionate, Conseil is highly intelligent, and helps Arronax with his scientific research. He forms a somewhat unlikely friendship with Ned Land, and often ends up calming Ned down when he falls into states of frenzy or despair about their status as captives aboard the Nautilus. - Character: Commander Farragut. Description: Commander Farragut is the commander of the Abraham Lincoln, a U.S. naval ship sent in pursuit of the mysterious "monster." The naturalist Professor Arronax, his servant Conseil, and the harpooner Ned Land join Farragut on this mission. Farragut has a passionate, irrationally intense belief in the existence of the monster they're after, and has internalized a mythic sense that he and the monster are destined to go into battle, with only one emerging alive. Although Farragut's final fate is not explicitly listed, he presumably dies in the sinking of the Abraham Lincoln that ensues after it attacks and is sunk by Captain Nemo's Nautilus submarine. - Theme: Scientific Discovery and Technological Innovation. Description: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea represents a world in the midst of heady scientific discoveries and innovations. The central piece of technology through which this change is explored is Captain Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, which allows him to spend his life permanently roaming the oceans. The novel illustrates the new and exciting opportunities made possible by scientific discovery and innovation. Told from the point of view of a naturalist, Professor Pierre Arronax, the novel also indicates that scientific research is an important and worthwhile end in itself. At the same time, the novel is cautious about the potential of science and technology to transform the world in a positive way. It suggests that scientific and technological innovations, while exhilarating, can be used for both good and bad ends. In this sense, the novel has an ambivalent and arguably rather modern attitude toward science and technology. The novel presents scientific research in a largely positive light, conveying this idea through the particular perspective of Prof. Arronax, who is an intelligent, dedicated, and enthusiastic naturalist. A global expert on the deep sea, Arronax's is initially horrified when he and his shipmates, Ned and Conseil, are captured and brought onto the Nautilus by Captain Nemo. However, this turns into excitement when Arronax realizes that being confined to the Nautilus presents an unprecedented opportunity to pursue scientific research. Indeed, Arronax is able to endure (and even enjoy) the monotony of life aboard the Nautilus because he is so excited about the research opportunities that this situation enables. While Ned the harpooner and even Arronax's intelligent and devoted servant, Conseil, are fixated on escaping the submarine, Arronax remains ambivalent about the possibility of fleeing. His research means so much to him that, after being confined to the submarine for months, he admits that if Nemo gave him the option of leaving he would probably choose to stay. Arronax's devotion to his scientific research suggests that scientific discovery is valuable in part because it allows people to pursue a project greater than themselves. Caught up in the excitement of his research, Arronax doesn't care that he has been totally cut off from human civilization, repeatedly put in frightening situations, and imprisoned within an underwater vessel with little hope of escape. His research allows him to set aside his own personal problems and needs and dedicate himself to learning about the wonders of the natural world (and in particular, the deep sea). Yet while Verne may present scientific discovery as a more-or-less unmitigated good, the same is not true of the technological innovation to which scientific research leads. The technologies at Nemo's disposal allow him to exercise despotic, almost godlike power over the people and landscape around him, most notably the "prisoners of war" whom he captures from the Abraham Lincoln: Arronax, Ned, and Conseil. The idea that technological innovation can confer an unjust advantage is also explored in the novel's depiction of conflicts between humans and marine creatures, such as Ned's harpooning of a shark and a dugong. Just as Nemo's technological tools allow him to keep the three men captive aboard his boat, so is Ned able to kill a huge variety of fearsome animals that he would certainly be overpowered by without technological assistance. At the same time, the novel's depiction of new technology is far from entirely negative; there is also a palpable sense of excitement regarding what technology can do. This is most emphatically explored through the symbol of electricity, which represents the seemingly endless power of scientific invention and technology. While to a contemporary reader the fact that the Nautilus is powered by electricity might not seem particularly exciting or innovative, in the historical context in which the novel was written (the mid-19th century), electrical power was still a somewhat mysterious, cutting-edge, and transformative technology. This is reflected in the many rapturous passages in which Arronax describes all the things that electricity makes possible aboard the submarine: allowing the vessel to move at great speed, powering a system of internal communication within it, and illuminating it such that it appears "phosphorescent" when people first see it. Overall, then, the novel suggests that scientific discovery is a noble pursuit, but that invention and technology should not automatically be counted as forces of good in the world. Reflecting on the fact that a vessel as technologically advanced as the Nautilus will probably not be invented for another hundred years, Arronax notes that it is a shame that the secret of its existence will die with Nemo. At the same time, over the course of the novel, Arronax becomes increasingly horrified by the isolated, confined mode of life that the Nautilus makes possible. In the end, scientific research and technology cannot repair the emotional damage that drives Nemo to abandon human society and live underwater in the first place. They are merely tools, and can produce results that are both exciting and horrifying. - Theme: Freedom vs. Constraint. Description: One of the more abstract philosophical questions explored in the novel regards the meaning of freedom. By depicting a protagonist and two other central characters who are captured as "prisoners of war" and confined to an underwater submarine totally cut off from society, the novel interrogates the importance of freedom while postulating that in almost all situations, freedom necessarily has limits. One of the central ways in which the tension between freedom and constraint emerges is through the contrasting depictions of the vast openness of the sea and the claustrophobic containment of the Nautilus. Traveling on the vessel allows a person to journey across massive distances and explore far-away areas of the globe, yet being on a submarine is also a condition defined by intense confinement. In this sense, the paradoxical experience of being both free and confined on the Nautilus indicates that the idea of total, unimpeded freedom is perhaps an illusion. The novel's presentation of the inextricable interrelation of freedom and constraint is best summarized by the offer Nemo makes to his prisoners shortly after their capture. Nemo has already bestowed a kind of freedom on Arronax, Conseil, and Ned by rescuing them from death after the clash between their ship, the Abraham Lincoln, and the Nautilus. Yet this rescue also involves dramatic confinement: the men find themselves on board a submarine, inside what Arronax calls a "prison cell." As the narrative progresses it emerges that they are not really inside a cell, but instead are being offered comfortable sleeping quarters inside a submarine. They have been gifted the freedom of continued life, yet find that this freedom has strictly-imposed limits, as they must now live on board the Nautilus. The depiction of a heavily-restricted freedom continues when Nemo proposes a particular bargain. He offers Arronax, Conseil, and Ned "liberty" in exchange for agreeing to one condition: if he asks them to confine themselves to their cabins, they will do so. Already, this can be read as an immoral imposition of constraint over other people. Yet prompted by Arronax's questioning, the constraint Nemo is imposing is revealed to be a lot more severe than he initially indicates. He is also planning to never let the three men leave the Nautilus, meaning that they will spend the rest of their lives on a submarine and will never see their family, friends, or the rest of human society again. The fact that Nemo calls this "liberty" seems somewhat laughable, as Arronax and Ned point out. Furthermore, the situation they are in means that they have no choice but to accept Nemo's offer, as the only other option is death. This is another way in which freedom is inherently limited by constraint. A person might theoretically have the freedom to choose between two options, but if one of these options is death, then can it really be said to be a choice at all? In a sense, Nemo's decision to present an offer to the three men and solicit their permission indicates that he is committed to maintaining the illusion of freedom, but that this is indeed little more than a false façade. Putting aside his reasons for doing so, it is obvious that Nemo is not really offering the men freedom, but rather placing severe constraints on them. At the same time, the novel also indicates that—at least at the beginning of the narrative—Nemo truly believes that roaming the seas in a submarine is a better form of freedom than life on ground, governed as it is by laws and norms that he finds reprehensible. Arronax conveys this idea through his observation, "In the strictest sense of the word, [Nemo] was free, because he was outside the reach of the moral code." Ultimately, the novel shows that there is no such thing as freedom without constraints. While in the Nautilus the men may be physically constrained as well as constrained by being placed under Nemo's rule, on land they would be constrained by a different set of physical and social laws. While this does not excuse Nemo's act of capturing and confining the men, it also encourages the reader to consider which forms of freedom are more desirable: the freedom of shunning conventional life and human society in favor of exploring the open ocean, or the freedom to conduct a "normal" life without the direct imposition of another person's whims. - Theme: Human Intelligence and its Limits. Description: The two main characters in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea—Captain Nemo and Professor Arronax—are both highly intelligent, and the novel explores the value and significance of human knowledge. None of what either Nemo or Arronax achieves would be possible without their unusually advanced intelligence, and thus the novel indicates that intelligence can be important and transformative. At the same time, there are also clear limits to the intelligence of all the characters in the novel, as well as a forceful indication that intelligence isn't everything. For example, the behavior of several characters, particularly Nemo, illustrates that high intelligence does not necessarily align with increased happiness or morality (indeed, the opposite can actually be true). Moreover, even the most intelligent humans can still behave in a foolish manner. Ultimately, human intelligence pales in comparison to the complex, fearsome mysteries of the natural world, and the novel suggests that it is important for humans not to become so hubristic that they allow themselves to believe they are particularly intelligent on the scale of all creation. In the case of both Nemo and Arronax, their unusual intelligence makes it possible for them to leave a uniquely exhilarating kind of life. Trained as a medical doctor, Arronax becomes a naturalist with particular expertise in the deep sea. This career provides him with opportunities to travel the world in service of the pursuit of knowledge, which he appears to care about above anything else. On a similar note, Nemo's intelligence means that he has the ability and resources to construct the Nautilus and abandon human society in order to live on it. Both men devote themselves to exploring the world—both in a literal, geographic sense, and in the sense of analyzing their surroundings. Yet there are also obvious downsides to Nemo and Arronax's intelligence. In both cases, the men's intelligence distances them from the rest of society, isolating them from others. Indeed, it is arguably for this reason that the men develop such a close friendship, one that survives bursts of mutual suspicion and even dislike. Nemo and Arronax connect over their discussions of nature, history, geography, and philosophy, and in doing so establish a profoundly deep bond. Yet this bond is arguably a toxic one since it is grounded on Nemo's nonconsensual capture and confinement of Arronax, and even leads Arronax to develop a Stockholm syndrome-like affection for his captor even after it becomes obvious that he would be better off fleeing the Nautilus and returning to land. Furthermore, the novel also shows that not everyone's intelligence is valued in the same way as the two main characters. Conseil, for example, is frequently described as highly intelligent and "learned," yet because he is Arronax's servant he is not afforded much respect as a thinker in his own right. Despite his natural capabilities, the class system into which Conseil is born limits what is possible for him to pursue in life. All evidence suggests that he is at least as intelligent as Arronax, yet he is still forced to permanently remain in Arronax's shadow. On a similar note, Arronax haughtily labels the indigenous Papuan people "savages," indicating that he believes they have inferior intelligence to white men like himself. Of course, in reality this is not true, and is simply a product of the racist, colonial ideology to which Arronax subscribes. Indeed, this in itself becomes proof of the limits of intelligence. While Arronax is one of the wisest and highest-educated men within his own culture, his adherence to false and foolish racist ideology starkly reveals the limits of the system of knowledge of which he is part. - Theme: Exploration, Imperialism, and Conquest. Description: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea takes place during the peak of the age of imperialism, at a time when global colonial exploration was drawing to a close and most of the world had been "conquered" by imperial powers. Several characters in the novel—including Nemo and Arronax—want to travel and conquer the world, including the mysterious, unexplored depths of the deep sea. Indeed, in a moment in which most of the land has already been "discovered" and occupied by colonial powers, the deep sea remains one of the few unexplored regions left on Earth, and thus comes to represent the exciting and terrifying possibilities of new territory. Yet while the novel foregrounds the colonial impulses of exploration and conquest, it also makes references to the reality of imperialism as a force of brutality and injustice. The result is a rather confused, contradictory depiction of exploration, imperialism, and conquest that reflects the ambivalence felt by many citizens of colonial powers in the latter half of the nineteenth century. On one level, the desire animating all the major characters in the novel can be read as a straightforwardly imperial wish to explore and conquer every part of the globe. Captain Nemo spends his time travelling the oceans and discovering regions heretofore unexplored by humans, and Arronax enthusiastically joins this mission, hoping to document, name, and categorize all the plant and animal life that can be found in the deep sea. These activities closely parallel the pursuits of Western imperialists, whose occupation of colonized land not only involved resource extraction but also the imposition of new names and categories on the local environment. Even Ned Land, the Canadian harpooner, can be read as possessing an imperial desire: his determination to overpower marine life is an assertion of human control over the natural landscape, which was one of the defining features of Western colonial ideology. A colonialist attitude is also evident in Arronax's bigoted, violent view toward indigenous people, particularly the Papuan people whom he and the others encounter while moored on the Papuan islands. Arronax calls the indigenous Papuan people "savages," and characterizes them as brutal and animalistic. He frames their aggression toward himself, Conseil, and Ned as unwarranted, despite the fact that the three men are trespassers on Papuan land who hunt the local game without any respect for the inhabitants of the land. Arronax's fear of the Papuan people—and his dismissive rejection of their invitation to join them, which is courteously extended even after he initially trespassed on their land—represents the mix of unwarranted fear and hostility that tends to characterize the colonial attitude toward indigenous people, alongside the unjustified moves to innocence and victimhood on the part of the colonizers. Yet while the novel frequently falls back on colonial tropes such as the depiction of indigenous people as "savages," it also contains criticisms of colonial attitudes and practices. The person most critical of imperialism is Nemo, who toward the end of the novel is revealed to have been personally victimized by an unnamed imperial nation. Indeed, Nemo's own experiences at the hands of colonizers are so traumatizing that they lead him to renounce all of human society and retreat into the sea. He explicitly aligns himself with the oppressed races of the world, claiming to be "one" with colonized peoples. (Nemo's ethnic identity remains ambiguous—in early drafts of the novel he was depicted as a Polish nobleman, but Verne subsequently revised this. Some readers and critics have interpreted Nemo as being of Indian origin.) Depending on one's perspective, the novel could be interpreted as simply conveying the imperialist attitudes of the time. Far from manifesting in a straightforward manner, these attitudes often took an internally contradictory form, often incorporating criticism of colonial exploitation, injustice, and brutality at the same time as they perpetuated these issues. On the other hand, the novel could also be read as an assault on the straightforward binary between colonizer and colonized. The micro-community formed on the Nautilus is arguably representative of the complex, contradictory systems of power that flourished under colonialism. Nemo, the despotic yet at times compassionate ruler, seizes the freedom of others after having been personally violated by an imperial power. Meanwhile, Arronax—himself a captive—initially collaborates with Nemo and, in doing so, occupies the highest position of power on the submarine after that of Nemo himself. This intricate and conflicting system of power relations can be read as a metaphor for the social systems colonialism imposed on colonized societies. - Theme: Nature vs. Civilization. Description: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea depicts a man—Captain Nemo—who chooses to exile himself from human society and spend the rest of his life exploring the ocean, having minimal contact with other people. When he captures three men from another ship, the Abraham Lincoln, he welcomes them on board his submarine, the Nautilus, and asserts that they may never return to civilization again. While this is clearly an extreme fate, the novel expresses some sympathy for Nemo's preference for nature over human society. Through its lengthy descriptions of underwater plant and animal life, the novel emphatically foregrounds the wonders of the natural world and depicts human civilization as less exciting and profound than nature. Yet it also disrupts the idea that there is a strong binary between nature and civilization through its depiction of Nemo, who uses advanced scientific technology in order to immerse himself in the natural world. Professor Arronax lives in Paris, France—the heart of what was considered "civilization" in the Western world of 1868, when the novel takes place. Nonetheless, due to Arronax's profession he is drawn toward the natural world, which is what leads him to initially accept the invitation to board the Abraham Lincoln in pursuit of a "narwhal." Crucially, he embarks on this expedition instead of returning directly to his urban, sophisticated life in Paris. Of course, this ends up being a much more dramatically consequential choice than Arronax originally anticipated. Rather than spending a few days or weeks on the Abraham Lincoln before going home, Arronax finds himself totally removed from civilization and cast into exile in the natural world due to Nemo's insistence that no one from the "civilized" world find out about his submarine. For Nemo, the pull of nature and the contrast between nature and civilization is so powerful that the self-imposed exile in which he lives must be permanent. Nature is not something that can be incorporated as a facet of an otherwise ordinary, "civilized" life, but rather is totally all-consuming. For Nemo, renouncing civilization and immersing oneself in nature is a unidirectional process that cannot be reversed. It is also important to take note of the ways in which the novel reiterates 19-century associations between nature and indigenous people (who are referred to with the offensive epithet "savages" in the novel). This is contrasted against Western colonizers, who were characterized as bringing "civilization" to indigenous communities. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the rapid advancement of urbanization, industrialization, colonization, and scientific technology led some Westerners to argue that the project of "civilization" was accelerating at too fast a pace and that it was important for society to return to a more natural, "primitive" way of being, which they framed as being embodied by indigenous populations. Although Nemo's nationality and ethnic background remains unclear he positions himself as someone who rejects the modern world in order to return to a pre-"civilized" way of being. At the same time, Nemo's reliance on scientific technology disrupts the binary between nature and civilization. Nemo uses the most advanced technologies available in order to live a simulated version of a natural lifestyle. This is encapsulated by tools such as the Rouquayrol apparatus, an iron oxygen tank worn as a kind of backpack that allows a person to swim underwater for extended periods of time. The Rouquayrol apparatus is an example of technology being used to artificially engineer a more organic, intimate relation between humans and nature. These contradictions indicate that it is harder to draw a clear line between nature and civilization than it might appear. A significant percentage of the novel is dedicated to reverent descriptions of the natural world, which highlights the significance and majesty of nature, elevating it to a more important position than "civilization." At the same time, Arronax's scientific perspective once again disrupts the binary between civilization and nature. Arronax is fascinated by the natural world, and spends most of his time on the Nautilus gazing at the plants and animals visible around him. Yet rather than simply observing this marine life, he and Conseil dedicate themselves to naming and categorizing it. This is an example of the imposition of "civilization" on the natural world. While Arronax may love nature, he arguably doesn't love it for what the messy, terrifying reality that it is. His intense fear of sharks, for example, suggests that he prefers for the natural world to exist under human control. This indicates that even ardent nature-lovers (including professional naturalists) do not necessarily love nature for what it is, but rather love a sanitized, "civilized" version of it. - Climax: Captain Nemo attacks an approaching warship in a fit of vengeful rage, killing everyone on board. - Summary: In 1866, the world is captivated by rumors of a "phosphorescent" sea monster that is spotted by several ships around the globe. The monster is depicted in newspaper articles, songs, and plays. After the monster bores a large whole inside the bottom of a Quebecois passenger ship, all unsolved shipwrecks are blamed on the mysterious creature. The narrator, a professor of natural history from Paris named Pierre Arronax, has just returned to New York after six months of fieldwork in Nebraska. He is the author of a book entitled Mysteries of the Unsounded Depths Undersea, and is thus consulted as an expert on what the mysterious monster could possibly be. He argues that it is likely some kind of gigantic narwhal. He is invited to join an expedition on a U.S. naval ship, the Abraham Lincoln, in search of the monster, and enthusiastically accepts. He is accompanied by his faithful servant, a Flemish man named Conseil. The ship is commandeered by Captain Farragut, who considers it his personal mission to find and destroy the monster. Farragut offers $2,000 to whomever is the first person aboard to catch sight of it. One of the other men on board is an expert harpooner named Ned Land, a 40-year-old from Quebec. Although they have very different characters, Ned and Arronax bond over their connected countries of origin. After a long period searching in vain, Farragut announces that the mission will be called off if the monster isn't found in the next three days. However, on the final day, Ned sees the monster glowing brightly in the water. The Abraham Lincoln initially retreats, but after the monster appears to full asleep, it advances and attacks. Ned harpoons it and at this point jets of water erupt from it, throwing Arronax into the ocean. Arronax and Conseil almost drown. Arronax eventually loses consciousness, and when he wakes up he is on board the monster—which is actually not a monster at all, but a submarine. Ned and Conseil are there too, and the three of them are taken down into a prison cell by men wearing masks. A tall man and his shorter companion enter the cell, and speak to each other in a language Arronax doesn't recognize. The captives try to introduce themselves in English, French, German, and Latin, but none of these attempts elicit a reaction. After Arronax falls asleep and wakes up again, the tall man from earlier—the submarine's commander, Captain Nemo—introduces himself in perfect, unaccented French. He explains that he has taken the men captive as prisoners of war. Nemo himself has fled society and its "stupid laws." He is an admirer of Arronax's work on the deep sea, and looks forward to showing Arronax the "fairyland of marvels" that can be found in the ocean. Nemo shows Arronax an impressive museum and library filled with an enormous number of items. He also explains that the submarine, the Nautilus, is powered by electricity. Nemo then tells Arronax that he and the others will remain on the vessel for the rest of their lives as prisoners. Nemo and Arronax go to smoke seaweed cigars in the vessel's saloon, and Nemo explains that is an engineer who built the submarine himself in secret. He also reveals that he is extraordinarily wealthy. The Nautilus periodically goes up to the water's surface to stock up on oxygen before descending back down to the ocean floor. One day, Nemo shows Arronax, Ned, and Conseil oxygen tanks which can be worn underwater, and they go on a hunting expedition to the underwater "forests of the island of Crespo." During the expedition, two man-eating sharks pass by, but fortunately do not notice the men swimming. Christmas passes, although there are no celebrations on the ship. On the first day of 1868 Conseil wishes Arronax a happy New Year, and Arronax wonders if their captivity will soon end. Shortly after, the Nautilus runs aground on an island in the Torres Strait, and Nemo gives the three captives permission to explore the island. They are ecstatic to be on dry land and excited by the prospect of hunting and eating red meat. They discover an amazing array of wildlife and greedily hunt birds and mammals, but are then driven off the island by native Papuans who shoot stones at them. Shortly after, the tide rises enough to push the Nautilus off its beached position. Over time, the captives become used to their rather repetitive life on board the Nautilus. At one point, Nemo is disturbed by something he sees through his telescope and sends the three men downstairs, putting them to sleep by drugging their food. The next day, Nemo asks Arronax to provide medical treatment to one of his sailors, who has a terrible head wound. Arronax cannot save him, and he dies, which devastates Nemo. After passing through the Bay of Bengal, the ship arrives on the island of Ceylon, which is known for its pearl fisheries. The men go on a pearl-fishing expedition, during which Nemo risks his life in order to save another pearl diver—whom he doesn't know—from being eaten by a shark. Not long after, the Nautilus arrives in the Mediterranean, and this prompts the three captives to discuss the possibility of escape. Arronax worries that if they make an escape attempt and it fails, they may ruin their chances of freedom forever. However, in the end the submarine races through the Mediterranean, such that the captives don't get a chance to escape. Before long, they are back in the Atlantic Ocean. Determined to escape anyway, Ned makes a plan, and Arronax feels conflicted. He wants his companions to be free but is devastated by the prospect of leaving the Nautilus and the unique opportunities for research it presents. While having a conversation with Nemo, Arronax realizes that Nemo has gained his wealth by raiding the booties of shipwrecks and selling them. Arronax asks Nemo if it wouldn't be better to share these treasures with the world, but Nemo indignantly replies by insisting that he acts in solidarity with "the oppressed people of this world." The submarine has moved too far away from Europe, however, and Ned is forced to abandon his escape plans, which secretly relieves Arronax. Arronax considers bringing up the prospect of his freedom with Nemo, but is worried the conversation won't go well. Lately Nemo has become increasingly withdrawn, and seems angry. The ship travels down to the South Pole, moving through waters riddled with icebergs. Nemo proposes the idea of travelling under the Great Ice Barrier, a risky move. However, after talking to Arronax, Nemo decides to go through with it. Using scientific instruments to test the angle of the light, Nemo and the crew are able to determine that they have made it to the South Pole. Nemo immediately declares that he has "taken possession" of the territory. As they move away from the area, the Nautilus gets hit by a falling iceberg that ends up trapping it inside a cage of solid ice. With detached calmness, Nemo reveals that they only have two days' air left until they suffocate. The men get to work attempting to hack their way through the ice. It is the most difficult labor of Arronax's life, and it seems certain that it won't work. However, just as the men on board the Nautilus begin to feel the effects of the oxygen running out, Nemo has the idea of blasting the ice around the submarine with boiling water. Miraculously, this works, although Arronax passes out before they make it through. Someone carries him up to the submarine's platform, where he takes in huge gulps of fresh air. After this harrowing incident, the ship journeys up the Atlantic past the Latin American continent, and ends up in the Bahamas, where it is attacked by a giant squid. One sailor is killed in the squid's grip, which worsens Nemo's depression. Arronax is also profoundly disturbed by the sailor's death. Ned is so desperate for freedom that he is on the verge of a breakdown. Nemo reveals that he has written a manuscript about his "knowledge of the sea," which also contains his life story. Arronax hopes this means that Nemo plans to end his exile at some point in order to share the book with the world. He brings up the prospect of his freedom, but Nemo reacts with fury. At this moment, the submarine is caught in a terrible storm. After being tossed away from the North American coast, the submarine floats along until they arrive at a destination that Nemo announces with a solemn acknowledgment. He describes a shipwreck at this location, and in reverent tones says the ship's name was the Avenger. Arronax realizes that Nemo is motivated by a fierce anger and desire for revenge. In the distance, Arronax, Conseil, and Ned spot a warship, although they can't tell which country it comes from. They hope to escape on it, but realize that the ship sees the Nautilus as an enemy. Nemo declares that he is "the oppressed" and the mysterious ship is the "oppressor." He ends up attacking the ship from beneath, destroying it and killing all those on board. He then runs into his bedroom and stands in front of a portrait of a woman and two children, sobbing hysterically. Arronax is horrified, and feels like he is losing his grip on reality. Around two weeks later, Ned once again announces that it is time for them to make their escape. They sneak out at night, but are almost intercepted by Nemo. However, at that moment the submarine becomes caught in an enormous whirlpool near Norway, which is infamous for never leaving any survivors. Arronax loses consciousness and wakes up in a fisherman's hut on a Norwegian island, accompanied by Ned and Conseil. He never finds out what happens to Nemo or the Nautilus, though he hopes that the anger in Nemo's soul has subsided. Despite everything, he still believes that he and Nemo share a special connection based on their profound love for, and understanding of, the sea.

- Genre: Short Story, Modernist Fiction, Vignettes - Title: Two Gallants - Point of view: Third person limited omniscient narration (glimpses of characters' feelings are limited to Lenehan's mental state) - Setting: Dublin, Ireland - Character: Lenehan. Description: A 30-year-old man living in Dublin, Lenehan has the air of a man who has seen better times. Though relatively young and the son of what was (at least at one time) a well-to-do family, his hair is thin and graying, his belly is thickening, and his face is "ravaged." Lenehan is vaguely associated with earning a living through gambling on horse racing. His friend, Corley, dominates Lenehan's personality at the story's beginning. Lenehan laughs at Corley's jokes, permits Corley to push him off the sidewalk with his thoughtless way of walking, and generally reacts appreciatively to Corley's crude and unappealing persona. The narrator of the story explicitly explains that Lenehan is good at ingratiating himself with those around him; he's deft at edging his way into a group and getting included in the next round of beers, for instance, without getting branded a mooch. After Corley goes off with his lover, though, Lenehan becomes an entirely different person. He has an air of "gentility" that recalls the melancholic nobility of the harpist the two men encountered on their walk. He laments his financial and personal instability, recognizes the shallowness of his social life, and wishes he were settled and fulfilled, instead of verging on 31 and still wandering Dublin's streets on the verge of financial disaster and without a wife or family. Lenehan's introspective moments indicate that though he plays Corley's manipulative game, he wishes it were otherwise. He wishes that his life were more meaningful, rather than aimless and hollow. That he cannot see any way to achieve those goals more broadly implies the general failure of Ireland—Ireland's culture, society, and economy seem to make Lenehan's dreams hopelessly beyond his reach. - Character: Corley. Description: Corley is the son of a police inspector but is himself unemployed and uninterested in finding steady work. What money he does make seems to come primarily from occasionally acting as a police informant, which in itself implies a decline from his father's generation to his own. Corley regards none of this with shame. Rather, he is a man who believes in his own powers of seduction––both in storytelling and womanizing. Corley is less attractive than he believes, though: his "large, globular and oily" head sweats profusely, and he talks only about himself, not listening to others. Though he enjoys passing judgments, he does not seem to be able to turn that judgment inward to recognize his own faults. He accepts Lenehan's over-the-top way of sucking up at face value and does not have the "subtle mind" to recognize when Lenehan is being sarcastic. Corley was once something of a romantic, but his experiences have led him to the belief that such behavior is, in fact, a game for idiots, as it never gets you anything. He is uninterested in treating women with respect or gallantry, and instead now focuses on wooing and manipulating the women he sees in order to get them to spend their money on him. Other than a single brief moment in the story, Corley shows no remorse for his behavior, and he comes to seem like a man who has fully molded his own way of being to function in Ireland's declining society. - Character: The Maid. Description: The maid plays a small but significant role in the story. Corley first met her one evening when he said goodnight to her. This led to the two of them taking a walk around the canal, during which she told Corley that she works as a domestic maid—or a "slavey"––in a house on Baggot Street. It is implied that Corley and the maid have sex after this initial meeting and then start seeing each other regularly. The maid is savvy enough to not get pregnant, though Corley is afraid she might. The maid seems to have genuine feelings for Corley, though, as she buys him good quality cigarettes and cigars and pays for Corley's tram tickets. She doesn't know Corley's name but apparently thinks that he is "a bit of class," according to Corley. At any rate, the maid seems to like Corley, though his behavior makes clear that he does not genuinely care for her. Corley's treatment of the maid can be seen as standing in for his and other Irish men's mistreatment of all Irish women. On the night when the story takes place, the maid wears blue and white clothes, which are the colors of the Virgin Mary. But unlike Mary, the maid isn't a virgin, and she isn't pure or innocent. Corley also doesn't revere or respect her in any way, which parallels the way Great Britain was dominating and exploiting Ireland under colonial rule in the early 20th century (when the story is set). At the end of the story, the maid steals a coin from her employer's house and gives it to Corley. Through this gesture, the depths of Corley's manipulation and mistreatment of the maid become clear: he has used her for money and exploited her feelings for him to get her to commit petty crime. - Theme: Ireland's Decline. Description: Joyce once wrote that he set the stories of Dubliners in Dublin because he saw that city as being the center of a "paralysis" that he saw as afflicting all of Ireland. "Two Gallants" puts the paralysis and decline of Ireland on full display. One way the story makes this point is through an intensive use of symbolism—from the harp, to the street names, to the moon and colors that symbolize purity and the Catholic Church, to the fact that Lenehan's path is basically just one big circle, so that for all his walking, he ends up where he started. Together, these symbols indicate both Ireland's decline and the various forces behind that decline. The story also captures Ireland's fall through the characters it portrays. First and foremost are Lenehan and Corley, who come from well-to-do backgrounds but who are—as petty conmen who avoid honest work and seek to manipulate women—morally, spiritually, and financially bankrupt. But Lenehan and Corley are not outliers. The story portrays all of Irish society as similarly fallen, as both the product of its failed citizens but also the cause of the citizens' failure. "Two Gallants" is suffused with symbolism, and all of it is used to both communicate the declined state of Ireland and the causes underlying that decline. Virtually every symbol in the story—and there are a lot of symbols in the story—is connected to Ireland's decline. For instance, the harp, which is a traditional symbol of Ireland, is personified as a weary woman dishonored by her master and the people watching her being played. The moon, which functions as a symbol of purity or saintliness, continually gets obscured by clouds, implying the general loss of such purity in Ireland. Women function as a symbol for Ireland in the story as well, and those women are constantly being mistreated, objectified, betrayed, and even prostituted by Irish men. While not precisely symbols, even the streets that Lenehan and Curley walk on suggest and record Ireland's historical decline under English colonial rule. From Rutland Square, which was named for a British lord, to George's Street, on which a man flew a black flag with an uncrowned harp to protest British rule in 1849, the story's locations are imbued with a history of English domination. Within this landscape of Ireland's decline, it's no surprise that Lenehan's journey ends at the corner of Ely Place—a dead end. The characters themselves and their behavior also attest to Ireland's decline. The story implies that Corley and Lenehan were both born into upper-middle-class families, but that both have now fallen on hard times due to an interplay of national and personal failures. Such a decline is evident in the shift from Corley's father, a police inspector, to Corley himself, who avoids honest work and scrapes together an income as a police informant. Lenehan's way of speaking makes clear his "genteel" upbringing, and when he orders a meager meal of buttered peas and ginger beer, he is embarrassed enough by his fall that he tries to hide the way he speaks to better fit in. Meanwhile, Lenehan wishes for a settled life that itself seems a pale reflection of what his own youth must have been like, but he can't even see a way to attain that bit of comfort or security. Irish society, as portrayed in "Two Gallants," is beset by a vicious circle: lacking self-rule or autonomy, it's culture, economy, and institutions have declined. That decline has resulted in its citizens becoming thwarted hopeless, focused on what they can scrape for themselves from the scarcity of opportunities—and the citizens, thus reduced, fail their country in turn, offering Ireland no hope for renewal. - Theme: Restlessness, Lack of Belonging, and Discontentedness. Description: Not much happens in "Two Gallants." Most of the story centers on Lenehan and Corley walking around Dublin, laughing and talking. And even the minor things that do happen—Corley meets his romantic interest, perhaps has sex with her, and then gets her to commit a petty crime—are left unseen. The story instead follows Lenehan as he wanders around morosely, idly talks with some friends, and eats some peas. Both because so little happens and because the story deliberately avoids showing what does happen, "Two Gallants" has a sense, throughout, of aimlessness and pointless action. The plot is as meandering as the two men's walking route through the city; as seemingly pointless as the fact that the men's path ends up being just a big circle. That very aimlessness and pointlessness, as well as all that walking, though, is the point of the story, as it expresses the two men's—and Ireland's— lack of belonging and stability. By following Lenehan on his walk through London, rather than Corley's rendezvous with the maid, "Two Gallants" focuses on the impact of inaction, paralysis, and lack of connection. After Corley departs with the maid, Lenehan thinks about "the problem of how he could pass the hours till he met Corley again." He comes up with nothing other than to just keep walking. Lenehan has nowhere to go, nothing to do. Instead of walking toward a destination, Lenehan walks to kill time. Thus, walking is a symbol of restlessness and lack of belonging in the story, rather than a signal of purpose. While lacking purpose, though, Lenehan's walking is still tiring. In the rare moments of stillness in the story, he thinks that "he was glad that he could rest from all his walking." The implication is that it is not just the physical exertion of walking, but also the activity's purposelessness, that tires Lenehan out. When Lenehan longs to settle down with a job, a wife, and financial security, he is also metaphorically longing to rest from his walk, to have someplace to go and to care about. Even when Lenehan does have reason to stop walking, the outcome is less than fulfilling. For instance, when Lenehan stops for a bit to talk with some friends, they seem distant, distracted: "They looked vacantly after some figures in the crowd and sometimes made a critical remark." Even while resting, there is an element of walking's transience that lurks in Lenehan's interactions: instead of feeling connected, Lenehan and his friends are disconnected, as if they are still, metaphorically, on the move. The characters disconnection from each other and from their society is further communicated by the way that they are constantly playing roles rather than being themselves. Joyce's story begins with Corley bringing a long "monologue" to a close. This choice of words at once makes clear that Corley and Lenehan are not truly interacting. Corley is, rather, performing a speech that he thinks makes him look impressive. Lenehan, meanwhile, reacts to the story with theatrics of his own, and is constantly glancing at Corley's face to make sure he is making the right impression. While the story makes clear that Lenehan is adept at such action—he is "armed with a vast stock of stories, limericks and riddles" such that he can worm his way into various social groups—he later acknowledges to himself that his "tongue was tired" from talking all day. Though he performs in order to "belong," the task itself is exhausting. Later, he thinks wearily that "he knew he would have to speak a great deal, to invent and amuse, and his brain and throat were too dry for such a task." Lenehan's exhaustion makes clear the cost of living in a society in which social interaction is a matter of performance rather than genuine connection, in which no one belongs because no one is themselves. Always acting out a role, always working to fit in social groups by figuring out the right thing to say or way to say it, Lenehan makes his way through the city but does not truly belong there. While the story implies that, in Ireland, such discontent and lack of belonging is endemic—that everyone is forced to put on a show to get by—"Two Gallants" also asserts the importance of seemingly mundane interactions. Walking, running into distracted friends, feeling like one has to play a role to belong—these are everyday sensations that are often not included in traditional stories. So even as "Two Gallants" embodies a feeling of discontent and pointlessness, the story also asserts that everyday boredom and lack of purpose is worth telling a story about, thus elevating the everyday gnawing of discontent to the level of the story-worthy. - Theme: Women and a Lack of Gallantry. Description: As Lenehan and Corley walk through Dublin, the two men's main topic of conversation revolves around women. Yet the way in which Lenehan and Corley speak about and treat women is far from respectful. Thus, the title of the story, "Two Gallants," is ironic––Lenehan and Corley are anything but gallant. Their main goal, as becomes clear at the story's end, is to manipulate the maid whom Corley has met into stealing money for them. They see women not only as sex objects, but as sex objects to be even further scammed for money. Yet even as the men mistreat the women around them, they also wish they could meet a "good" woman to settle down with, without ever realizing that they themselves are driving the culture that makes it nearly impossible for a woman to meet this ideal of being "good." While the story doesn't explicitly explore the situation of women in Ireland, it portrays a society in which women are put in an impossible situation. Through Corley and Lenehan's behavior toward women, "Two Gallants" implies that such men believe that women should be chaste and pure—yet they also hate women who won't quickly sleep with them and ruthlessly work seduce the women they encounter. Corley and Lenehan agree that paying money to go on dates with women who won't give you anything in return is a fool's errand. Yet they talk disparagingly of the maid who does like Corley and is willing to have sex with him—they see her as someone to manipulate and use, not as someone worthy of actual care or love. The women in "Two Gallants" have no way to navigate the men's contradictory desires. The maid is dressed in blue in white, colors that are associated with the Virgin Mary in Catholicism. This subtly contrasts the maid, who offers Corley sexual favors, with the Virgin Mary. In Dublin, purity is out of reach––and "Two Gallants" makes clear that for women, a lack of "purity" is equated with a loss of worth. Though the maid apparently likes Corley, Corley views her as nothing more than an object of gratification. In contrast to Corley's brags about sexual exploits, at one point the men mention a woman whom Corley once dated but who has since become a prostitute. This woman has sex for money—which isn't that different from Corley himself, who brags about his skill at getting women to buy him presents, like free tram rides or cigars. Lenehan, however, is first excited that perhaps Corley was the one who drove the woman into prostitution, and then calls the woman a "betrayer" when he learns that other men were "at her" before him. Corley, Lenehan, and other Irish men treat women as objects to be "got at," but then blame those women for actually giving in, with the implication that such women are then socially ruined. Even as they mistreat women, though, Lenehan (and even Corley, to some extent) seems to long for a stable relationship with a "good" woman. While Lenehan seems to vicariously delight in Corley's romantic "conquests," as soon as he is apart from Corley, his behavior changes. While eating alone, Lenehan wistfully hopes to "settle down in some snug corner" with "some good simple-minded girl." Even as Lenehan urges on Corley's exploitation of women, he longs for a world where he can "settle down" with a "good" woman. Unlike Corley, Lenehan seems to recognize what he is missing in the absence of a loving relationship with a woman. It is not clear, however, whether Lenehan realizes that by egging Corley on, he participates in the male mistreatment of women that makes the qualifier "good" something no Irish woman can fulfill. The story then further uses the symbol of the harp to connect the men's lack of gallantry toward women more broadly to Ireland's general decline. The harp is personified in the story as a woman, and it's described as having "her coverings" "fallen about her knees," and as being "weary alike of the eyes of strangers and of her master's hands." Like the many disrespected women of the story, "Two Gallants" portrays Ireland itself as a woman betrayed at the hands of ungallant men who won't uphold her honor or dignity. So while women are often portrayed as "fallen"––like the prostitute that Corley once liked––men are, in actuality, the ones who are letting women down in "Two Gallants." And in so doing, the story suggests, they are dishonoring their country in the same way that they dishonor the women they discuss and pursue. Ireland, like the harp, is akin to a disgraced woman, too often humiliated and abused by her "master"––in this case, both men as a whole and England as a colonial power. The parallel between colonial abuse and male dominance is made clear by the use of "conqueror" to describe Corley. But as this term could just as easily describe England and English rule in Ireland, the way men treat women in the story is paralleled by the way the English treat the Irish. In its title, the story describes its two main characters as "gallants," but it is quickly clear that the title is bitterly ironic. The men are far from gallant; they fulfill none of the bravery, elegance, or self-sacrifice that would be characteristic of a traditionally gallant man. Instead they are poor, lewd, lazy, and exploitative. The other characters in the story are similarly fallen, while the women have been used and manipulated by the men and have been driven to prostitution and crime. Through its symbolism and the plight of its characters, "Two Gallants" suggests that Ireland has so declined that gallantry within it has not just gone missing—it is impossible. - Theme: Money, Transaction, and Relationships. Description: "Two Gallants" is full of characters talking and thinking about money. Lenehan and Corley, for instance, talk about the foolishness of spending money on women. The narrator of the story also mentions what the two men do to scrape by, their methods for getting other people to pay for things they want, and even how other characters make money. Further, the primary action of the story centers around what Corley is trying to "pull off" with the unnamed maid he is meeting, which it is revealed at the end of "Two Gallants" is to get her to either give him money or steal some for him. Meanwhile, the story makes clear that Lenehan and Corley are both poor though they came from formerly well-to-do families, and that their friends seem to be similarly hard off. This general impoverishment provides more context for the story's and characters' constant focus on money—if a person doesn't have money, they will always be thinking about it. And this constant need for money explains why the characters treat seemingly every social interaction in the story not as an opportunity for connection, but rather as merely transactional, as opportunities to get more than they give. In this way, "Two Gallants" suggests that the financial poverty in Ireland has also resulted in a poverty of social life, in which stability, friendship, and love are both financially and emotionally impossible to achieve. Both Lenehan and Corley are poor and always talking about, thinking about, and defined by money. Lenehan makes the little money he has through some connection to gambling on horse racing, and his social interactions are largely defined by being ingratiating enough to worm his way into social groups such that he is included in the next ordered round of drinks. The narrator notes that it is only Lenehan's quick social wit that stops others from thinking of him as a "leech." But the fact is that he does leech off of other people, and his life is defined by attempts to get money or to get things for free. Similarly, Corley brags about how dumb he used to be when he would spend money on women. Now he prides himself on his ability to get women to buy things for him: cigarettes, cigars, tram tickets. Procuring such gifts—rather than human connection, or love, or even lust—is the main goal of his romantic encounters. The story makes a joke out of this behavior by implying that Corley pronounces his last name in a manner that more closely resembles "Whorely"—and hammers home that Corley's interactions are entirely transactional. The lack of money makes a stable life and relationship impossible. While eating a meager meal of peas that he had to think hard about before buying, Lenehan thinks about how he is tired of his "poverty of purse and spirit." In this line, the story links lack of money to lack of joy. It does not matter if poverty of purse causes poverty of spirit, or vice versa—the point is that Lenehan's lack of money has made his life unfulfilling and difficult. Moreover, Lenehan longs for a good job––where he could make money––which would allow him to buy a home of his own. Without money, Lenehan can only wander the streets. It's not just that he has nowhere to go; he can't even afford to go anywhere, much less to build a stable life or support a family. His poverty makes his dreams impossible to achieve. The story highlights the destructiveness of purely transactional relationships by keeping hidden whatever it is that Corley is trying to "pull off" with the maid whom he is seeing. The story revolves around Lenehan's often repeated question: can Corley pull "it" off—without explaining for most of the narrative what "it" is. At first, readers might be inclined to believe that Corley is trying to get the woman to marry him. But Corley's disreputable nature quickly makes that seem unlikely, and instead suggests that Corley is trying to convince the woman to have sex with him. But as the story progresses, it becomes clear that Corley has likely already had sex with the maid—he comments on his unfounded worry that she might get pregnant, while Lenehan's urgent interest in whether Corley can pull "it" off implies a personal interest beyond a vicarious desire to hear about Corley's sex life. At the story's end, the mystery is revealed: Corley's goal was nothing sexual at all—it was to convince the maid to steal from her employer for him. Through the shifting expectations set up by the story, "Two Gallants" implies that Corley's transactional goal—to use his relationship with the maid to make money—is even worse than a basic lust for sex. In "Two Gallants," romance, sex, human relations, happiness, and pleasure are all exchanged for one, small gold coin. The procurement of the coin seems like a triumph to Corley and Lenehan, but that same small coin after so much mysterious buildup may strike the reader as an anticlimax. Through this juxtaposition, Joyce shows the futility of Lenehan and Corley's actions. All their planning, joking, and worrying about whether or not it would "come off" has culminated in this rather pathetic financial gain. The maid's petty theft is the only thing they have to show for all their plans––and it is a hollow victory. In the same way that a stable life is impossible to achieve without money, it's immediately evident that this small amount of money will not be able to fulfill the men. That they themselves have sacrificed their personal relationships to get it—using the maid and, at times, suspecting each other of betrayal—makes clear the cost of reducing interpersonal connections to transactional, monetary terms. - Theme: Betrayal. Description: "Two Gallants" is full of betrayal and the fear of being betrayed. Corley is exploiting and thus betraying the maid he is dating. At one point in the story, Corley fears Lenehan means to steal the maid and scam him. At another, Lenehan fears that Corley has slipped off with his winnings from the maid and abandoned him. Meanwhile, it seems likely that Corley convinces the maid to betray her employers by stealing from them. That betrayal, real or feared, haunts all of the relationships in the story suggests that the issue of betrayal is not just one that pertains to these specific characters, but rather to Irish society more broadly. The story has numerous moments of romantic betrayal. Corley, instead of being faithful to the maid, gossips about her to Lenehan. More importantly, his primary goal is to use her interest in him to manipulate her into stealing money for him. The entire story, in fact, leads up to this moment in which Corley uses romance to get the maid to betray her employers by stealing from them for him. Corley makes clear in his conversations with Lenehan that all of his romantic relationships are similarly founded on betrayal. Corley is not interested in the women he sees at all, even for sex. In every case, rather, he is using these women for what he can get them to give him, whether free tram rides or cigars. Yet the men also view the women who they are using as potential betrayers. When Corley mentions that a woman who he was actually once fond of has turned to prostitution, Lenehan at first asks excitedly if it was Corley who turned her to prostitution—the possibility that Corley's betrayal of her led her to prostitution excites him. But when Corley responds that other men were also "at her," Lenehan angrily describes the woman as a "base betrayer." The men think nothing of using women but see women who sleep with others as betraying them. But fears about betrayal are not limited in the story to romantic relationships—it's also evident in men's friendships with each other. For example, Corley and Lenehan's own relationship is regularly marred by distrust. When Lenehan wants to look at Corley's maid, Corley immediately thinks that Lenehan means to try to step in and steal her from him. Later in the story the tables are turned: Lenehan begins to fear that Corley won't meet him as planned after getting the maid to steal the money. Though friends, the possibility of betrayal looms over them, and neither believes the other is above such deception. That betrayal, actual or feared, defines every relationship in "Two Gallants" implies that this general sense of mistrust is pervasive through Irish society and culture. The bleak atmosphere of the story suggests a kind of circle of political and cultural betrayal, in which Ireland itself is being betrayed by ne'er-do-well citizens such as Lenehan and Corley who are uninterested in helping themselves, their fellow citizens, or Ireland itself. At the same time, through Lenehan's simultaneous sadness at the state of his life and complete inability to do anything to change it, the story suggests that Ireland has betrayed its citizens by not adequately providing for its citizens, so that their lack of opportunities or reasons for personal or national pride drive their behavior. A further level of political betrayal involves the relationship between England and Ireland, in which England has betrayed Ireland as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by effectively treating Ireland as a colony, denied any self-rule and exploited for England's wealth. And finally, though never mentioned within the story, the pervasive theme of betrayal seems to be a product of the ongoing fallout of a real-world poisonous national scandal of the late 19th century. The Irish national hero and statesmen Charles Parnell seemed poised to lead Ireland to self-rule but was abandoned by both the Irish government and the Catholic Church after his affair with a married woman was exposed. Many Irish people felt that Parnell and Ireland itself had been betrayed by its leaders, leading to vicious recriminations and national anger.  "Two Gallants" therefore suggests that betrayal is woven into the fabric of early-20th-century Irish society at multiple levels: romantically, interpersonally, and politically. With its ending, in which Corley celebrates getting the coin—the success of his betrayal of the maid, leading to her betrayal of her employers—the story offers no sense that there is a way out of this personal and national cycle of betrayal. - Climax: At the very end of the story, Corley finally "pulls it off" and reveals the gold coin he obtained from the maid he has been seeing. - Summary: On a Sunday in August, two young men named Corley and Lenehan walk through Dublin. Corley is telling Lenehan a story, and Lenehan laughs, ostentatiously appreciating Corley's tale. Lenehan, the narrator of the story explains, is good at ingratiating himself with people who might otherwise think him a social leech. Lenehan asks Corley where he met the woman he's about to see, and Corley proceeds to talk about his lover, who is a maid. Corley's speech verges on crude as he brags about how the woman has bought him goods, like cigars, and how he was worried she would become pregnant, but he knows that she's too savvy for that to happen. Still walking through the city, Lenehan asks Corley if he can "pull it off," and if the woman Corley will be meeting will be willing. Corley, the son of a police officer but himself uninterested in work beyond making money as a police informant, assures Lenehan that he will, again using crude terms. The two proceed to talk about the women Corley has dated in the past. Corley says he used to be a proper romantic who was courteous and bought women things. The two men agree, though, that these sorts of romantic gestures are a fool's game that never get you anything. One woman Corley had been with is now a prostitute, he reveals. After asking if Corley was the one to push her in that direction, Lenehan again asks Corley if he can "pull it off." Corley, this time annoyed, says vehemently that he can. Suddenly, the two men come upon a man playing a harp in the road. The harpist looks tired, and the narrator of the story describes the harp as being like a weary woman, with its clothes around its knees. Corley and Lenehan don't stop to watch for long, though, and continue on their way with the sad music following them. Finally, at a park at the center of the city, Corley sees the maid he previously described to Lenehan. Lenehan, excited, suggests that the two men ogle her from a distance. Corley, though, thinks Lenehan is trying to take his woman, and there is a brief moment of tension before Lenehan assures Corley that he doesn't. Agreeing to meet up with Corley later, Lenehan goes off on his own through Dublin's streets. With Corley gone, Lenehan's demeanor changes, and he takes on a tired and thoughtful persona. He stops in a "Refreshment Bar" where he orders food using a rough voice so as to seem less genteel than he is. Eating a meagre meal of peas and ginger beer, he imagines Corley's exploits with his lover. He also muses over his dissatisfaction about his own life, wondering why, at almost 31, he is still financially and personally insecure. He wishes to settle down, without having any idea how that might be possible. Finishing his meal, he begins walking once more, encountering some friends who he talks to briefly before continuing on his way. Still wondering about Corley, Lenehan then has the sneaking suspicion that Corley has betrayed him, and that Corley will not show up at their prearranged meeting point. But at just that moment Corley appears with his lover. Lenehan watches as Corley and his lover walk near a house; Corley waits while the woman goes inside. She hurries out of the house and gives Corley something that Lenehan can't see. Lenehan hails Corley to see what has happened, and wordlessly Corley opens his palm to display a small gold coin lying there.

- Genre: Social novel / protest novel - Title: Uncle Tom's Cabin - Point of view: Third-person omniscient - Setting: Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio in the 1840s - Character: Uncle Tom. Description: The book's title character, hero, and moral center, Uncle Tom is the head slave of the Shelby estate, sold to pay off Mr. Shelby's debt. Uncle Tom's new master, St. Clare, is a benevolent one, and Tom befriends St. Clare's daughter, Eva. After St. Clare dies, Tom's religious spirit is tested at the hands of Simon Legree, his final master, and Tom's willingness to die for his Christian beliefs makes him a martyr and Christ figure. - Character: Eliza Harris. Description: Maid to Mrs. Shelby, Eliza learns that her son Harry is to be sold along with Tom and escapes in the night with her son. Her husband, George, has also recently escaped his cruel master—the three reunite in Ohio en route to Canada, which they eventually reach in disguise. They start a new life in Montreal and move from there to Africa. - Character: George Harris. Description: An intelligent man, slave to a cruel master, George escapes in the guise of a Spanish gentleman and later reunites with Eliza and defends his freedom against Tom Loker and Marks, who have been dispatched to capture them. George and his family make their way to Canada and finally to Africa, where he works for the cause of a free African republic. - Character: George Shelby, Sr.. Description: The head of the Shelby family, Mr. Shelby must sell Tom and Harry to pay off a debt he owes to Haley, the slave-trader. Mr. Shelby treats his slaves well but he considers them essentially different from white people—he allows them to form marriage-like relationship and takes pride in the continuity among slaves on his estate, but he is willing to alter Tom's life in order to maintain the Shelby family's financial security. On his death, his estate passes to his son, George, Jr. - Character: Mrs. Shelby. Description: Mr. Shelby's wife, Mrs. Shelby is extremely kind to her slaves, and she comes to believe that slavery is a grave sin after she learns that Tom and Harry are to be sold. She had earlier said, to Eliza, that it would be inconceivable for Mr. Shelby to sell Uncle Tom, Eliza, or any of the other slaves on the estate. Mrs. Shelby helps Eliza escape to freedom by hinting that Sam should delay Haley as he begins his search. - Character: George Shelby, Jr.. Description: Son of Mr. Shelby and Mrs. Shelby and devoted friend to Tom and the other slaves, George Shelby promises to bring Tom back to the Kentucky estate and writes to Tom in his absence. When George learns that Tom lives on Legree's plantation, he goes there to visit, only to find that Tom is on the verge of death. At Tom's deathbed he promises to work tirelessly to free those slaves his family owns. At the end of the novel he dedicates Uncle Tom's cabin to the memory of his beloved friend. - Character: Simon Legree. Description: A cruel master, hateful of religion, superstitious, and determined to "break" Tom, Simon Legree is the novel's antagonist. His plantation near the Red River is characterized by its state of physical and moral disrepair. Legree encourages his slaves and overseers, Sambo and Quimbo, to be cruel to one another in order to maintain total control over the lives of those on his estate. Legree beats Tom to death and cannot be tried for his crime, because there were no white witnesses to the act, and, according to law, he has only destroyed his property. Nevertheless George Shelby, Jr., curses Legree. - Character: Cassy. Description: A fair-skinned black woman, Cassy has lived a life of misfortune, moving from one man to another but managing to learn to read and write, to speak French, and to gain knowledge of the Christian faith. She is sold to Simon Legree and exercises a great deal of control over his estate. She comes to care for Tom, who inspires her, by his spiritual strength, to attempt an escape with Emmeline. - Character: Emmeline. Description: Sold to the Legree estate at the same time as Tom, Emmeline is an attractive teenager "kept" by Legree in his own home for his personal amusement. This position is similar to the one Cassy used to occupy on the Legree plantation. Emmeline and Cassy eventually trick Legree into believing they have escaped. They then hide in the attic, where he is afraid to search, and leave the plantation some time later. - Character: Haley. Description: A slave-trader, Haley is owed a debt by Mr. Shelby and is given, as payment, Uncle Tom and Harry. Harry and Eliza escape, thus angering Haley, and he dispatches Tom Loker and Marks to find the two runaway slaves. He is able to sell Uncle Tom to Augustine St. Clare. Haley professes that slavery, for him, is "just business," and although he is not nearly so cruel as other masters in the novel, he believes that slaves should only be treated humanely enough to keep their prices high. - Character: Aunt Chloe. Description: Uncle Tom's wife, Aunt Chloe is an important member of the Shelby estate. She is terribly upset when Tom is sold and finds work as a baker in Louisville, with her wages going to help buy back Tom. At the end of the novel she has earned enough money to buy Tom's freedom, only to learn that Tom has died on the Legree estate. - Character: Augustine St. Clare. Description: A slave-owner in New Orleans, St. Clare is Tom's second owner. He is a character of complex morality: he does not condone slavery and believes God will strike back against this injustice, but until Eva's death and Tom's intervention, he does not know what he can do to help the plight of Southern slaves. After he resolves to free Tom and live a more Christian life, he is killed accidentally in a fight at a café. - Character: Eva St. Clare. Description: St. Clare's lovely and deeply religious daughter, Eva becomes close friends with after Tom rescues her from drowning. Eva and Tom study the Bible together and pray, and Eva serves as an inspiration to her father, Uncle Tom, Miss Ophelia, and other slaves in the St. Clare household. She falls ill and dies, saying that she is going to a "better place" to be home with her heavenly Father. She wishes that she might die for the sake of those she loves. - Character: Miss Ophelia. Description: A stern and religious woman from Vermont, Miss Ophelia is St. Clare's cousin. She moves to New Orleans to live in the St. Clare household and look after Eva, because Marie is often sick. Miss Ophelia believes that slavery is wrong but initially has trouble interacting with, or even touching, black people. She learns through Eva to become a better, more loving mentor to Topsy. - Character: Topsy. Description: A young slave child from abusive circumstances, Topsy is purchased by St. Clare and given to Ophelia in order that she might raise her and teach her Christian values. Initially Topsy misbehaves, but after befriending Eva and learning to love her, and to be loved, Topsy accepts Christian teachings and moves north with Miss Ophelia, who purchases Topsy and frees her, treating her as a daughter. - Character: Tom Loker. Description: A cruel slave-catcher, Tom Loker, along with Marks, promises Haley that he will find Eliza and Harry and return the latter to Haley and selling the former into prostitution. Loker is shot by George Harris and nursed back to health by Quakers and the escapees he was sent to capture. He then experiences a change of heart and repents of his previous wickedness. - Character: Senator and Mrs. Bird. Description: An Ohio Senator and his wife. Senator Bird has recently argued for the passage of a bill making it a crime to aid escaping slaves. Mrs. Bird believes this bill is immoral, and is cheered to discover her husband is more than willing to help Eliza and Harry as they pass through Ohio en route to Canada. - Character: Mr. Wilson. Description: Manager of the factory where George Harris used to work, Mr. Wilson spots Harris in disguise and warns him that, by fleeing, Harris is breaking the law and Christian teaching. Harris manages to convince Wilson that slavery itself is wrong, and that George must break these laws in order to protect his family and win his liberty. - Character: Mr. Symmes. Description: A neighbor of the Shelbys, Mr. Symmes helps Eliza and Harry to escape by not providing information of their whereabouts to their former master. He claims that, although Mr. Shelby might be angry, he feels he has no obligation to turn over slaves who desire their freedom so ardently, and work so hard to get it. - Character: Lucy, or "Luce". Description: A very old and feeble slave woman, Lucy is helped by Uncle Tom on Legree's plantation—he puts additional cotton in her bag, so that she "makes weight" and is not beaten. When Legree demands that she be beaten anyway, Tom refuses, saying he cannot hurt a fellow human being. Lucy also happens, coincidentally, to be the name of the slave woman on La Belle Riviere, whose child is purchased by Legree. This Lucy later kills herself out of despair by throwing herself overboard. - Theme: Slavery and Race. Description: Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in order to demonstrate the "living dramatic reality" of slavery. The novel protests the horrors of this institution: the way it degrades black men and women and gives absolute power to slaveowners and thereby corrupts them. The novel portrays and explores various "kinds" of slavery. The Shelbys treat Uncle Tom and other slaves as part of a separate, "childlike" addition to the family. Augustine St. Clare allows his slaves the run of the household, understands the evil of the institution, but feels he cannot stop it—until it's too late. Simon Legree, the cruelest of all of the slave masters depicted, works his slaves as hard as possible, dominating them so fully that he often kills them. Miss Ophelia, who does not own slaves and represents Northern anti-slavery abolitionist views, has trouble even touching the black girl Topsy, whom she tutors. Through these various depictions, Beecher Stowe argues that all forms of slavery, "benevolent" or not, lead to immorality among blacks and whites, and an unchristian life, and further points out that slavery is a complex system, involving Northern business interests as well as Southern ownership. At the same time, Stowe's conception of race can feel out of sync with contemporary values, and, at its worst, racist itself. In particular, Uncle Tom's love of his masters has been interpreted, by some, as a misplaced loyalty to a dominant white culture. An understanding of slavery in Uncle Tom's Cabin requires at least some separation of the author's anti-slavery message from the attitudes and language of her time and place. But it is certainly not incorrect to argue that while Beecher Stowe was strongly anti-slavery she did not in fact believe that the races were created equal. - Theme: Christianity and Christian Charity. Description: Uncle Tom's Cabin repeatedly references the Bible, especially the New Testament. The dominant morality of the United States is, according to Beecher Stowe, a Christian one, and slavery is utterly incompatible with it. Uncle Tom owns only one book—the Bible—and is often found reading it, slowly and with great religious feeling. He quotes the Bible to educate Eva, Cassy, and others, and to find the strength to survive his own trials. The Quakers who help George, Eliza, and Harry escape—and who take in Tom Loker despite his aggression toward them—justify their actions not as generosity to black people but as a duty to God and man, demanded of them by the Bible. Miss Ophelia embodies a colder, more distant "Northern" Christianity, which values the lives of slaves but is unwilling to help them personally. But as the novel continues, it becomes clear that the Golden Rule is the paramount Christian law: humans ought to treat one another as they themselves wish to be treated.Uncle Tom serves as a Christ-figure or martyr in the novel. Tom dies protecting Cassy and Emmeline and will not whip his fellow slaves; he suffers so that others might live. Eva demonstrates a kind of saintliness: she behaves in strict accordance with Jesus' teachings, and her death is an example to her father, causing him to regain his faith (however briefly before he is killed). Ultimately, Beecher Stowe argues through the novel that a more truly Christian system of values in the United States would eradicate slavery altogether and render Uncle Tom's and Eva's sacrifices unnecessary. - Theme: Women. Description: Uncle Tom's Cabin contains numerous strong female characters. The social role and importance of women, both white and black, is emphasized throughout the novel, and female characters are often linked by interaction and influence. Eva is fair-skinned and beautiful, generous, deeply religious, and always kind; she becomes an example to the uneducated, "heathenish" Topsy. After Eva's death, Topsy grows (with Miss Ophelia's help) into a Christian woman. Miss Ophelia herself believes in duty as a manifestation of love and Christian charity; she finds slavery repugnant but must learn, through Topsy, to actually interact with blacks. Marie St. Clare, on the other hand, is indulgent, lazy, quick to blame others, and her Christianity is merely performance.Mammy, Eva's favorite servant, serves as a counterpoint to both—she is boisterous and committed to helping the St. Clare family. Back in Kentucky, Eliza and Mrs. Shelby are paired: both are caring mothers, and when Eliza flees to protect her child, Mrs. Shelby distracts those pursuing her. Cassy and Emmeline also form a kind of mother-daughter relationship as they escape to Canada together, and are eventually reunited with their blood relatives.Beecher Stowe strongly implies that women are more affected by the horrors of slavery than are men. Black women see their children taken away and can themselves be sold into sexual bondage. White women understand these problems because they have children of their own. Indeed, it is difficult to read the inspiring language of equality and freedom in the novel without applying it to the rights of all women in society, black and white. Many of Stowe's arguments—about equality before God, the necessities of nonviolence and Christian love—might be extended to a discussion of the place of women in America, where white women also did not at the time have the right to vote. - Theme: Home. Description: Uncle Tom's cabin, described early in the novel, represents the warmth and love of family life. It is a place Tom hearkens back to over the course of his trials. George Shelby wishes to bring Tom home, and at the close of the book, he points to Tom's cabin as a symbol of honest work and Christian faith. Other homes are juxtaposed with the cabin. The Shelby estate is genteel and placid, though disrupted upon the sale of Tom and Harry.The St. Clare mansion is filled with color, wonderfully decorated, an island of comfort surrounded by the horrors of Louisiana plantation country. The Legree estate is dilapidated and used only to make money—eventually it is "haunted" by ghosts. Legree loves no one, and his destroyed home makes evident this lack of love. George, Eliza, and Harry's new home is, ironically, a place where they might live out the American ideals of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," but it is located in Montreal.Home also takes on another dimension in the novel: that of a heavenly home after death, in God's abode. Eva claims she is going "home" when she is dying, and slaves who feel they have no home on earth may take comfort in the next life. In heaven the human family is reunited; even though black and white people may not live together in harmony on earth, a Christian belief in the afterlife will guarantee equality and peace. - Theme: Freedom. Description: Freedom is a central and complex concept in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Slaves wish to be free, and abolitionists in the novel wish also to free the slaves. But, as St. Clare points out, what is to be done after the abolition of slavery? Is it enough simply to release the slaves, to let them do as they wish?George Harris argues for the colonization of Liberia by freed slaves. Many thought this a viable option before and after the Civil War. George Shelby eventually frees his father's slaves but allows them to live and work on the family estate for a wage, with the ability to choose to leave. This is an improvement over slavery, but it looks quite a bit like slavery or serfdom, as was the case with sharecropping in the South after the Civil War. Beecher Stowe also asks whether freedom might be possible while still under the yoke of slavery.Some despairing slaves, like Cassy, believe at first that slavery has taken their souls, their humanity. But Uncle Tom declares that his soul will always remain free, that Legree can do nothing to destroy it. In this sense, Tom remains the master of himself. Conversely, the author implies that slavery can make slaves of its masters. St. Clare believes slavery degrades everyone though he is mostly powerless to stop it; his wife claims her slaves are a plague, even as she thinks she cannot live without them.To Beecher Stowe, freedom is a spectrum, not an on-off switch between Free and Enslaved. The goal of society is human betterment—the creation of a more Christian country—and in achieving such a country, Beecher Stowe believes, more people will gain the ability to direct their own lives, to live with charity and goodness, to work according to their inclination, and to raise their own families. This deepens freedom for all. But these improvements are possible only in a country itself freed from the scourge of slavery. - Climax: Tom is beaten by Simon Legree yet refuses to abandon his faith - Summary: On his Kentucky plantation in the 1840s, Mr. Shelby, a gentleman and farmer, discusses a debt he owes to Haley, a slave-trader. Haley presses Shelby to sell Uncle Tom, Shelby's most trustworthy slave, and Harry, the fair-skinned child of Eliza, maid to Mrs. Shelby. Eliza is married to George Harris of another plantation, a fair-skinned slave who once worked in a factory where he showed great ingenuity. George has decided to escape, rather than waste his life laboring in the fields for his jealous master who removed him from the factory. Sometime after George has already left, Eliza overhears the Shelbys discussing Tom and Harry's sale, and she and Harry flee toward Ohio, with the idea of reaching Canada.Haley is furious at Eliza's escape and attempts to track her, traveling with Sam, a cunning slave of Shelby's. Sam manages to delay Haley. At the Ohio River, in the middle of winter, Eliza jumps with Harry from ice floe to floe and lands in Ohio. They are taken in by a Quaker family and reunited with George Harris, who has been traveling in the guise of a Spanish gentleman.Uncle Tom decides not to try to escape; he sees it as his duty to be sold as his master intended. George Shelby, Jr., who loves Tom, sees him before the sale and promises to bring him back to Kentucky. Haley takes Tom on a steamboat down the Mississippi where they meet Augustine St. Clare, a wealthy man living in New Orleans with his daughter Evangeline, wife Marie, and a large group of slaves. Augustine has been in the North to fetch his cousin, Miss Ophelia, a stern, religious woman who is to help raise Eva, a religious and kind-hearted girl. Eva and Tom become friends, and Tom saves Eva when she falls overboard. St. Clare buys Tom.George, Eliza, Harry, and others are shepherded by kind Quakers, including Phineas Fletcher, toward Sandusky, Ohio, on the lake bordering Canada. En route, two slave-catchers, Tom Loker and Marks, who are working for Haley, nearly corner the escaping party, but George returns a gunshot fired by Marks and hits Loker, who is pushed over a chasm by Fletcher and wounded. The slave-catchers flee, and George and his party carry Loker to recuperate in another Quaker home.Uncle Tom is treated well at the St. Clare estate. He and Eva read the Bible to one another. Miss Ophelia takes a young slave girl, Topsy, under her care, but Topsy continues to misbehave. Eva's health declines, though, and she announces she will soon return to her Father in heaven. Eva promises to love Topsy and asks St. Clare to promise that, after her death, he will become a practicing Christian and free his slaves. Eva dies, and St. Clare begins to carry out her wishes but, before he can, he is killed accidentally in a cafe fight. Marie does not honor her husband's desire to free Tom, instead selling Tom to the cruel plantation owner Simon Legree.Legree has also purchased Emmeline, a teenage slave girl, and on the Legree plantation near the Red River Uncle Tom meets Cassy, a once-beautiful slave. Legree puts Tom to work in the fields and asks him to whip a fellow slave in order to "harden" Tom. Tom says he will do anything his master says except hurt another human being. Legree and his overseers Sambo and Quimbo beat Tom mercilessly, hoping to crush his religious spirit. Inspired by Tom, Cassy and Emmeline plan to escape by storing materials in the attic, which they convince Legree is haunted, and hiding there after creating the appearance of escape through a swamp. They depart in earnest some days later. Legree takes his anger out on Tom, mortally wounding him.Back in Ohio, Loker discovers he is being cared for by Quakers, despite his attempts to catch George and Eliza. He recognizes his past wickedness and repents. Meanwhile, the Harris family crosses to Canada by boat.George Shelby, Jr. arrives at the Legree plantation and sees Tom before his death. Tom asks George to be a good Christian, and George swears he will never own slaves and will work to free them. On a boat back to Kentucky, George runs into Cassy and Emmeline. They meet Madame de Thoux, a wealthy woman revealed to be George Harris' long-lost sister. This party, minus George, travels to Montreal, where the Harrises live. De Thoux is reunited with her brother, and Cassy is revealed to be Eliza's mother.George returns to the Shelby estate, frees his slaves, and declares that Uncle Tom's cabin will always be a symbol of goodness and faith. Beecher Stowe closes the novel by swearing that its characters are based in reality, and that slavery is an un-Christian institution that must be eliminated.

- Genre: Social Novel - Title: Untouchable - Point of view: The third-person, omniscient narrator usually focuses most closely on Bakha's perspective. - Setting: Bulashah, a fictional Indian village in the Himalayan foothills - Character: Bakha. Description: - Character: Lakha. Description: - Character: Sohini. Description: - Character: Rakha. Description: - Character: Mahatma Gandhi/Mohandas K. Gandhi. Description: - Character: R. N. Bashir. Description: - Character: Iqbal Nath Sarshar. Description: - Character: Uka. Description: - Character: Charat Singh. Description: - Character: Chota. Description: - Character: Ram Charan. Description: - Character: Gulabo. Description: - Character: Colonel Hutchinson. Description: - Character: The Colonel's Wife. Description: - Character: Pundit Kali Nath. Description: - Character: The Touched Man. Description: - Character: The Rickshaw Driver. Description: - Character: The Local Woman. Description: - Character: The Elder Brother. Description: - Character: The Younger Brother. Description: - Character: The Hakim Sahib. Description: - Character: Lachman. Description: - Theme: Inequality, Harm, and Internalization. Description: - Theme: Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice. Description: - Theme: Nature vs. Society. Description: - Theme: Bodies and Cleanliness. Description: - Climax: Mohandas K. Gandhi visits Bakha's prejudiced community and delivers a shocking speech that argues for the end of caste - Summary: In 1933, as India's independence movement gains new force, 18-year-old Bakha is just trying to get through the day. Like his father Lakha, his brother Rakha, and his little sister Sohini, Bakha is a sweeper, assigned to clean latrines and to sweep waste off the streets. Because Bakha's work forces him into such close proximity to excrement, he is an outcaste, forced to the bottom of India's hierarchical caste system. Like the other outcastes (including grass-cutters, barbers, and washer-men), Bakha lives in a cramped, dirty encampment outside the center of Bulashah, his town in the Himalayan foothills. Bakha's day begins when he wakes up shivering. But though his British-style blanket is not warm enough, Bakha refuses to get another one, insisting—like his best friends Chota and Ram Charan—that anything the "Tommies" (English) like is inherently "fashun." Lakha scolds Bakha to get up and get to work, and Bakha reflects on happier times, when his mother was still alive and his father was less snippy. After reflecting on all the British clothing and cigarettes that he would like to buy, Bakha goes to work, hurriedly and thoroughly clearing Bulashah's rows of latrines. Despite his natural strength and elegance, Bakha is frequently scolded for working too slowly. One of the people who scolds Bakha is Havildar Charat Singh, a well-respected local hockey player who is known to struggle with hemorrhoids. Thrillingly, Charat Singh promises to give Bakha one of his hockey sticks later that day. Meanwhile, Sohini goes down to the village well to get water for her family. Because the outcastes are labeled as "polluted" by the members of other castes, they are not allowed to draw water directly from the well; instead, they must wait for higher-caste Hindus to give them water. While Sohini waits in line, she is shouted at by Gulabo, a washer-woman and Ram Charan's mother, who reminds Sohini that even among the outcastes, sweepers are still considered to be the lowest of the low. Eventually, Pundit Kali Nath (a Brahmin priest) comes to the well, deciding to draw water for the outcastes because he hopes that the exercise might relieve his constipation. The Pundit takes a liking to Sohini, and he gives her water first, instructing her to come clean the village's temple later in the day. Bakha goes home to eat breakfast and then enjoys a moment of relaxing in the sun. As he chats with Ram Charan and Chota, Bakha spots the two higher-caste brothers that he sometimes plays hockey with. In a moment of inspiration, Bakha convinces the elder brother and younger brother to teach him to read, even though outcastes are not traditionally allowed access to education. Now, Bakha heads back to his work, sweeping the bazaar and streets of Bulashah. Without realizing, Bakha bumps into a higher-caste man, who panics that he has been "polluted" by touching a sweeper. The touched man begins to verbally abuse Bakha, and even a kind Muslim rickshaw driver cannot stop the torment. When the touched man knocks Bakha's turban off his head, Bakha finds himself craving revenge against the upper castes for the first time in his life. Bakha arrives at the temple, and decides to peek inside, still in a frenzy from the events of this morning. Though no one spots Bakha, he hears Pundit Kali Nath crying out that he has been "polluted" by a sweeper—and Bakha realizes that the sweeper in question is Sohini. Sohini explains that the Pundit tried to sexually abuse her, and when she refused his advances, he cried out "polluted," causing the rest of the high-caste worshippers to panic that they had been similarly violated. Bakha comforts Sohini and sends her home, lamenting that as an outcaste he is not even allowed to worship the Hindu gods. Bakha goes looking for food, hoping higher-caste Hindus will provide him with a meal for his family. But the day has exhausted Bakha, and he winds up taking a nap on the steps of a local woman's house. When the local woman spots Bakha, she shouts at him for polluting her house, telling Bakha she hopes he dies. The local woman throws bread on the ground, and Bakha reluctantly brings the scraps home for lunch. Bakha returns home, but instead of finding sympathy from Lakha, Lakha only instructs his children to honor and defer to higher-caste Hindus. Feeling disgusted by the second-hand food and Lakha's inferiority complex, Bakha decides to leave. Without anything else to do, Bakha crashes Ram Charan's sister's wedding, much to Gulabo's dismay. After the wedding, Bakha, Chota, and Ram Charan head to the hills, where Bakha gains strength and comfort from the natural beauty around him. After playing in the grass, Bakha returns to town, planning to get his hockey stick. Surprisingly, Charat Singh treats Bakha with more dignity than any other high-caste Hindu does: he allows Bakha to share his tea, and he gives Bakha a brand-new hockey stick. With his new hockey stick in tow, Bakha, Chota, Ram Charan, and the elder brother play hockey together; impatiently, the little brother watches from the sidelines. A few minutes into the game, a fight breaks out between the two hockey teams, and they begin throwing rocks at each other. Unfortunately, the younger brother is hit by a rock and wounded (or possibly even killed). Somehow, Bakha gets blamed for this, too, even though he was not the one who threw the rock. It is almost evening, and Bakha is filled with despair at the amount of abuse this single day has brought. Colonel Hutchinson, a white evangelist, spies Bakha looking sad and tries to proselytize to him. At first, Bakha is compelled by Hutchinson's words—especially because the Colonel emphasizes that all people are equal in Christ's eyes—but Bakha loses interest when the Colonel refuses to translate his hymns. Eventually, the Colonel's wife spots them and starts spewing vitriol at Bakha. Just when Bakha is about to go home, he hears the news that Mohandas K. Gandhi has arrived in Bulashah to give a speech. Bakha runs to the speech, brushing against members of all other castes in the frenzy. He is gratified that Gandhi's speech centers on putting an end to the caste system; though Gandhi is sometimes patronizing in the way he talks about sweepers, Bakha also finds his call to action profoundly moving. After Gandhi finishes and the crowd disperses, Bakha hears two men (British-educated R. N. Bashir and poet Iqbal Nath Sarshar) discussing the speech. Bashir is critical of Gandhi for being anti-industrialization, whereas Sarshar thinks that Gandhi has some good ideas but that the most important step in abolishing the "Untouchable" category of the caste system is introducing the flush toilet to India (as it will eliminate the need for sweepers). As the sun sets, Bakha runs home to "tell father all that Gandhi said about us," wondering what this new flushing machine might look like.

- Genre: Satire, Domestic Novel - Title: Vanity Fair - Point of view: First Person - Setting: Mainly England but also Continental Europe and India - Character: Becky Sharp. Description: Rebecca "Becky" Sharp begins the story as an orphan who is friends with Amelia. The two of them meet at Miss Pinkerton's school, where Amelia follows the rules but Becky always challenges authority. After leaving the school, Becky decides that the only way for her to advance her low social position is to marry a man who's richer than she is. Initially, she tries to marry Amelia's brother Jos, who has made a fortune from his work in India, but Amelia's fiancé, George, intervenes and convinces Jos to reject her. Undeterred, Becky moves on to her governess job, where she ends up marrying Rawdon, the son of her employer; the marriage causes a minor scandal because Becky is only employed by Rawdon's family and thus beneath them socially. Despite putting so much effort into securing a marriage, Becky shows little interest in wanting to be a wife or mother—she completely ignores their son, Rawdy, and it's plausible that she has several affairs, including possibly with George and with a rich neighbor named Lord Steyne. Ultimately, Becky ends up damaging just about every relationship in her life, traveling from place to place and trying to swindle money out of unsuspecting people. At the end of the story, after Becky and Rawdon have separated, she manages to secure her fortune from Jos by winning his favor, taking control of his life and finances, and possibly even poisoning him to secure an inheritance. Becky's character is defined by her constant striving for more. She repeatedly claims that if she just had enough money, she could be a virtuous person, and her regular attendance at church and dedication to charity at end of the story seems to support this. Still, Becky caused a lot of suffering along the way, and given her past actions, it's reasonable to suspect that she never will be satisfied and will return to her scheming once she becomes dissatisfied with what she has. - Character: Amelia. Description: Amelia is the daughter of Mr. Sedley and Mrs. Sedley, the sister of Jos, and Becky's good friend. Unlike Becky, Amelia is meek and follows the rules. Though her obedience sometimes causes people to admire her, other times it leads them to ignore or underestimate her. Despite Amelia being one of the main characters, the narrator claims that Amelia isn't much of a "heroine," perhaps because she avoids seeking attention and might seem superficially unimpressive. Amelia falls in love with George at an early age (meanwhile George's loyal friend, Dobbin, falls in love with Amelia), but Mr. Sedley's bankruptcy complicates George and Amelia's marriage plans, as the Sedley family's poverty causes George's father, Mr. Osborne, to disapprove of the marriage. When the two of them do finally manage to marry, Amelia pledges devotion to George, even as he continues to gamble away money at billiards and spend much of his time with other women, including Becky. Even after George dies in the Napoleonic Wars, Amelia remains devoted to his memory, putting all of her effort into raising their son, Georgy. She even rejects the love of Dobbin out of loyalty to George, despite the fact that Amelia seems to love Dobbin in return. But while Amelia can be a passive character, even she has her limits— when she learns that George wrote a letter to Becky proposing that the two of them run away together, Amelia decides to leave the past behind and finally accept a relationship with Dobbin, who loves her as she is. Amelia's character represents both the benefits and the dangers of obedience, showing how meek people like Amelia can get taken advantage of in the competitive society of upper-class England, while also showing how life rewards persistence and virtue in the end. - Character: George. Description: George Osborne is the son of the wealthy Mr. Osborne and the godson of Mr. Sedley. It's long been assumed that George and Amelia will marry once George inherits his father's business. From the start, though, it's clear that Amelia's feelings for George are stronger than George's feelings for Amelia, and this unevenness grows after Amelia's father, Mr. Sedley, loses his fortune, sending Sedley family into poverty. George has been friends with Dobbin ever since Dobbin defended George against a school bully. Dobbin goes to great lengths to look out for George later in life, too, urging him to marry Amelia even though George's father condemns the marriage after the Sedley family loses their fortune. Still, George tends to disregard Dobbin because Dobbin doesn't come from money. Despite this, he follows Dobbin's advice and marries Amelia, which leads Mr. Osborne to disown him. A spoiled and vain young man, George isn't a great husband to Amelia, ignoring her feelings and flirting with Amelia's good friend Becky—in fact, toward the end of the novel, after George's death, Becky shows Amelia a note that suggests George was even willing to leave Amelia to be with Becky. George becomes a captain in the British Army and dies in battle before his son, Georgy, is born. Following George's death, Mr. Osborne takes an interest in raising Georgy, seemingly to make up for his failure to make amends with George before George's death. - Character: Dobbin. Description: William Dobbin is a friend of George's from school. Although Dobbin is initially unpopular, mostly because he's poor, he eventually wins over many of the other students when he stands up to a bully to protect George. From then on, Dobbin continues to protect George and show loyalty to him. Dobbin is often a third wheel, who loves Amelia from afar but is so loyal to George that he helps him marry Amelia instead. He's also one of the most moral characters in the book, putting the needs of others above his own. One of Dobbin's biggest acts of sacrifice is when he buys Amelia's family's piano (after they go bankrupt), then returns it to her, allowing her to think that George did it. He is also a capable soldier, earning a good living and rising through the ranks. Ultimately, Dobbin gets rewarded for his diligence by marrying Amelia after George's death in the Napoleonic Wars. Dobbin represents the value of trying to live a modest, virtuous life, which might seem like a disadvantage at times, but which ultimately leads to happiness. - Character: Jos. Description: Jos is the son of Mr. Sedley and Mrs. Sedley and the brother of Amelia. His most notable characteristic is his enormous appetite for food and alcohol, and this leads to his enormous weight and his frequent liver problems. He develops a fascination with India after working there for much of his adult life, although he seems to prefer London, where he can lavishly spend the money he makes in India on food and drink. Jos is easy to influence and wealthy, which is why Becky initially attempts to marry him, though George manages to talk him out of it. While other "wealthy" characters in the book take out loans to maintain their extravagant lifestyles, Jos always has ample money from his business in India. However, many years after she first meets him, Becky eventually tricks Jos into falling for her so that she can run his affairs; she then isolates Jos from his family and drains his money. Jos grows frail and then dies, possibly due to Becky poisoning him, although this is never confirmed. Jos's represents the consequences of having too big of an appetite; the story suggests that Jos's pampered lifestyle is self-destructive and makes him vulnerable to people like Becky. - Character: Rawdon. Description: Rawdon Crawley is the brother of Pitt Crawley, the son of Sir Pitt, and the nephew of Miss Crawley. Despite his reputation for gambling and getting into duels, he wins the favor of the wealthy Miss Crawley and seems destined to inherit her vast fortune. His secret marriage to Becky (who is a governess and therefore beneath him in social rank) complicates things, however, causing him to lose his inheritance. Rawdon continues some of his wild ways even after marrying Becky, gambling frequently and using billiards as a way to hustle money out of people like his friend George. However, he becomes increasingly subservient to Becky. Unlike Becky, Rawdon has a lot of affection for their son together, Rawdy. When Rawdon catches Becky seemingly about to cheat on him with Lord Steyne, he is furious, but Becky and Lord Steyne effectively convince Rawdon to disappear by arranging for him to serve as governor on a remote island, where Rawdon eventually dies of yellow fever. Rawdon's character suggests that beneath the violence and bluster of the archetypal 19th-century gentlemen, there could be both tenderness (as Rawdon's relationship with his son demonstrates) and meekness (as in Rawdon's subservience to Becky). - Character: Mr. Osborne. Description: Mr. Osborne is the wealthy father of George, Maria, and Jane. He cares a lot about preserving his inheritance, and when he finds out that George insists on marrying Amelia, even after Mr. Sedley has lost his fortune, he decides to remove George from the will and disown him. Later, after George's death, Mr. Osborne seems to regret some of his actions, although he continues to act in a domineering manner, forcing Amelia to part with Georgy so that Mr. Osborne himself can raise his grandson, essentially getting a second chance as he tries to stop Georgy from turning out like George. Near the end of his life, Mr. Osborne has a change of heart and returns Georgy to Amelia and leaving her money in his will. Mr. Osborne's character shows the dangers of pride—at the end of his life, he regrets how much focus he put on status and inheritance. - Character: Miss Crawley. Description: Miss Crawley is an elderly unmarried woman with a large fortune, and this causes many different members of the Crawley family to try to win her over before she dies, including Bute, Mrs. Bute, Sir Pitt, Pitt Crawley, Rawdon, and Becky. Paradoxically, her fortune both causes and prevents fighting within the family, as various family members try to win her favor by proving that they are agreeable. Although Miss Crawley likes to talk about how she doesn't believe in hereditary nobility, her actions reveal her to be a hypocrite, as she refuses to give her money to Rawdon after he marries the lower-class Becky. Although Miss Crawley's fortune initially makes her influential in the family, it ultimately leaves her a prisoner in her own home, as her family members all try to control her during the final days of her illness. - Character: Georgy. Description: Georgy is the son of Amelia and George. He looks a lot like his father, who dies in the Napoleonic Wars before Georgy is born. Amelia devotes most of her time and attention to Georgy, who proves himself to be a clever child. But once Mr. Osborne meets George, he schemes to get him away from Amelia and raise Georgy himself, perhaps to make up for his earlier decision to disown George. Under Mr. Osborne's supervision, Georgy starts becoming a little "gentleman," giving orders and drinking alcohol when he's still too young. Georgy's character demonstrates how a child's environment shapes their personality, and particularly how the pressure to become a gentleman can have a corrupting influence. - Character: Sir Pitt. Description: Sir Pitt Crawley is a noble and a member of Parliament who oversees a decaying borough called Queen's Crawley. He is the father of Pitt Crawley, Rawdon, and Rose and Violet, and his wife is the second Lady Crawley. Sir Pitt also hires Becky as a governess. Despite his high title, Sir Pitt has a strong regional Hampshire accent, and he often shows little regard for social rank. In addition, he acts lecherously toward female servants, including even proposing to marry Becky at one point (shortly after the death of Lady Crawley). Sir Pitt highlights the absurdity of the British class system, showing how a person can become a high-ranking gentleman despite having almost none of the qualities typically associated with a good gentleman. - Character: Pitt Crawley. Description: Pitt Crawley is the son of Sir Pitt and the brother of Rawdon. He has the favor of their father but struggles to win the favor of Miss Crawley, who holds the real family wealth. Eventually, however, he manages to inherit both his father's title and Miss Crawley's wealth for his son, Pitt Binkie, in part because he marries the noble Lady Jane while Rawdon marries the low-status governess Becky. Pitt Crawley spends exorbitant amounts of money trying to renovate his father's property, demonstrating how he sees himself in charge of protecting his family's reputation, no matter the cost. - Character: Mr. Sedley. Description: Mr. Sedley is the husband of Mrs. Sedley and the father of Jos and Amelia. He begins as a successful stockbroker and a friend of Mr. Osborne's, but the Napoleonic Wars wipe out his fortune, which complicates George Osborne and Amelia's plans to marry. Mr. Sedley continues to make bad financial decisions and hold his children back, selling off the annuity that Jos sends him from India. - Character: Mrs. Bute. Description: Mrs. Bute is the wife of Bute and a notorious busybody who knows all the gossip of Queen's Crawley due to her connections with the servants. Although Mrs. Bute becomes a nurse to the ailing Miss Crawley and tries to use this time to convince Miss Crawley to leave her vast fortune to Bute and Mrs. Bute, ultimately Mrs. Bute is unsuccessful. Mrs. Bute's extreme attentiveness ends up annoying Miss Crawley, and, as a result, she loses out on the inheritance. - Character: Lord Steyne. Description: Lord Steyne is one of the wealthiest and noblest characters in the story, but he is also one of the most corrupt, seemingly planning to have an affair with Becky and letting other nobles use his house for their own secret affairs. Eventually, after Rawdon walks in on Becky and Lord Steyne alone together, Lord Steyne abandons Becky, feeling that she has tried to trick him out of his money. His immoral behavior contrasts with his noble title, highlighting the hypocrisy of the British upper class. - Character: Rawdy. Description: Rawdy is the son of Becky and Rawdon. Although Rawdon is affectionate toward him, Becky ignores him, showing little interest in acting as a mother. He ends up living with Pitt Crawley and Lady Jane. Everyone shows a lot more interest in Rawdy, however, after Pitt Binkie dies and Rawdy becomes the presumptive heir to Pitt Crawley's money. - Character: The Narrator. Description: The narrator comments on the action from afar, often as if all the other characters are performing on a stage. He claims to respect the upper classes and British tradition, but in fact, many of his comments seem to be satirical and meant to highlight the hypocrisy of the British upper class. Although he knows a lot about all the other characters, as a storyteller, the narrator can be unreliable, either withholding information or claiming not to know it. - Character: General Tufto. Description: General Tufto is a general whom George Osborne, Rawdon, Becky, and Amelia encounter in Brussels during the war. He's a lecherous old man and seems to have a preference for younger women. Although George is married to Amelia, he feels jealous when he observes Tufto ogling Becky at the opera. - Character: Miss Horrocks. Description: Miss Horrocks is the daughter of Sir Pitt's butler. She gets upset when Sir Pitt tries to give Lady Jane some of Lady Crawley's old jewels, giving credence to local rumors that Miss Horrocks wants to be the next Lady Crawley. Her character underscores the drama that ensues when a hefty inheritance is on the table. - Character: Lady Steyne. Description: Lady Steyne is Lord Steyne's wife. A deeply religious woman, she apparently copes with her husband's immoral behavior (he offers his house as a place where other nobles can have discreet affairs and likely engages in affairs himself) by pretending not to know about it. Despite Lady Steyne's initial reservations about Becky, Becky wins her over by playing religious music. - Character: George Gaunt. Description: George Gaunt is Lord Steyne's son with Lady Steyne. Though he was initially successful and happily married, he apparently had some kind of breakdown, after which he left for "Brazil." Some people know that this is just a cover story, however, and that he's actually being hidden in a cottage somewhere in England. - Character: Lady Jane. Description: Lady Jane is the wife of Pitt Crawley and mother of Pitt Binkie and Matilda. Among the noble characters, she is one of the few who shows a genuine sense of charity, taking in Rawdy as her own child after Rawdon goes off to Coventry Island and Becky abandons him. - Character: Sambo. Description: Sambo is the "black" (African or Asian) servant of Mr. Sedley and Mrs. Sedley. Today, "Sambo" is an offensive term, and although this character is not necessarily the main origin of the term, he nevertheless embodies the racial stereotype of an oppressed minority who is willing and happy to serve his masters. - Theme: Greed and Ambition. Description: Vanity Fair focuses on the friendship of two characters who have opposite personalities. While Amelia is meek, loyal, and content with what she has, Becky is always striving, showing an ambition that may seem admirable at times, but which eventually turns into a greed that consumes her life and the lives of those around her. Becky is most sympathetic at the beginning of the story, when she is an orphan who doesn't come from a family with money like her friend Amelia's family. Becky's ambition is a practical reaction to her impoverished circumstances, and her schemes to marry Jos—while at times deceptive—are mostly harmless. As the story progresses, however, Becky gets a taste of high-class life and decides she wants more. Her sense of inferiority, which she's had ever since people looked down on her at Miss Pinkerton's school, follows her throughout her life, and she tries to compensate by always outdoing the people around her, spending vast amounts of money (and so requiring her to always seek even more money). Before long, Becky's ambition has caused her to exploit both her husband (Rawdon) and her son (Rawdy), showing how greed can make people uncaring and manipulative. Most of the characters in the story are more like Becky than Amelia. George, for example, is so eager to marry Amelia that he's willing to cause a permanent rift with his father, Mr. Osborne, and yet not long after their marriage, he is already striving for ways to spend time with other women, particularly Becky. Meanwhile, Jos is initially one of the few truly rich characters in the story who makes a tremendous fortune working in India and isn't caught up in debts like many of the other nobles of the time. But Jos's insatiable appetite for food and alcohol reflects his own insatiable greed, and this blinds him to Becky's scheming; at the end of the novel, she gets involved with him and manages to squander everything he has saved. Out of all the characters, perhaps only Dobbin is able to control his ambition, since he sets the modest goal of wanting to marry Amelia and stops striving when he achieves this goal. Vanity Fair thus suggests that ambition is a fundamental part of human nature, and while some disciplined people are able to control their ambition, unchecked ambition can turn into greed, making people uncaring, manipulative, and self-destructive. - Theme: Vanity. Description: The characters in Thackeray's Vanity Fair care a lot about outward appearances, vainly trying to portray themselves in the best light. It's clear how vanity motivates a character like Jos, who dresses flamboyantly in expensive boots like a dandy. But vanity is about more than just clothes or physical appearance. Arguably, even the virtuous Amelia has moments of vanity. For example, she is so afraid of even giving the appearance of seeming unfaithful to her dead husband George that she initially rejects the true love that Dobbin offers her. Vanity motivates many of the actions in the story, often leading characters to act against their own self-interest. Characters show vanity for a variety of reasons, whether it's part of an attempt to appear beautiful, intelligent, moral, or refined. Some characters in the novel are caricatures, like Mr. Veal, who prides himself on his intelligence and uses unnecessarily big words to prove it. Pitt Crawley offers a more nuanced example of vanity. When he inherits his father's property and title, Pitt Crawley spends exorbitant amounts of money renovating the old property. While this might seem like an extravagantly vain expenditure, it also has a practical purpose, helping Pitt Crawley show that he is a worthy successor to Sir Pitt's title. Vanity is not just a personal choice but also the result of social pressure. Thackeray often draws attention to the vanity of the characters for comedic purposes, but vanity in the story can also have tragic consequences, such as when Mr. Osborne's vanity about his family name causes him to disown George for marrying Amelia. Mr. Osborne's pride causes problems in his family that persist until his death. Vanity Fair satirizes the absurdity of people who let vanity motivate their decisions, but the novel also depicts vanity as a nearly universal human quality, making the characters sympathetic even when vanity leads them astray. - Theme: Social Class and Character. Description: Although the narrator of Vanity Fair constantly praises members of the upper class, in fact, his tone is usually sarcastic, and the story generally criticizes upper-class society. One of the most important criticisms centers around the fact that most "wealthy" characters are in fact heavily in debt. This comical situation raises the question of what it means to be wealthy, as when a character like Becky, who drinks champagne and wears expensive dresses, for instance, ends up borrowing money from her servant Miss Briggs. On the one hand, it may seem at first like the wealthy characters face few consequences for the massive debts they rack up—for example, Becky and Rawdon seem to live contentedly for over a year on no official income. And even when Rawdon eventually gets thrown into debtor's prison, he's treated more like a houseguest than a prisoner, reinforcing the idea that his debts don't have consequences for the wealthy. This helps create a society where the gentlemen with the most impressive social ranks often end up having the least upstanding characters. Sir Pitt, for example, doesn't have much education and seemingly has an affair with a much younger servant that becomes a scandal in the local area.  Though it may seem that characters' higher social statuses often protect them from facing consequences for their immoral behavior and financial irresponsibility, characters who take on extensive debts do end up facing the consequences of their actions before the end of the story. Mr. Sedley, for example, drives his whole family to bankruptcy with risky business practices, then he continues to mismanage their money up until his death. Rawdon, one of the most reckless spenders in the novel, tries to make a new start by taking a paid governorship on Coventry Island, but he ultimately catches yellow fever there and dies. Only Becky manages to outrun her constant debts, but she does so by forcing the consequences of these debts onto the people around her, alienating herself from those closest to her. In highlighting the many debts that wealthy characters take on, the novel reveals a much darker reality that lurks beneath the parties, glamor, and carefree attitude of noble society. Just as characters' glamorous lives obscure the massive debts they take on to support their extravagant lifestyle, their high-ranking social positions obscure—and perhaps even enable—their moral dubiousness. - Theme: Gender. Description: Vanity Fair explores how the different social expectations for men and women in early 19th-century England. Marriage in particular serves a different function for men and women, since in a society where women have fewer rights than men and a person's wealth and social status is everything, women must rely on marriage to rise through the ranks. As a result, love becomes degraded, transactional, and unequal. Much of the novel focuses on Becky as she struggles with gender expectations but also sometimes manages to use them to her advantage. Becky excels in making men "fall for her," yet she remains indifferent to each new suitor, particularly once she has already secured their devotion. While Becky's actions are often ruthless and cruel, it's also true that, as an orphan of little means, marrying (and perhaps romancing outside of marriage) strategically is simply the most practical way for her to improve her circumstances. The narrator goes out of his way to avoid condemning Becky for her decisions, and while his comments can sometimes be satirical, they also see to sympathize for the difficult reality Becky faces as a woman with no inherited wealth. Vanity Fair explores the gender inequality of 19th-century Britain, using characters' strategic—and often heartless—approaches marriage to illustrate the personal and interpersonal effects of the era's heavy emphasis on class and its stifling social norms and heavy emphasis on class. - Theme: Inheritance and Family Life. Description: Many characters in Vanity Fair put considerable effort into ensuring that they have an heir lined up to inherit their fortune. Succession can be contentious in the novel, spreading disagreement among families. Paradoxically, though, it can also motivate characters to act friendlier toward each other, hoping that their good manners will earn them a share of an inheritance. In the novel, inheritance complicates family dynamics. Transforming the family unit from a group of people who look out for one another and have one another's best interests at heart into individuals who will betray their kin to protect their own personal interests. Miss Crawley's fortune motivates much of the action in the first part of the book, with characters from Becky to Mrs. Bute to Rawdon all trying in their own way to win Miss Crawley's affection before her death. This competition for Miss Crawley's fortune is darkly humorous, with characters being nice to her face while secretly hoping for her death—but not before she amends her will to include them. Miss Crawley herself isn't naïve about this competition and attempts to take advantage of the influence she wields over her family. Mr. Sedley, meanwhile, doesn't think Becky is worthy of Jos, but he still encourages him to marry her because he'd rather the children of an unworthy white woman inherit his fortune than the mixed-race children of an Indian woman George might marry instead of Becky. woman and giving him a mixed-race son as an heir. Later, Mr. Osborne keeps his grandson Georgy away from his mother, Amelia, because he looks down on her, but he quickly changes his mind when he realizes that Georgy has a chance to inherit his uncle Jos's fortune. Mr. Osborne initially neglects the fact that Amelia is an attentive mother and that her separation from Georgy will be emotionally devastating, only changing his mind when the issue of inheritance arises. Vanity Fair thus shows how inheritance leads characters to make family decisions based on money rather than love or devotion to one's kin. In highlighting both the humorous and the dark side of how far people will go to collect an inheritance, the novel suggests that money and inheritance can encourage selfishness, compelling family members to each look out for their own interests rather than the interests of the collective family unit. - Climax: Amelia accepts Dobbin's love, and he returns to marry her. - Summary: Amelia and Becky are both students at Miss Pinkerton's school for girls. Becky is an orphan who is clever but rebellious, while Amelia comes from a relatively well-off family and is typically meek and obedient. When they graduate, they each receive a dictionary, but Becky quickly throws hers out the window of a carriage. Becky has been hired as a governess, but before that, she spends some time with Amelia's family, where she attempts to get a marriage proposal out of Jos, Amelia's brother, who is wealthy from his business dealings in India. During her visit, Becky also meets George, whom Amelia has planned to marry since they were both children. George's best friend is Dobbin, who secretly loves Amelia but is loyal to George and believes the best way to make Amelia happy is to help with her marriage to George. Ultimately, Becky fails to marry Jos, so she goes on to her governess job with the family of Sir Pitt. Sir Pitt likes Becky right away—so much that when Lady Crawley dies, he proposes to Becky. Becky has to turn him down, however, because while she was working as a governess, she secretly married Sir Pitt's son, a boisterous army captain named Rawdon. When the famous historical figure Napoleon escapes his exile and begins waging war again in Europe, Amelia's father, Mr. Sedley, suddenly goes bankrupt, forcing the whole family to move into a smaller house. At the Sedley estate sale, Dobbin sees a piano that he knows Amelia loved, so he buys it and sends it back to her (although she believes George sent it). The bankruptcy also causes George's father, Mr. Osborne, to forbid George from marrying Amelia. George himself likes his reputation as a ladies' man and seems happy at first about getting out of his engagement to Amelia. But Dobbin, wanting the best for both George and Amelia, convinces George to go through with the marriage. George does so, causing his father to disinherit him. As Napoleon approaches Belgium, Rawdon, George, and Dobbin all must go to fight, with Rawdon and George taking their new wives with them. Although the British defeat Napoleon at Waterloo, George dies in combat, leaving Amelia a pregnant widow. When Amelia eventually gives birth, she names her son George (Georgy) in honor of his dead father. Amelia continues to obsess over George even after his death, keeping his portrait up on the wall. Despite Dobbin's love for Amelia, she isn't able to move on after George's death. Meanwhile, Becky and Rawdon give birth to a son they call Rawdy, and they manage to live a relatively wealthy lifestyle without having any official source of income. This is partly because Rawdon manages to win money by hustling people at billiards and partly because Becky attracts the attention of the wealthy Lord Steyne, who seems to want to have an affair with Becky but maintains a respectable appearance when they're in public. One day, Rawdon gets sent to debtor's prison (since he and Becky both owe many debts due to their extravagant lifestyle). When he gets out, he comes back to find Lord Steyne and Becky in a room alone together. Rawdon angrily implies that it looks like Becky was cheating on him. He storms off, intending to challenge Lord Steyne to a duel, but Lord Steyne instead arranges for Rawdon to get a paid appointment to act as governor of a remote island. Rawdon accepts the position and goes off to the island, where he eventually dies of yellow fever. Meanwhile, Amelia continues to be an attentive mother to Georgy, but her whole family is in a dire financial situation, with Mr. Sedley continuing to make bad decisions with money. One day, Mr. Osborne meets his grandson Georgy and proposes that he could raise Georgy and pay Amelia some money for Georgy's custody. While Amelia is initially offended, ultimately, she feels like she has no choice but to go along with it and let Georgy go. Under Mr. Osborne, Georgy quickly learns how to be a gentleman, giving commands to everyone and drinking too much alcohol for his young age. Eventually, however, with some help from Dobbin, Mr. Osborne reconciles with Amelia; when he dies, he leaves her some money and Georgy. Eventually, Amelia, Jos, Georgy, and Dobbin all go to Pumpernickel in Germany on a vacation. There, Jos and Georgy happen to run into Becky at a gambling hall. It turns out that all of Becky's former friends like Lord Steyne have abandoned her, and now she wanders across Europe, struggling to make money. Jos invites her to come with them, and over time, Becky manages to win Jos over again. Meanwhile, Dobbin finally confesses his love to Amelia, but she still isn't ready to let go of George. Dobbin leaves to go back to India with his regiment. Becky, however, still feels that Amelia should marry Dobbin. She shows Amelia a note that she's kept hidden for a long time: in it, George writes that he wants to run away with Becky and abandon Amelia. Finally able to let go of George now that she can see his flaws, Amelia writes to Dobbin immediately, asking him to come back. Dobbin returns, and he and Amelia soon marry and have a child together. Meanwhile, Becky succeeds in exercising her control over Jos, managing to drain all the money out of his various accounts. Jos becomes feeble and dies, possibly due to foul play by Becky (who receives a portion of his life insurance), although this is never confirmed. Becky uses her new money to get involved in charity and a local church, although when the others see her, they continue to be suspicious about whether Becky has truly changed.

- Genre: Novella - Title: Vertigo - Point of view: Third Person Omniscient - Setting: Garra Nalla, a small, fictional town on Australia's coast - Character: Anna Worley. Description: Anna Worley is the main protagonist of the novel, and Luke Worley's wife. She lives with Luke in the city, where she begins to feel weak, despondent, and jealous of her wealthier friends. When Luke suggests that the two of them pack up and move to the country, Anna is eager to leave the city behind. The rest of the novel follows her experiences living in the tiny coastal town of Garra Nalla, where she tries to make a new life for herself and leave the past behind her. The narration explores Anna's thoughts and feelings more than those of any other character, even Luke. This is because most of the novel's conflicts are defined by a traumatic event in Anna's past: her miscarriage. The weight of Luke and Anna's grief over their unborn child is a constant tension in the background of their relationship. Anna never talks about the miscarriage, but this is exactly why she struggles to grow as a character until the end of the novel. All of Anna's physical struggles against nature—from the relentless wind to the raging bushfire—serve to push Anna to her emotional limits and force her to face her grief. Until that point, she's emotionally attached to an imaginary projection of the child she never had: a sort of ghost she calls "the boy." But ultimately, Anna's journey leads her to a point where she can finally let the boy go and accept that he's gone. Anna is a complex character who embodies both the subtle, quiet side of grief, and the surprising circumstances that can cause a person to change, grow, and move on. - Character: Luke Worley. Description: Luke Worley is the secondary protagonist of the novel, Anna Worley's husband, and Ken's son. When Luke sees his wife becoming physically weak and emotionally drained, he decides that the two of them should move from their small apartment in the city to a spacious new home in the country. This is the first indication of Luke's major function as a character: he's a constant catalyst for change in Anna's life. He sets the novel's events in motion by suggesting that the couple should move to a rural area. He causes Anna to question how much control she has over her life, as his personality seems to change in their new home. And most importantly, he openly shares in Anna's grief towards the end of the novel. Like Anna, Luke struggles to face the reality of Anna's recent miscarriage. He sees the imaginary child they could have had as a hallucination simply called "the boy," just like Anna does. But ultimately, Luke is the one who reckons with his grief first, as he walks among the ashes left in the wake of a bushfire. If Luke hadn't come home weeping that night and reminded Anna of the boy, it's possible that she might have never faced her own grief and moved on. While Luke spurs change in Anna's life, he also undergoes plenty of his own changes, mirroring his wife's character growth. His new interest in bird-watching is unusual for him, and he turns out to be much more "practical" than Anna expected, after the two of them settle into country life. Even though he's usually the character who sets new things in motion, Luke's own capacity to change still surprises him. - Character: The Boy. Description: The boy is a ghostly child, imagined or hallucinated by Luke and Anna throughout the novel. This character is more symbolic than literal, as he represents Anna's unborn child. After Anna's miscarriage prior to the novel's events, a counsellor asked Luke and Anna if they wanted to name their child who hadn't survived the birth. They agreed that they should name him, as it felt like a good thing to do, but they eventually decided to simply call him "the boy." This name felt more personal and intimate than any other name they could have given him. While the boy seems like a real child at the beginning of the novel, it gradually becomes clear that he's only an imaginary projection of the child Luke and Anna wish they could have had. The boy is a persistent presence in their lives, defined only by the sights and sounds he seems to add to their world. He's nothing more than the noise he makes rattling a stick across the veranda, a glimpse of him playing in the garden, or the feeling of his sleeping body pressed against Anna's. But all of these sensations are illusions, created by the couple's unwillingness to face their grief and move on. They want to believe that their boy is still with them in some way, but they can only find peace when they mourn him and accept that he's gone. The boy is a manifestation of Vertigo's central conflict—a sign that something isn't quite right and needs to be put to rest. - Character: Ken. Description: Ken Worley is Luke's father. Ken's cynical attitude puts him at odds with Luke, who wants to believe that moving to the country was the right decision. During Ken's visit to his son's new home in the small, rural town of Garra Nalla, Ken is skeptical of country life. Luke doesn't argue with Ken about this, but their conversation reinforces the novel's tension between nature and civilization. Ken also sheepishly brings up "that business" with Luke's wife Anna, which serves as the first major hint that she might have had a miscarriage. Ken doesn't appear much in the novel, but his presence always tightens the dramatic tension and introduces doubt into the situation. - Character: Gil. Description: Gilbert Reilly (usually called Gil) is an elderly widower and a neighbor of Luke and Anna. Gil quickly befriends Luke and Anna after they move to the small coastal town of Garra Nalla. He offers advice, explains the lore of the area, and surprises Luke and Anna with how laid-back and accepting he is for a man of his age. With his helpful attitude and friendly demeanor, he makes the couple feel more welcome in their new home. While this makes him a hopeful sign that Luke and Anna's lives can get better, Gil harbors a quiet sadness of his own. Luke is surprised to learn that Gil has a grandson serving in the war in Afghanistan, and that Gil never talks about it. This is a direct parallel to Luke and Anna, who hesitate to talk about Anna's miscarriage and the child they never had. - Character: Alan. Description: Alan Watts is Bette's husband and the father of Zack and Briony. Alan and his family live in Garra Nalla and befriend Luke and Anna a few months after the couple moves into town. While Alan works as a math teacher, he also enjoys a physically active lifestyle of fishing, surfing, tennis, and practical projects. During a firestorm that rages through Garra Nalla, Alan comes close to losing his children. The experience leaves him deeply shaken and grateful that his family survived the ordeal. - Character: Bette. Description: Bette Watts is Alan's wife and the mother of Zack and Briony. She and her family live in Garra Nalla and become friends with Luke and Anna, welcoming them into the town's community. Bette is a nurse, and she shares in her husband's active lifestyle. While Bette is more reserved than Alan, her sudden question about starting a family makes Anna pause in thought. Anna's dismissive answer to Bette's question is an early clue that Anna's "boy" isn't what he seems. - Character: Rodney. Description: Rodney Banfield is a plumber and one of Luke and Anna's neighbors in Garra Nalla. Rodney's presence in the couple's lives is minimal, but his childish conversation with Luke makes Anna feel like her husband is changing too much and slipping away from her. Rumors persist that Rodney is having an affair with a local miner's wife. - Theme: Grief and Loss. Description: Though it often appears indirectly, grief is a constant presence in the lives of Luke and Anna. By always keeping the pain of their loss present but never quite in focus, Vertigo explores a quiet, subtle side of grief that lingers in the background of the characters' thoughts. This view of grief is expressed through the character known simply as "the boy." The boy is a child that exists only in Luke's and Anna's imagination, following Anna's miscarriage prior to the novel's events. This ghost-like child represents the heavy burden of grief that the couple still carries but hesitates to acknowledge directly. As the boy appears at various points in their lives, he shows them a glimpse of what could have been: the seemingly perfect life that they almost had but that was tragically snatched away from them. In this way, Vertigo highlights grief's ability to subtly linger. Just as grief can drive a person into more intense and dramatic episodes of sadness, it can also slowly, quietly erode someone's emotions until there's almost nothing left. The underlying tension in Luke and Anna's relationship is largely a result of this kind of grief. Because they're unwilling to directly face the pain of their loss, it seeps into their everyday world in the form of their visions of the boy, who is hovering between worlds just like they are. Ultimately, however, the novel settles on a hopeful message of coming to terms with grief and—in doing so—putting it to rest. After the harrowing bushfire pushes Luke and Anna to their emotional limits, they're forced to accept that their unborn child is gone forever. Only after they come to terms with their loss can they finally find peace, let the boy go, and move on with their lives. - Theme: Nature vs. Urban Life. Description: The novel's constant comparison of city life and rural life hints at a broader contrast between untamed nature and the structured quality of an urban existence. As this juxtaposition plays out, the novel suggests that the benefits of living in nature are worth the struggles and hardships that come with a more rugged lifestyle. However, Vertigo treats this theme with plenty of nuance, leaving room for interpretation. At the beginning of the novel, Luke and Anna are dissatisfied with city life and thrilled to move to the tiny town of Garra Nalla, which feels raw and untamed. The couple has many positive experiences in the natural beauty of Garra Nalla, including a new interest in birdwatching and canoeing on the lagoon. Their new neighbor Gil reinforces their love for the natural world, as he shows them the landscape and rails against the consortium of businessmen who aim to pollute the area. At the same time, living in the wild country presents its own problems, such as relentless wind, drought, and the bushfire that almost destroys what little civilization exists in Garra Nalla. Anna enjoys her brief visit to the city and even appreciates its urban beauty, constantly wondering if she and Luke really moved to the right place. But in the end, nature wins out over urban life, at least for Luke and Anna. The rough, natural world of Garra Nalla gives the couple the space and privacy to reflect, grieve, and start a new life for themselves. - Theme: Change and Personal Growth. Description: At the beginning of the novel, Anna and Luke are in desperate need of a change. The rest of their story is an exploration of what their lives might become and, on a broader level, whether change is even possible at all. This focus on change begins with the first line of the novel, which mentions Luke's new and surprising interest in birdwatching. Luke continues to develop as a person after he and Anna move to the coast, to the point where Anna feels she hardly recognizes him anymore. He proves himself to be more practical than she expected, but she also comes find him duller than she would have thought she'd find him. In this way, their new life and its promise of change becomes a double-edged sword. Luke and Anna feel more refreshed and alive in their new home on the coast, but they're also changed by the new environment and its challenges. Nonetheless, these challenges give Luke and Anna an opportunity to grow as people and change for the better. Anna's garden is symbolic of this personal growth and her desire to start something new. Even as a bushfire razes the garden to the ground, hope remains in the form of Anna's fire-resistant she-oaks. Similarly, the same bushfire indirectly leads to the novel's most important moment of personal growth: Luke and Anna putting the memory of their unborn child to rest. However, even after this significant positive change, Vertigo still ends on an ironic note, as Anna starts watching the news, which is an old habit of hers. The novel thus opens with Luke changing his usual behavior but ends with Anna doing something she's done since she was young. This implies that even if personal growth is possible, some things might never change. - Theme: Community. Description: Luke and Anna move to the small town of Garra Nalla specifically because it doesn't have many people, but they nonetheless find and embrace a new community there. By showing how everyone in Garra Nalla is stronger for supporting each other, Vertigo casts the importance of community in a positive light. Anna and Luke's first encounter with their new community is through their neighbor Gil, who acts as their guide and the first friend they make in Garra Nalla. Gil is the character who reinforces the theme of community the most directly. This is especially evident when he tells the couple about the consortium of businessmen who own an old mansion in the area. The consortium uses the mansion for occasional parties, but they don't have any real connection to Garra Nalla or its people. This makes them worthy of contempt in Gil's view, as mere proximity doesn't make them part of the community. Meanwhile, Alan and Bette also welcome Luke and Anna into Garra Nalla's social circle. Bette's questions about starting a family force Anna to think about her own unborn child in a way she has tried to avoid. In this way, exposure to a community of friends is healthy for her, even if it sometimes makes her uncomfortable. The most significant moment of the town's community strengthening one another comes in the third chapter, during the massive bushfire. The flames nearly consume the town, but because the community of Garra Nalla pulls together to help their neighbors, the disaster doesn't claim any lives. The promise of solitude is what initially attracted Luke and Anna to Garra Nalla—but ironically, the town's community is what makes them feel truly welcome there by the end of the novel. - Climax: A raging bushfire threatens to destroy the town of Garra Nalla, forcing Luke, Anna, and the other townsfolk to flee from their homes. - Summary: Luke and Anna are a married couple living in a city in Australia. Their life isn't terrible by any means, but both of them have begun to feel a sense of growing emptiness and dissatisfaction with their lives. Luke feels as though he's lost his youth and purpose in life, while Anna becomes despondent after being diagnosed with asthma, which interferes with her usually active lifestyle. As he watches his wife struggle to breathe in bed with him one evening, Luke decides that a serious change is necessary. He suggests that the two of them pack their things and move to a more rural area, where they can both work from home. Anna is on board with the idea, though their parents are more skeptical. Nonetheless, they begin researching and scouting for the perfect rural town to move into. They already feel freer as they drive out on the open road to take a look at the towns they've researched. They're also delighted to look in the backseat and see their young boy sitting there, gazing out the windows curiously at the new places. Eventually, they accidentally find themselves in a tiny coastal town called Garra Nalla. The area looks beautiful and (more importantly) free of tourists due to the dangerous riptides. Thinking it's perfect for them, the couple decides to move to Garra Nalla. As they settle into their new house in Garra Nalla, Luke and Anna enjoy how simple and homey the place feels, especially when compared to their small, drab apartment in the city. They also get acquainted with Gil, one of their new neighbors. Gil is a friendly old widower who welcomes the couple into the community as he gives them advice and shares his knowledge of the area. Luke takes up a new interest in watching and identifying the local birds, and the couple plant a garden in their yard. The boy seems happy to be in this new place; Luke and Anna admire the way he runs across the house's veranda and plays around in the garden. One evening, while coming home from a walk, Luke encounters a strange, owl-like bird that stares at him as he stares back. This experience makes Luke feel connected to nature and happy in a way he can't explain; he only wishes the boy could have been there with him to see the bird as well. Luke and Anna soon meet more friendly denizens of Garra Nalla: the Watts family. Alan Watts, his wife Bette, and their two children welcome the couple into their home, and they begin to play tennis together regularly. Luke and Anna also begin canoeing on Garra Nalla's large lagoon, bringing the boy with them (though he seems afraid of the swans). Despite the joys of their new home, Luke and Anna's lives aren't perfect. Garra Nalla is in a very dry area, prone to drought, and the couple is forced to conserve water as much as possible. The area is also plagued by strong winds that continue day and night for weeks on end. The noise and the dryness of the wind begin to seriously get on Anna's nerves, especially as she becomes annoyed at Luke's indifference to the weather. When Luke's father Ken comes to visit one week, he wonders how Luke could possibly want to live in such a wild place, cut off from the conveniences of civilization. Luke is silently annoyed by his father's doubts, and Ken vaguely asks how Anna's been dealing with "that business," referring to something he doesn't want to mention directly. In the following weeks, the wind becomes too much for Anna, to the point where she tries casually telling Luke that she couldn't live in Garra Nalla her whole life. Luke takes the hint and suggests that they take a break and visit the city. Anna agrees, though Luke doesn't stay in the city long; he already misses the natural beauty and privacy of Garra Nalla. Anna stays behind in the city for a few more days, enjoying the lack of dryness but still not feeling at home. She realizes, sadly, that she hasn't seen the boy in quite a while, and she wonders why the boy always seems to take his father's side in everything. After Anna returns home from the city, she and Luke plant the weeping she-oaks that Anna purchased, despite Gil's warnings about the plants being highly flammable. After celebrating the new additions to the garden with Gil and the Watts, Luke and Anna fall asleep on the veranda, only to wake up and see a smoky sky later that day. A large bushfire has started in the hills, and Garra Nalla soon becomes smothered by the smoke drifting in from the distant blaze. The locals insist that fires never reach the coast, but Luke and Anna still find themselves feeling mildly anxious as they hunker down in their sweltering house. Their concerns intensify as the bushfire grows ever closer, and Anna continues to wonder why she hasn't seen the boy in such a long time. She begins to worry that he's abandoned them, and worries that maybe the fire will claim their house; maybe they'll never find a real home. Later on, after the fire has taken out Garra Nalla's electricity, Luke and Anna join the townsfolk as they gather together to watch the approaching flames. For a moment, it seems as though the wind is changing in their favor, and that the fire might spare them. But just as they begin to let their guard down, Bette points out a churning, dark cloud of smoke and flame that none of them noticed before. The cloud throws a fireball into the town, and the denizens of Garra Nalla scatter in panic. As the smoke and flames of a perfect firestorm begin to engulf Garra Nalla, the Watts run for the safety of the coast while Luke and Anna rush back to their house to put on wool clothing. Fire begins to consume the garden just as they begin to leave, seeming to trap them in the house with no safe escape route. Just then, a fire truck backs into their yard and firemen rescue the couple, taking them to the relative safety of the lagoon, where many of the townsfolk have gathered. Soon enough, policemen inform the frightened townspeople that Garra Nalla is a crime scene (somehow, arson is suspected) and that everyone will be given food and a place to spend the night at a nearby church. On a mattress on the floor of the church's hall that night, Anna is relieved to find that the boy has returned to her. She drifts off into an exhausted sleep with the boy cradled lovingly in her arms. The next morning, a police officer tells the townsfolk that the fire has miraculously failed to burn Garra Nalla to cinders. Almost all of the houses remain intact, and there were no casualties. Luke and Anna return to their house, relieved to find that it hasn't burned down. However, Luke becomes surprisingly upset when he sees that, during the fire, a bird has flown into their chimney and died on the floor; the same owl-like bird he saw before. Later that evening, he walks among the ashes and cinders where the bushfire burned the most furiously. The bleak sights around him force his memory back to a terrible day in the hospital: the day that Anna had a miscarriage. "The boy" was never a real child. He was only a phantom that Luke and Anna imagined; an image of the child they wished they'd had. Luke comes home later that night, crying in front of Anna for the first time. As they meet in the doorway, they both know what he's really crying about, and they embrace as they think of the boy they never really had. Anna weeps that night in bed as she finally faces her grief and dreams of the boy disappearing before her eyes. Days later, the Watts family hosts a large picnic to celebrate the town's survival. Anna and Luke attend, and Anna sees the boy out in a canoe on the lagoon, paddling away. She feels prepared to let him go, and to give herself a chance to live again. She waves goodbye to the boy and thanks him for staying with them for so long. That night, Luke dreams of the owl-like bird while Anna stays up and watches the news, seemingly content.

- Genre: Expatriate Literature, Stream of Consciousness - Title: Voyage in the Dark - Point of view: - Setting: England in the early 20th century - Character: Anna Morgan. Description: Anna Morgan, the protagonist of Voyage in the Dark, is a young woman who recently moved to England from the West Indies, where she was born and raised. Anna is white, but she has always wished she were Black, finding herself more connected to Black culture in the West Indies than to her own family background. She's incredibly homesick in England, which she thinks is oppressively gray, monotonous, and cold. She originally moved with her stepmother, Hester, after her father died, and though Hester gives her some financial support, she mostly keeps herself afloat by working as a chorus girl in a traveling theater troupe. While on tour, she and her friend Maudie meet two wealthy older men on the street, and Anna starts a relationship with one of them. His name is Walter, and though Anna doesn't like him at first, she agrees to go to dinner with him. Anna ends up having sex for the first time with Walter, at which point she develops strong feelings for him. Over the next few months, she spends a lot of time with Walter. Each time they have sex, he puts money into her handbag. Anna doesn't necessarily want him to pay her, since she has real feelings for him, though she takes the money anyway. Walter, however, eventually loses interest in their relationship and abandons Anna, who plunges into a deep depression. She spends her time reminiscing about the West Indies and going out with men she meets through her friend Laurie. She works for a little while as a manicurist for a woman named Ethel, who dislikes her mopey attitude. Before long, Anna gets pregnant and doesn't know who the father is, so she's forced to borrow money from Walter for an abortion. The procedure doesn't go well, and the book ends with her in a painful dream state in which she fantasizes about the West Indies and thinks about the idea of "starting all over again" in life. - Character: Walter Jeffries. Description: Walter Jeffries is a wealthy middle-aged man who takes an interest in Anna when he meets her walking on the street one day. He uses his wealth and influence to endear himself to her, especially when she falls ill shortly after having dinner with him for the first time. He not only visits her and brings food but also sends his personal doctor to see her and convinces her landlady not to kick her out. Gestures like these seem to resonate with Anna because they suggest that Walter legitimately cares about her, which is significant because she has so few people she can rely on in England. And yet, it's clear to most of Anna's friends that Walter is interested in her because she's young and beautiful—not because he's truly in love with her. Anna, however, appears unwilling to consider the possibility that he'll abandon her someday, instead letting herself develop a dependency on Walter that is both financial and emotional. Sure enough, though, Walter coldly breaks things off with Anna, delivering the news through his cousin, Vincent, who bluntly tells Anna that Walter doesn't love her anymore. He will, however, continue to give her money, though not forever. The way Walter ends his relationship with Anna is quite transactional, as if he's terminating a business contract. To that end, he seems to think money is the only thing that matters, and that offering to pay for Anna's expenses will make up for breaking her heart. - Character: Hester. Description: Hester is Anna's stepmother. Originally from England, she married Anna's father and moved in with him and Anna in the West Indies, but she never liked living there—most likely because she's quite racist and always disliked that Anna was interested in the West Indies' predominantly Black culture. After Anna's father died, Hester took her to England, but she now thinks this was a mistake, since she disapproves of how Anna has been leading her life in England. She claims that she wants Anna to return to the West Indies because that's what would be best, but it's obvious that this is mainly an attempt to stop financially supporting her stepdaughter. She writes a letter to Anna's Uncle Bo, asking him to pay for half of Anna's passage back to the West Indies, but he refuses. When Hester tells Anna about this exchange, Anna assures her that she doesn't need to keep giving her money. This seems to please Hester, though she doesn't want to know how, exactly, Anna will support herself. After this conversation, Anna and Hester lose touch, but the loss of this relationship isn't terribly upsetting to Anna, since Hester's judgmental, racist attitude makes it clear that she was never a positive figure in her life anyway. - Character: Maudie. Description: Maudie is one of Anna's friends in the traveling theater troupe. She's 10 years older than Anna and knows what it's like to live without much money, which is why she encourages Anna to indulge Walter's affections. Maudie herself has had relationships with rich older men, so she knows it's important to seize the opportunity to live a financially comfortable life whenever the chance presents itself. What's more, she tries to get Anna to see that such opportunities are fleeting, since rich older men eventually lose interest in the young women they so eagerly pursue at first. This is exactly what happened to Maudie with a man named Viv, for whom she ended up developing strong feelings. Maudie's experience with Viv serves as a cautionary tale of sorts, but Anna doesn't pay much attention to her friend, ultimately choosing to ignore the likelihood that Walter will one day abandon her. - Character: Laurie. Description: Laurie is one of Anna's friends in the traveling theater troupe. An older woman, she's very experienced when it comes to dating wealthy older men. She likes Anna, but she's also eager to use Anna's youthful beauty to her own advantage. Although it's never made explicit in the novel, Laurie seems to earn money through sex work when she's not engaged in the theater. When Anna runs into her one evening shortly after Walter leaves her, Laurie invites her to spend time with her and two men, Carl and Joe. The ensuing evening is full of alcohol and sexual tension, and Laurie even tries to undress Anna in front of Joe at one point. But Anna stops her and starts an argument. Her behavior annoys Laurie, who thought Anna understood the sexually explicit (and transactional) nature of the evening. Nonetheless, the two friends forgive each other the following morning, and Laurie counsels Anna to get as much money out of Walter as she can while he's still willing to send financial support. - Character: Ethel Matthews. Description: Anna meets Ethel Matthews at a rundown boardinghouse shortly after Walter leaves her. An entrepreneurial and opportunistic person, Ethel immediately notices Anna's expensive coat and makes a point of befriending her. She claims to be a trained nurse, though what she really wants to do is open a massage parlor. She insists that she's only living in the rundown boardinghouse because her flat in a much nicer part of town is under renovation. She also goes on at length about how respectable her massage and manicure business will be, eventually convincing Anna to rent a room in her flat and work as a manicurist—that is, if she puts up some money in advance. Anna isn't particularly interested in becoming a manicurist, but she takes Ethel up on her offer. At first, Ethel is kind and excited, but she soon turns on Anna and berates her for always moping around. All the while, Ethel maintains that she runs a respectable business, insinuating that other massage businesses are really covert sex-work operations. And yet, she subtly urges Anna to entice the customers, and when Anna goes out late with Carl one night, Ethel suggests that she should go out with men as much as she wants and even bring them back to the flat—as long as she doesn't mind paying extra in rent. The implication is that Ethel wants Anna to become a discreet sex worker. When Anna gets pregnant, though, Ethel kicks her out, claiming that she's disreputable and that she owes her money. - Character: Uncle Bo. Description: Uncle Bo is Anna's uncle who lives in the West Indies. He's a heavy drinker who often finds himself at odds with his Anna's stepmother, Hester, who disapproves of the life he leads. Hester reveals in a conversation with Anna that Uncle Bo has impregnated many Black women in the West Indies. He apparently makes no secret of this, even giving these children his last name—something Hester finds inexcusable, as she's quite racist and thinks Uncle Bo is dishonoring the family name. When Hester asks Uncle Bo to pay for half of Anna's passage back to the West Indies, Uncle Bo writes a letter refusing to give her any money. He points out that Hester should use the funds she received from selling her late husband's estate, taking issue with the implication that Anna is his financial responsibility. Although Anna reads this somewhat hurtful letter, she still has fond memories of Uncle Bo, who at least says he'd be happy to have her live with him, as long as Hester pays for her to do so. - Character: Francine. Description: Francine is a young woman who frequently appears in Anna's fond memories of her upbringing in the West Indies. Anna always felt very connected to Francine, who worked as a housekeeper for her family. Her bond with Francine is possibly one of the reasons Anna always wanted to be Black, since Francine herself is Black. At the same time, Anna sometimes wondered if Francine resented her because she came from a white, affluent family that settled down in the West Indies. The fact that Anna thinks about Francine so often underscores not just her intense longing for home, but also her fetishization of Blackness. - Character: Vincent. Description: Vincent is Walter's cousin. He claims to be very fond of Anna, though he tends to disparage and patronize her. When he hears that she's a chorus girl, for example, he insists on helping her improve her theatrical skills and putting her in touch with influential figures in the theater world—but then he laughs when he discovers that she has only ever been in small shows. When Walter decides to break things off with Anna, he does so through Vincent, who writes to Anna on Walter's behalf. He acts like he wants the best for Anna, but it's clear that he just wants to help Walter ensure she won't make a big deal out of how he treated her. In the end, he's the one to arrange for Anna to receive money for an abortion. - Character: Germaine. Description: Germaine is a French woman who's romantically involved with Vincent. Anna and Walter go on a short vacation in the countryside with Germaine and Vincent, but the entire weekend is ruined because Germaine and Vincent got into an argument shortly before arriving. Germaine spends the weekend berating Vincent and suggesting that he doesn't care about women, but Anna doesn't know why—until, that is, Walter explains that Vincent is going away for a while and didn't tell Germaine until the last minute. Germaine is also angry because she thinks Vincent isn't leaving her enough money. In the course of this conversation, Anna learns that Walter is also leaving with Vincent. She thus understands Germaine's anger. Unlike Germaine, though, she keeps her disappointment to herself, ultimately responding in a much more passive manner. - Character: Carl Redman. Description: Carl Redman is an attractive American man whom Anna meets through Laurie. Carl met Laurie while he and his friend Joe were traveling in Europe, and she told them to look her up if they ever come to London. The implication is that Laurie's relationship with both Carl and Joe is of a sexual and transactional nature—meaning, in other words, that she's a sex worker and they are her clients. When Anna lives in Ethel's flat, Carl comes to see her and takes her out. Ethel takes a liking to Carl and tells Anna that she can spend as much time as she wants with men like him—if, that is, she pays extra rent. Ethel thus implies that she wants a cut of the money Anna might receive from having sex with wealthy men. - Character: Joe Adler. Description: Joe Adler is an American man whom Anna meets through Laurie. He and his friend Carl are seemingly interested in paying Laurie and Anna to have sex with them, though Anna doesn't pick up on this when she goes out to dinner with them. Later, though, Joe takes Laurie and Anna back to a hotel, where Laurie tries to undress Anna in front of him. Anna refuses, and though Joe doesn't force her to do anything, he implies that she shouldn't go around with Laurie if she doesn't want to have sex with rich men for money. - Character: Viv. Description: Viv is a wealthy older man Maudie used to see quite frequently. He used to shower her in money and gifts, but he soon lost interest. Unfortunately for Maudie, though, she developed strong romantic feelings for him. She talks about him quite often, trying to warn Anna about the fact that rich older men usually lose interest in their young lovers and abandon them. - Theme: Homesickness, Memory, and Belonging. Description: Voyage in the Dark is a portrait of the loneliness and disorientation of leaving home. Anna Morgan experiences intense social isolation after moving to England from her home in the West Indies. Living in England makes her feel like everything in her life is new, but she doesn't see this transformation as positive or rewarding. To the contrary, she feels as if a "curtain ha[s] fallen" over her life, suggesting that she doesn't see her move to England as the beginning of something new but rather as an ending of sorts. She has, in other words, been estranged from everything she once knew and loved, and this estrangement makes her feel like her life has drawn to a close. Still, she eventually gets used to England—or so she claims. And yet, she frequently finds herself slipping into daydreams about her upbringing in the West Indies, often basking in the memory of the sights, sounds, and smells of her childhood. In doing so, she idealizes her birthplace and essentially makes it impossible for her current circumstances to live up to her past. Although nostalgia after leaving home is to be expected, then, it's arguable that Anna's intense yearning for the West Indies interferes with her ability to fully engage with her current surroundings. To that end, she's emotionally removed from her present life because she's always thinking about her past. To make matters even more difficult, nobody in England seems to know much about the West Indies, nor are they interested in hearing about Anna's memories. For instance, when she talks to her lover, Walter, about the flowers that bloom in the West Indies, he dismisses the conversation by saying he thinks the island climate would be too "lush" for him. Anna thus has no outlet to express her intense longing for home, and this makes her feel even more isolated and alone. When Walter demonstrates his indifference about listening to Anna talk about home, it becomes clear just how difficult it is for her to connect with people in England, since nobody can relate to her upbringing (nor do they seem to want to relate). Therefore, as Anna struggles to invest herself in her current life, she experiences homesickness not just as a pang of nostalgia but also as an acute loss—a loss she has no choice but to mourn all by herself. - Theme: Sexism, Love, and Power. Description: Voyage in the Dark features many sexist, transactional relationships between wealthy men and younger women. The novel tacitly criticizes men who treat women as if their only purpose is to provide fleeting moments of pleasure, but it also suggests that the women in these toxic relationships can still develop real romantic feelings—or, at the very least, feelings that seem real. Anna, for instance, becomes enamored of Walter, an older man who initially uses his wealth to endear himself to her. Although it's quite clear to everyone around her that Walter has no intentions of starting a long-term relationship, Anna comes to see him as one of the great loves of her life. She's consequently devastated when he abruptly breaks things off. Other women in the book undergo similar experiences. Anna's friend Maudie, for example, often talks about a man named Viv who showered her with affection and money and then, once she developed feelings for him, abandoned her. Maudie's story serves as a cautionary tale, but Anna doesn't listen, a fact that suggests it's very difficult to exercise caution while in the throes of romantic infatuation. Even though everyone around her warns her that Walter will eventually lose interest, Anna is shocked when it actually happens. And yet, the novel's intention isn't to make her look foolish or naïve. Rather, Voyage in the Dark underlines her heartbreak as a way of showing that even unhealthy, imbalanced relationships can still produce strong romantic feelings—feelings that overshadow everything else in life and make it hard to move on.  Furthermore, the novel illustrates that dysfunctional romantic relationships are often quite emotionally complex. For example, the exact nature of Anna's attachment to Walter is hard to understand. She doesn't like him when they first meet, finding his forward advances off-putting. But something about their relationship slowly transforms, and though the reasons for this shift remain ambiguous, it's reasonable to infer that her strong feelings have something to do with a sense of dependency on Walter. After all, he not only gives her financial stability and a comfortable life but also a feeling of companionship—which, of course, her life in England otherwise lacks. In many ways, he becomes a paternal figure in her life, often patronizing her by acting like he knows what's best for her career and trying to make sure she's set up for success. In other words, he pretends to take an active interest in her life, which is significant because Anna has so few people who really care what happens to her. There is, then, a significant element of manipulation at play in their relationship, as Walter targets Anna's vulnerabilities—namely, her poverty and her loneliness—to make sure she'll continue to see him. Through Walter's predatory treatment of Anna, the novel shines a light on why it can be so difficult to get over toxic relationships that are founded on manipulation. - Theme: Race and Identity. Description: Anna Morgan's cultural identity in Voyage in the Dark is hard to define. In some ways, her social positioning seems straightforward: she is, after all, a white woman living in England. However, she doesn't identify with British culture, nor does she feel connected to her own whiteness. Having grown up in the West Indies, she doesn't relate to British ways of life, finding everything in England drab, monotonous, and overly modest. She's also unaccustomed to being surrounded by white people, despite the fact that she herself is white. Indeed, her relationship with her own whiteness has always been strained, as she grew up wishing she were Black. "Being black is warm and gay, being white is cold and sad," she says at one point while fondly remembering her family's Black housekeeper, Francine. Sentiments like this one suggest that Anna has fetishized Blackness by relating it to happiness and joy—an association that fails to take into account that to be Black is to be human, which obviously encompasses an entire range of experiences that go far beyond simplistic feelings of joy. What's more, her romanticization of Blackness also fails to recognize the many hardships that unfortunately come along with being Black in a racist world. Interestingly enough, Anna is seemingly aware of these hardships, since she suggests at one point that Francine probably resents her and her family for their whiteness and their privileged societal position in the West Indies. And yet, her acknowledgement doesn't seem to impact her desire to be Black, perhaps because she grew up feeling like she didn't fit into the surrounding culture in the West Indies. Her desire to fit in therefore leads her to view Blackness in overly simplistic, fetishized ways. The irony, though, is that when Anna moves to England, she actually does experience some of the hardships of being Black (albeit in mild, subtle ways). Because she's from a predominantly Black part of the world, for example, the other chorus girls in her theater troupe call her "the Hottentot," which is a racially charged term originally used to refer to the Khoekhoe people of South Africa (and later applied to a Khoekhoe woman who was displayed at "freak shows" under the name Hottentot Venus). The fact that this term doesn't even apply to people from the West Indies only emphasizes the racist ignorance of the people surrounding Anna in England, ultimately underlining just how little they know—or care—about where she's from. What's more, Anna's British stepmother, Hester, subjects her to racist remarks when she tells her—in a disapproving tone and using the n-word—that she has always spoken like a Black person, which Hester argues is not the way a respectable "lady" should behave. Hester also scornfully implies that Anna's mother was secretly multiracial, and even though Anna has previously suggested that she wants to be Black, she immediately refutes Hester's implication by categorically stating that her mother was white. Her fetishization of Blackness therefore only goes so far: for Anna, the idea of being Black is more of a romanticized fantasy than a genuine identification with Blackness. When she feels white, she wishes she were Black. But when people treat her like she's Black, she fights the suggestion that she isn't white. On the whole, her lack of identification with both white and Black culture underscores her broader feeling of alienation and isolation in life. - Theme: Money and Happiness. Description: The majority of the characters in Voyage in the Dark view money as a path to happiness and satisfaction. Laurie and Maudie, for instance, focus most of their energy on finding men who will be able to give them a measure of financial security. Even Anna—who seems rather skeptical of this practice—recognizes the transformative effect money has on her life, noticing that she sounds more confident and assertive after her lover Walter gives her cash for the first time. "That's because of the money," she thinks when she notes her newfound self-assurance, implying that even small amounts of wealth can alter how a person moves through the world. At the same time, though, she's also aware that the rewarding feeling of possessing money is fleeting, since people become "accustomed to it so quickly." In other words, suddenly obtaining some cash can change a person's immediate circumstances, but it won't necessarily have a profound long-term impact on how that person goes through life. When Anna sees Walter slipping cash into her handbag after they have sex for the first time, her impulse is to stop him, though she ends up letting him do it because she can tell he actively wants to pay her. But the fact that he gives her money fundamentally alters the nature of their relationship, essentially ensuring that their bond is based on a monetary transaction instead of mutual affection. Although money can lead to certain kinds of happiness and contentment, in this case it actually interferes with Anna's chances of establishing a genuine romantic connection—and she seems aware of this, which is why she doesn't like seeing Walter slip money into her purse. As a result, the financial stability Walter gives her is a constant reminder of their lacking mutual affection instead of a source of happiness or satisfaction. While there's no avoiding the unfortunate fact that daily life is harder without money, then, it's also the case that wealth doesn't always get rid of broader forms of unhappiness. To the contrary, the topic of money can add a complex dynamic to a person's life, ultimately making it that much harder to find genuine contentment. - Climax: Anna has an abortion that leads to medical complications, leaving her in terrible pain throughout the night. - Summary: Anna Morgan is a young white woman who was born and raised in the West Indies. After her father died, her British stepmother, Hester, moved her to England, where she now works as a chorus girl in a traveling theater troupe. Anna longs for the West Indies and often loses herself in childhood memories, fantasizing about her home's sights, sounds, and smells—all of which seem vibrant and lively compared to life in England, which she finds bleak and monotonous. One day, she and her friend Maudie go shopping in a small town. They meet two older men on the street who are obviously wealthy, and one of them—Walter—takes a liking to Anna, though she's only 18. He buys stockings for her and then comes back to her and Maudie's small room, where they have drinks and make awkward conversation. Before he leaves, they arrange to get together again when the theater tour passes through London. Anna claims after he leaves that she doesn't like him, but Maudie urges her to go out with him, since he has money. She tells Anna about a relationship she had with an older man named Viv, who gave her lots of money but ended up breaking her heart. Anna goes out with Walter when she comes to London. He takes her to a strange restaurant where each dining party has its own private room. She finds it difficult to connect with Walter, who makes a show of sending back a bottle of wine because it's not to his satisfaction. Later, she tries to stop him from kissing her, but he doesn't stop right away. Eventually, though, he backs off and apologizes, at which point Anna opens a door she hadn't noticed before. It leads to a bedroom. When she expresses her surprise, Walter laughs. She gets her coat and shuts herself in the bedroom, lying down on the bed and waiting for him to come in, but he never does. When she finally comes out, he orders her a taxi and says goodbye. The next day, Anna receives a letter from Walter, who insists that he's worried about her. The envelope contains some money, which he hopes she'll use to buy herself some clothes—which is exactly what she does, going out to purchase a new dress and a nice coat. When she returns, her landlady scolds her for coming home so late the night before after spending time with a man, and then she criticizes her for buying nice clothes, suggesting that Anna is promiscuous. She adds that Anna has until Saturday to find a new place to stay. Anna starts to feel sick. She quickly loses her energy, but before she's too ill to move, she mails a letter to Walter asking him to visit her. He comes as soon as he receives the note. Seeing the condition Anna is in, he runs out again and brings back food and wine. He also mentions that he's going out of town for the next few days but that he's going to have his doctor visit her. Before he leaves, he talks to Anna's landlady and convinces her to let Anna stay. Once Anna gets better again, she starts seeing Walter more frequently. She goes to his house one evening and has sex for the first time, though she initially tries to stop things from progressing too far—but then Walter tells her to be "brave," so she lets down her guard. Afterward, she watches in the mirror as he slips money into her handbag. She doesn't want him to do this and is about to tell him not to, but then she lets it go, deciding not to interfere with his desire to pay her. Anna starts living in a much nicer boardinghouse. During this period, Walter introduces Anna to his cousin, Vincent, who is eager to put her in touch with people he knows in the theater. Both Walter and Vincent are excited about the idea of helping Anna become successful, and Walter even starts paying for Anna to have singing lessons. On her 19th birthday, Anna spends the day with Maudie because Walter is out of town. Maudie is impressed with her new living arrangements and her stylish new haircut, but she hints that it doesn't bode well that Walter seems like the "cautious" type—that is, the type of man who always wants Anna to come over to his house at night but never visits her at her apartment. Maudie's former lover, Viv, used to do the same thing. But Maudie doesn't press the issue, instead simply telling Anna to get as much money out of Walter as she can. Shortly after she sees Maudie, Anna visits Hester, who's in London for a short stay. Hester says she thinks Anna would be better off returning to the West Indies, and then she shows her a letter from her Uncle Bo. It's a response to a letter Hester sent, in which she asked Bo to pay for half of Anna's passage back to the West Indies. In his response, Uncle Bo makes it clear that he resents the implication that he should have to financially support Anna. After all, Hester sold the family estate in the West Indies, so she should have plenty of money to pay for Anna's passage. Hester tells Anna that this is ridiculous, claiming that she didn't even make that much from selling the estate. Either way, she doesn't have enough money to keep supporting Anna, but Anna tells her she doesn't need her support. She's about to explain why, but Hester stops her, saying that she doesn't want to know. She also makes a number of racist comments about how Anna speaks like a Black person, and she implies that Anna's mother was multiracial—something that Anna refutes. The two women then part ways after a tense farewell. Not long after her conversation with Hester, Anna goes away for the weekend with Walter, who has arranged for them to take a short vacation in the countryside with Vincent and a French woman named Germaine. Anna and Walter spend the beginning of the vacation by themselves, exploring the countryside and having sex as they wait for Vincent and Germaine to arrive. Anna feels overwhelmingly happy, but soon Vincent and Germaine's arrival shatters her bliss. Throughout the weekend, Germaine makes rude comments about Vincent because they're in the middle of a fight. Eventually, Walter explains to Anna that Germaine is mad because Vincent is going away for a while, and Germaine thinks he's not leaving enough money for her. In the course of telling Anna what happened between Vincent and Germaine, Walter reveals that he, too, is going away. Both he and Vincent are traveling to New York and will be there for an extended period. Anna is hurt and upset, but she doesn't say anything. When they go back to the city, she has sex with Walter without bringing up her feelings. Walter has been gone for several weeks when Anna receives a letter from Vincent. It informs her that Walter no longer loves her. Vincent explains that Walter asked him to write this letter, wanting to make sure Anna knows she will be provided for financially—for a little while, that is. If she needs anything, she should write to Vincent. He also asks her to send any letters she might have kept from Walter. Distraught, Anna writes to Walter (who is apparently back in London), and he agrees to meet her that evening in a public place. It doesn't go well. She tries to convince him to go somewhere private, but he refuses. The next day, Anna moves to a new address and doesn't update Walter, making it impossible for him to send money. Anna gets sick in her new boardinghouse, where a slightly older woman named Ethel befriends her. Ethel is very impressed by Anna's beautiful coat and won't stop talking about how expensive it must have been. She then talks about how she's only in this depressing boardinghouse because her flat in a nicer part of town is under renovation. She's trained as a nurse, but she's opening a massage and manicure company that will operate out of her flat—and she wants Anna to live there and work as a manicurist, even though Anna doesn't know how to do manicures. Ethel tells her not to make any decisions before she sees the flat. The next day, Anna bumps into her theater friend Laurie and two men. The men are named Carl and Joe, and they—along with Laurie—invite her to dinner. Anna spends the evening with them and gets quite drunk. Carl leaves after dinner to go gambling, but Joe takes Laurie and Anna to a hotel. It seems likely that Laurie is a sex worker, but Anna appears to not have picked up on this. When Laurie tries to undress her in front of Joe, Anna starts an argument and storms out of the room, eventually going to sleep in the room across the hall. Joe has left by the time she wakes up the next morning, but Laurie is still there. She and Anna make up with each other, and then Anna goes to see Ethel's flat. Ethel was telling the truth: her flat is very nice. Anna agrees to live there and work as a manicurist. Ethel is overjoyed and speaks extensively about how respectable her business is. And yet, men often come to the massage parlor with the intention of having sex. Ethel claims that this isn't what she wants the business to be, but she also encourages Anna to be very friendly to these male clients. When Carl comes and takes her out one night, Ethel says that Anna can go out with men and bring them back to the apartment whenever she wants, as long as she's willing to pay a little extra rent. Anna agrees. But living at Ethel's isn't easy, since Ethel gets jealous when Anna goes out and frequently finds ways to get money out of Anna. After a while of casually seeing several men, Anna gets pregnant, but she doesn't tell anyone for three months. When she finally reveals her pregnancy, Ethel kicks her out, fearing that the pregnancy will attract negative attention to her business. With nobody to turn to except Laurie, Anna writes to Walter asking for money so that she can get an abortion from a woman Laurie knows. Walter arranges for her to meet with Vincent, who assures her that she will be taken care of. Before he leaves, though, he makes her hand over all the letters Walter ever sent, including one in which he wrote, "Shy Anna, I love you so much." Anna's abortion does not go well. She wakes up that night in excruciating pain, so her landlady calls Laurie. But when Laurie arrives, she's angry and wants to know why the landlady got her involved when she really should have called a doctor. The landlady, for her part, didn't want a doctor to know what happened. But she eventually summons one, and Laurie tells Anna to claim that she had a nasty fall. The doctor immediately sees through this lie, but he still treats Anna, who drifts in and out of a dream state full of memories from her childhood in the West Indies. At one point, she hears the doctor scornfully say that she'll be all right and that she'll surely be ready to "start all over again" in no time—a phrase that echoes in her mind as she drifts to sleep.

- Genre: Postmodern fiction, Contemporary novel - Title: Waiting for the Barbarians - Point of view: First-person, from the magistrate's point of view - Setting: The novel takes place in an unnamed, fictional country that in some ways resembles real-world South Africa and in others seems as if it is from Medieval or Roman times - Character: The Magistrate. Description: A civil servant of the Empire who's looking forward to retiring soon, the magistrate is the narrator and protagonist (though his proper name is never revealed) of Waiting for the Barbarians. The magistrate's dream of living out his last years of service with relative ease and little disruption, however, is thwarted by the circulation of rumors in the Empire's capital about the nomads beyond the nation's frontier settlements. Believing these 'barbarians' to be plotting an assault on the frontier, the Empire's army has dispatched military officers to the frontier. When one such Colonel Joll arrives at the settlement under the magistrate's jurisdiction, the disappearance of quietude and stability in the magistrate's life begins. Disgusted by Joll's use of torture to interrogate the barbarians he takes prisoner, the magistrate displays an empathy for the nomads unmet by virtually everyone around him. And, while his fellow servants of the Empire blindly and unquestioningly follow the orders of their authorities, the magistrate possesses a more critical and objective perspective of the Empire informed by his attention to history. The magistrate notes, for example, that every generation seems to have its own bout of hysteria about the barbarians—and indeed, based on his vague historical inquiries into local ruins, the magistrate wonders if there have been past Empires that rose and fell in a similar cycle. Consequently, he views Joll's campaign against the nomads as yet another renewal of this trend. The magistrate therefore has the makings of an outcast within him from the start of the novel, and his willingness to vocalize his dissent to the various executors of the Empire's military will ultimately solidifies him in that role. The magistrate's inner character is also shaped by a complicated relationship with his sexuality. His attraction to the barbarian girl baffles and frustrates him, as it makes him realize just how little control he has over his own sexual desire. The opacity of her personality infuriates him; he feels unable to get past her cold surface and have a deeper connection with her. The magistrate wants to uncover the untold history of her past—to understand and envision her before she was marked by the trauma of Joll's torture tactics—but he ultimately fails in excavating her psyche as deeply as he wishes. Further, the barbarian girl's poor vision (also ironically) makes the magistrate more self-conscious about his body, even though she can barely see it, and therefore his sexuality as a whole. - Character: The Barbarian Girl. Description: Captured (along with her father and several others) by Colonel Joll's men during the first days of their military campaign against the nomads, the nameless barbarian girl comes to play a central role in the magistrate's life. After undergoing the torture tactics of Joll's interrogation, the girl's vision is permanently impaired and her ankles brutally disfigured, while her father is killed. After the magistrate discovers her begging on the street, he takes her under his wing, employing her as a cook and maid. But the professional relationship quickly turns sexual, and the girl frustrates the magistrate with her elusive personality, characterized by a coldness which makes her seemingly impenetrable to any attempts at connecting with her. The barbarian girl therefore exposes a distance between herself and the magistrate, a distance which might be interpreted as representing the collision of two disparate cultures: that of the nomads and that of the Empire. The opacity of the girl's personality and the poor vision that plagues her eyes render her as a force which cannot be entirely comprehended—which cannot be assimilated to the magistrate's understanding in a totally coherent manner. She represents a radical difference from the magistrate's perception of the world. Ironically, even though she's blind, the girl makes the magistrate feel more exposed and visible, since he sees himself reflected in her eyes—not taken in and received. Further, the fact that she needs to look sideways in order to catch a glimpse of the magistrate symbolizes the fact that he and she, with different ways of perceiving or filtering the world resulting from their different cultural backgrounds, can never see eye-to-eye. - Character: Colonel Joll. Description: A colonel in the Empire's army, Joll visits the Empire's frontier settlements in order to interrogate any barbarians who have been taken prisoner, hoping to gain information about the barbarians' raiding plans. Joll—commandeering and overbearing in his authority, and brutal and apathetic in his torture tactics—embodies the opposite of the magistrate's character. Joll is fully convinced that the barbarians are plotting to attack and undermine the Empire, and he's willing to use any means necessary in order to acquire information about it. But Joll is so blindly and unquestioningly invested in his military campaign that he seems to only seek 'truth' from his torture victims that confirms his suspicions. Though he claims, in conversation with the magistrate, to be an expert in distinguishing what's true from false, purporting to be able to perceive the 'tone of truth' in his interrogation of victims, Joll seems to apply pain to his victims in such a way that they are forced to lie and tell him whatever he wants to hear. Uninterested in the real truth of the nomadic people, Joll is intoxicated by his own authority, and caught up in his unfounded evaluation of them as debase and barbaric. His blindness to the truth and horrifying inscrutability is also symbolized by his use of sunglasses. - Character: Warrant Officer Mandel. Description: A warrant officer for the Empire, Mandel is sent to replace the magistrate's position after the magistrate has been charged with treason (consorting with the barbarians). The magistrate describes Mandel as highly affected and self-conscious, and as putting great effort into expressing his authority in order to mask his more boyish and delicate sensibilities. Believing Mandel to hail from people of low social class, the magistrate thinks he's adopted such heady airs in order to cover up any traces of his less-than-regal upbringing. Mandel presides over the magistrate's imprisonment while Colonel Joll is at the front, and eventually releases him, finding the cost of imprisoning the magistrate to be no longer a justifiable expenditure. - Character: The Girl at the Inn. Description: The magistrate visits a "girl at the inn" (probably a prostitute) regularly, and even continues to visit her when he's involved with the barbarian girl. Though he's aware that she is probably feigning her enthusiasm and pleasure when they sleep together, he nonetheless finds their encounters fulfilling. While the barbarian girl behaves authentically around him, however distant and cold she may be, the magistrate seems to prefer the showiness and apparent (but probably exaggerated) tenderness of the girl at the inn's performance. - Character: The Two Soldiers. Description: Conscripted by the magistrate to accompany him on his expedition to deliver the barbarian girl back to her people, the two soldiers ultimately serve an integral role in the magistrate's incrimination. When they return from the trip, they both make statements to Mandel accusing the magistrate of consorting with the barbarians. - Character: The Barbarian Man. Description: Captured along with his nephew, the barbarian boy, this nameless man is ultimately killed during his interrogation by Colonel Joll. When explaining the man's death, Joll says that his victim had grown violent during the (torture-filled) interrogation and, after a bit of a fight, hit his head fatally against a wall. Through this explanation, Coetzee perhaps satirizes the one offered by an officer who took part in killing/brutally torturing the anti-apartheid activist Steven Biko (see Background Information). The magistrate suspects that this man is the father of the barbarian girl. - Character: The barbarian girl's father. Description: The father of the barbarian girl. He dies while being interrogated. When the magistrates investigates, he is told by guards that the barbarian girl's father went "berserk" and attacked Joll and his men, but the look on the guard's face makes the Magistrate think that the guard has been told not to talk about what happened. - Theme: The Empire and Fear of the Other. Description: In Waiting for the Barbarians, the Empire is an abstract figurehead for imperial power at large. It is never even explicitly named, and therefore never associated with any nation in the real world, though we can infer that the Empire correlates in some ways to South Africa, Coetzee's homeland. The nomadic peoples ("barbarians"), then, partly symbolize the victims of colonialism and apartheid—or more specifically, the black population during apartheid-era South Africa. The inhabitants of the Empire's frontier settlement (over which the magistrate presides) harbor an irrational fear and hatred of the barbarians, who inhabit the desert around them—a fear based not on any knowledge of or direct experience with the actual nomads themselves, but one that is fueled merely by superstition, ignorance, and military dogma. The novel shows how the soldiers and higher-ups (like Colonel Joll) of the Empire's army follow unquestioningly—and therefore blindly—their military orders, as they are convinced that the barbarians, as a monolithic whole, are a fundamentally evil, debased people who clearly stand against the Empire. In the eyes of the soldiers, the barbarians have become so demonized that they appear to inherently deserve being tortured and murdered. And the civilians of the magistrate's settlement share the soldiers' hatred of the barbarians as well: though they will sometimes trade with nomads they deem to be peaceful, they consider them to be lazy, thoughtless, and unclean drunkards who, in comparison to the "civility" of the Empire's people, occupy a subhuman status of existence. The barbarians, therefore, are 'othered' by the Empire. The Empire associates the barbarians with all kinds of debasing qualities that ultimately render them and their culture as fundamentally alien, foreign and incomprehensibly different. The barbarians, cast as an Other—or a force which shares no common source of humanity or identity with the Empire's citizens—become a scourge to be eradicated from the scope of the Empire's expansion and existence. During the South African apartheid, black citizens were expelled from the main, white-dominated region of the country to outlying provinces. Coetzee's framing of the barbarians as having always been outsiders to the Empire, therefore, can be read as an ironic commentary on the South African government's treatment of the black populace it expelled—treating its black citizens as if they never belonged. Dutch (and British) rule, the real "Empire," implanted its white settlers in Africa, and the eventual apartheid-enforcing government of South Africa went on to usurp people of color—people with indigenous African roots—from their own native territory to specifically-black outlying districts. The novel therefore endeavors to show how the relationship between its foreign imperial power (the Empire) and indigenous community (the barbarians) plays out, from the point of view of someone within the world of the Empire—the magistrate, whose view is unique, since he opposes to the military policies of his nation and sympathizes with the nomads. The sensibility and reason of the magistrate, however, prove to be no match for the Empire's drive for imperial conquest—the drive to conquer the barbarians' territory and eradicate or enslave them—since the civilians of the Empire have such an engrained, inbred hatred of the barbarians. The novel therefore shows how fear of the Other can breed in the minds of a whole nation's citizens, and fuel their government's entire military conquest in a way that blinds them from the atrocities it involves. Convinced that they are combatting a subhuman evil, the people of the Empire feel an entitlement to the violence they enact and the territory they try to claim with it (even if that territory is only the "protection" of the Empire's present borders). Through exploring the dynamic between the barbarians and the Empire, the novel therefore explores a situation resembling the actual historical case of apartheid, whose white enforcers felt superior to the black populace, and therefore entitled to politically and economically regulate, dominate, and ultimately deteriorate the growth and welfare of the territories to which black citizens were expelled. - Theme: Torture, Inhumanity, and Civility. Description: Colonel Joll's acts of torture represent the inhumanity and incivility in the supposedly "civilized" Empire's mode of conduct. In this way, the torture that goes on at the magistrate's settlement highlights the hypocrisy of the Empire's claimed possession of civility and advanced culture in contrast to the "barbarians." Coetzee's novel seems to be highly invested in demonstrating this hypocrisy—that, behind the seemingly clean and moral surface of civilization, there can lurk an obscenely inhumane and violent series of practices which fundamentally contradict the mere image of civilized culture. Torture, in the novel, stops at no ends to achieve whatever information the interrogator—Colonel Joll—desires from the tortured. Joll mentions how his interrogation method always involves torture—how he always brings his victims to a breaking point, where the truth is supposedly revealed. The willingness to pursue such ends demonstrates not only the inhumanity of Joll's torture, and torture at large, but also how the victim of such torture is, from the get-go, seen merely as a means to an end—as a subhuman (or an inhuman) object to which no application of pain is too great, or too immoral. The novel makes poignant and clear the evil and inhumanity involved in torture. Shocked by the unflinching ease, and seeming joy with which Joll conducts his torture sessions, the magistrate wonders whether there's secretly some reservoir of remorse and trauma in Joll's mind. The magistrate wonders how both he and Mandel (who tortures the magistrate after Joll departs on his campaign) can commit gruesome acts of torture and seamlessly return to everyday life to "break bread with other men." The magistrate wonders: mustn't they have a ritual of cleansing or purification they perform to wash the taint of their violent deeds off their conscience, so that they can return to find joy and humor in normal human affairs, unhindered by pangs of guilt? If Joll and Mandel felt no need to perform such a ritual, it would seem as if they truly were sinister, unrepentant monsters. Ultimately, Joll's use of torture proves to be ineffective, even though he consistently uses it to gather information from and about the barbarians. Joll designs and comes up with his own hypotheses about what his victims know and have the capacity to reveal. Therefore, his victims suffer even when they might be innocent—when they don't have the information imagined by Joll. Coetzee never portrays any one of the acts of torture in the novel as "successful," or as mustering up key information about the activity of the barbarians. Even the barbarian boy whom Joll tortures with countless superficial stab wounds, and who ultimately serves as a guide for Joll's company as they search for the barbarians, gets cast by the magistrate as an unreliable guide since he will only provide information—any information, even if false—just in order to avoid more torture. The novel therefore demonstrates the arbitrary nature of torture-led interrogations by highlighting how the imagined information sought by Joll and company, if not initially extracted, pushes the victim of torture to the brink of desperately conceding anything desired by the torturer. Waiting for the Barbarians, staging an eye-opening encounter with the horrors of torture, fundamentally criticizes its practice from both a moral and a "practical" (in terms of efficacy) point of view. - Theme: Sexuality, Anxiety, and Old Age. Description: The magistrate's sexuality is riddled with quandaries. The barbarian girl, whom he takes in and begins an odd sexual relationship with, represents to him something that he cannot fully know—something that is alien, and which his understanding can't penetrate. He therefore becomes unsure of himself and his own sexuality, because he cannot understand why he desires the girl. In this way, even the magistrate isn't immune to "exoticizing" the barbarians in some respect, for he perceives the girl to be entirely alien, something he can't assimilate to the logic of his own sexual desire. Unable to reconcile the elusiveness of the barbarian girl's sexuality with his own, the magistrate's sexuality is therefore made incomplete in a way he's never experienced. The magistrate eventually concludes—a good while after he's returned the barbarian girl to her people—that the main reason why he could never fully connect with and understand the girl is that he was trying to uncover a part of her that was lost after Joll tortured her: the way her body looked, and the way her mind viewed the world, before. Faced with the bleak cruelty of the girl's scarred body, the magistrate is obsessed with recovering something he cannot get—the pure, untold history of the girl's past. The girl has changed, and therefore so has the way she identifies/does not identify with the formative years of her past. Doubtful about his sexuality as a whole, the magistrate also sometimes finds the degree to which he fantasizes about and desires sex to be reprehensible for his age. He has a very active sexual life, and his imagination frequently revolves around thinking about sex. For instance, he has a recurring dream throughout the novel where he strives towards the mysterious figure of a girl (sometimes the barbarian girl) and longs to capture her in his embrace—that is, to assimilate her to his own sexual identity and understanding, to make her mysteriousness more coherent. But despite its active nature, the magistrate's sexual imagination is also full of doubt. He wonders what the barbarian girl could possibly see in his old, husky body, and finds consolation in the fact that she probably can't make out its contours since she's nearly blind. Further, sometime after he's begun seeing the barbarian girl intimately, the magistrate resumes seeing a girl at the inn (perhaps a prostitute) who was his mistress before he became acquainted with the barbarian girl. Relieved to be with a sexual companion who reacts to him in ways he understands and finds enjoyable, the magistrate enjoys an escape from the indecipherable detachedness of the barbarian girl. Even though the magistrate knows that the girl at the inn is probably just pretending to be exceptionally pleased and enthusiastic when she sees him, he prefers her artificial performance to the blunt, less censored, and seemingly alien reactions of the barbarian girl. This suggests that the distance between him and the barbarian girl leaves him with a gap, with an opening he can't close by uniting his body with hers, and which he feels impelled to fill with thoughts and explanations. The magistrate's sexuality is therefore challenged: he realizes that his own sexual drives elude him, that he can't quite define them, since they've mysteriously propelled him towards someone he simply cannot understand his attraction for. The novel thus uses the magistrate's sexuality as a venue to express how the exotification or alienation characteristic of the Empire's treatment of the barbarians can take place on subtle, psychological levels—on levels seemingly less concrete than, and removed from, those of military action and political commerce. Coetzee also seems to explore the magistrate's sexual life partly as a way of portraying the psychology of an older man when it comes to thinking about his sexual identity. - Theme: Truth, Power, and Recorded Reputation. Description: Two of the magistrate's highest priorities in the novel are to write the true history of his settlement and to have his own history, his own recorded reputation, written truthfully. He wants to go down in history with the integrity of his action—as a defender of the barbarians against Colonel Joll's corruption—preserved, and not erased with a narrative which, complicit in that corruption, would cast the magistrate as evil. The magistrate's sense of truth is therefore at war with that of Joll and company in upholding his reputation, since his reputation depends on which of these "truths" is told. In this sense, the novel exposes how contingent something like "truth" is on those who have the power to tell it. Though, in terms of the actual truth, the magistrate seems to be a real force of good in the history of the Empire as opposed to Joll, being in a position stripped of official power means that the magistrate's reputation is at stake. What might end up as the "true" history of the settlement could be written with a hand sympathetic to the likes of Joll and those who were complicit with the Empire's corruption during the magistrate's life. Eventually, during his captivity, the magistrate views martyrdom as the only way of counteracting the power around him; if he is willing to die for his principles, then perhaps he will be viewed in history as virtuous and ultimately the true upholder of the good. The novel's consideration of truth also figures into Joll's philosophy about interrogation. Joll claims to be capable of perceiving the "tone of truth" in his victims—he believes the truth is extracted when a victim is brought to a breaking point caused by an intolerable level of pain, and they have no choice but to divulge whatever secrets they may be withholding. This sense of "truth," however, is flawed. Joll presupposes that such "truth" is always there in his victims—that they might have some secret information they're withholding about any invasion plans being engineered by barbarian leaders. He demonstrates that he cares more about whether a victim's admissions conform to his own ideas about the truth than finding the real truth, which would involve keeping his own preconceptions open and not closing his hypotheses off from contradicting evidence. The kind of truth which Joll believes in is what leads him to harm his victims. Convinced of the surety of his cause despite lacking any empirical evidence for it, he feels entitled to mutilate his victims in pursuit of a truth that's entirely in his head. Joll's philosophy of truth gives him a sense of power that justifies his violence. Joll's sense of entitlement to a "truth" inside his victims, and his belief in an ability to perceive it in its purity despite his own biases, slowly become a fixation of the magistrate's own way of thinking. The magistrate, in grappling with his desire to excavate the untold history of the barbarian girl—to recover a sense of life that was seemingly lost after she suffered Joll's interrogation tactics—starts to feel infected by Joll's philosophy of truth. The magistrate, trying to see something deeper behind the surface of the girl, feels as if he's begun to read the objects and people in his environment as if they were "tea leaves," as if they held, deep down, some secret prophetic truth to which he was entitled. Starting to see things as having a hidden depth behind their surface, the magistrate displays Joll's own belief in having unadulterated access to an absolute truth. However, whereas Joll seems obsessed with bending his victim's minds to his own will—to only accessing a truth which he anticipates and has hypothesized—the magistrate's curiosity around ancient ruins and relics shows that he has a deep desire to get to know something beyond him. Whereas the army-men around him demonstrate a fundamental hostility towards people (the barbarians) they do not know, the magistrate wants to uncover the history of something unfamiliar. This isn't to say such a desire is always virtuous—it's precisely this desire which complicated the magistrate's relationship with the barbarian girl, who ultimately proves to be not nearly as exotic and unfamiliar as the magistrate initially thought. It's the magistrate's very assessment of her as an Other which drives him to possess her in a way that mirrors Joll's sense of entitlement. The novel therefore seems to complicate conventional conceptions of "truth." It shows that truth is largely in the hands of the powerful, and that it might be manufactured by the powerful in order to justify their own crimes and acts of evil. Further, Coetzee shows how the desire to uncover the truth of other people is actually a violent process—that, in seeking the truth of the barbarian girl, the magistrate has already othered her in an alienating way that drives him to possess her. The magistrate does not preserve her status as an Other in order to show her empathy and respect for her differences, but rather to preserve the possibility that she hides a fundamentally stable, absolute truth that will explain his ambivalent attraction to her. - Theme: History and Time. Description: The magistrate displays a belief in a register of time and history beyond that of mere human events—beyond the details of human history that get recorded on a linear timeline of past-to-present-to-future. He says that, when he really contemplates the history of his settlement, he thinks that its deeper meaning lies in a greater cycle of nature, of the recycling of the seasons, and not in historical recordings of its material growth and various conquests. In line with this higher perspective of cyclicality, the magistrate's observation that every generation has its own "barbarian scare" implies that he sees history—at the level of human events—as fundamentally repetitive. And, if we put his belief in a higher cycle of history together with this observation, we can read the magistrate as believing that human history follows a self-repeating pattern that issues from the non-human cycle of nature itself. With this belief in a pattern to history, the magistrate therefore seems to view his life and the world it encounters as not merely an isolated, free-floating phenomenon, but as connected to and flowing out of a time that preceded it. This grants the magistrate a perspective on human society that's more nuanced and beyond the narrow view of soldiers at his settlement, who follow blindly, in the here-and-now, the orders of their military commanders, engaging uncritically in a campaign of fear, hatred, and persecution against the barbarians. Coetzee's work therefore seems to hint that this higher perspective of history is more ethical than a narrower view unconcerned with how the past relates to the present. The magistrate himself speaks against this latter view, which he attributes to the "new men of Empire" such as Joll and Mandel. Whereas they are concerned only with forging "fresh starts" and acting out what they see as the history of the (only) Empire, the magistrate feels compelled to tarry with the past wrongdoings of the Empire (and potential past Empires) and the suffering of its former victims. To try and forget or repress the memory of the Empire's less-than-humane past is an act of censorship, and renews corruption by severing it from its consequences in the past. Further, this concern with fresh starts and new beginnings is characteristic of the linear time which the magistrate attributes to human history, and which he ultimately describes as the "submerged mind of Empire." The Empire's goal of expansion and self-preservation operates on a timeline heading from a beginning to an end, and this structure is so engrained in all of the Empire's activities that it's something of a submerged mind, or unconscious process undergirding its every act. The magistrate therefore views perceiving time as cyclic to be superior to perceiving it as linear. And, at one point in the novel, he even implies that cyclical time is a more natural way of perceiving the world than through the linear lens of human history—which filters the ongoing process of life into discrete starts and finishes—by saying that children are born uncorrupted by such a lens (and indeed, this view of time seems to revolve around "nature" in general in the magistrate's mind—the migrations of birds, the change of seasons, etc.). Further, he seems to think that it would be possible to, or he at least dreams of, engineer a society that's organized in such a way as to facilitate a way of viewing time and its own history cyclically. The novel therefore explores the possibility of such a view as being fundamental to human nature, but corrupted by economies and national identities which only persist insofar as time is viewed as passing from a beginning to an end. - Theme: Independence, Duty, and Betrayal. Description: The magistrate actively pursues not only his own, independent view of justice—of what counts as a truly good and fair treatment of the nomadic people, despite his legal duty to the Empire's military campaign—but also his own, basic approach to life. In other words, the magistrate doesn't let his duty interfere with his own decisions about his life. While the military men around him take this to be a defect of his character, it ultimately proves to be a virtue. Perhaps one of the magistrate's boldest moves in the entire novel is the letter he writes to a governmental higher-up explicitly stating that he plans to leave his post and deliver the barbarian girl back to her people. This admission automatically sets him up for suspicion: why is he involved with a nomadic woman, and furthermore, what makes him think he has the authority to make contact with the enemy, the barbarians, without permission? Yet the magistrate prioritizes the completion of his own agenda rather than that which corresponds to the duty binding him to the Empire's military campaign. He does not kowtow to any authoritarian dogma over-and-above his own conscience, as evidenced by his continual willingness to protest and challenge the military officers around him. In contrast to the magistrate, those who are purportedly on the side of the Empire's military campaign, and therefore its "othering" of the barbarians—the soldiers who are compliant with their assigned duty—are not independent in their thinking, as they follow their duty outside of their own conscience. These members of the Empire do not raise any suspicion. Unlike the magistrate's independence from his duty, they perfectly adhere to theirs before anything else. Yet this not only causes the soldiers to commit the evil of the Empire's racist military enterprise, it also causes them to commit evils against the Empire—to break the laws of the Empire's order, and commit evils from the perspective of the Empire's law itself. For example, after Colonel Joll has been out on the frontier with his expedition group for a while, the soldiers who remain back at the settlement—not kept in order by Mandel—start to pillage the very town they are supposed to watch after. They steal from shopkeepers and vandalize property—they go against their own people, the very people whom their duty tells them to protect. Therefore, while the magistrate is independent from his duty and thus a cause for suspicion, he, in the long run, ultimately does good to his people (after he is freed from prison, he reassumes his role as leader of the settlement after Mandel and the majority of soldiers return to the capital). On the contrary, those who gave up their independence entirely in the service of their duty to the Empire ultimately snap and turn against the real people of the Empire, expressing their long-repressed autonomy through crimes against their own fellow citizens. Ironically, in the end, those who were the most obedient and the least independent merited the most suspicion. Whereas the soldiers turned against their own people, the magistrate took up a responsibility to oversee his constituents and guide their settlement. Waiting for the Barbarians seems to suggest, therefore, that too much obedience can actually inspire a destructive reaction against one's supposed cause. - Climax: The climax arguably occurs when the magistrate, having escaped from his jail cell, disrupts Colonel Joll and his men's public torture of four barbarian prisoners. The magistrate confronts Joll directly, in front of nearly the entire fort's populace, and attempts to publicly accuse him of malice and inhumanity. However, he is unable to get his words out, and Joll and his goons severely beat the magistrate down, and then escort him back to his cell. - Summary: The main protagonist of the novel is a nameless civil servant, who serves as magistrate to a frontier settlement owned by a nameless empire. The Empire, a vague colonialist regime, sets itself in opposition to the "barbarians," mysterious nomadic peoples who live in the wild lands bordering the Empire. The magistrate is looking forward to a quiet retirement, and hopes to live out his last years of service without anything too eventful happening—he spends his free time looking for ruins in the desert and trying to interpret pieces of pottery he finds. His life falls into disarray, however, when a Colonel Joll arrives at his fort. There's been fear recently brewing in the Empire's capital that the "barbarians" are plotting a full-scale offensive, and Joll has been sent to investigate whether this is true. But his methods of investigation are brutal, and they deeply disturb the magistrate. Joll employs vicious torture tactics, which seem to force his victims into fabricating information that confirms his hypothesis, just in order to cease the pain. One such victim, a young barbarian girl, whose father died at the hands of Joll and his interrogation assistants, ends up playing a central role in the magistrate's life. After her release, he sees her begging on the streets of the fort; her ability to walk and to see have been greatly hindered by Joll's torture techniques. The magistrate takes the girl in, hiring her as a cook and maid, but their relationship quickly moves from professional to sexual—from being motivated by the good will of the magistrate to more questionable intentions. Over time, the magistrate grows frustrated with the barbarian girl, finding her personality enigmatic and impenetrable. He begins to have anxiety over the meaning of his own sexuality. Eventually, he decides to take the girl back to her people. The magistrate then assembles a team of two other soldiers, several horses, and a stock of supplies, and heads out on a grueling journey into dangerous wintry storms in the desert. Upon returning, and having successfully returned the young girl to the mysterious "barbarians," the magistrate's life becomes especially complicated. An officer (Mandel) has already replaced the magistrate's office, and the magistrate is taken into custody, being believed to have consorted with the barbarians. Mandel informs him that the Empire is planning a military campaign against the barbarians. The two soldiers who accompanied the magistrate, having witnessed from afar the magistrate's interactions with the barbarians in returning the girl, confirm this false accusation. The magistrate is imprisoned at the fort, and charges of treason are drawn up against him. The magistrate, demanding a trial, is never given one, but he's nevertheless tortured, beaten, and starved; eventually, Mandel sets him free, no longer viewing the magistrate's keep as a justifiable expenditure. The magistrate then assumes a life of begging, and gradually regains the trust of the village people. Meanwhile, the soldiers, led by Joll to fight against the barbarians, are dying in the desert, their campaign failing, and those who remain at the frontier settlement begin to abuse their authority, ransacking the fort's shops and causing mayhem. Eventually, Mandel and most of the soldiers return to the capital, and many of the fort's inhabitants follow. The magistrate regains his former position, and stability among the settlement returns. One day, a weary Colonel Joll returns to the settlement in a carriage, accompanied by several soldiers, but the villagers throw bricks at them. The magistrate tries to communicate with Joll, but he won't open the carriage. He and his company quickly leave. The novel ends as the magistrate tries to write the history of the settlement, but he finds himself unable to. He's unable to reconcile the horror of the events which befell the settlement at the beginning of Joll's investigation with the beauty he attributes to the life of the town as a whole—a life whose scale he conceives as being beyond day-to-day historical events, but rather as bound up in the cyclical time of the constantly changing seasons.

- Genre: Realist Short Story - Title: Waiting - Point of view: First Person - Setting: An Australian public hospital - Character: The Narrator. Description: The unnamed narrator of the story is a working-class Australian woman who is married to a farmer named Pete. The narrator has already experienced at least four miscarriages—and in the story, she's waiting at the hospital for an ultrasound, certain that she's about to miscarry again. While her husband has tenderly supported her through miscarriages in the past, this time she has chosen to protect him from grief by keeping secret both her pregnancy and her suspicion that it's lost. As the narrator waits alone for her ultrasound, she reveals a little about her past medical experiences, from the brusque male ultrasound techs, to the logistics of paying for the procedure, to the heartbreak of receiving a disc of ultrasound images, even though the baby isn't viable. But what she doesn't reveal is much about herself. She doesn't dwell in her suffering, explain her desire to be a parent, or elaborate much on her relationship with Pete. Nonetheless, readers can intuit a few important things. For one, some of her silence about her grief seems self-protective—she doesn't talk about wanting to be a parent or even use the word "baby" to refer to her pregnancies, which suggests how painful these losses have been. Second, it becomes clear that she feels powerless in her life. The fate of her pregnancies and the success of her husband's crops are out of her hands and seem doomed to repeated destruction. What she's waiting for, it turns out, isn't just the doctor—it's for the chaos of her life to start making sense and for something to go her way. - Character: Pete. Description: Pete is the narrator's husband; he's a farmer who raises cattle and various crops in rural Australia. Though the narrator describes Pete as "undemonstrative" and suggests that he's a quiet, pragmatic, and stoic man, he's nevertheless empathetic and loving. After one of the narrator's miscarriages, for instance, he crawls into the hospital bed beside her, staying the night instead of leaving when visiting hours end. The narrator recognizes Pete's grief over her lost pregnancies and she can tell that he desperately wants to be a parent. This contributes to her decision not to tell him about this most recent pregnancy—she wants to spare him more grief. At the same time as Pete struggles to process the miscarriages, he's also struggling to make ends meet and be successful as a farmer. Earlier in the year he planted a wheat crop, and while he hoped for favorable weather, the wheat hasn't taken off. As the narrator waits for her ultrasound, she believes that Pete is at home, deciding that it's time to give up on the wheat. The narrator admires Pete's pragmatism in the face of failure and disappointment, the way he's always willing to pick up the pieces and do whatever needs to be done next. - Character: The Woman. Description: The woman is the only female radiographer at the narrator's public hospital. Unlike her male colleagues, the woman showed the narrator compassion when she couldn't detect a heartbeat—she held the narrator's leg, told her she's sorry, and gave her time alone to process. Since the narrator hasn't seen the woman at the hospital at all during her last few visits, she wonders if the woman was fired for not being efficient enough with her patients. - Theme: Grief and Loneliness. Description: In "Waiting," a woman sits in a hospital waiting room, knowing exactly what her ultrasound will reveal: that she has lost yet another pregnancy. But as she grieves her lost pregnancies, she's conspicuously alone. She's at the doctor's office by herself, the staff barely acknowledge her humanity, and she never mentions any friends or family to lean on except her husband, Pete—but Pete isn't with her because she hasn't actually told him about this pregnancy, let alone her suspicion that it's lost. Throughout the story, Cate Kennedy shows how all this loneliness magnifies the narrator's suffering exponentially, making her grief harder to bear. As the narrator navigates the trauma of her miscarriage, she remains totally alone. Most notably, she's at the doctor's office by herself. From her memories, she shows that this hasn't always been the case; after one miscarriage, for instance, Pete crawled into her hospital bed to keep her company. But now she's alone because she hasn't told him what's going on, which means that he can't help her grieve. Besides Pete, the narrator never mentions any family or friends who might help her. Her life seems isolated, and even though she references her mother and grandmother, she does so in passing without clarifying whether either one is alive or involved in her life. Because of this, the narrator appears to have no support system besides her husband, who isn't there. While the narrator doesn't dwell on her loneliness outright, she does mention it once. Looking at a magazine cover of a celebrity begging for privacy, she thinks "If you sincerely want the world to leave you alone until it forgets all about you, come and live at my place." This makes it clear just how alone and forgotten she feels as she waits for terrible news. The narrator's interactions with the brusque and unkind hospital staff show most clearly how feeling alone intensifies her grief. At previous appointments, the male ultrasound techs never offered empathy or kindness, even as the narrator was learning the devastating news that her pregnancy was no longer viable. While examining her, they would never meet her eyes, they would refuse to tell her clearly what was going on, and they wouldn't give her time to collect herself afterwards. This lack of human connection between the narrator and the staff made an already crushing experience even more traumatic, giving her the sense that nobody understood or cared about her grief. One particular interaction clarifies this dynamic: at a previous appointment, a tech said that he wasn't giving her an ultrasound image because there's "Nothing to see [...] It's so tiny in these early stages." This comment might be factually true, but it implies that the narrator's pregnancy wasn't significant and assumes that she wouldn't want or need a memento, since the pregnancy was basically nothing at all. Of course, the grief of losing a pregnancy has little to do with the size of the fetus; it's the loss of hope for the future and the loss of a being that the narrator perhaps saw as her companion. For this tech to brush off the narrator's pregnancy as insignificant shows how alone she is with her feelings and makes her grief harder to bear. Since feeling alone has been so devastating, her decision to keep her pregnancy from Pete is significant—it's possible to interpret this as an attempt to save her marriage, preserving the only human connection she seems to have. The narrator claims to have kept her pregnancy and miscarriage from Pete so that he wouldn't suffer more than he already has. This certainly seems like part of the truth—she has deep empathy for his struggles with farming and his grief over her previous miscarriages, so it's quite plausible that she wouldn't want to pile on. But there's good reason to be skeptical that this is the whole story. For one, Pete has been a supportive and loving partner during past miscarriages, and there's no reason to think that he wouldn't want to support her again (especially since his love and care would make her suffering so much easier to endure). Nonetheless, the narrator gives subtle clues that she's nervous that he might leave her, presumably because she's been unable to bear a child. For one, she laments at the end of the story that she knows "what [he] need[s]" but "can't give it to [him] and recalls his "thwarted tenderness when he pets the dog. This makes clear how badly she thinks Pete wants a child, and it subtly reveals her own sense of inadequacy for not being able to give him one. Furthermore, the narrator says that once while she was hospitalized after miscarrying, they announced the end of visiting hours and Pete "hesitat[ed]." The narrator believed he was "gathering his thoughts to say something," and she closed her eyes in preparation, seemingly bracing to hear something bad. Instead, he took off his shoes and crawled into bed with her. Pete's choice to overstay visiting hours implies that he's not a visitor in her life and that he's in it for the long haul. But the fact that she dreaded what he might say suggests that she might have been bracing for him to end their marriage, leaving her utterly alone. In this light, the narrator's choice to keep this pregnancy from Pete seems potentially self-protective; she doesn't want to call more attention to her inability to give him a child and thereby risk him leaving her completely alone. But this secrecy is also self-destructive, as it leaves her isolated with her horrific grief. The narrator finds herself in a trap, then: the only person who might lessen her suffering is Pete, but if she shares what's going on, he might (at least in her mind) end their marriage and leave her even more alone than she already feels. This makes clear how much loneliness—and the fear of loneliness—magnify her grief. - Theme: Nature, Chaos, and Powerlessness. Description: Throughout "Waiting," the narrator frames nature as a destructive force that stirs chaos throughout her life. Nature is responsible for her miscarriages, for her husband's crops failing, and—in general—for "whipping the rug out from under [them]" so many times in their lives. Amidst all this destructive chaos, the narrator and her husband wait eagerly, though powerlessly, for some kind of order to emerge or for something to go their way. In the end, though, it seems that all they can do is wait. In this way, Cate Kennedy suggests that people are generally powerless over their fates. Tragedy and chaos are always close at hand, and the only way forward is to accept this and try to pick up the pieces. Cate Kennedy first shows nature's destructive power in the failure of Pete's wheat crop. Pete—and many other local farmers—planted wheat earlier in the spring, hoping for good weather. But hoping isn't enough to make nature cooperate. The spring has been too warm for wheat to thrive, and most neighboring farmers have already given up and fed their failed wheat to their cows. The narrator implies that Pete, too, will give up soon. This is a major loss—the weather is destroying not just the wheat, but also Pete's livelihood, showing how far-reaching and personal the cruelty of nature can be. As nature takes its toll on Pete's wheat, the narrator also sees herself as a victim of nature. She shows this through the metaphors she uses for her miscarriages. For instance, when describing an ultrasound, she compares her body to a "human map" (likening herself to a landmass) and compares her imminent miscarriage to a "cyclone gathering its bleary force offshore." In this sense, the narrator explicitly sees miscarriage as a destructive natural event that she's powerless to prevent. She also frequently uses tidal imagery to describe her miscarriages ("an estuarine feeling ebbing away" or "that tide ebbing again"), which implies that she sees them as cyclical and inevitable, like the tides. All of this suggests the narrator's feeling of powerlessness over nature, which extends to her own body. No matter what she does, she cannot stop nature from destroying her pregnancies, just like it ruins the crops. While the narrator has no control over chaos and destruction, she can control how she reacts to it. This is the basis of her pragmatism; instead of dwelling on her suffering (or being a "martyr," as she says), she simply does her best to carry on with her life. In the face of tragedy, she is "just someone who can see what needs doing, and does it." But pragmatism takes a toll on the narrator. She admits this subtly through her repeated description of feeling like she's carrying a "shallow bowl of water" in her chest while trying desperately to keep it from tipping. As water is associated with nature, the notion that she's struggling to keep it from spilling suggests that nature is always on the brink of overwhelming her. She says of the bowl of water that she "ache[s] with holding it steady," showing how her practical attempts to hold herself together in the face of tragedy are painful and perhaps impossible to sustain. Pragmatism is how the narrator acts in the face of chaos, but she also carefully describes how she thinks about everything terrible that has happened to her. She articulates this most clearly near the end of the story when she's describing the "natural course" of her pregnancy (miscarriage) and lamenting that she's had enough of nature. "I'm waiting for something comprehensible," she says, "to jump out of this garbled mess and make sense to me." This moment frames the conflict between herself and nature as a conflict of order and chaos—and importantly, she seems to understand that she cannot create the order she desires, but must instead simply wait to see if it comes. The "waiting" of the story's title, then, has two meanings: the narrator is waiting for her ultrasound appointment, but she's also waiting for something in her life to finally go her way. This insight helps to make sense of the magazine horoscope in the story's opening line, which tells the narrator that "everything will align" for her at a time when she least expects it. The language of alignment suggests order appearing from chaos—a line emerging from scattered points. But it's not clear whether this is truly an optimistic message: a horoscope ostensibly predicts the future, but this one insists that the future is impossible to predict. It's possible to see the horoscope as evidence that things might improve for the narrator—after all, she is currently in a moment where she doesn't expect things to get better, which the horoscope suggests might mean that alignment is near. However, the overall message of the horoscope is that nobody can force nature to cooperate, and that the narrator has no control over her fate. Order may emerge out of chaos—but all she can do is wait. - Theme: Love, Care, and Suffering. Description: In "Waiting," the story's characters struggle to express love and care. The hospital staff have been taught a cold and alienating bedside manner, so they show no sympathy for the narrator's repeated miscarriages. Meanwhile, the narrator's husband, Pete, doesn't even know about her pregnancy, so he's not able to support her in her grief. And while the narrator claims not to have told Pete about the pregnancy as an act of love (in order to spare him from suffering), she also admits that she has no idea how to help him process his sadness about her previous miscarriages. In this light, perhaps she doesn't feel equipped to tell him about this one and face his grief again. In depicting various characters struggling to support one another through grief, "Waiting" acknowledges how hard it is to be there for someone whose suffering can't be fixed, but the story also suggests that basic human kindness is the right place to start. The most obvious instance of characters failing to be kind in the face of grief is the demeanor of the male hospital staff. The ultrasound techs have one of the most sensitive roles imaginable; they must determine whether the narrator's pregnancy is still viable. But over and over, they fail to do this in a humane way, refusing to meet her eyes, tell her honestly what's happening, or show her any sympathy at all. The narrator speculates that the hospital teaches them to act this way, which suggests something galling: that despite routinely handling the physical side of miscarriage, this clinic has no equivalent procedure for helping people through their grief. This gestures to a broader issue, that people often don't know what to do for those who are suffering, so they sometimes choose to do nothing at all. Even for people who love each other, expressing love and care can be hard. The narrator, for instance, clearly has profound love for her husband. She's constantly empathizing with him, imagining his suffering over his failed wheat crop and finding in his gestures subtle signs that he's "worn down." And while she claims it was out of love that she didn't tell him that she was pregnant again (she didn't want to get his hopes up when he's already going though enough), it's possible to see this another way; perhaps she was trying to spare herself too, not only from the grief of disappointing him again, but also from the discomfort of watching him suffer and not knowing how to help. "I'm not pretending I know what it's like for him," she concedes, and then notes that the grief pamphlets that the hospital gives her never mention how to help her partner. It's plausible that she felt it was easier to not tell Pete about her pregnancy at all than to face his grief without knowing what to do or say. While it's genuinely hard to know what to say to someone who's grieving, "Waiting" suggests that simple kindness makes a huge difference. The narrator first shows this through her recollection of the only time that a female tech performed her ultrasound. Unlike the aloof and inhumane male techs, this woman recognized that the narrator was going through something devastating and acted accordingly: she said she was sorry and squeezed the narrator's leg, placing "[h]er hand there for comfort. Warmth and pulse flowing between us, skin to skin." The female tech didn't do anything extraordinary; all she did was act with basic humanity to acknowledge the suffering of another person and treat her with kindness. But this made a significant impression on the narrator, who felt cared for and would consider it a "small mercy" to have this woman care for her again. The power of simple kindness is apparent, too, in the narrator's recollection of Pete climbing into her hospital bed. While the narrator seemed to brace for him to leave at the end of visiting hours, he instead hopped in beside her and stayed the night. Pete never said a word; all it took was him holding her to make her "see how much he understood," which shows how even a simple hug and the mere act of defying visiting hours made the narrator feel like someone loved her, helping to lessen her grief. Of course, acts of kindness aren't a panacea for grief, and the story shows how difficult it is to love someone, particularly within a long marriage that's full of hardship. To show how love wears people down, Cate Kennedy repeats imagery of rubbing: for instance, the narrator's grandmother rubbed her wedding ring whenever she felt nervous about her husband doing dangerous work in the mines, which wore the metal down. The eroded ring is a physical embodiment of how loving someone under difficult circumstances wears on a person. But while this kind of love—the kind that wears on people—certainly contributes to suffering, the story suggests that it's also essential. The narrator articulates this most clearly while recalling Pete lying next to her in her hospital bed, rubbing her arm in his sleep. This gesture is a nervous tic that expresses his grief over her miscarriage, but it's also a sign of his love—even while he sleeps, he's still comforting her. In reaction, the narrator remarks that, "Oh, it wears us thin, marriage. It knocks the edges off us." What she means here is that while loving someone through grief is undeniably strenuous and painful, it's also worthwhile; love "knocks the edges off" of people, making them softer and making their suffering easier to bear. - Theme: Gender, Class, and Hardship. Description: Throughout "Waiting," the narrator's gender and social class make an already painful situation worse. While describing her experience of losing multiple pregnancies, the narrator repeatedly draws attention to how others overlook her pain because she's a working-class woman, implying that the situation might be different were she wealthy or if her hospital knew how to serve female patients. In this way, Cate Kennedy calls attention to the fact that while miscarriage is difficult for everyone touched by it, the pain is not equally distributed; the most vulnerable people suffer more than others. The clearest indication that the narrator's gender hurts her is that her hospital is incompetent at providing miscarriage care—specifically, it seems, because the male staff struggle to empathize with women. While the hospital is perfectly equipped to handle the physical side of miscarriage, miscarriage is also devastating to emotional health. Despite this, the male staff make no effort to acknowledge the narrator's grief or even her humanity. Instead of offering comfort, they awkwardly avoid looking at her, fail to provide her honest information, and treat her coldly, even while she's learning the horrible news that her pregnancy is no longer viable. Rather than helping to care for her emotionally, they make her suffering worse. In fact, the only indication that the hospital acknowledges grief at all is the narrator's brief reference to a pamphlet that she receives, presumably after each miscarriage. Beyond being a terribly impersonal way to help someone through emotional suffering, the pamphlet also appears woefully inadequate. It has vague instructions to "giv[e] yourself permission to grieve," but it doesn't answer the narrator's most pressing question: what effect miscarriage might have on her husband, Pete, and how to help him process his suffering. That the pamphlet never takes into account the effects of miscarriage on a person's partner shows the hospital's narrow perspective: they apparently consider miscarriage to be exclusively a female problem. And perhaps because of their discomfort with female pain, they fail to provide adequate emotional care, which makes an already devastating experience exponentially worse. Similarly, the narrator has a worse experience of miscarriage because she's working-class rather than wealthy. Throughout the story, the narrator offers a number of clues about her financial situation: Pete is a farmer who seems to operate on tight margins, for instance, and the narrator's grandfather worked in the mines, so it seems that the family has been blue-collar for generations. Presumably because of their tight finances, the narrator goes to a public hospital for her prenatal care. (Public hospitals are cheaper than private hospitals, but they have a reputation for offering a lower standard of care.) And this hospital does appear somewhat substandard; there are long wait times for her appointment, for instance, and the staff seem to be rushing to see as many patients as possible. This rush means that they don't treat the narrator like a human being or give her time to grieve. In the story's opening, the narrator sardonically acknowledges how being working-class means that she's treated worse than others. While flipping past a magazine spread of a celebrity begging for privacy, the narrator scoffs: "If you sincerely want the world to leave you alone until it forgets all about you, come and live at my place." This celebrity makes buckets of money off of people playing close attention to her, while the narrator has the opposite experience: even the doctors that she pays to care about her don't give her much attention, and she doesn't have the money for a better hospital. From the narrator's perspective, the public scrutiny that celebrities face seems a small price to pay for a better life. While "Waiting" offers no remedies for the classist and sexist society that it portrays, the story clearly shows how gender and class make the narrator's suffering worse. For someone like the narrator, who desperately wants to carry a pregnancy to term, miscarriage will always be painful—but her experience doesn't have to be as bad as the story portrays. It's easy to imagine a hospital treating female patients with kindness and empathy and offering resources (beyond a mere pamphlet) to help them process their grief. But such a hospital would likely be expensive, framing compassionate care as a luxury that working-class women can't afford. Because of that, women like the narrator must suffer twofold: grieving their lost pregnancy, and suffering through inhumane care during one of the most painful moments of their lives. - Climax: The narrator mentally tells Pete to give up and let the cows eat their struggling wheat crop - Summary: In "Waiting," the narrator flips through magazines in a hospital waiting room. She's about to have an ultrasound, which she knows will confirm that her pregnancy is lost. A magazine horoscope tells her that things will align when she least expects it, and in another magazine, a celebrity begs for privacy. The narrator thinks that if the celebrity really wants to be forgotten, then they should trade places. The narrator hopes that today she will be assigned the hospital's only female ultrasound tech. During previous miscarriages, she has been given the male techs, whose bedside manner is cold and detached. They refuse to meet her eyes while they do the ultrasounds, and even when she asks if the baby is still alive, they refuse to tell her outright. At one previous appointment, though, the narrator had the female tech, who was honest that she couldn't find the heartbeat, touched the narrator's leg, and let her have some privacy to collect herself. This might be why the narrator hasn't seen the woman at the hospital in a while—maybe she took too long with her patients and got fired. The narrator is sure that the ultrasound won't find a heartbeat today. Last Tuesday, when she hit 10 weeks, she noticed that her pregnancy symptoms had disappeared, which made her feel that her heart was a shallow dish of water threatening to spill over. Knowing that her husband Pete has enough to worry about already, she didn't tell him about her pregnancy, her suspicion that it is lost, or about today's appointment. She doesn't know exactly what Pete has been feeling about her repeated miscarriages, but she knows that it has been hard for him. His latest hardship is that the wheat he planted 10 weeks ago is dying. The narrator often sees him in the field, trying to decide when to give up and let the cows eat it. Last March, the narrator made it all the way to 14 weeks before she miscarried and ended up in the hospital. As she lay in the hospital bed, they announced that visiting hours were over, and Pete hesitated. The narrator closed her eyes, bracing for him to say something. Instead, he undressed and climbed into bed with her, showing her that he truly understands her grief. That night, she woke up to him rubbing her arm in his sleep. When the narrator talks to her doctor later, she'll decide not to have an inpatient procedure. Instead, she'll take "the natural course" and miscarry on her own time. She has done the "natural course" many times now, and it's devastating; it carves "erosion gullies" through her and Pete and pulls the rug from under them. She's still trying to make it make sense. A male tech calls her name, and as she walks to the exam room, the narrator imagines Pete deciding to give up on the wheat and let the cows eat it. She knows how badly he wants a baby and she knows she can't give it to him. Her heavy dish of water feels like it's tipping as she sees Pete wipe his face and prepare to feed the wheat to the cows.

- Genre: Children's Novel, Historical Fiction - Title: War Horse - Point of view: First Person - Setting: Rural Devonshire, England and Northern France - Character: Joey. Description: Joey is a Thoroughbred-draft horse mix who comes to live with the farmer, mother, and Albert. Despite his physical beauty—he has a reddish coat, four white socks of exactly equal height, a black mane and tail, and a white cross on his forehead—Joey turns off buyers at auction with his clearly fierce and independent temperament. He fights the farmer and Zoey all the way back to the farm and never responds favorably to poor treatment. He tolerates Corporal Samuel Perkins' struct handling, but he responds best to the respect and affection he receives from Albert, Captain Nicholls, Trooper Warren, Emilie and her grandfather, and Friedrich. Joey becomes best friends with Topthorn as soon as he meets the big black horse, and the two remain inseparable and devoted to each other until Topthorn's untimely death of heart failure. Even then, Joey can hardly bring himself to leave his friend's side, bolting in terror only after approaching tanks threaten him. Joey has a fighting spirit and deep reserves of both courage and hope. He never doubts that he will be reunited one day with Albert, and he serves his British and German masters loyally during the war; at one point the German soldiers even acknowledge their gratitude to him by conferring an Iron Cross on him and Topthorn. After a German Soldier and British Soldier rescue Joey from no-man's-land, he survives tetanus and becomes an important part of the work that Sergeant Thunder and Major Martin perform at the animal hospital. Following the conclusion of the war, Emilie's grandfather saves him from certain death at the hands of a butcher and sells him back to Albert for a penny. Joey returns home with Albert and returns to the farm as a triumphant war hero to live out his days in peace and contentedness. - Character: Albert. Description: Albert is the son of the farmer and the mother. A kind, gentle, loving boy who respects animals and treats them as his equals, he quickly befriends Joey and earns the horse's undying love and loyalty. Just 13 when Joey comes to the farm, Albert teaches the colt to heed human commands, accept a harness and saddle, take a rider, and pull a plow. When the farmer sells Joey to Captain Nicholls, Albert demonstrates his own devotion with his desperate effort to volunteer for the cavalry unit even though he is only 15. As soon as he's old enough to go to war, he joins the British Army's veterinary corps and travels to France in the undying hope that he will be reunited with his friend. There, he serves under Major Martin and Sergeant Thunder with a dozen other orderlies, including his dear friend David. Albert demonstrates loyalty and affection for not just Joey but all the other horses that come through the animal hospital and for human friends like David. At the conclusion of the war, he takes Joey back to the farm, marries his sweetheart, Maisie Brown, and lives out the rest of his days in peace and prosperity. - Character: Topthorn. Description: Topthorn is Captain Jamie Stewart's horse. A fine, beautiful animal, he earns the love and devotion of almost everyone he meets, including Herr Hauptmann, Emilie and her grandfather, Friedrich, and Rudi. He and Joey become inseparable friends at their first meeting, and they model mutual devotion. At first, Topthorn's greater experience as a cavalry horse places him in charge, with Joey under his wing. But later, Joey steps into the protector's role when Topthorn suffers with illnesses and must learn to haul heavy loads rather than support a single rider. The Germans capture Topthorn and Joey together and assign them first to the field hospital and later to Herr Major's artillery unit, where they join a team comprised of Heinie, Coco, and the Golden Halflingers. The hard work, continual exposure to the elements, and lack of care in the artillery unit take a disastrous toll on Topthorn, who lacks some of the strength and resilience Joey gets from his draft horse father. He dies of heart failure trying to pull the gun up a steep hill. - Character: Captain Nicholls. Description: Captain Nicholls is Joey's second owner, a cavalry officer who buys the horse from the farmer at the start of the war. Captain Nicholls is a kind, artistic man who not only sees Joey's value but respects him and talks to him as a friend. Nicholls treats Joey like a valuable equal, in sharp contrast to Corporal Samuel Perkins, who treats Joey like a tool to be used. And he's a man of his word; he makes a promise to Albert to take good care of Joey, and he works hard to earn Albert's trust. Among other things, he paints a picture of Joey to send to the saddened boy before he takes the horse to France. Along with his good friend, Captain Jamie Stewart, Nicholls sees war as a dangerous and potentially foolhardy exercise, not just a simple shot at glory. He worries about the death and destruction that it will cause and doesn't share the hopes of many others that it will come to a swift conclusion. Nevertheless, he demonstrates personal courage in action, leading the charge atop Joey despite his own fears and worries. Tragically, Captain Nicholls dies in the very first cavalry charge he leads on the battlefields of France. - Character: Trooper Charlie Warren. Description: Trooper Charlie Warren is a young cavalry officer serving in the British Army under Captain Nicholls and Captain Jamie Stewart. The son of a blacksmith, Warren only joined the cavalry because local people put pressure on his family to contribute to the war effort, and he is familiar with horses. He finds the war to be horrifying and traumatizing; his first horse dies beneath him, shot by a German machine gun in his very first battle. Following this and Captain Nicholls' death, Stewart pairs him with Joey. Despite his clumsiness as a rider, Warren is a kind, gentle man who takes excellent care of Joey and talks to him like an equal rather than regarding him as a soulless, dumb animal. When the Germans capture Joey, Topthorn, Captain Stewart, and Warren after a failed cavalry charge, they separate the animals from the men, and Joey never sees Warren again. - Character: Emilie. Description: Emilie is a young French farmgirl who loses her parents and her brother in the early part of the German invasion. She lives with her grandfather on a farm that ends up near one part of the front line. When Germans capture Topthorn and Joey, she and her grandfather care for the animals while they're serving as draft horses to haul the nearby field hospital's ambulance wagons. Emilie is a kindhearted, gentle, loving little girl who regards the horses as equals rather than as dumb, soulless animals. She wants to keep the horses with her forever, and it breaks her heart when Herr Major commandeers them for his artillery unit. After this final loss, she wastes away and eventually dies of sorrow and trauma at the young age of 15. - Character: Friedrich. Description: Known to his comrades as "Crazy Old Friedrich," Friedrich is a German officer in the artillery unit who develops a deep affection for Topthorn and, to a lesser extent, Joey, while they all serve under Herr Major. Before joining the German Army, Friedrich was a butcher. He longs to go back to his family but refuses to run away and tarnish the family's reputation. He keeps to himself because he sees the war clearly for what it is: a colossal waste of life rather than a glorious exercise. Like Nicholls, Emilie, her grandfather, Albert, and Warren, he shows his own generosity and kindness in talking to the animals like his equals. And unlike Herr Major, he respects their limitations and doesn't treat them like disposable pieces of equipment. He dies in the battle that breaks out just after Topthorn collapses of heart failure, falling to the ground next to his best wartime friend. - Character: Grandfather. Description: Emilie's grandfather lives with Emilie on a French farm that ends up near the front lines in the early years of the war. When German troops capture Topthorn and Joey, they ask Emilie and her grandfather to care for the animals while the troops use them to pull the ambulance wagons between the front line and the nearby field hospital. Despite the traumas he has suffered—the loss of his Emilie's parents and her brother, the harsh realities of life under occupation by the Germans, and his own advanced age—Emilie's grandfather is a kind, gentle man who loves his granddaughter dearly and who respects and likes the horses. Like Albert, Nicholls, Emilie and her grandfather, and Warren, the grandfather shows his respect for the dignity of the animals not just by taking care of their physical needs but by talking to them as if they are his equals. He buys Joey in the British Army's horse auction, saving him from being butchered and sold as meat, then he gives him back to Albert to honor Emilie's memory. - Character: Sergeant Thunder. Description: Sergeant Thunder is the second officer in Major Martin's veterinary corps unit. A loud, imposing, and neatly groomed man, Sergeant Thunder commands the respect of all the men under him, including Albert and David. Despite his occasionally harsh way of speaking, Thunder has a kind and generous soul. When Joey develops tetanus, it's Thunder who joins Albert in refusing to give up on Joey and convinces Major Martin to allow the men to try and nurse the horse back to health. And when the Army decides that all the horses should be sold at auction, Thunder leads the conspiracy among the orderlies to pool their money in an attempt to buy Joey for Albert. - Character: David. Description: David is Albert's closest friend in Major Martin's and Sergeant Thunder's veterinary unit. Prior to volunteering to join the British Army, David sold fruit from a small cart in London. He has an upbeat temperament and likes to tease Albert, but he can also be serious when the situation calls for it. Albert respects David's predictions and believes that they rarely fail; thus, David gives his friend hope when he helps nurse Joey through tetanus or predicts that he and Albert will go home together after the end of the war. Shortly before the hostilities cease, David dies when a stray artillery shell strikes the veterinary ambulance he drives to and from the front line. - Character: Major Martin. Description: Major Martin is the veterinarian in charge of the animal hospital where Joey is taken after the British Soldier rescues him from no-man's-land. Martin is a skilled veterinarian and surgeon and a pragmatic, practical man. He follows orders and doesn't like to waste resources on lost causes. Still, he respects and values the men and horses in his unit, which he demonstrates when he supports Albert's efforts to save Joey from a tetanus infection and when he and Sergeant Thunder quietly try to help keep Joey from the auction block at the end of the war. - Character: Farmer. Description: The farmer is Joey's first owner. He purchases the colt to deny his rival, Farmer Easton, the privilege and then brings it back to his farm where his son Albert and his wife, Albert's mother, care for the new animal. The farmer can be harsh and cruel, especially when he drinks, which his despair and worry over his financial state drive him to do frequently. Fear of financial failure also leads him to sell Joey to Captain Nicholls at the beginning of the war, and this proves to be a decision that propels him to make many life changes. After selling Joey, the farmer stops drinking and becomes a better husband and father; by the time Joey returns from war, the farmer comes to love the horse rather than hate and fear him. - Character: Captain Jamie Stewart. Description: Captain Jamie Stewart is a friend and fellow officer of Captain Nicholls; Topthorn is Stewart's horse. When Nicholls dies in battle, Stewart continues to keep an eye on Joey, pairing him with Trooper Warren. Stewart is a kind, conscientious man who cares very deeply about the horses and men in his unit. The Germans take him prisoner alongside Warren, Joey, and Topthorn after a failed cavalry charge. - Character: Corporal Samuel Perkins. Description: Corporal Samuel Perkins is a cavalry officer in the British Army. He's responsible for training new horses before they go to war, including Joey. A former jockey (professional racehorse rider), Perkins appreciates horses for their strength and stamina, but he dislikes Joey's independent spirit. He's less cruel than the farmer but less kind than Albert and Captain Nicholls. He prefers to enforce discipline and demands absolute obedience from Joey rather than respecting him as a fellow creature. Joey loses contact with Perkins after a failed charge in which the Germans capture Joey and Topthorn. - Character: Zoey. Description: Zoey is the farm horse that the farmer, mother, and Albert own before Joey arrives. She treats young Joey with kindness and works to shield him from the harshest parts of the farmer's mistreatment while also teaching him the ways of farm work. She stays on the farm while Joey goes off to war, but she's still alive when he returns, and they work alongside each other for many years afterward. - Character: British Soldier. Description: The British Soldier is an unnamed man who emerges from the trenches on his side of the front line and approaches Joey after the horse has wandered into a stretch of no-man's-land. He converses with the German Soldier in a friendly way even though they are enemies in the conflict, and their conversation reflects on the pointlessness and horrors of the war. He wins the coin toss and claims Joey for the British Army. - Character: German Soldier. Description: The German Soldier is an unnamed individual who emerges from the trenches on his side of the front line and approaches Joey after the horse has wandered into a stretch of no-man's-land. He converses with the British Soldier in a friendly way even though they are enemies in the conflict, and their conversation reflects on the pointlessness and horrors of the war. When he loses the coin toss, he graciously hands Joey to the British Soldier. - Character: Herr Hauptmann. Description: Herr Hauptmann is a German cavalry officer who receives treatment at the field hospital where Joey and Topthorn are taken as prisoners of war. He recognizes the value of the animals and ensures that they receive proper treatment from the hospital orderlies, especially after he learns—to his dismay—that the horses are to remain there to haul the ambulance wagons to and from the front lines. - Character: Herr Major. Description: Herr Major commands the artillery unit that includes Heinie, Coco, and the Golden Halflingers among its horses and in which Friedrich serves. He commandeers Joey and Topthorn from Emilie and her grandfather. He's a harsh, miserly man who doesn't care enough for the wellbeing of his animals and so treats them as less important and more disposable than the artillery cannons the animals haul for him. - Character: Heinie. Description: Heinie is the lead horse of a gun team in Herr Major's unit, which includes Coco, the Golden Halflingers, Joey and Topthorn. Even though he's a big, strong draft horse, he succumbs to exhaustion first, and the unit's veterinarians execute him when he fails to pass his physical inspection one day. - Theme: Dignity and Humanity. Description: Readers see the world of War Horse through the eyes of its equine protagonist, Joey. But the fact that he's a horse doesn't keep him from exemplifying virtues like courage, loyalty, and wisdom. Filtering the world through an animal's consciousness allows the book to explore what it means to have dignity and to lead a good life. And by this metric, Joey and his friends often succeed where the humans around them fail. His clear moral vision allows the book to make two central claims: first, that everyone's life is valuable, no matter what; and second, that dignity and personal worth can best be measured by how a person respects the lives of others. Unburdened by ideological or national biases, Joey sees all lives as valuable in and of themselves. He serves as loyally on the German side of the war as he does on the British. And while he prefers the company of his beloved friend Topthorn, he even acknowledges the right of mean-spirited Coco to live and feels regret when the draft animal dies ignominiously from neglect and overwork. In addition, though Joey can muster respect (or at least obedience) for men who treat him unkindly, he dislikes the farmer for his initial cruelty (although he reassesses his opinion as the farmer becomes a better person). In contrast, he instantly appreciates the humanity of people who treat him and others well, like Captain Nicholls, Friedrich, and—most importantly—his first and dearest master, Albert. In contrast, the book's human characters make arbitrary distinctions between friend and enemy, often excluding those whom they find different from themselves. But, as Joey's impressions of people prove to be correct time and again, he reminds readers that all lives, even those of cruel and inhuman people, have a value—and that the best way to exist in the world is to treat everyone with tolerance and respect. - Theme: Hope and Loss. Description: War Horse catalogues a long series of losses that Joey, its equine protagonist, experiences. The farmer separates Joey from his mother at auction; no fewer than three of his beloved handlers die or are captured in the war; his best friend Topthorn dies of exhaustion; and circumstances divide him from kind and loving caretakers like Albert, Emelie, and her grandfather. Yet, no matter how devastating these losses seem at the moment, Joey steadfastly clings to hope for a better future. He survives the war largely out of his determination to see Albert again. And hope of finding Joey inspires Albert to join the veterinary corps and serve his country in the war. Thus, the book portrays hope as something that keeps people (and horses) going when things get tough. Without hope, life deteriorates in all sorts of ways. Sometimes these are small and devastating, like when the farmer's fears for his financial future cause him to drink and alienate his son. Sometimes they are large and devastating, like when Emelie wastes away and dies of sorrow after German soldiers take Topthorn and Joey from her. Losses are an inevitable part of life, as Joey quickly learns. But hope—for a better future, for the chance to honor someone's memory, for the opportunity to make a difference in the world, and for companionship—can help a being survive the darkest and most hopeless of experiences. - Theme: Love and Loyalty. Description: At a pivotal moment in War Horse, Joey stands guard over the bodies of his best equine friend, Topthorn, and kindest German handler, Friedrich, as artillery shells fly overhead. Joey cannot bring himself to abandon his friends, even though he knows they are dead. Likewise, despite being separated from the one person whom he truly considers his master, Albert, for many years, Joey never forgets Albert or abandons his hope of finding him again. Although fear and respect bind Joey to the farmer and Corporal Samuel Perkins, only love can last despite almost insurmountable obstacles. Through these and other examples, the book depicts love and loyalty as the highest and greatest virtues in man and animal. Only love fully recognizes the value of each member of a relationship (whether between humans, animals, or both). The love that develops between the horses and the veterinary orderlies at the animal hospital typifies this link: the men love the horses because they understand how vital they are to the war effort, and their interaction with each individual animal fosters a sense of fellowship among them. Thus, the men feel horror and dismay when the Army decides to auction off the horses rather than bring them home. Only love generates true loyalty, even for creatures whose illness or infirmity renders them less valuable in the eyes of the world. Likewise, Albert, David, and others prove their loyalty for Joey—born out of love for him—when they nurse him through tetanus. With these examples, War Horse shows readers how foundational love and loyalty are to good relationships—and, by extension, to the proper functioning of the world itself. - Theme: The Horrors of War. Description: Set against the backdrop of World War I, War Horse carries a clear anti-war message. It details the horrors to which the war subjected soldiers, including the unique psychological torment of trench warfare, the use of chemical weapons, and participating in an entirely new form of mechanized combat. And to make matters worse, the horrors of war aren't confined to the leaders of the participating nations, or even the soldiers who volunteer to fight: Emelie's civilian parents die after a stray artillery shell strikes them, and animals like Joey, Topthorn, Heinie, Coco, and the golden Halflingers find themselves pressed into service without their consent. Moreover, filtered through the experience of Joey—free of political and ideological thinking because he is an animal, not a human—the book presents people on both sides of the conflict are good or bad based on their personal character and choices, not their uniform, nation, language, or political ideology. Thus, readers see through his eyes the common humanity of soldiers on both sides—their kindness, their suffering, their misery, and their bravery. Joey mourns his German handlers just as deeply as he mourns his British handlers at the end of the war. By claiming that humans should be judged by their actions rather than their "side" in a conflict and that war is an arena of horrors, War Horse claims that war cannot solve the ideological conflicts that animate it. In the end, the so-called "Great War" seems as arbitrary as the coin toss that the German Soldier and the British Soldier make to determine Joey's fate after he wanders into no-man's land. - Climax: Albert and David successfully nurse Joey through tetanus. - Summary: Joey, a six-month-old colt, finds himself separated from his mother at a livestock auction. The farmer ties him to the back of his wagon and drags him home. There, he takes some comfort from the kindness of the farm's other horse, Zoey. When the drunken farmer's son, gentle and loving Albert, comes to the barn, he and Joey immediately form an unbreakable bond of love and trust. Joey and Albert spend the next two years growing up together, during which time Albert trains Joey to follow his commands, accept a halter and saddle, carry a rider, and haul the farm's plow. But when war breaks out between Germany and England, the farmer sells Joey to cavalry officer Captain Nicholls to avoid falling into debt. Corporal Samuel Perkins trains Joey in the necessary skills of a cavalry horse, then Joey finds himself on a boat to France with Nicholls, Nicholls's friend Captain Jamie Stewart, and Stewart's horse, Topthorn. In France, Captain Nicholls dies in the regiment's first charge, felled by machine gun fire. Captain Stewart assigns Joey a new rider, Trooper Charlie Warren, whom Joey carries through the winter. In the spring, the Germans capture Stewart, Warren, Topthorn, and Joey. Topthorn and Joey then spend some months pulling ambulances for a German field hospital and living with nearby French farmers Emilie and her grandfather before being commandeered to join Herr Major's artillery unit. There, they haul heavy guns around northern France alongside Heinie, Coco, and the Golden Halflingers. They befriend Friedrich, a kindly German officer. But the following spring, Topthorn dies of heart failure while pulling the gun. Seconds later, a battle breaks out between German and English troops. Friedrich is shot and killed instantly, and in his confusion and grief, Joey becomes separated from the rest of the unit. When approaching tanks finally drive him to bolt in terror, Joey becomes lost and eventually wanders into a strip of no-man's-land. A British Soldier rescues him, and he finds himself being taken to a British animal hospital, far from the front lines. Joey and Albert—who joined the veterinary corps in hopes of reuniting with Joey—are reunited at the animal hospital, where Albert and his friend David nurse Joey through a tetanus infection. David dies tragically just a few days before the end of the war. When it's finally time for the veterinary corps troops to go home, Major Martin informs them of the Army's decision to auction off all the horses instead of bringing them back to England. Sergeant Thunder and the rest of the orderlies pool their money to try successfully bidding on Joey for Albert, but they lose the auction to Emilie's grandfather, who has been trying to find Joey and Topthorn since the end of the war. Learning about Albert's history with Joey, the grandfather sells Joey back to his original master for one penny and a promise that Albert will honor the memory of Emilie, who died of grief after Herr Major took Joey and Topthorn from her. Joey and Albert finally return to England and their farm, where they both live in peace and prosperity.

- Genre: Contemporary literary fiction - Title: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Point of view: First person, told through Rosemary's perspective - Setting: Bloomington, Indiana; Davis, California; and Vermilion, South Dakota. - Character: Rosemary Cooke. Description: Rosemary is the narrator and main character, and the entire novel is told through her perspective. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, she is the younger sister of Lowell. When Rosemary is one month old, her parents adopt Fern and raise her as Rosemary's twin. The sisters are the subjects of an extended scientific experiment conducted by Rosemary's father and a team of graduate students. As a child, Rosemary is very talkative, but after Fern leaves she feels that no one is interested in her talking and becomes exceptionally quiet. Rosemary is highly intelligent, but struggles to fit in among other humans and to understand social norms. At UC Davis, she fails to bond with her freshman roommate, Scully; the only person she is able to connect with is Harlow, who Rosemary feels drawn to because she behaves in the same impulsive, animalistic way as Fern. Rosemary is traumatized by her strange childhood and her feelings of guilt and confusion over the disappearance of Lowell and Fern. However, as time passes she is able to comprehend that her siblings' absence is not her fault and confronts the memories that she previously tried so hard to repress. By the end of the novel, Rosemary is working as a kindergarten teacher in Vermilion, South Dakota, near the laboratory where Fern is kept. She is happy to have found a fulfilling career and to live in proximity to her mother, her sister, and her "niece," Hazel. - Character: Rosemary's Father. Description: Rosemary's father is a psychologist and a professor at the University of Indiana, Bloomington. (His first name is never given.) The son of Grandma Fredericka and Grandpa Joe, it is implied that he comes from a working-class background. He is rational and cynical, a passionate believer in science who is dismissive about other fields of knowledge, such as psychoanalysis. He is also an alcoholic, and dies of a series of heart attack at the age of 58 brought on by a combination of drinking, diabetes, and stress. - Character: Rosemary's Mother. Description: Rosemary's mother is also a scientist, although Rosemary does not describe her scientific work and it seems as though she may have stopped working in a formal capacity after having children. (Like Rosemary's father, her first name is not given.) After Fern leaves the family, Rosemary's mother has a nervous breakdown and loses the capacity to talk, eat, or even get out of bed. She eventually recovers, but then is further devastated by Lowell's departure. Eventually, Rosemary and her mother move together to South Dakota to live near Fern. Although Fern is at first hostile to Rosemary's mother, they eventually rekindle their relationship, and Rosemary's mother volunteers every day at the laboratory where Fern lives. - Character: Lowell Cooke (aka "Travers"). Description: Lowell is Rosemary's older brother. Rosemary idolizes him, but he is not always kind to her, and is arguably more protective of Fern than of his biological sister. Lowell has a strong sense of justice and, unlike Rosemary, is unable to turn his attention away from injustice—particularly when it comes to animal abuse. After Fern is given away, Lowell runs away from home, although not before stealing a key and freeing all the rats from his father's laboratory. After Lowell is accused of setting fire to a laboratory at UC Davis, he spends the rest of the book on the run from the FBI. Rosemary discovers that Lowell has joined the Animal Liberation Front, and he is eventually captured for planning an attack on SeaWorld Orlando. It is implied that Lowell and Harlow form a romantic relationship and engage in activism for the ALF together. Rosemary notes that Lowell's mental health suffers significantly as a result of his work publicizing and battling animal abuse. At the end of the novel he is in prison awaiting trial, and is not in a good mental state. - Character: Fern. Description: Fern is Rosemary's "sister," a chimpanzee who the Cookes adopt from Africa. Fern's mother was killed by poachers, and when Fern was found she was very sick with diarrhea and fleas. Fern is extremely attached to the Cooke family and sees herself as human. However, as she grows older she becomes more dangerous, attacking the graduate students who are assigned to conduct experiments on her. She is given away to a laboratory in South Dakota, where she is forced to live with a large group of chimps. Fern is artificially inseminated and gives birth to three children, two of whom are sold to other labs. Her youngest child, Hazel, is allowed to stay in South Dakota with her. - Character: Harlow Fielding. Description: Harlow is Rosemary's first real friend outside her family. They meet when Rosemary witnesses Harlow having a melodramatic fight with her boyfriend, Reg, in the UC Davis cafeteria, and Rosemary and Harlow end up being arrested together. Rosemary notes that Harlow exhibits the same impulsive, reckless traits as a chimpanzee, which is why Rosemary is drawn to her—although this also makes Rosemary feel that Harlow is "dangerous." Although Harlow is fun-loving, she also has a tendency to disrespect people's privacy and property and to lie. Harlow is studying drama and dreams of moving to Ashland, Oregon, to design lighting for the Ashland Shakespeare Company. However, after meeting (and promptly falling in love with) Lowell, she joins him in his life as an animal rights outlaw. - Character: Grandma Donna. Description: Grandma Donna is Rosemary's mother's mother. It is implied that Donna is of a higher class background than Rosemary's father's parents; Rosemary notes that unlike Grandma Fredericka, Donna is a good cook and lives in a tastefully decorated house. Donna dislikes Rosemary's father and wishes Rosemary's mother had married someone else. She also comes to dislike Fern after Fern eats the last remaining photograph of Grandpa Dan. - Character: Ezra Metzger. Description: Ezra is the manager of Rosemary and Todd's apartment building in Davis. He is a rather comic character who falls in love with Harlow and lets her into Rosemary's apartment without asking. His love for Harlow eventually leads him to break into the UC Davis Primate Center and attempt to set the monkeys free—but this is unsuccessful. Ezra is arrested and serves eight months in prison. - Character: Dae-jung. Description: Dae-jung is a young boy in Rosemary's elementary school class who has recently moved to the United States from Korea. At first he can't speak English, which draws Rosemary to him as it reminds her of Fern. She pretends that they are friends and talks "at" him so much that his English rapidly improves and he ditches her in favor of other friends. - Character: Reg. Description: Reg is Harlow's rather hapless on/off boyfriend. He and Rosemary at first have a fairly antagonistic relationship, and Rosemary describes him as having "the brains of a bivalve." However, after Harlow runs away with Lowell, Rosemary and Reg date for a number of months, before Reg breaks up with her without explanation. - Character: Dr. Sosa. Description: Dr. Sosa is the professor of Rosemary's Religion and Violence course. He is a popular lecturer and a religious man who rejects Rosemary's claim that, for some people, science is a kind of religion. He reprimands Rosemary for not answering the question on her final, but offers to give her an incomplete instead of failing her. - Theme: Humans vs. Animals. Description: The novel is narrated from the perspective of Rosemary, a young woman who was raised alongside a chimpanzee as part of a psychological experiment conducted by her scientist father. Rosemary's perspective is thus fundamentally defined by her unusual attachment to—and identification with—not just her chimpanzee sister Fern but animals in general. She claims: "I spent the first eighteen years of my life defined by this one fact, that I was raised with a chimpanzee." However, it is clear that even after Rosemary moves away to college (where she doesn't mention Fern and thus is no longer defined in the eyes of others by this fact), her experience of being raised with Fern colors her view of the world in a permanent and drastic manner. Not only is Rosemary particularly attentive and attracted to animals, but she consistently frames the behavior of the human people around her as animalistic. She describes her own chimp-like behavior as acting like "the monkey girl" (a nickname which her elementary school classmates used to taunt her). She disagrees with the prevailing opinion that humans are superior to animals, and although behaving like "the monkey girl" gets her into trouble, she persists in acting this way and is drawn to other people, such as Harlow, who behave in a similarly impulsive, reckless manner. Such behavior is reminiscent of chimpanzees, who—although they are similar to humans in many ways—do not have the same social conditioning as people and thus act in a highly unrestrained manner. Rosemary's brother Lowell is also deeply affected by being raised with Fern, and in some ways his life is even more dramatically colored by his intense attachment to animals. As a child, Rosemary resents the fact that Lowell seems to prefer Fern to her. Lowell's preference for animals over humans is reflected when, as a boy, he builds a "snow ant" instead of a snowman. When he is older, Lowell destroys a university lab in which testing on animals is conducted, liberating the lab rats, and eventually goes on to pursue further activism as part of the Animal Liberation Front. This lands Lowell in trouble with the FBI, a fact that demonstrates the seriousness with which humans endeavor to separate themselves from animals and maintain a position of superiority and control over the animal kingdom. Due to the strictness with which the human/animal barrier is policed, Lowell's compassion for animals causes him significant anguish, and eventually lands him in prison. Throughout the novel, Rosemary remains fixated on the similarities and differences between humans and animals. As stated above, there are moments at which she seems to identify more as a non-human animal than a human one, and she expresses this through descriptions of her own "monkey girl" behavior. Curiously, however, she is resistant to classifying Fern as an animal, clarifying: "By monkey girl, I mean me, of course, and not Fern, who is not and has never been a monkey." Elsewhere she objects to Fern being "treated like some kind of animal." At first these messages may seem self-contradictory, and it is true that Rosemary maintains an ambivalent relationship to animality. At the same time, Rosemary's objection to Fern being perceived and treated as an animal is less an objection to Fern's state of "being" than to the inferior position of animals within society. Rosemary wants people to value Fern as much as they value other humans, regardless of the fact that she is technically an animal. Like Lowell, Rosemary strongly objects to the way her father and other scientists conduct experiments on animals, and is particularly disturbed by the reality that Fern is treated as a commodity that can be bought and sold. On the other hand, there are also points at which Rosemary expresses the belief that animals are superior to humans, rather than simply being equal to them. For example, she is so disturbed by the knowledge that chimpanzees rape each other that she has a panic attack during the lecture. Of course, Rosemary is well aware that rape exists within the human population. The fact that she is so surprised to learn that it also occurs among chimpanzees suggests that she had believed or hoped that chimpanzees were less cruel or violent than humans. - Theme: Family, Tradition, and the Past. Description: The often troubling dynamics of family life haunt Rosemary throughout the narrative. Although Rosemary has moved across the country to free herself from her family at the time the novel is set, she cannot ever truly escape them. This shows that even if one's interactions with family remain permanently in the past, they fundamentally shape who we are in the present. Just as the absence of her siblings Lowell and Fern continues to haunt Rosemary as a kind of presence, the history of her life with her family continues to define Rosemary's sense of self and her perspective on the world. While emphasizing the intensity of family's role in shaping a person, the novel also suggests that families are connected less by biology and more by a sense of shared history and tradition. After all, Fern is not only biologically unrelated to Rosemary's family, she is from an entirely different species—yet despite this, Rosemary considers Fern her "sister," and in some ways is closer to her than any other figure in the novel. The similarity between the sisters emerges through the evidence of their matching preferences and traditions. After Fern is taken away, Rosemary grows concerned that she will be forced to try unfamiliar foods in her new home. While Rosemary's father tries to assure her that this will be exciting, Rosemary remains adamant that Fern will not enjoy it, insisting: "We like what we're used to." Rosemary and Fern's shared experience and habits are presented in a positive light, and are shown to be the source of their strong, loving bond. Habits and tradition can thus create a sense of kinship and closeness, but—they can also pose their own dangers. When habits are broken and people (or animals) are forced to deal with unfamiliar environments, this can be traumatizing and isolating. This is true of Fern, who struggles to adapt after she is taken from the Cooke family and placed in a primate center with other chimps in North Dakota. However, it is also true of Rosemary, who throughout the novel struggles in isolation to deal with the legacy of her family's adoption (and subsequent giving away) of Fern. Rosemary spends significant portions of the narrative reflecting on the nature of the past and memory. Indeed, memory is a rather troubled topic for Rosemary, no doubt in part due to the fact that her family have an agreement not to discuss "the past." Rosemary makes a similar kind of agreement with herself after Fern is taken away, vowing not to think or talk about Fern anymore. Of course, a vow to repress something as significant and important as all thoughts of one's sister is bound to cause problems. In Rosemary's case, it leaves her with a fragmented sense of her own past and identity. This sense of fragmentation is emphasized when Rosemary discusses her access to her own memories and her family's past. She writes: "There are moments when history and memory seem like a mist, as if what really happened matters less than what should have happened. The mist lifts and suddenly there we are, my good parents and their good children, their grateful children who phone for no reason but to talk, say their good-nights with a kiss, and look forward to home on the holidays." The fact that Rosemary characterizes history and memory as the mist—rather than the forces of denial and pretence—highlights how confused her sense of history and reality has become. At another point, Rosemary describes a moment in which, at the age of 8, a memory of her early childhood came back to her like pieces of a puzzle. Rosemary's presentation of the past through the metaphors of a "mist" and "puzzle" illustrates the difficulty, pain, and confusion inherent to her relationship to her own history, family, and self. The novel thus highlights a tension between the fact that people are defined by their family and past, yet must also constantly struggle to make sense of these things. - Theme: Absence, Silence, and Denial. Description: Throughout the book, Rosemary returns to the theme of what is missing—what is left unsaid, what is repressed, and who is gone. She opens the book by admitting that it will surprise people who know her now to learn that she was a very talkative child, thereby conveying that she is now unusually silent. Another of the first things we learn about Rosemary is that her brother and sister are both gone (though at first it is a mystery why they have disappeared). In this sense, Rosemary is haunted by the absence not only of certain figures, but also by the absence of thoughts, memories, and language. This creates the impression that she is an intensely isolated person. Indeed, Rosemary frequently emphasizes that as a child she did not have any friends, and that socializing with others remained a struggle when she arrived at college. It becomes clear that Rosemary's social isolation is rooted in her relationship with Fern. The fact that Rosemary was raised alongside a chimpanzee permanently alienates her from the human peers with whom she is supposed to identify. This is made especially obvious when Rosemary attempts to befriend a boy in her elementary school, Dae-jung. Dae-jung has recently immigrated from Korea and doesn't yet speak English; Rosemary pretends they are friends and speaks at him so incessantly that his English rapidly improves, enabling him to make real connections with others and abandon Rosemary. Clearly, Rosemary was originally attracted to Dae-jung because of a warped sense of his similarity to Fern. Like Fern, Dae-jung initially did not speak English; however, Rosemary is quickly reminded that Fern and Dae-jung are in reality not similar when Dae-jung learns to speak English and immediately rejects her. Indeed, Rosemary emphasizes her own distrust of human language throughout the book. She reflects that "language is such an imprecise vehicle I sometimes wonder why we even bother with it." At another point, she muses that "sometimes you best avoid talking by being quiet, but sometimes you best avoid talking by talking." There is evidently something about "talking" and language that Rosemary finds unsettling, no doubt a product of the fact that her closest relationship as a child involved no spoken language at all. It is not just Rosemary, however, who is fixated on silence and absence. Early in the novel, she notes that her family agrees not to discuss certain subjects, such as her mother's nervous breakdown, her own arrest, or her cousin Peter's poor SAT scores. Rosemary also notes that the family agrees not to discuss "the past" in general. Of course, such an agreement highlights a strong sense of collective repression and denial. This denial theoretically enables Rosemary's family to keep up the pretence of normalcy and happiness despite having suffered major traumas (including the absence of Fern and Lowell). However, it becomes obvious that silence and absence do not necessarily conceal trauma, but in fact can sometimes amplify it. Rosemary writes that Fern's "disappearance represented many things—confusions, insecurities, betrayals, a Gordian knot of interpersonal complications." Meanwhile, Rosemary's efforts "never to think of Fern again" come crashing down when she befriends the Fern-like Harlow and when Lowell comes back into her life. In this way, the novel suggests that a person's (or animal's) absence can also be a kind of presence, just as silence can be a kind of language, and that as much as we try to deny and repress pain, it will inevitably surface in some form or other. - Theme: Science, Knowledge, and Experiments. Description: Rosemary is raised alongside Fern as part of an elaborate scientific experiment conducted by her father (alongside a team of graduate students from the university). As a result, scientific inquiry and authority casts a shadow over Rosemary's life. Rosemary's parents—who are both scientists—view ordinary social and intimate life through a scientific lens, as evidenced when Rosemary's father tries to persuade her mother to donate her personal journals to a library, or when Rosemary writes that they "felt that it was natural and mammalian not to want to sleep alone." Indeed, the behavior of Rosemary's parents is dictated by science to a rather extreme degree. Rosemary explains: "My father was kind to animals unless it was in the interest of science to be otherwise." "The interest of science" becomes a kind of moral and philosophical imperative for Rosemary's father, who is an atheist, serving the same function as religion in the lives of other characters, such as Rosemary's lecturer Dr. Sosa. Although Rosemary understands that her parents' extremely scientific orientation toward life can be problematic, she cannot help but replicate this behavior herself. As a child, she tells her neighbor Russell "that his mother was cutting up a pumpkin. Only I used the word dissecting." Not only is Rosemary raised by two scientists, but she spends her early childhood participating in a constant stream of experiments (alongside Fern) in her own home. As a result, Rosemary's childhood is never free from science's reach and she cannot help but think of ordinary behaviors (such as cutting up a pumpkin) as scientific experiments. Rosemary at times narrates in a style reflective of scientific research. For example, there is a passage in which she lays out memories of Fern in a clinical, numbered manner, and another in which she lists the stories of other chimpanzees raised in human families in a similar style. Her adoption of this scientific format blurs the boundary between subjective, emotional experience and "objective" data. Indeed, Rosemary expresses this idea explicitly when she describes the three rats—formerly used in her father's laboratory—that Lowell keeps as pets: "In retrospect, there was something incomprehensibly strange about the way any of the laboratory rats could transform from data point to pet, with names and privileges and vet appointments, in a single afternoon." This opposition between "data point" and "pet" mirrors Fern's ambiguous status as something between a sister and an object of scientific research. Although many of the characters (including Rosemary herself) betray a fascination with scientific experiments and knowledge, science is also depicted as a rather sinister force in the novel. Rosemary's frequent references to scientific studies also serve as a reminder that science does make life richer, easier, and more interesting. While Rosemary disagrees with her father's hardline scientific perspective, she has clearly inherited his passion for knowledge. Overall, while the book takes a markedly critical stance against science, it does also highlight science's positive sides and suggests that the field is redeemable. This is emphasized when, toward the end of the novel, Rosemary writes that the National Institute of Health has suspended new grants for biomedical and psychological research involving chimpanzee subjects. Such a major shift indicates that in the contemporary moment, science is moving in a more ethical direction. - Theme: Normalcy vs. Deviance. Description: The novel contains an ambiguous and at times comic exploration of the tension between normalcy and deviance, encouraging the reader to question what counts as "normal" and whether normalcy is actually desirable. As a psychologist, Rosemary's father is invested in ideas about "normal" human (and animal) behavior and the question of why some people deviate from this behavior. Of course, the great irony of this investment is that in order to study these questions, Rosemary's father sacrifices any normalcy his family might claim to possess by introducing Fern into their lives. While Rosemary's parents at times seem to want to pretend that they are a "normal" and happy family, the existence of Fern makes this a comically doomed project. Rosemary herself harbors a decidedly ambivalent relationship to normalcy (and to deviance). The weirdness of her family means that she attracts unwanted attention as a child and isn't able to make friends. As a result, Rosemary initially chooses to refashion herself in college and present a false image of herself and her family s normal. During her freshman year, Rosemary's roommate Scully invites friends over to their room and begins a conversation about families, saying: "You know how everything seems so normal when you're growing up… and then comes this moment when you realize your whole family is nuts?" The girls begin to bond over the common "weirdness" of their families, yet Rosemary either misunderstands this bonding ritual or (perhaps correctly) anticipates that her family is in fact too weird for her to bond successfully with the other girls over this matter. As a result, she lies and pretends that her family is normal, only to immediately regret this falsehood. Although she successfully convinces the others that her family truly are normal, she reflects: "Now I'd achieved it, normal suddenly didn't sound so desirable. Weird was the new normal and, of course, I hadn't gotten the memo. I still wasn't fitting in." Even in a social situation in which people are literally bonding over weirdness, Rosemary remains "weird" by failing to reject normalcy. In reality, Rosemary is in fact deeply drawn to deviance, a way of being that she associates with Fern. Rosemary bonds with Harlow after they both exhibit "monkey girl" behavior, acting in a reckless, destructive, and attention-seeking manner in the college cafeteria. Where other people would likely find this kind of behavior patently unappealing, Rosemary finds it comfortingly familiar. Rosemary admits that in the past, she tried to stamp out her own inclination toward deviance: "In the comments section of my kindergarten report card I'd been described as impulsive, possessive, and demanding. These are classic chimp traits and I've worked hard over the years to eradicate them." However, after her attempts to erase these traits and assimilate into "normal" human behavior fail to win Rosemary friends, happiness, or self-acceptance, she decides to instead embrace her deviant chimp qualities through her friendship with Harlow. She becomes increasingly suspicious of the concept of normalcy, at one point reflecting: "What is a normal sex life? What is normal sex? What if asking the question already means you aren't normal?" Ultimately, the concept of normalcy is shown to be a mode of discipline that encourages people to conform to human behaviors and reject animalistic ones, again emphasizing society's dualistic concept of humanity vs. animality (see the first Theme). Furthermore, the novel emphasizes the extent to which everyone—no matter how hard they might try—is weird or deviant in their own way, leaving the concept of normalcy effectively meaningless. - Climax: The night Rosemary gets drunk and takes drugs with Harlow, during which she sees Lowell again and is arrested for the second time. - Summary: Rosemary explains that she is going to "skip the beginning" of her story and "start in the middle," which takes her to the winter of 1996. It has been 10 years since she has last seen her brother (Lowell) and 17 since her sister (Fern) "disappeared." Rosemary is 22 and in her fifth year of college at UC Davis. One day, she is having lunch in the cafeteria when she witnesses a fight between a girl, Harlow, and her boyfriend, Reg. Harlow screams and throws a chair at Reg, who calls her a "psycho bitch." Officer Haddick and other members of the campus police arrive and mistakenly approach Rosemary, thinking she was involved in the fight. Rosemary throws her plate of food and glass of milk on the ground, and both she and Harlow are arrested. The girls are taken to the county jail and placed in a cell. Reg comes to collect Harlow, and Rosemary is forced to call her father, who convinces Officer Hardick to drop all the charges against her in exchange for Rosemary promising to come home for Thanksgiving. Rosemary's family live in Indiana, and they do not discuss her arrest or any other contentious matters during the holiday. They spend Thanksgiving with Rosemary's maternal Grandma Donna, her Uncle Bob, Aunt Vivi, and cousins Peter and Janice. Rosemary's mother's family do not like Rosemary's father, who is a psychologist and professor. As Rosemary is preparing to head back to California, her mother tells her that she was considering donating her journals to a library, but has decided to give them to Rosemary instead. During the flight back to California, the airline loses Rosemary's suitcase, which contain the journals. When Rosemary returns home, she is shocked to find Harlow in her apartment. Harlow explains that Reg kicked her out and she managed to persuade Rosemary's building manager, Ezra Metzger, to let her in. Harlow offers to make it up to Rosemary by taking her out for a drink. At the bar, Rosemary tells Harlow about a time when she was "shipped off" to live with her paternal grandparents, Grandma Fredericka and Grandpa Joe. Rosemary ended up running away and attempting to walk all the way home to her parents' house in Bloomington. A few days later, Ezra hands over Rosemary's suitcase, which the airline returned while she was out; he also tells her that her brother, "Travers," came by and was looking for her. Rosemary finds it hard to believe that Lowell found her, but is convinced by the fact that he would not have used his real name. She realizes that the suitcase the airline returned is not actually hers. The narrative jumps back to the year 1979. Rosemary is five years old and has just been picked up from Grandma Fredericka's house after attempting to run away. She is taken to an unfamiliar house and is horrified to realize that a member of her family has been "given away." Lowell is furious with their parents about Fern's disappearance, but Rosemary is frightened and even relieved that she was not the one who was given away. After Fern's disappearance, Rosemary's mother has a nervous breakdown and is no longer able to eat, talk, or leave her room. Rosemary is babysat by a college student named Melissa, who sits in front of the TV, allowing Rosemary to sneak out with Lowell and their neighbor Russell Tupman. Lowell and Russell drive to their old house and persuade Rosemary to help them break in. The house is empty and Rosemary feels that it is "sad" and "angry." At this point Rosemary explains that both her imaginary friend Mary and her sister Fern are chimpanzees. She did not reveal this detail until this point because she wanted the reader to see Fern as truly her sister. Rosemary recalls memories of the games she and Fern used to play, which would be assigned and monitored by graduate students in order to test and compare the sisters' abilities. Rosemary's mother recovers from her breakdown and the family goes on vacation to Hawaii for Christmas. Rosemary's father tells her that Fern has gone to live on a farm with a new family. The kids in Rosemary's kindergarten class start to tease her, calling her "monkey girl." Lowell, meanwhile, gets a counselor, Ms. Delancy, to help him process his grief over the loss of Fern. Lowell is made point guard of the high school basketball team, but one day Rosemary finds him at home when he is supposed to be at practice. That night, Lowell runs away from home and never returns. On his way, he frees all the lab rats from his father's university laboratory. Some time later, the FBI arrive at the Cookes' house and inform them that Lowell is a suspect in a fire that caused millions of dollars' worth of damage to a veterinary laboratory at UC Davis. One day, Rosemary is riding her bike in Bloomington when she runs into Lowell's high school girlfriend Kitch Chalmers. Kitch tells her that on the day Lowell missed basketball practice, they had run into one of the graduate students who previously worked with Rosemary and Fern. The student explained that Fern had been taken to live with a large group of chimps at a lab in South Dakota run by a cruel professor who treated her badly. Lowell freaked out, exclaiming: "That's my sister in that cage." At college, Rosemary's freshman year roommate is named Larkin Rhodes, but insists that everyone call her Scully. Rosemary attempts to bond with Scully and other freshmen, but misreads social cues and ends up excluded from their friendship group. In her second year, she moves in with an art history major called Todd Donnelly. Back in 1996, Rosemary realizes that she likes Harlow because of Harlow's "monkey-girlishness." Still stunned by Ezra's mention of Lowell's appearance, Rosemary researches the Animal Liberation Front, a radical animal rights organization she believes Lowell has been working with during his years of absence. Harlow persuades Rosemary to open the suitcase the airline mistakenly gave her, and they find a ventriloquist's dummy inside who Rosemary calls Madame Defarge. Rosemary is sitting in lecture for a course entitled Religion and Violence. The professor, Dr. Sosa, explains that, like humans, chimpanzees commit intra-group violence. He begins talking about the issue of rape among chimps and this causes Rosemary to have a panic attack. After the lecture, Rosemary meets Harlow at a restaurant with the aim of getting drunk. Reg is there too, as is Madame Defarge. Rosemary takes a couple of pills that Harlow gives her and quickly begins thinking and behaving in a strange way. The night proceeds chaotically, and suddenly Rosemary bumps into Lowell. However, at that moment Rosemary is again arrested by Officer Haddick and placed in a cell with Harlow. Harlow complains that Rosemary talks all night, but Rosemary is not even aware of this and cannot stop herself. After being released, she realizes that she's lost her bicycle and also Madame Defarge. The next day Rosemary leaves the apartment; on her return Todd and his girlfriend Kimmy say that while she was out, a man came to return Madame Defarge, Harlow showed up, and finally Rosemary's brother "Travers" arrived. Harlow and Lowell left together to get dinner, asking Todd to invite Rosemary to join them. Rosemary walks to the restaurant and finds Harlow and Lowell. She feels annoyed that Harlow is taking Lowell's attention. Later that night, Lowell comes to Rosemary's apartment, wakes her and takes her to a diner. They stay there talking all night. Lowell explains his involvement in activism against animal abuse. He tells Rosemary horrifying stories about animal suffering, and says that he tried to rescue Fern multiple times from the lab in South Dakota. However, now that he is on the run from the FBI he cannot keep trying, and he assigns the role of looking after Fern to Rosemary. Rosemary walks Lowell to the train station, wishing he would stay longer. They part, and Rosemary returns home. She falls asleep holding Madame Defarge. A few days later, she writes about the topic of animal abuse in her Religion and Violence final, and is reprimanded by Dr. Sosa for failing to answer the question. During their one day of knowing each other, Harlow fell in love with Lowell, and is miserable now that he is gone. This annoys Rosemary, and she tries to avoid Harlow. Rosemary is packing to return home for the Christmas vacation when the police arrive at her door and take her in for interrogation. They ask if she is Lowell's sister, but she refuses to answer any more questions until a lawyer is present. The interrogation is abruptly ended, and Kimmy, Todd, and Todd's mother—a famous civil rights lawyer—are waiting to pick Rosemary up. They explain that Ezra has been arrested for breaking into the UC Davis Primate Center and attempting to free the monkeys. Harlow has been named as his accomplice, but she has managed to escape. When Rosemary returns home, she finds that Madame Defarge is gone. Rosemary goes home for Christmas and eventually tells her parents about her encounter with Lowell. The family finally confronts the matter of Fern's absence, and Rosemary's parents explain that much of what she remembers of that period is incorrect. They explain that Rosemary should not blame herself for Fern's disappearance, and that they were in fact forced to give up Fern because as she got older she was too dangerous to keep in the house. Todd's mother helps Ezra to get the fairly light sentence of eight months in a minimum- security prison. Harlow is still on the run. Rosemary and Reg begin dating, but break up after five months. In 1998, Rosemary's father dies after a series of heart attacks at the age of 58. Meanwhile, Rosemary and her mother work on preparing her mother's journals for publication. In 2012, they are living together in Vermilion, South Dakota, near the lab where Fern is kept along with her daughter, Hazel. Rosemary is a kindergarten teacher and her mother volunteers at Fern's lab. The book based on Rosemary's mother's journals is about to be published. Rosemary's agent calls to inform her that she has received an influx of requests for interviews; the reason why is that Lowell has finally been captured, just as he was planning an attack on SeaWorld Orlando. Harlow remains at large. Rosemary explains that she decided to write the book the reader is holding "for Lowell." She ends the story by describing what happened when she and Fern saw each other for the first time again in South Dakota. Rosemary signed her name and Fern's name, and Fern came over and pressed her hand, and then her forehead, against the glass separating them. Rosemary couldn't know what Fern was thinking, but she still felt that it was like looking in a mirror.

- Genre: Gothic novel - Title: We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Point of view: first person - Setting: A small New England town and its surroundings - Character: Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood. Description: Merricat narrates the novel. Though she is eighteen during the events she describes, she often acts much younger, smashing things when she's upset and getting lost in her reveries of living on the moon. At the same time, she has a cold-blooded violent streak; she poisoned most of her family when she was twelve by putting arsenic in the sugar bowl one night when they sent her to bed without her supper. In an attempt to exercise her will over the world, Merricat practices what can best be described as witchcraft. She buries objects all over the Blackwood property as safeguards, and she tries to force Charles to leave by wiping out all signs of his presence in the house and smashing mirrors. Furthermore, Merricat follows a number of rules concerning what she can touch and where she can go. Though the reader might initially assume that Constance has set these rules, it later becomes clear that Merricat has set them herself. Though Merricat shows almost no outward remorse for murdering her family, the nature of these rules suggests that she might feel more guilt than she lets on. - Character: Constance Blackwood. Description: Constance is Merricat's sister, who is older by ten years. She more or less runs the household, as she does all of the cooking and takes care of Uncle Julian and the garden. She loves Merricat deeply and indulges her constantly. Six years before the novel begins, Constance was put on trial for poisoning her family. Though she was acquitted, the trial made her the object of much curiosity and anger, and most people seem to believe that she is, in fact, guilty. Though Merricat is actually the murderer, it seems that Constance isn't entirely innocent—at the very least, she knew that Merricat was guilty, but remained loyal to her rather than turning her in. Ever since the murders, Constance has been frightened of the outside world and has remained in the house, isolated from almost everyone except for Helen Clarke. Near the opening of the book, though, Constance begins to consider returning to the outside world, and Charles intensifies this possibility by making her see their life through the eyes of an outsider. After the fire, however, Constance commits herself fully to being cut off from the world, and she and Merricat live happily together in isolation. - Character: Uncle Julian Blackwood. Description: Uncle Julian is the brother of Merricat and Constance's father. He was present at the dinner when the rest of the family was poisoned, and though he did eat some of the poisoned sugar, it was a small enough quantity that he survived. However, the arsenic he ingested has made him an invalid and damaged his memory. He lives with Merricat and Constance, and Constance takes care of him. Even though he sees Merricat every day, he believes that she died in the orphanage where she was sent during Constance's trial. Ever since the poisoning, Uncle Julian has been obsessed with the story of it. Whenever he feels well enough, he cheerfully busies himself with his notes about the murders. He's writing a book concerning every detail of what happened. He feels very lucky to have been involved in such a sensational case, and loves nothing more than to talk about the poisoning. However, Julian's faulty memory means that he sometimes doubts whether the murders even happened, throwing into doubt everything that he says about the family's backstory. In fact, he seems notably unconcerned with telling the truth about the poisoning, and he sometimes makes up what he can't find out for sure. Uncle Julian acts as the reader's main source of the backstory that so heavily influences the current action of the plot, but his account can never be entirely trusted. Eventually, Uncle Julian's heart fails when the house catches on fire, and he dies. - Character: Charles Blackwood. Description: Cousin to Merricat and Constance. Charles turns up at the house saying that he wants to help the sisters. Though Constance welcomes him, Merricat sees him as a stranger and an intruder and works tirelessly to get rid of him. He initially tries to befriend her, but quickly turns hostile, essentially threatening to steal Constance from her. He refuses to put up with Merricat's eccentricities as Constance does, and he wants to punish her. He also becomes irritated with Uncle Julian's physical illness and delusions, making an enemy of the sharp-tongued old man. Charles allies himself entirely with Constance and begins to turn her against Merricat. Though nothing is said explicitly, it is implied that he hopes to marry Constance and get access to the money that her father has left in the safe in his study. It certainly becomes clear that he cares about little other than money, making him into a sort of living copy of the sisters' dead father, John Blackwood. Charles represents the Blackwood masculinity against which Merricat and Constance rebel by entirely disregarding the value of money or social status. - Character: Jonas. Description: Merricat's cat. He seems to be the only being besides Constance that Merricat really loves, and he follows her everywhere. Merricat is (or at least believes herself to be) able to understand him speaking to her. Furthermore, if Merricat can be said to practice witchcraft, then Jonas acts as her familiar, an animal companion thought to increase witches' powers. - Character: Helen Clarke. Description: Helen Clarke is an old friend of the Blackwood family, and one of the few people who hasn't abandoned them since the murders. She still comes to tea periodically, and she eventually begins to urge Constance to reenter the world. While Helen Clarke is friendly to the sisters, she insists repeatedly that the villagers are no longer a danger to the Blackwoods, which proves not to be true. This shows that, while Helen Clarke's attempted kindness sets her apart, she is no less dangerous to the sisters than the rest of the villagers. - Character: Stella. Description: Stella runs a café in the village where Merricat always stops on her way home from doing the shopping. Merricat stops there not because she wants to, but because she feels the need to show that she isn't afraid of the villagers. Stella is polite to Merricat, unlike the other villagers, but she also doesn't defend Merricat against the hostilities of her other customers. Furthermore, she takes part in terrorizing the sisters after the fire. - Character: Jim Donell. Description: One of the villagers. Jim particularly hates the Blackwoods and he represents the worst of the villagers' attitudes towards them. He's also the chief firefighter, and though he leads the effort to put out the fire at the Blackwood house, he also throws the first rock that spurs the villagers to storm the house and destroy it. - Character: Jim Clarke. Description: Jim Clarke is Helen Clarke's husband. She brings him to the Blackwood house after it burns to try to get Merricat and Constance to come live in the Clarkes' house. Later, she sends him back with Dr. Levy to try again, but both times the sisters hide. Jim seems to mostly want to help the Blackwoods to satisfy his wife, rather than because he genuinely cares about them. - Theme: Female Power. Description: Throughout the novel, the actions of the female characters reveal a desire for revolt against the patriarchy. Due to family tragedy and social isolation, Merricat and Constance have power over their day-to-day lives that is unusual for young women in the 1960s, and the book is concerned with the sisters' struggle to defend that power from men who would usurp it. The sisters' ultimate triumph is that they succeed in banishing these men from their lives. Jackson, then, presents a vision that could be seen as a kind of feminist utopia, in which the sisters reject many structures and icons of male power, such as money and the traditional nuclear family, and are able to make a woman-centered life for themselves that includes only the two of them. In this book, male power is especially present in money, as men have traditionally been breadwinners and have used this position to control women. Blackwood men in particular base their identity and success largely on their ability to make money. By entirely disregarding the value of money, Merricat and Constance simply deny the power of men. Their money sits in their father's safe, and they use it only to buy necessities. When Charles arrives, he's scandalized by the sisters' indifference to their wealth, but they simply laugh at his attempts to get into the safe and put a price to all the objects in the house. Essentially, they shed much of the power that men may have over them by choosing not to rely on or value money. Additionally, witchcraft has long been associated with women who transgress social expectations, and Merricat creates her own brand of witchcraft as she buries protective objects all over the property and decides on words that she believes are powerful. Her cat, Jonas, even acts like her familiar, an animal believed to aid witches in their work. The destruction of the house through fire and the villagers' throwing of objects mimics the execution of witches by burning or stoning—except in this instance, Merricat and Constance not only survive the symbolic execution, but find themselves happier than ever after it, as it leaves them entirely out of reach of the male-centric world, with only each other for company. Merricat and Constance also rely on feminine power as vested in the traditional female connection to food preparation. In fact, their lives revolve almost entirely around food, and by the end of the book, they spend practically all of their time in the kitchen, with Constance preparing food and Merricat eating it. Though women have long been made responsible for preparing food for their husbands, the sisters subvert this patriarchal tradition by enjoying their food alone, without any men, after Uncle Julian's death. Despite the outside pressures of society, Merricat and Constance ultimately find happiness being alone together, to the exclusion of all male company besides their cat. In a world that largely believes that women need men, the sisters' preference to live without them amounts to a bold statement. - Theme: Family and Gender. Description: Family is an intensely fraught subject in this novel. On one hand, the only person in the world whom Merricat loves is her sister, Constance, and almost everything Merricat does is motivated by this love. On the other hand, Merricat has murdered her parents, her brother, and her aunt, and she lives with her uncle who survived the murders simply due to luck. While Merricat's attitude towards family might seem to be chaotic and illogical, Jackson's portrayal of the gendered nature of family life and the tendency for the traditional nuclear family to oppress women gives insight into Merricat's extreme actions and desires. To understand Merricat's attitude towards family, one needs to consider more broadly the gendered history and structure of the family. Laws and social rules surrounding family structure have long been patrilineal, defining family power and identity solely based on men. For example, the family name is traditionally passed down through the male line, and sons have traditionally inherited family property instead of daughters. Women have been considered to be under the rule of their fathers until they marry, when they come under the rule of their husbands. It could be said that family is in itself an instrument of female oppression, and thus, through destroying her family, Merricat ends these oppressive traditions. Jackson uses Charles Blackwood, the sisters' cousin, to represent the worst of masculinity. He is obsessed with money (a sphere traditionally considered masculine), and he comes to the house with the goal of wringing money out of the sisters under the guise of helping them. In order to do so, he seems to be plotting to marry Constance, which adds a strangely incestuous element to the family relations. Because of Charles's ambitions to marry Constance, he becomes the central danger to the relationship between Merricat and her sister—his striving to lure Constance into a relationship would not only pull her away from Merricat, but would also pull her out of the female-centric world that Merricat has created in their house. In this way, marriage is painted as an institution largely concerned with keeping women from owning property (a common and potent feminist critique of marriage) and an institution that keeps women from being in solidarity with one another. As such, Jackson portrays marriage as undermining female familial relations, rather than creating new family. Adding to the complexity of this dynamic, Charles is already family. Because of this, he has license to enter the house, despite the sisters' efforts to keep out almost everyone else. Charles attempts to control Merricat more than anyone else does. He refuses to accept her behavior and he threatens her in the very house which she thought she had made entirely her own. In this way, he takes away the power she gained by killing her family and begins to treat her the way that they treated her, as shown when she asks whether he's going to punish her by sending her to bed without dinner. This was the punishment that spurred her to put the arsenic in the sugar bowl, which bodes ill for Charles. Ultimately, Merricat's desire for control over the household trumps Charles's familial right to it, which underscores the triumph of women over oppressive familial structures. Fittingly, Merricat is neither interested in her financial inheritance nor in the heritage of her male forebears. Instead, she focuses on the stories and objects related to generations of Blackwood women who have lived in the house before her and Constance. Many objects in the house, such as the china, have come to be there as part of these women's dowries, but the inheritance most important to Merricat and Constance is food. They treasure the shelves and shelves of canned food in the cellar, which represent the contributions of generations of Blackwood women to the household. On the one hand, the food stores prove that Blackwood women have always fulfilled the traditionally female role of cook. However, the food is also a tangible reminder that women have an important history in the family, and it sets up food as a site of resistance and a link among Blackwood women. Just as food changes from oppressor to instrument of liberation when Merricat murders her family, the Blackwood family, over the course of the novel, turns from a source of gendered oppression to a source of power through its matrilineal inheritance and focus on sisterhood. - Theme: Guilt and Punishment. Description: This novel revolves around an unsolved crime: the murder of Merricat and Constance's family six years earlier. While Constance was initially blamed for the poisoning, she was acquitted at her trial, which left the public with no clear answer about who was actually to blame. Meanwhile, Merricat—the real murderer—is never publically suspected, though, privately, Constance knows Merricat was responsible. The extent to which Constance was complicit in the murder is never fully clear, and, as a result, issues of unresolved guilt and punishment permeate the story, leading to discord among the characters. The villagers, who are intensely interested in the murders (seemingly because they remain unsolved), believe that Constance did, in fact, murder her family. The notion that Constance has evaded her due punishment seems to torment the villagers, causing them to taunt the sisters and exile them from the life of the town. The villagers' harassment of the sisters throughout the novel indicates that unresolved questions of guilt and the appearance of justice shirked are powerful motivators of violence. This dynamic is more subtly apparent in the internal life of the Blackwood family. While Constance was not responsible for the murders directly, the extent to which she was complicit remains unclear. Constance bought the arsenic in the first place, and she failed to call the doctor soon enough to save her family. She even told the police that the family deserved to die. All of this seems to contribute to Constance's consistent sense of guilt throughout the novel, indicating that perhaps she, like the villagers, feels that she has not been given her proper punishment. Constance repeatedly takes the blame for circumstances that are far more the result of Merricat's actions than her own, and she also feels guilty about the isolated, haphazard way in which she and Merricat live, even though Merricat clearly relishes it. Charles makes her see their life from an outside perspective, which leads her to think that Merricat deserves a better, more social way of life than what Constance provides. Merricat, on the other hand, was directly responsible for the murders, and she expresses no clear feelings of guilt or remorse at her actions; she sometimes even laughs while Uncle Julian describes the night of her crime. Instead of feeling that she deserves punishment, Merricat seems to feel that she and Constance deserve more from life than they have been given. This is, perhaps, because Merricat has a clearer vision of the wrongs to which she and her sister have been subjected at the hands of their family, and thus she feels that the murders were justifiable punishment for the family and a way to establish a better life for herself and Constance. The dynamics of guilt and punishment in this novel work to create an unsettled feeling, as almost nobody takes what would seem like proper responsibility for their actions. No one is brought to justice, and few characters really even seek out justice. Instead, the novel harbors murderers and rioters almost sympathetically, suggesting that humans are given to chaos far more than laws can account for. Since everyone has a different sense of what is just in any given situation, no one can ever be satisfied that justice has been served, causing perpetual guilt and violence as characters avenge and atone for perceived wrongs without the ability to obtain closure. - Theme: Isolation. Description: Constance and Merricat have cut themselves off from the world almost entirely since the deaths of their family. Although Constance fears the outside world, the story takes place at a time of change, when she's beginning to wonder whether it's time to face society again. She is partially receptive to Helen Clarke's urging her to return to the world, though she's also frightened at the prospect. Merricat also fears the outside world, but she feels just as much hatred towards it as fear. In other words, even as she wants to escape from the villagers, she also wants to kill them all. Since Merricat unabashedly cherishes her isolation from the world, Constance's ambivalence about isolation frightens Merricat. Merricat wants nothing more than to have complete possession of and control over Constance, and their continued isolation is key to this goal. Merricat frequently imagines going to live on the moon and taking Constance with her. The moon comes to represent her ideal life, and its most prominent characteristic is its removal from the world. On the moon, no one would bother the sisters, and Merricat could do as she liked, keep Constance safe, and never have to share Constance's attention with anyone else. The immediate conflict of the story centers on the threats to the isolation that Merricat cherishes—these threats consist specifically of Helen Clarke and Charles Blackwood. Both of these characters come to the house with the intention of removing the sisters from it. Helen Clarke argues that Constance should return to society, insisting that plenty of people still think of themselves as her friends. More to the point, she implies that it's time for Constance to find a husband. Charles seems to present himself as a potential husband; though he never says so outright, he quickly begins to discipline Merricat under the authority of "Constance and I," and he undoubtedly seeks an honorable way to get his hands on the sisters' money. In his refusal to bend to the strange way in which the sisters live, particularly the license that Constance gives Merricat to behave in whatever way she likes, Charles represents the rational, masculine, capitalist outside world. In fact, Charles doesn't try to drag the sisters into the outside world so much as he tries to bring the outside world to their house and make them respect its rules and norms. The sisters' isolation ultimately amounts to a defense against living by these rules and norms. The outside world is ruled by men like Jim Donell, who hate the Blackwoods. The attempts of Helen Clarke and Charles to reincorporate the sisters into normal society are linked to a desire to make them conform to patriarchal standards and rules, particularly the valuing of marriage and money. At the end of the book, the sisters cut themselves off from the world entirely. Although they observe the people who linger outside, no one can see into the house. The sisters can watch the workings of society, but they choose not to adhere to it themselves, instead living happily by the rules that Merricat makes up herself. - Theme: The Relativity of Truth. Description: Because the story revolves around a mysterious past event, much of the narrative prompts the reader to try to figure out exactly what happened on the fatal night of the poisoning. Throughout the novel, there is a sense that this truth lies just out of sight. For some characters (like the villagers and Uncle Julian), truth is the same as conjecture, and for the two characters that do know the truth (Merricat and Constance), their individual truths never quite line up. Merricat's narration is never reliable. The fact that the murderer narrates the story means that the reader can't take what she says at face value; instead, one must constantly work to infer what Merricat is leaving out in order to figure out the true story. For example, Merricat never says outright that she tips Charles's pipe onto the newspapers to start a fire, she only says that her eyes were seeing the light in strange ways. Furthermore, the reader quickly realizes that Merricat isn't entirely sane, meaning, for example, that she might laugh at something that is actually evidence of her own murderous tendencies. Just like the reader, the characters who don't know the truth (everyone besides Merricat and Constance) are always working to find the truth or to fight for their version of it. The villagers refuse to believe the outcome of the trial, which found Constance innocent of the murder. Though they might not have the opportunity to accuse Constance to her face, their repetition of a rhyme about Constance poisoning Merricat shows that Constance's guilt has attained almost mythic proportions among them, regardless of the fact that she's innocent. Uncle Julian's love of recounting the night of his own poisoning provides important exposition about the murders. However, the fact that Uncle Julian's storytelling is the most concrete account of that critical event adds to the impossibility of ever knowing what's true. Uncle Julian is even less reliable than Merricat, as the poison affected his memory. In fact, he often asks Constance whether the poisoning ever even happened, and he believes that Merricat is dead, despite the fact that he sees her every day. If he struggles with these simple facts, how can the reader trust his memory of the details of a day six years ago? Uncle Julian himself admits that he's not dedicated to providing others with the truth, saying that when he's dead, his papers are to be "entrusted to some worthy cynic who will not be too concerned with the truth" (43). Merricat and Constance seem to be the only characters who don't obsess about the past, in part because they know exactly what happened. At the same time, however, this knowledge of the truth propels their lives as they fight to keep away from the characters who seek the truth (and the punishment that knowing this truth would invite). Shirley Jackson's willingness to keep both her reader and her characters more or less in the dark suggests that the truth itself isn't as important as what characters' perceptions of the truth will lead them to do. Merricat's goal is never so much to hide or reveal the truth as it is to protect herself and Constance from the ways in which other characters react to what they believe to be true, particularly the villagers' hatred of Constance as an unpunished murderess. - Climax: the villagers tearing apart the sisters' house after it burns - Summary: The narrator, Mary Katherine Blackwood (known as Merricat) introduces herself and reveals that all of her relatives are dead, except for her sister Constance. She then begins her story some time earlier, on the day she brought home the library books that still sit on her shelf, long overdue. It's Merricat's job to go into town for groceries, but she doesn't like having to face the villagers, who are hostile towards her. The Blackwoods' land is closed off from the outside world with a fence, and the villagers have always hated the Blackwood family. Merricat hates the villagers in return and often wishes them dead. When she enters the grocery store, everyone goes silent until the owners have helped her and she leaves. On her way home, Merricat goes into Stella's café to show that she isn't afraid. Jim Donell follows her inside to pester her, insisting he's heard that she and her sister are moving away, which Merricat denies. Joe Dunham comes in, too, and Merricat has to endure their sly insults until Stella tells her to go home. On the way home, the Harris boys chant a rhyme at her about Constance poisoning her with a cup of tea. Merricat returns home, where Constance welcomes her and begins making lunch while their Uncle Julian looks over his papers, which detail the death of the rest of the family six years earlier. Then they prepare for tea, as an old family friend named Helen Clarke is coming to visit. It becomes clear the Constance isn't used to interacting with people other than Merricat and Uncle Julian. When Helen Clarke arrives, Merricat greets her and finds that she's brought her friend Mrs. Wright. Over tea, Helen Clarke urges Constance to reenter the world, and Constance's openness to this idea worries Merricat, so she smashes a pitcher in the kitchen. Uncle Julian comes into the drawing room and begins to discuss the night that the rest of the family was poisoned with arsenic at their dinner. Julian himself also ate the arsenic, but in a small enough quantity that he survived, though it has affected his memory. Mrs. Wright can't help showing her fascination with this topic, despite Helen Clarke's disapproval. Julian details the reasons why Constance might have been guilty or might have been innocent. She was tried for murder but acquitted. Constance and Merricat enjoy his performance, and eventually Helen Clarke forces Mrs. Wright out the door. The next day, Merricat senses that a change is coming in their lives, so she chooses three magic words that will prevent it coming until the words are said aloud. Uncle Julian's health seems bad that day, and after Dr. Levy comes to examine him, the sisters and Uncle Julian sit in the garden and talk about the day of the poisoning. Uncle Julian reveals that he and his wife felt that the sisters' father resented the financial burden of their presence in the household. On Sunday, Merricat and her cat, Jonas, wander the property. Merricat checks on various items that she has buried as magical protection for the house. She finds that a book she nailed to a tree has fallen, and she takes it as a terrible omen. After lunch, Merricat sees a man coming up the steps of the house. She thinks he's one of the many people who come to try to gawk at Constance and take souvenirs from the house because they've heard about the poisoning. However, Constance lets the man into the kitchen and introduces him as their cousin, Charles Blackwood. Merricat is upset that she has let him in, so she spends the night in her hiding place by the creek with Jonas. The next morning, Merricat returns to the house. Though she says that Charles was a ghost, Constance insists that he spent the night in their father's bed, which is proved when Charles comes downstairs and meets Uncle Julian. He tries to make friends with Merricat, but she refuses to speak to him. Uncle Julian wants to write about Charles's perspective on the trial, but Charles doesn't want to talk about it. While Merricat and Constance clean the house, Charles tries to get closer to Merricat through Jonas, and Merricat plots how to get rid of Charles. She eats dinner with the family because Constance wants her to. At dinner, Charles offers to take over the job of getting groceries in town, and Constance is grateful to him. The next day when Charles goes into town, Merricat takes her father's gold watch chain out of Charles's room and nails it to a tree. When Charles finds it, he's enraged that she would damage something so valuable. He threatens Merricat while Constance is out of the room. Under Charles's influence, Constance begins to think that she has done wrong by keeping the family isolated from the world. Merricat asks Charles to leave, but he refuses, so she breaks the mirror in his room. Uncle Julian has also begun to mistrust Charles, and he hides his papers in a box. On Thursday, while Charles tries to fix the back step, Merricat tries to wipe out Charles's mark on the house. She breaks her father's watch, which Charles has claimed, and fills his room with wood and dirt. Meanwhile, Charles digs up the silver dollars she's buried in the woods. She cleans out her shelter by the stream to get rid of his influence, and when she returns home, Charles is furious about the state of his room. He wants to punish her and is exasperated by Uncle Julian's delusions—it becomes clear that Julian believes Merricat died during Constance's trial. Eventually Merricat runs away and goes to the deserted summerhouse, where she imagines her dead family showering her with words of praise and indulgence. When Merricat returns to the house, Constance, Charles, and Uncle Julian are eating dinner. Merricat goes upstairs and tips Charles's burning pipe into the trash can, then joins them at the dinner table. Before long, Charles smells smoke and discovers that his room is on fire. He runs for help while Uncle Julian goes to collect his papers. Merricat and Constance shelter on the porch, hidden behind some vines. Firemen arrive along with a crowd of villagers, who would like to see the house burn down. Charles is most concerned about getting the safe out. Once the fire is out, Jim Donell, the chief fireman, throws a rock through the drawing room window, spurring the villagers to storm the house and begin destroying it from inside. Merricat and Constance try to run to the woods, but the villagers surround them, taunting them. They only stop when Dr. Levy and Jim Clarke announce that Uncle Julian is dead. Merricat takes Constance to her shelter by the stream, where they acknowledge for the first time that Merricat poisoned their family. When Merricat wakes up the next morning, she knows that everything will be different from now on. She and Constance discover that only the ground floor of their house is left. The kitchen is littered with broken china, glass, and furniture, but Constance manages to make breakfast anyway. When they eventually get up the courage to look at the rest of the house, they find that the drawing room and the dining room are both a mess. Merricat shutters these rooms and they close the doors forever. They clean the kitchen and the front hall, and lock the front door. Before long, Helen and Jim Clarke turn up at the door, calling for the sisters and claiming that they want to help. Merricat and Constance hide, and eventually the Clarkes leave. Merricat covers the kitchen windows with cardboard so no one can see in. Later, Jim Clarke returns with Dr. Levy, who wants to make sure they're not hurt. Merricat and Constance sit at the table behind the covered windows until the men leave. Constance apologizes for the night before when she reminded Merricat why their family died and she promises she'll never bring it up again. Over time, the sisters create a new pattern for their life. Merricat always makes sure the front door is locked, and she barricades the sides of the house with junk to prevent people from getting into the garden. People use the path through their front yard now, and sometimes children play on the lawn. Constance wears Uncle Julian's old clothes, and Merricat wears tablecloths. They plant a rosebush on the spot where Uncle Julian used to sit in the garden. The villagers begin to leave food on the porch in the evenings with notes apologizing for various items they broke the night of the fire. Merricat never strays past the garden anymore, and she and Constance often sit at the front door and watch the people outside. One day, Charles arrives with another man, who says he'll pay Charles for a picture of him with one of the sisters if he can get them to come out. Charles begs Constance to let him in, but she doesn't. The moment he leaves they both laugh uproariously at his foolishness. The people who walk past the house always speculate about the sisters, and children are afraid of them. There's a rumor that the sisters eat children, and Merricat and Constance joke about it. They feel they have little to fear anymore, and they are happy.

- Genre: Epistolary Novel, Thriller - Title: We Need to Talk About Kevin - Point of view: First Person - Setting: New York City and Gladstone, NJ - Character: Eva Khatchadourian. Description: - Character: Kevin Khatchadourian. Description: - Character: Franklin Plaskett. Description: - Character: Celia Plaskett. Description: - Character: Mary Woolford. Description: - Character: Siobhan. Description: - Character: Loretta Greenleaf. Description: - Theme: Guilt and Accountability. Description: - Theme: Marriage, Family, and Social Norms. Description: - Theme: Nature vs. Nurture. Description: - Theme: Idealism vs. Reality. Description: - Theme: Forgiveness and Empathy. Description: - Climax: Kevin murders 10 people in his school gymnasium. - Summary: Through a series of letters to her estranged husband, Franklin, Eva Khatchadourian recounts the events of her and Franklin's family life leading up to their son Kevin's recent mass murder. Eva tells Franklin that she misses him and that she lives in a new house close to Kevin. Eva's community ostracizes her and vandalizes her new house with red paint. Eva recalls the time that she and Franklin dated before they had Kevin. At this time, she is an avid traveler, and she owns a successful company that publishes travel guides. Eva and Franklin discuss whether they should have a child—Eva doesn't want to because she thinks a baby would detract from the things she enjoys in life, but Franklin wants to be a father. One day, Eva decides that if she ever loses Franklin, she will want a child to keep her company. She and Franklin try to get pregnant, but Eva has second thoughts as she considers the inconveniences of pregnancy. Eva does get pregnant, and she immediately regrets it. She and Franklin argue about whose last name the baby should take (they decide on Eva's) and about how Eva treats her body during pregnancy. In the present, Eva writes to Franklin that she recently found a new job, which was difficult after Kevin's murders. She is undergoing court proceedings because the mother of one of Kevin's victims is suing Eva for parental negligence. Eva sometimes feels completely at fault for the murders, but she also knows that she can't bear the full responsibility. She writes to Franklin that she is not sure if she loves Kevin. Eva visits Kevin in prison regularly. He doesn't say much at the visits, but when he and Eva do speak they are both snappy and hostile to each other. Eva's letters to Franklin return to chronicling her pregnancy. When Eva is pregnant, she imagines that holding Kevin for the first time will bring a life-changing sensation. She has a painful and difficult childbirth, and when she finally holds Kevin, Eva feels nothing. As a newborn, Kevin won't breastfeed. Eva believes that Kevin—though he is an infant—doesn't like Eva and can tell that she doesn't like him either. Eva takes a leave from work to stay home with Kevin. He screams all day long but stops when he sees Franklin. Franklin begins not to believe Eva about Kevin's behavior when she's alone with him, and tension builds between the couple. While Eva is ill, Franklin hires a nanny for Kevin, but she quits before her first day is over. Franklin finds a new nanny, Siobhan, who stays with the family while Eva returns to work. Siobhan quits after a year, reporting that Kevin intentionally hurts her. Kevin stops screaming at this point, but at one and a half years old, he doesn't speak or play at all. One day, he suddenly begins to speak in full sentences. Eva thinks he was pretending not to be able to talk before this so that he could eavesdrop on others. Eva and Franklin discuss moving to the suburbs—Eva wants to remain in New York, but Franklin thinks it is best for Kevin to leave the city. They make a compromise that they will move to the suburbs, and Eva will take an extended trip to Africa for work. On the trip, she decides to leave work again so that she can try to form a better relationship with her son. When she returns home, feeling reinvigorated, she goes out to eat with Franklin and Kevin. At the restaurant, Kevin constantly mocks Eva and their waitress. Eva's frustration grows until she slaps Kevin in the face. A little while later, the family is moving into their new house in the suburbs. Kevin relentlessly shoots the movers with a squirt gun. Eva tells him to stop, but Franklin encourages him. Eva confiscates the gun, angering Kevin—though he acts unbothered. Eva can see that Kevin is learning to detach himself from things that might hurt him. Once they're moved in, Eva undertakes a long project to cover the walls in her study with maps. She explains to Kevin that the maps are important to her. When she leaves the room, Kevin fills his squirt gun (which Franklin returned to him) with red ink and sprays it all over the maps. Eva returns, and, enraged, stomps on the gun until it is destroyed. When Kevin enters kindergarten, the other children seem afraid of him. One day, Eva picks up Kevin and finds him in the bathroom with a girl who is bleeding all over her body. The girl has severe eczema, which she usually resists scratching. Eva is certain that Kevin somehow caused the girl to bleed. Eva is upset with him and doesn't change his diaper that day (Kevin is still in diapers at six years old). Franklin is appalled that Eva refused to change Kevin's diaper, and the tension between Franklin and Eva grows. Eva is convinced that Kevin refuses to use the bathroom on purpose to bother his parents. One day, Kevin soils himself three times in a row right after Eva changes him. Beside herself with frustration, Eva throws Kevin across the room into the changing table, and he breaks his arm. To Eva's relief, Kevin lies about the incident to everyone, saying it was an accident. In light of this, Eva loses any power she had over Kevin and she begins to oblige all his demands. Franklin and Eva continue to argue about Kevin regularly. Eva wants another baby, but Franklin rejects the idea because he thinks Eva is a bad mother. Eva stops using birth control without telling Franklin, and she becomes pregnant. Eva tells Kevin about sex, and that he is going to have a sibling. He is not curious about or surprised by sex, and he is upset by the prospect of a sibling. Eva gives birth to a girl and names her Celia. Celia is much easier to care for than Kevin. As a baby she never cries, and she sleeps easily. As she gets older, she and Eva become very attached to each other. Kevin tortures Celia by scaring and hurting her on purpose; one time he ties her to a chair and forces her to eat a mixture of mayonnaise and curry until she vomits. As Celia gets older, Kevin becomes more hostile to Eva and more pleasant towards Franklin. However, Kevin becomes very sick when he is 10 years old, and his behavior suddenly (but temporarily) flips. He seems to lack enough energy to either act nicely towards Franklin or to be angry and hateful towards Eva. Eva reads Kevin Robin Hood, and Kevin loves it. Eva is glad that he is showing interest in something, so she buys him an archery set. Kevin's hostile behaviors continue into adolescence. He bullies other students at school and once gets in trouble with the police for throwing bricks at cars. Shortly after this, Celia's pet shrew mysteriously goes missing. When Kevin is 14, Celia badly injures her eye and face with drain cleaner. She has surgery and loses an eye. Eva is sure that Kevin hurt Celia with the chemical on purpose, but Franklin thinks the accusation is outrageous. Celia later gets a glass eye replacement. School shootings become very common in America throughout Kevin's adolescence. Kevin defends the shooters and hates it when Eva criticizes them. Around this time, Kevin accuses one of his teachers of touching him inappropriately. Eva is sure that he is lying and wants to send him to boarding school. Franklin doesn't trust Eva's opinion of Kevin at all anymore—he thinks she is delusional, and he says he wants to separate. Kevin overhears this conversation. A short while later, Eva stays late at work and hears that there was a shooting at Kevin's high school. Eva rushes to the school, scared for Kevin's safety. She sees Kevin walk out of the school in handcuffs. Eva drives to the police station, calling Franklin in a panic, but he doesn't pick up. She drives home after talking to the police. She finds Franklin and Celia dead in Kevin's archery range, with multiple arrows in their bodies. Eva later learns that Kevin locked nine students and one teacher in the school gymnasium, and shot them with arrows, letting them slowly bleed to death. A while after the murders, Eva sees a documentary about Kevin. Kevin tells an interviewer that he is tired of people blaming Eva for what happened, and Eva sees that the only thing in Kevin's cell is a picture of her. Exactly two years after the murders, Eva visits Kevin in prison. He is almost 18, and he is terrified because he will soon transfer to an adult prison. Eva tells him how much she misses Celia and Franklin. Kevin says that he doesn't know why he committed the murders. He gives her a tiny coffin containing Celia's glass eye. Eva hugs Kevin, and she thinks she hears him apologize.

- Genre: Ubuntu Literature, Autofiction - Title: Welcome to Our Hillbrow - Point of view: Third Person - Setting: Johannesburg, South Africa; Tiragalong (fictional province), South Africa; Oxford, England - Character: Refentše. Description: Refentše is one of two main characters in Welcome to Our Hillbrow. The narrator addresses Refentše directly, even though Refentše is dead at the beginning of the story. Refentše was born in a small, rural village called Tiragalong. However, when he is accepted to the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, he moves to the city where he lives with his cousin in the poorer neighborhood of Hillbrow. The love of Refentše's life is a fellow student named Lerato. Refentše's best friend is Sammy. Refentše is also closely connected to the story's second protagonist, Refilwe, with whom he had a relationship when he was younger in Tiragalong. Refentše knows that Refilwe loves him and wants him to leave Lerato for her, and although Refentše rejects her romantic advances, he never stops caring for her. After Lerato cheats on Refentše with Sammy, Refentše spirals into a depression and commits suicide by jumping off of his 20-story balcony. Refentše is a thoughtful and observant character, who suffers depressive episodes even before the one that kills him. He loves literature and is an excellent student, earning a BA with honors and a scholarship for an MA. He reads and writes in Sepedi and English. After his second degree, he works as a lecturer in South African literature at the university—the first person from Tiragalong to do so. Unlike many other characters, Refentše is not prejudiced toward "Makwerekwere" (a slur for immigrants from other African countries), but he doesn't hold grudges against characters who are. Refentše publishes one short story before he dies, and the story is about how prejudice destroys South African society. - Character: Refilwe. Description: Refilwe is the second protagonist of Welcome to Our Hillbrow. She, like her first love Refentše, comes from the rural village Tiragalong. Like Refentše, she also studies literature (Sepedi and English) at university, and she moves to Johannesburg—Hillbrow specifically—to work as an editor at a publishing house after earning her BA. Refilwe is a smart and caring character, but she carries some of the prejudices that many people from Tiragalong hold—particularly against "Makwerekwere" (a slur for people who immigrate to South Africa from other African countries). After Refentše commits suicide, Refilwe blames Lerato and smears her name in Tiragalong. Later in the story, though, Refilwe chooses to continue her studies at Oxford Brookes University in England and getting outside of South Africa helps her overcome her previous prejudices. She also attributes her change in attitude to Refentše's short story, which emphasizes the dangers of prejudice. While abroad, Refilwe falls in love with a Nigerian man, which further puts an end to her biases about immigrants from other African countries. Yet while Refilwe is in England, she is tested for AIDS and discovers that she contracted HIV at a young age. Refilwe comes back to Tiragalong to die and eventually succumbs to the disease, joining Refentše and the book's other deceased characters in heaven. - Character: Lerato. Description: Lerato is a student at the University of Witwatersrand studying literature, and she is the love of Refentše's life. The two start dating after they're both victims of a holdup in Johannesburg, and this brush with death causes Refentše to admit his true feelings for Lerato. Lerato lives with Refentše and loves him very much, but she eventually starts to feel as though he is slipping into a depression. She tries to get advice from his best friend, Sammy, and the two end up have sex—Refentše walks in on them in bed, which leads to his suicide. Lerato's father is Piet, a South African from the village Alexandra. However, after Refentše commits suicide, Refilwe spreads rumors that Lerato is actually a "Lekwerekwere" (a slur for people who immigrant to South African from other African countries) because her father is Nigerian. The backlash she faces from these rumors, coupled with the grief and guilt she feels over Refentše's death, cause Lerato to commit suicide. When Lerato arrives in heaven, she and Refentše begin their relationship again, and they forgive each other for the mistakes they made in life. - Character: Sammy. Description: Sammy is Refentše's best friend in Hillbrow. He's known Refentše for years, and he used to help Refentše handle depressive bouts when they were younger. Sammy is dating Bohlale, whom he loves. However, he cheats on her with Lerato, after she calls him to her apartment asking for help with Refentše. Sammy also occasionally goes out drinking, and one night a woman at a bar drugs him. He brings this woman back home, insulting Bohlale and even making her sleep on the floor. This behavior causes Bohlale to ask Refentše for help, which leads to Refentše and Bohlale having sex. Sammy never finds out about this, and he does not stop going out drinking. One night, he is stabbed, and Refentše miraculously finds him before he bleeds out. Refentše rushes Sammy to the hospital, and Sammy's first request when he wakes up is for Bohlale, which makes Refentše think that their relationship will survive. However, Bohlale is hit by a car on her way to the hospital, and she dies. After Bohlale dies, Sammy begins to lose his mind. Of the four close friends (Refentše, Lerato, Sammy, and Bohlale), Sammy is the only one alive at the end of the story—though this is hardly a consolation, because he has gone mad with grief. - Character: Bohlale. Description: Bohlale is Sammy's girlfriend and Refentše and Lerato's friend. She cheats on Sammy with Refentše once, during a low moment when Refentše is comforting her about Sammy's habit of going out drinking. Bohlale nearly leaves Sammy—she has her bags packed—but the night she is going to leave him, Sammy gets stabbed and is rushed to the hospital. Refentše tells Bohlale that the first thing Sammy asked for when he woke up was Bohlale, so she decides that she still loves Sammy, and that she'll stay with him and tell him about cheating on him with Refentše. However, on her way to the hospital to see Sammy, she is hit by a speeding carjacker and dies. - Character: Cousin. Description: Refentše's cousin is a police officer who lives in an apartment in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Cousin houses Refentše when he gets into the University of Witwatersrand, and he takes Refentše to school on the first day. Cousin is good to Refentše, but he is prejudiced toward the "Makwerekwere" (a slur for people who immigrate to South Africa from other African countries). Refentše knows that Cousin treats immigrants very badly in his position of power as a police officer. Refentše also notes that this makes Cousin a bit of a hypocrite, since he always roots for other African teams in the World Cup (especially when they're playing against European teams) but can't seem to break his prejudices when it comes to daily life in Johannesburg. - Character: Refentše's Mother. Description: Refentše's mother lives in Tiragalong, where Refentše was born. She, like most of the people from the village, is fiercely prejudiced against "Makwerekwere" (a slur for immigrants from other African countries) and against South Africans who live in the city. She's never set foot in Johannesburg herself. She is disgusted that her son is living with a "Hillbrow woman" and she considers Lerato a "Lekwerekwere," even though Lerato having a Nigerian father is just a rumor. Refentše 's mother is convinced that Lerato poisoned Refentše's food to make him fall in love with her. She essentially disowns her son for being with Lerato, which is why Refentše feels like he can't go to her for comfort after he finds Lerato and Sammy together. However, after Refentše 's death, Refentše's mother stumbles during his funeral and falls into his grave. The other villagers of Tiragalong take this as a sign that she is a witch and had cursed her son, and they murder her by placing tires around her neck and setting them on fire (an act called "necklacing"). When Refentše, Lerato, and Refentše's mother all meet in heaven, Refentše's mother changes her tune and smiles at Lerato, telling her that she looks like her true father, Piet. - Character: Piet. Description: Piet is Lerato and Tshepo's father. Piet died when Tshepo was very young and before Lerato was born, because he was murdered by a cousin. Piet was from Alexandra, a village very near Tiragalong, and he would visit both villages often even though he lived in Johannesburg. Piet and Liz, Lerato's mother, were employed by a white couple in the city (Piet worked as a gardener), and they lived together in the couple's servant's quarters. Back in Tiragalong, Piet's cousin Molori's mother fell ill, and Molori hired a bone thrower to explain the illness. The bone thrower disingenuously told Molori that Piet was to blame, and Molori and a few hired hitmen stabbed Piet to death the next time he went to visit Alexandra. In heaven, Piet is reunited with Tshepo, Tshepo's mother, and Lerato. - Character: Tshepo. Description: Tshepo is the son of Piet and a woman from Tiragalong. He grows up in Tiragalong and is the first person to leave the village and go to university in Johannesburg. The people of Tiragalong are very impressed with Tshepo, and he's something of a village celebrity (he was Refentše's idol) before he's struck by lightning and dies. Tshepo's mother dies of grief immediately afterward. A bone thrower blames Tshepo's neighbor for his death, and the people from the village murder her. Tshepo, his mother, and Piet (who was killed when Tshepo was too young to really know him) all reunite in heaven after their deaths. - Character: The Nigerian Man. Description: The young Nigerian man is a student at Oxford Brookes University and meets Refilwe at a bar while she is studying abroad. He looks just like Refentše, which is initially what attracts Refilwe to him, and the two become lovers. He, like Refilwe, is diagnosed with AIDS while abroad in England (though, just like Refilwe, he'd been HIV-positive for a long time). He doesn't want to burden Refilwe, so rather than return to Tiragalong with her, he flies home to Lagos after the program ends. - Character: Bone Throwers. Description: In South Africa, bone throwers are mystics who operate mostly in rural villages. When things go wrong (someone gets ill, someone is struck by lightning), the people of Tiragalong often consult a bone thrower to tell them who is to blame. That person is then accused of being a witch and murdered (usually burned to death). Bone throwers are not always genuine, though—in particular, the one who Molori (Piet's cousin) hires frames Piet for Molori's mother's illness, even though he knew Piet had nothing to do with it. Many times, people in the villages do find out that a bone thrower's pronouncement is wrong, but only after the innocent party has been killed. - Character: Jackie. Description: Jackie is a white British girl a few years older than Refilwe. She meets Refilwe when her parents send her to do volunteer work at a high school in Tiragalong. The girls strike up a friendship and stay in touch through phone calls and letters over the years. When Refilwe goes to school at Oxford Brookes, Jackie—who is also a student there—meets Refilwe at the airport. Jackie also helps Refilwe around campus, and she introduces Refilwe to her favorite bar in Oxford, Jude the Obscure. - Character: Refentše's Protagonist (The Young Woman). Description: Before he dies, Refentše publishes a short story. The story's protagonist—an unnamed young woman—is HIV-positive and faces the wrath and the insults of people from Tiragalong. She chooses not to die by suicide, even though she is full of grief and is dying of AIDS. Instead, she writes a book about Hillbrow, Tiragalong, and the prejudices at play in all different corners of South African society. Though it is a good story, she writes it in Sepedi, a South African language (the same one that Refentše reads, speaks, and studies), and this, unfortunately, means that the story never gets picked up by any publishers in Johannesburg, since there's a strong prejudice against non-English literature in South Africa. She falls into a depression and loses a lot of weight. Later in Welcome to Our Hillbrow, the protagonist's story and Refilwe's life align in many ways. - Character: Liz (Lerato's Mother). Description: Liz is Lerato's mother, who lived with Lerato's father, Piet, until he was killed. She and Piet lived in a white suburb as a housekeeper and groundskeeper, but after Piet was murdered (while Liz was pregnant with Lerato), she moved back to the village of Alexandra, where she and Piet were from. Liz finds Lerato after Lerato dies by suicide, since Lerato was staying at her home in Alexandra at the time. She meets Piet and Lerato in heaven after they all die. - Character: Molori. Description: Molori is Piet's cousin. Molori is from Tiragalong, and was very close to his cousin until, one day, Molori's mother fell ill. Molori called on a dishonest bone thrower to tell him what was wrong with his mother, and the bone thrower falsely accused Piet of trying to poison Molori. Molori became scared and angry, and he and a few other men murdered Piet by stabbing him. - Character: Terror. Description: Terror is a man from Tiragalong who knew Refentše when they were younger. Terror has a schoolboy hatred towards Refentše, blaming him for getting in trouble in school one day. Terror always used to try to sleep with Lerato, just to bother Refentše. After Refentše dies, Terror threatens to tell Liz, Lerato's mother, that Lerato cheated on Refentše. This threat is part of the reason Lerato decides to die by suicide. - Character: The Beggar. Description: The beggar is a native South African who is houseless and lives by the University of Witwatersrand. He used to call out to "Aibo!" to Refentše as Refentše went to school. Cousin told Refentše not to respond, but Refentše would always say hello. One day about five years after Refentše first saw him, the beggar is carried towards the hospital in a wheelbarrow and does not greet Refentše. It is unclear if the beggar lives or dies. - Theme: Regret and Redemption. Description: Welcome to Our Hillbrow is set in South Africa—in a section of Johannesburg called Hillbrow—shortly after the end of apartheid. The book follows Refentše and Refilwe—young, intelligent people born in the rural village of Tiragalong, north of Johannesburg. Throughout the novel, characters make cruel decisions that hurt one another, creating a tragic chain of events. After Refentše cheats on the love of his life, Lerato, with his friend's girlfriend and never comes clean about it, Lerato cheats on him with their mutual friend Sammy. Refentše is so devastated by the betrayal that he commits suicide. Refilwe, meanwhile, was in love with Refentše and resents that he chose Lerato over her. So after his suicide, she spreads mean-spirited rumors about Lerato that are rooted in prejudice against immigrants from other African countries (she wrongly believes that Lerato's father is Nigerian). The rumors compound Lerato's grief over Refentše, and she, too, commits suicide. Although both Refentše and Refilwe make terrible mistakes that they deeply regret, they're able to channel this regret into self-reflection and grow out of their harmful attitudes and behavior. As a result, both characters are the book's heroes, even though they are imperfect. From the vantage point of heaven, Refentše can see that if he had confided in Lerato early on, she would not have cheated on him, which was the inciting reason for Refentše's suicide. Being able to analyze the mistakes he made in his life makes his and Lerato's relationship much stronger in the afterlife. In the same vein, Refilwe completely overcomes her prejudices toward the end of the novel, partly by reading challenging literature and partly by studying abroad in England, where she meets a Nigerian man and falls in love with him. Refentše and Refilwe's redemption arcs show that people can be a complex mix of good and bad, and that even people who make grave mistakes can change for the better and lead meaningful lives (or, in Refentše's case, afterlives) if they're truly remorseful. But given that Refilwe eventually dies of AIDS, the book seems to suggest that life itself can be unforgiving (or, at the very least, impartial), even toward those who make amends and better themselves—such people can still experience senseless tragedy. Refilwe is welcomed into heaven at the novel's end, though, implying that anyone who genuinely regrets their past mistakes will nevertheless be redeemed on some level. - Theme: Apartheid and Colonialism. Description: In Welcome to Our Hillbrow, the aftereffects of colonization and apartheid (a long-running system of racial segregation and discrimination) are still observable in South Africa, even though the novel takes place after the end of apartheid. The city of Johannesburg, for instance, is divided into wealthy and poor areas, and white citizens hold the majority of the country's wealth. Indeed, the remnants of colonialism and apartheid are all around Refentše and Refilwe (who are Black South Africans), whether in the way the city is still largely separated by race (with the wealthier areas being "lily-white") or in the British names of so many of the streets, bars, or buildings. Although South Africa has 11 national languages, Refentše, who is a writer, bemoans the fact that a story must be written in English if it is to be commercially viable there. This reality underscores the fact that colonialism will last long after the end of apartheid, since the dominance of the English language in South Africa is directly linked to how forcefully British culture asserted itself during colonization. Additionally, colonialism leaves a lasting impact on how South African people perceive and interact with one another. For instance, many Black South Africans are prejudiced toward Black people from other African countries, and this prejudice eerily mirrors how the white colonizers—the British—are racist toward Black South Africans. There is, in other words, a certain cycle of racism and discrimination at play, and though Refentše tries to push back against this kind of prejudice when he encounters it in South Africa, it's quite difficult to challenge because these sentiments are so deeply sown. To that end, when Refilwe goes to England to study, she sees xenophobia (prejudice toward outsiders) and racism at Heathrow Airport, as customs officials discriminate against people from places like Nigeria and Algeria. This scenario reminds her of how people from South Africa judge other Black Africans, which itself is evidence of how colonizers' prejudices have infiltrated South African culture. Colonialism has led to cultural imperialism, or the overwriting of one culture with the colonizer's culture. Thus, Welcome to Our Hillbrow focuses on the long-term repercussions of colonization, illustrating that such problematic biases didn't simply go away after apartheid. - Theme: Prejudice and Ignorance. Description: Although Welcome to Our Hillbrow explores the lingering effects of apartheid, the racial divide in South Africa is not the narrative's main focus. Instead, the novel primarily looks at other forms of prejudice, mainly examining the arbitrary biases that people often form about those whom they see as different from themselves. For example, people who live in a rural village called Tiragalong (where Refentše and Refilwe are from) are very judgmental about anyone who lives in Johannesburg. They see the city as a place filled with corruption and crime. They are also very xenophobic toward Black immigrants who come to South Africa from other African countries—there's even a South African slur for these people: Makwerekwere. The origins of this slur are rooted in the mocking sounds South Africans make when imitating the languages spoken in other African countries. What's more, people in both Tiragalong and Johannesburg blame migrants for the AIDS crisis that sweeps through the country, making it quite clear that the South African population during this time period was quick to villainize outsiders. Welcome to Our Hillbrow investigates these prejudices by showing how thoughtless they are. For example, the people of Tiragalong think that immigrants bring disease into South Africa. However, at the end of the story, Refilwe is diagnosed with HIV and discovers that she might have already had it for almost a decade—long before she ever left Tiragalong. Additionally, Refentše points out to his cousin (who hypocritically cheers for Black African soccer teams but is racist and xenophobic toward Black immigrants) that many people who live in Johannesburg originally migrated from rural villages—like Tiragalong—in the same way that people are immigrating to South Africa. By showing the inherently illogical nature of the prejudices at play in post-apartheid South Africa, then, Welcome to Our Hillbrow suggests that xenophobia and marginalization are often tied to a population's unwillingness to examine its various prejudices. Failing to challenge such ideas, the novel implies, causes societies to reinforce their own ignorance instead of working through their biases in open-minded, productive ways. - Theme: Storytelling. Description: Storytelling is central to Welcome to Our Hillbrow, as the two protagonists, Refilwe and Refentše, are professionally invested in stories (the former works in publishing, the latter is a writer). But, really, all of the characters in the book use stories in their lives. The South African village that Refilwe and Refentše come from, Tiragalong, is home to people who feed off rumors, making ordinary people into either heroes or villains. In response to the way his community often uses storytelling to ruin reputations, Refentše writes a short story that speaks to the faults of prejudice in Tiragalong and South Africa more broadly. Even characters like the village bone thrower—the mystic person who travels between towns to tell people why certain things happen—relies on tall tales to make money. More than just highlighting the prevalence of storytelling in human life, though, the novel illustrates the many ways in which storytelling can bring about real-life consequences that are both good and bad. The rumors that the villagers tell, for example, cause Lerato to be judged so harshly that she decides to commit suicide. Similarly, the bone thrower's erroneous stories often cause innocent people to be charged as witches and subsequently murdered. And yet, on the flip side, Refentše's short story sets forth a meaningful exploration of society and its prejudices, ultimately causing Refilwe—a previously xenophobic character—to change her outlook on the world. To that end, the novel even suggests that if Refentše had written a longer book, he might have been able to further work through his feelings and, as a result, might not have chosen to end his life so soon. Thus, Welcome to Our Hillbrow demonstrates that stories are remarkably powerful: when used to cruel ends, they can be incredibly destructive, but when used with good intentions, they can have profoundly positive outcomes. - Climax: Refentše commits suicide. - Summary: Welcome to Our Hillbrow takes place in the Hillbrow neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa during the 1990's, when the country was transitioning out of the apartheid era. Refentše, born in rural Tiragalong, moves to the city to go to university. He studies literature at the University of Witwatersrand, eventually earning a BA and an MA, and is then offered a teaching post at the university. He falls in love with a fellow student, Lerato, and the pair live together in Hillbrow. Refentše is a writer and publishes a short story that he considers turning into a longer novel. However, he suffers from depression, which is triggered when Lerato has sex with their good friend Sammy. Devastated, Refentše commits suicide by jumping off of his high-rise balcony. Once he is in heaven, Refentše is able to reflect on his life. There, he realizes that if he'd only spoken to Lerato about what had happened, he would have understood that she did not betray him, and that she loved him very much—the affair was just a moment of weakness precipitated by a concern for Refentše. Lerato, in her grief, commits suicide too, and she and Refentše meet in heaven and rekindle their relationship. From heaven, they can also watch all the people still living on Earth. Welcome to Our Hillbrow also follows Refilwe, whose life is closely intertwined with Refentše's. Refilwe, like Refentše, is born in Tiragalong. The two briefly date when they are young (though Refentše ends up leaving Refilwe because she was seeing other people). Refilwe is still in love with Refentše, though, even after they break up. Refilwe, like Refentše, is a smart, young, Black South African who is trying to navigate post-apartheid life. She also gets a BA in literature (Sepedi and English), and then moves to Johannesburg to work as an editor at a publishing house. Though she is bright, Refilwe—like most of the people from Tiragalong, with the exception of Refentše—is prejudiced against Makwerekwere, or immigrants from other African countries. She is bitter that Refentše won't leave Lerato, because she thinks Lerato is less worthy than herself. This is partly because she is skeptical of any woman who lives in the city, but also because Lerato's father might have been Nigerian (this is later proven to be false), making her a Lekwerekwere. When Refentše commits suicide, Refilwe wastes no time spreading hurtful rumors around Tiragalong about Lerato's family. These rumors fuel the grief that Lerato already felt after losing Refentše and play a part in her suicide. Two years later, though, Refilwe realizes how wrong and harmful the prejudices of her youth were. She enjoys reading the short story that Refentše published before his death—the story's main character is a young woman who is badly treated by people in the village because she has AIDS, which most people from the rural townships only associate with Makwerekwere. Refilwe empathizes with this character, which makes her realize the cruelty of her biases. Additionally, she goes abroad to England where she studies Publishing and Media Studies at Oxford Brookes University. Getting outside of South Africa opens her eyes to the ways that people from other continents are prejudiced toward Africans in general, which upsets her and makes her want to be welcoming rather than judgmental. Refilwe also falls for a man who looks like Refentše and happens to be Nigerian, which further helps eradicate her prejudice. Tragically, Refilwe is diagnosed with HIV shortly after beginning this relationship. Though she realizes people from back home will blame her having the disease on the fact that she had sex with a Nigerian man, Refilwe actually contracted the virus almost a decade earlier, before she ever left Tiragalong. Despite the cruelty and judgement she knows she will face, Refilwe returns home to Tiragalong so that she can die in the place she was born. The story ends with the narrator welcoming Refilwe into heaven.

- Genre: Short story, fable, morality tale - Title: What Men Live By - Point of view: Third Person - Setting: A small village in Russia - Character: Semyon. Description: Semyon is an impoverished Russian peasant who struggles to make ends meet as a shoemaker. Semyon feels oppressed by his financial hardships and resentful of his neighbors, whom he considers stingy and selfish when they are unable to pay their debts to him. At the same time, however, Semyon's own financial calculations make him similarly ungenerous. When he sees a helpless stranger, Mikhail, naked and freezing on the side of the road, his first response is not pity but defensiveness. He balks at the impossibility of providing for another person and convinces himself that he can't possibly be expected to help this man. Semyon feels so burdened by the situation that as he passes the suffering man, he says, "Please God, help me!" Almost immediately, he is hit by a wave of remorse. He is ashamed of his own conduct and decides to turn back and help the man. After this moment, Semyon's character changes in a major way. Not only does he begin to behave more selflessly, offering Mikhail food and a place to stay indefinitely, but he also seems to shed much of his financial worry. For example, after Semyon and his wife Matryona give Mikhail their last piece of bread, Matryona asks him how they will plan to feed their family the next day. Semyon responds with surprising equanimity, telling her not to worry about it, but that they'll get by some way or another. Semyon also urges his newfound selflessness onto Matryona, imploring her to act with the "love of God within" her and to extend hospitality to the stranger. After this change in Semyon's character, we never again see him worry about money. Although he still doesn't know where Mikhail came from or how he ended up by the side of the road, Semyon also seems to approach this lack of information with more peace and acceptance. - Character: Mikhail. Description: Mikhail is the strange man whom Semyon finds naked and freezing on the roadside. He later becomes an unofficial member of Matryona and Semyon's family, moving in with them and working as Semyon's shoemaking apprentice. From his very first appearance, Mikhail exudes a mysterious energy. Not only is he strong and uninjured (which strikes Semyon as strange, considering his very vulnerable position when he was out naked in the road), but he also refuses to explain how he ended up there, or to shed any light on his past in general. Indeed, over the course of the next six years, Mikhail divulges very little about himself. He is a hard worker and a very talented shoemaker who quickly masters everything that Semyon teaches him, but he remains quiet and serious, seeming to hold himself slightly apart from the rest of the family. That Mikhail only smiles three times—at seemingly odd moments and with a strange, private intensity—also increases his aura of mystery. Mikhail also seems to understand things that are not clear to the other characters. For instance, he knows to make the rich gentleman light slippers even before the man's death is announced. At the end of the story, Mikhail explains his mysterious presence by revealing himself to be an angel; having disobeying God, he was sent to earth in the form of a mortal to learn three lessons. - Character: Matryona. Description: At the beginning of the story, Semyon's wife Matryona is defined by many of the same worries and beliefs that shape her husband's character. When she is first introduced, she is absorbed in frugal financial calculations, simultaneously worrying that Semyon will be scammed by the sheepskin seller and trying to decide whether she can make the last piece of bread last for a few more days before baking a new one. When Semyon arrives home with a stranger in tow, Matryona initially reacts with the same selfish fear that her husband felt when he first passed Mikhail on the roadside. Given that she and Semyon have barely enough food for their family as it is, she finds the idea of feeding another hungry person inconceivable and nearly appalling. In fact, although similar thoughts ran through Semyon's head when he first saw Mikhail, Matryona's inclination toward selfishness (or self-preservation) seems even more deeply-ingrained than Semyon's, as indicated by the vitriol with which she at first refuses to feed Mikhail and because when Mikhail himself later describes his first interaction with Matryona, he recalls that her selfishness was even more palpable and frightening than Semyon's had been. Like Semyon, however, Matryona undergoes a significant character change early in the story. The combination of her husband's religious entreaties and the pity-arousing sight of the tired stranger at her table together cause her heart to soften. That said, Matryona's newfound ethos of love and compassion proves slightly less steady than her husband's. That first night, after she and Semyon have fed Mikhail, Matryona seems to slightly regret their generosity, remarking that it seems they are always giving and never receiving. After chapter 4 of the story, Matryona becomes a significantly less important character in her own right. For the rest of the story, her views largely echo and duplicate Semyon's: they exhibit identical astonishment at the cruel rich gentleman, for example, and Matryona and Semyon seem to think with one mind when they interrogate Marya about the twins' origin story. - Character: The Gentleman. Description: The gentleman is a customer who comes to commission boots from Semyon after Mikhail's workmanship has given the business a good reputation. The gentleman is extremely well-fed and large—so large, in fact, that Semyon's measuring tape does not fit around his leg. The gentleman's size astounds Semyon and Matryona, who are very thin from never having quite enough to eat. And, beyond his powerful build, the rich gentleman's personality frightens Semyon and Matryona. He is rude and domineering, clearly used to having his way in all situations, and repeatedly threatens Semyon with severe repercussions if the boots do not meet his (impossibly high) standards. It also confuses and infuriates the gentleman that Mikhail is inexplicably smiling. And, although the gentleman clearly has more than enough money, he is remarkably ungenerous, offering to pay Semyon only half the value of the leather itself—and only if the boots last a whole year without losing their shape. - Character: Marya. Description: Marya is another customer of Semyon's. It turns out that she lived next door to the woman whose soul Mikhail was sent to take. Just a few days before the woman (Marya's neighbor) gave birth, her husband died in an accident; then, the woman herself died in childbirth and in the process of dying crushed the leg of one of the newborns. Marya found her neighbor dead beside her newborn twins, and because Marya had her own infant at the same time, she was able to nurse and care for the babies in the days after their mother died. At first, Marya planned only to nurse the healthy baby, figuring that the twin with the crippled leg would die soon anyway. However, she later had a change of heart, deciding to nurse both twins. Marya's biological son died as a toddler, which meant that the twins became her only children and the most important people in her life. Six years later, Marya comes with the twins to Semyon's shop to buy them shoes. there, she relates the story of how the girls came to be under her care. Marya is so moved by her love for the twins that, as she tells the story, she begins to cry. - Theme: Mystery. Description: Tolstoy's "What Men Live By" abounds with mysteries and unanswered questions. When the shoemaker Semyon and his wife, Matryona, take in a naked stranger, Mikhail, they are unable to glean concrete information from the man about his past and identity. In addition to Mikhail's mysterious history, his behavior bewilders Semyon and Matryona: in the six years he lives with them, he smiles only three times. (Moreover, it is not clear to the couple what exactly prompts these rare and puzzling smiles.) Even though they don't understand Mikhail's origins or behavior, however, the couple accepts his mysterious presence in their lives, even coming to love him. And although at the end of the story Mikhail finally does reveal his identity as an angel—and explains to Semyon and Matryona the reason for his three smiles—the idea of mystery remains central to the moral that he delivers. Each of Mikhail's three life lessons in some way involves an open question—a crucial element of life that it is not "given" to men to know. Both Mikhail's presence and his lessons suggest that what people don't know is more significant for a life of love and faith than what they do know. Through his religious parable, then, the story suggests that living with mystery—that is, accepting what one doesn't know—is an essential part both of loving one's neighbors and of knowing God, because it forces people to live with greater trust and generosity than they would otherwise. Through Semyon's relationship with Mikhail, the story suggests that love should not depend on perfect understanding. Semyon and Matryona don't know anything about Mikhail when they meet him, which at first disturbs them. When Semyon first encounters a cold and naked Mikhail outside of a church, he is frustrated by Mikhail's refusal to tell him where he is from. Semyon presses him with other questions, asking how he came to be by the side of the church and whether some men harmed him. When Mikhail also refuses to answer these questions concretely, Semyon finally accepts the lack of knowledge, conceding that "anything can happen in this world" and inviting the stranger to come home with him. In fact, after Mikhail has been living at the shoemaker's for six years, Semyon "th[inks] the world of his workman and no longer inquire[s] where he [is] from." Semyon's decision to love and care for Mikhail, then, seems to operate in tandem with his decision not to push him further on elements of his past, and instead to accept the man in spite of his mysteries. For Matryona, too, loving Mikhail means accepting a lack of knowledge about him. After the angel refuses to answer her questions, she, like her husband, gives up and decides to love him despite his mysteries. Although Matryona, on the first night, voices a slight concern about Mikhail's mysterious identity, pointing out that he "seems to be a good man, only he doesn't tell us anything about himself," after this moment, the couple entirely stop pressing Mikhail on his past. The next day, in fact, Semyon gives Mikhail explicit permission not to reveal anything about himself, as long as he will work to earn his keep. Over the course of the next six years, as Mikhail becomes a full-fledged member of the family, Semyon and Matryona's attitude toward him becomes both more loving and more accepting of his mystery. Beyond its lesson about accepting and loving mysterious people, the story also suggests that it is important to have faith in the world's mysterious processes. Things tend to work out in mysterious ways, and it is unproductive to try to predict or control the future. One example of this is Matryona's initial worry about feeding her family: after giving the last slice of bread to the stranger, Matryona worries aloud to Semyon about how she will get food the next day. Semyon does not provide a concrete answer but instead says vaguely that he is sure they'll get by and won't starve. This mysterious premonition of Semyon's comes true: not only does Matryona manage to borrow bread from the neighbor the next day, but Mikhail's help in the shoe business means that the family actually faces far less insecurity as time goes on. Later, the story presents another lesson in trusting life's mysterious processes. As Matryona watches Mikhail cut the leather for the gentleman's boots, she is mystified and concerned to see that he is cutting the leather for soft slippers rather than firm boots. However, she does not interfere, trusting Mikhail's expertise. A few minutes later, this mystery also resolves itself better than anyone could have guessed: the rich gentleman's servant returns to the shop to tell them that the man has died unexpectedly and will now need soft slippers instead of hard boots. In both cases, the family's inexplicable good fortune suggests that people should accept the world's (or God's) mysterious workings rather than worrying or trying to create a certain outcome. Finally, Mikhail's lessons at the end of the story explicitly explain the importance of mystery and the unknown. Mikhail explains that the episode with the gentleman's shoes taught him the second of God's truths: "what is not given to man." Since all people are mortal, they face a fundamental mystery about when and how they will die—and for this reason, it is useless to try to predict what one will need a year from now. Mikhail also explains why God forces people to live in darkness about this fundamental part of life: if God showed each person exactly what they needed, people would not have to help one another. Instead, God forces people to lean on one another and face the mystery of mortality with each other's help. Mikhail's lessons suggest that what God doesn't allow people to know is actually more important than what He does allow them to know, because mystery forces people both to love more generously and to rely on one another. The story's commentary on mysterious people and mysterious processes likewise suggests that people who have faith even in the face of uncertainty will be rewarded. - Theme: Rationality vs. Generosity. Description: In Tolstoy's "What Men Live By," characters frequently engage in rational thinking and cold calculation as a way of dealing with hardship. The shoemaker Semyon and his wife Matryona, for example, spend much of the story's first chapters engaging in elaborate mental calculations and justifications concerning their own poverty. They attempt to use reason and rational judgment both to determine how much they can "afford" to share with others and to defend their acts of selfishness. Marya and the angel Mikhail fall prey to this kind of logical reasoning in other ways, too—in Marya's case when determining which infant twin to feed, and in Mikhail's case when evaluating the dying mother's plea. For all four characters, however, true prosperity and happiness are ultimately reached by eschewing logical reasoning altogether. It is only when the characters act irrationally—from pure love instead of material calculation—that they can treat each other with true generosity. And, counterintuitively, acts of irrational generosity lead the characters to flourish materially as well as spiritually. Semyon's mindset at the beginning of the story draws a strong correlation between rationality and selfishness. Rational calculation prevents real generosity: when Semyon first encounters a cold and naked Mikhail on the roadside, logical consideration of his own resources is what keeps him from stopping to help the stranger. Semyon has just spent much of the journey home working himself into a frenzy about his own poverty relative to his neighbors', so the thought of helping someone else feels burdensome, aggravating, and (he tells himself) physically impossible. He also convinces himself that it would be foolhardy to approach the stranger lest he should be mistaken for a bad actor and get into some kind of legal trouble. It is only when a prick of conscience quiets these rational arguments that Semyon turns back to help the stranger. In this case, then, rationality must be overcome before generosity can occur. Likewise, at the beginning of the story, Matryona's selfishness is tied to her obsessive calculation of resources—but denying her impulse to be selfish actually brings her family more resources. Matryona's fear for her family's material well-being is manifested in her nervous computations about how to make their small supply of bread last. This same rational fear is what keeps her from sharing food with the stranger, Mikhail, that her husband brings home. Indeed, even after Matryona has softened toward Mikhail and she has given him the last piece of bread, her old rational attitude remains tied up with greed and stinginess. As they are falling asleep, she asks Semyon how they are possibly going to get more bread for their family. And with this rational worry comes a return of bitterness, resentment, and greed: she asks Semyon why they are always helping other people and no one ever helps them. For both Matryona and Semyon, rational worries are centered on their impoverished family's well-being. And yet their irrational choice to take in Mikhail actually ends up alleviating their poverty: because of Mikhail's workmanship, Semyon's shoe business flourishes, and the family has more money than they did before. In this sense, the story suggests that letting go of rationality and embracing irrational generosity may actually solve the problems that rational thinking attempted (and failed) to resolve. The story that Marya shares with the family has a similar message: that choosing irrational generosity over rational calculation can pay huge dividends. When Marya first started taking care of her adopted daughters (a pair of orphaned twins) rationality governed her behavior. She did not choose to take in the twins because of genuine compassion but instead because she was the only person in the village who could breastfeed (because she already had a breastfeeding infant). The men of the village asked her to look after the girls until another arrangement could be found. What's more, Marya recalls that she feared that she wouldn't have enough milk to feed both twins and her own son, and so—rationally reasoning that the crippled twin wouldn't live long anyway—she decided to feed only the healthy twin. But a twinge of irrational pity, similar to the one Semyon experienced on the roadside, caused Marya to change her course of action and begin feeding both twins. Not only did the specific problem she feared—that of not having enough milk—fail to occur (she recalls that God gave her "so much milk that it filled [her] breasts to overflowing"), but her generosity also paid off in ways that her rational calculation couldn't have predicted. Her own son died in infancy, and so the two adoptive daughters allowed Marya to still have the large and happy family that she wanted. Mikhail's story about his banishment from heaven provides yet another argument against rational reasoning. Mikhail describes how, when he encountered the twins' mother on her death bed, he was convinced by her rational argument. She begged him not to take her soul, reasoning that since she had no family members and her husband had just died, her babies would die if she did. Mikhail agreed with the woman's assessment and told God he couldn't bear to take the woman's soul. As a punishment for disobeying Him, God sent Mikhail down to earth, and there, Mikhail saw that the woman's rational argument had been incorrect: the children survived, Mikhail eventually understood, because of the irrational generosity of strangers. In this way, Mikhail's story is a lesson about rationality: it was not "given" to the mother to know (or predict rationally) what her children needed to survive, and, Mikhail expands, it is not "given" to anyone to know rationally what they themselves will need in the future. In this way, the limits of rational, intentional planning are what require mortal men to depend on each other and on the irrational generosity of strangers. - Theme: Selfless Love. Description: As its several biblical epigraphs foretell, Tolstoy's "What Men Live By" is fundamentally a parable about Christian love, as it  strives to show that God is manifested in people's selfless compassion toward one another. This idea is advanced in part by the characters' fates: those who are greedy and selfish are punished, while those who love each other selflessly are rewarded. However, it is also supported by the protagonists' emotional experiences: at key moments throughout the story, various characters experience a sudden change of heart, deciding to act out of love and compassion rather than selfishness and fear. Whenever these inner changes occur, the characters are flooded with feelings of inexplicable joy and happiness. The three lessons elaborated by the angel Mikhail at the end of the story further contribute to the story's point about Christian love. Although each part of Mikhail's story illustrates a slightly different spiritual truth, the three components together drive home the general point that "what men live by" is not physical nourishment but divine love. Throughout the story, bad outcomes await characters who are greedy. At the beginning of the story, Semyon and Matryona have a strict budget, but this doesn't get them anywhere: even after saving money for a year, they don't have enough to buy a winter coat. This begins to suggest that self-interest isn't rewarding, even if looking out for oneself rather than sharing with others seems like the most practical option. An even more extreme example of selfishness is the gentleman who visits Semyon's  shop midway through the story. This gentleman represents the antithesis of selfless love: he is obsessed with his own financial interests, determined to pay only 10 rubles for a pair of boots that will last an entire year without showing any signs of wear. He is also cruel, snapping at Mikhail, yelling at his servant, and threatening to put Semyon in jail if his boots do not meet impossibly high standards. This rich gentleman is met with one of the worst fates in the story: an early and unexpected death. The man's stingy management of his own money yields nothing for him: he is unable to enjoy the expensive boots for even one day, much less a whole year. By contrast, acting with selfless love is shown to be emotionally rewarding and even draws characters closer to God. For example, when Semyon and Matryona feed Mikhail their last slice of bread—acting lovingly, selflessly, and in fact against their own financial interests—they find prosperity. This simple act of kindness leads them to take Mikhail in, and Mikhail's knack for shoemaking ends up drawing unprecedented levels of business and financial security to the family over the next several years. Moreover, when Semyon first encounters Mikhail on the roadside, he feels bitter and angry. However, once he goes over to help the naked man, his "heart fill[s] with joy." Matryona experiences a similar flooding of good emotions when she decides to show compassion for Mikhail. Her feelings of anger and resentment vanish as soon as she decides to feed and care for Mikhail: her heart "melts," and she immediately resolves to "banish her spiteful feelings." For Marya, too, selfless love brings emotional fulfillment: the twins she adopted have become "the apples of her eye," and her love for them even moves her to tears. She realizes that she would have been much lonelier and more unhappy if she didn't have the twins to love and care for. Through these transformations, the story suggests that selfless love is what imbues life with happiness and meaning. Finally, Mikhail's lessons at the end of the story point to selfless love as the most important divine truth. The first divine truth that Mikhail learned—"what dwells in man"—explicitly concerns selfless love. The angel describes how, when Matryona and Semyon were acting selfishly, their faces appeared terrifying to him because he could see death in their expressions. By contrast, once they started to behave selfishly and lovingly, he could see God and life in their faces. This showed Mikhail the answer to the first question, what dwells in man: the answer, he says, is love. The third and most important divine truth—"what men live by"—also concerns selfless love. Mikhail recalls that when he was abandoned by the side the chapel, he didn't survive through any actions or bravery of his own. Instead, it was a stranger's love that allowed him to survive. Likewise, he points out that baby twins were saved by a stranger's love—that of Marya, their birth mother's neighbor. Mikhail also connects this truth to the episode with the wealthy gentleman, who did not know his own future. Mikhail says that God wants people to help one another and love selflessly, which is why He does not show each person what they themselves needs, but instead what all people need. With this, the story suggests that selfless love is the essence of life itself, and that honoring God means extending unconditional love and generosity to other people. - Climax: Mikhail reveals himself to be an angel and explains his three mysterious smiles. - Summary: A poor Russian shoemaker named Semyon sets off to a nearby village to buy sheepskins for a new winter coat. He and his wife are so poor that they share one coat between them, and they have been saving money for several years to buy a new one. Before Semyon can buy the skins, he needs to collect money that is owed to him by several villagers. However, his debtors, who are themselves very poor, are all unable to pay him what they owe. The sheepskin seller refuses to sell Semyon the skins on credit. Discouraged, Semyon spends the little money that he does have on vodka and stumbles home drunkenly, musing resentfully about his debtors' selfishness. Passing a church on the way home, Semyon notices a naked man leaned up against one side of the chapel. He isn't sure if the man is alive or dead, and recognizes that if the man is alive, he will likely freeze to death soon. Semyon convinces himself that he has no obligation to approach or help this man, since he is already struggling to feed and clothe his own family. Moreover, he reasons, if the man is the victim of a crime, and Semyon is found at the scene "helping" him, he might get in trouble himself. Having decided not to get involved in the situation, Semyon passes the church. A few steps later, however, he suddenly feels a twinge of conscience. He turns back to the church to help the naked stranger. Semyon is surprised to find that the man, whose name is Mikhail, appears young, strong, and uninjured. When he asks how Mikhail came to be naked and alone by the side of the church, Mikhail says he cannot explain. Semyon takes Mikhail to his home, where his wife Matryona is waiting. Matryona has been hard at work all day and is dismayed to find that Semyon has not only failed to buy the sheepskins but has also spent their precious money on vodka and brought home another mouth to feed. Matryona explodes at Semyon, lambasting him for his thoughtlessness and refusing to feed the naked stranger. However, when she looks at Mikhail's pitiful posture, Matryona's heart softens, and she relents, offering him their last piece of bread and a place to stay. Mikhail, who until now has seemed quiet and removed, suddenly smiles. The next day, Semyon begins to train Mikhail as his apprentice shoemaker. Mikhail has an immediate talent for shoemaking, and his superb workmanship soon attracts many customers to Semyon's business. One day, after several years of this newfound prosperity, a rich gentleman comes to Semyon to commission a pair of boots made out of extremely expensive leather. The gentleman, who is very rude, warns Semyon that the boots must last for a whole year and that he will punish Semyon severely if they do not meet his standards. Fearing the gentleman's wrath, Semyon is unsure about whether to take the job; Mikhail, however, encourages him to accept it. As Semyon is taking the gentleman's measurements, Mikhail's face again breaks into the strange bright smile. This is the first time that Mikhail has smiled since the original day when Matryona gave him dinner. Mikhail begins to make the boots for the gentleman. As she watches Mikhail work, Matryona notices that he seems to be making the shoes incorrectly. The gentleman commissioned sturdy winter boots, but it appears that Mikhail is sewing the leather into light slippers. Matryona holds her tongue, assuming that Mikhail knows what he is doing. But when Semyon sees Mikhail's work, he is distressed. He doesn't understand how Mikhail could have made such a huge mistake, and he begins to worry about the punishment that awaits them. Just then, the gentleman's servant arrives with a message: the gentleman died the previous day on the way home from Semyon's shop. His widow now wants the expensive leather to be made into light slippers for her husband to wear in his coffin. This is the exact kind of shoe that Mikhail has already made. More time passes. Mikhail remains hardworking, quiet, and mysteriously solemn. One day, a woman named Marya comes to the shop to buy boots for her twin daughters, one of whom has a crippled leg. Marya tells the story of how she came to be these girls' guardian. They are not her biological daughters, but she adopted them when they were infants after both of their parents died. Throughout Marya's story, Mikhail behaves very strangely, staring at the young girls. When Marya and her daughters leave the shop, Semyon and Matryona notice that Mikhail is once again beaming. When Semyon asks Mikhail why he is smiling, Mikhail says that God has forgiven him. Mikhail's whole body has begun glowing, and Semyon and Matryona suddenly realize that Mikhail is not a human being but an angel. They ask him to explain the meaning of his three mysterious smiles, and Mikhail tells them that he had been punished by God and sent to earth to learn three lessons; each time he smiled, it was because he had learned one of the three lessons and was one step closer to returning to heaven. He was punished, Mikhail explains, because he disobeyed God: God had told him to take the soul of a woman who had just given birth to twins, but Mikhail took pity on the woman and let her stay alive to take care of her daughters. Hearing that Mikhail had disobeyed him, God made Mikhail go back to earth to take the woman's soul, and then to stay there as a mortal until he had learned three truths: what dwells in man, what is not given to man, and what men live by. Mikhail learned the first truth when he saw Matryona's heart soften toward him; he realized that what dwells in man is love. He understood the second truth when the rich gentleman commissioned boots for a whole year, not knowing, meanwhile, that he would die the same day: what is not given to man is knowledge of his own death. And he understood God's third truth when he saw the twin girls, who were the daughters of the woman he had initially tried to save. Mikhail had allowed the girls' mother to persuade him that they would not survive without her, since children need a mother's care. However, when he saw how well the girls had been cared for by a stranger—and witnessed the strength of Marya's love for them—he understood the mistake he had made in believing their dying mother. He understood that what men live by is not parental love but love in general. Having learned these three truths and finished telling his story to Semyon and Matryona, Mikhail ascends into heaven in a column of fire.

- Genre: Short Story - Title: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - Point of view: First Person - Setting: Mel and Terri's kitchen in Albuquerque, New Mexico - Character: Mel McGinnis. Description: Mel is Terri's husband and Nick and Laura's friend. He's a tall, 45-year-old man with curly hair. The story takes place in Mel and Terri's kitchen in Albuquerque, where the two couples are drinking gin and discussing the meaning of love. Mel, who's a cardiologist, is confident that he knows what "real love" is. Having been harassed and threatened by Terri's unstable ex, Ed, in the past, Mel is now adamant that violence and love are entirely separate. This viewpoint sparks a disagreement with Terri that persists throughout the story, as she believes that Ed truly loved her in spite of his physical and verbal abuse. However certain Mel is about what love isn't, he struggles in vain to arrive at a clear definition of what love is. He incoherently rambles about his thoughts on the matter, embarrassing his wife and confusing his friends. And as Mel monopolizes the conversation, it becomes increasingly clear that although the meaning of love is deeply important to him, his ideas are muddled and inconsistent. Additionally, it seems that violence and love aren't as neatly compartmentalized for Mel as he'd like to think: in addition to his frequent spats with Terri throughout the conversation, he shares fantasies of being a medieval knight who captures women and of murdering his ex-wife, Marjorie. As the story draws to a close, Mel falls silent and dejectedly rests his head in his hands, his former confidence having evaporated as Terri, Nick, and Laura have thoroughly misunderstood the points he's tried to make. Mel's failure to articulate his deeply held beliefs about love and his ensuing frustration points to the inadequacy of language to convey profound truths. - Character: Terri. Description: Terri is Mel's wife and Nick and Laura's friend. She's a thin, attractive woman with long brown hair and dark eyes. As the group of four discusses love, Terri brings up her former relationship with a man named Ed, who would physically abuse Terri while telling her that he loved her. After they broke up, Ed continually threatened Terri and Mel, eventually growing so distressed that he attempted suicide and died in the hospital. Terri still feels sorry for Ed and is adamant that he truly loved her in spite of his violent behavior, whereas Mel doesn't think that "real love" and violence can mix. This is a significant disagreement that seems to make Terri insecure: she continually asks Mel to validate her belief that Ed really did love her. Importantly, there's a confusing mix of love and violence within Terri and Mel's own relationship, as they rapidly switch between declarations of love and hostile outbursts at each other. Mel also dominates Terri in conversation, demeaning her in front of their friends and putting words in her mouth without letting her speak. Notably, Terri easily forgives Mel for being cruel to her just as she forgave Ed in the past. This complicated dynamic demonstrates how love and violence (whether physical or verbal) can't be neatly separated. - Character: Nick. Description: Nick is the narrator of the story; he's Laura's husband and Mel and Terri's friend. Nick is 38, and though he doesn't give away much about himself, it's implied that he's a lawyer (he and Laura, a legal secretary, "met in a professional capacity"). Nick and Laura have been together for 18 months, and they were both married to other people prior to their relationship. Unlike the other characters in the story, Nick doesn't claim to know what love means, and he expresses his affection for Laura solely through nonverbal gestures like touching her leg or kissing her hand. Whereas Mel and Terri are set on coming to a precise definition and understanding of love, Nick is seemingly comfortable with having an emotional and bodily experience of romance without needing to analyze it. Indeed, toward the end of the story, the conversation has died down, and the characters are trying to decide what to do next. In this moment, Nick comments that he'd be content heading "right on out into the sunset"—and though he says this in passing, it's symbolically significant. The diminishing sunlight in the kitchen where the four friends are talking parallels their gradually diminishing confidence and clarity about love, and Nick's comment suggests that he isn't afraid of this looming uncertainty. Ultimately, as everyone falls completely silent and sits still in the dark room, Nick hears their hearts beating together. This final image suggests that matters of the heart are indeed mysterious and unknowable, but that love is something universally and deeply felt. - Character: Laura. Description: Laura is Nick's wife and Mel and Terri's friend. She's a 35-year-old legal secretary who met Nick through work. Laura, like Mel and Terri, believes that she knows what love is, though none of them are able to arrive at a clear definition. As the two couples discuss love, Nick and Laura never say "I love you," preferring to communicate their affection for one another nonverbally through facial expressions, body language, and physical touch. Their relationship is portrayed as more stable and affectionate than Mel and Terri's, perhaps because they place greater emphasis on the emotional and bodily experiences of love. Nick and Laura's unspoken yet deep bond points to the insufficiency of language to describe love and the impossibility of ever knowing its exact nature. - Character: Ed (Terri's ex-boyfriend). Description: Terri tells Nick and Laura anecdotes about her ex-boyfriend, Ed, whom she lived with before she dated Mel. Ed used to physically abuse Terri while telling her that he loved her, which led to Terri's somewhat confusing outlook about what constitutes love. She believes that Ed truly loved her despite his brutal treatment of her, whereas Mel doesn't think that love and violence can coexist. After Terri broke up with Ed, he relentlessly terrorized and threatened Terri and Mel, to the point that Mel kept a gun in his car out of fear. Emotionally unstable and distraught over the situation, Ed attempted suicide twice: first by drinking rat poison, second by shooting himself in the head. A few days after the second attempt, Ed succumbed to the gunshot wound and died in the hospital, with Terri by his side (much to Mel's chagrin). As Terri shares this story, she says that she still feels sorry for Ed. - Character: Marjorie (Mel's ex-wife). Description: Mel was married to Marjorie before his relationship with Terri. Marjorie currently lives with her boyfriend and her and Mel's children, all of whom Mel supports through his alimony and child support payments. Although Mel waxes poetic about how much he used to love Marjorie, he also resents having to give her money and wishes that she would either get remarried or die. Mel openly fantasizes about unleashing a hive of bees into her house to sting her to death, an image that complicates Mel's professed opinion that love and violence are entirely separate. - Theme: The Nature of Love. Description: In "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," two married couples spend an afternoon together drinking gin and debating the nature of love. Initially, they all believe that they know exactly what love is, and they feel certain that their own marriages are loving. However, as they struggle to define and defend their ideas about love, the conversation devolves into uncertainty and disagreement. Their heated (and at times cruel) debate, along with their collective inability to separate violence from affection, point to a darkness at the heart of love—but the story's mysterious ending seems to suggest something more positive. The couples' conversation about love is a failure, but once they fall silent, their beating hearts are all audible. Perhaps, then, Carver proposes that love cannot be understood or explained but instead must simply be felt and appreciated. Love, in other words, might reside more in the body than in the mind. At the beginning of the story, when the characters begin discussing love, they seem confident that they know what love is. Mel McGinnis is the first to weigh in on the topic, saying that he believes "real love [is] nothing less than spiritual love." While it's hard to say what this vague statement actually means, the fact that nobody disagrees or asks him to explain further leaves the impression that what he said is clear and true. Likewise, the story's other couple seems initially confident about their understanding of love. Laura tells everyone that "Nick and I know what love is," and while Nick doesn't elaborate on this, he previously thought to himself that, "In addition to being in love, we like each other and enjoy one another's company. She's easy to be with." This points to his belief that their love is clear and straightforward—that he understands what it is and how it works. Furthermore, even when the couples begin disagreeing, everyone initially maintains their confidence. Mel's wife, Terri, describes a man who "loved her so much he tried to kill her," and Mel pushes back, saying, "I sure know you wouldn't call [that] love." He and Terri arrive at an impasse: Terri insists that this was love, and Mel insists that it wasn't, but both of them remain clear about what they themselves believe. This clarity dissolves quickly: the more the two couples talk about love, the more confused and agitated they all become. Mel, for instance, initially had the clearest ideas about love—but as the story progresses, he becomes uncertain. "I love Terri and Terri loves me," he says. "But sometimes I have a hard time accounting for the fact that I must have loved my first wife too […] What happened to that love?" Mel never answers this, but the question points to his growing awareness of love's complexity. Furthermore, Mel contradicts his initial certainty that love can't involve cruelty or violence. Once, when Terri gently points out that he's drunk, Mel tells her—in front of the others—to "shut up for once in your life." Later on, as he describes his fantasy of killing his ex-wife by letting a swarm of bees into her house, he pretends that his fingers are bees and he buzzes them by Terri's throat. Mel clearly loves both of these women in some way, but this love is entangled with violence and cruelty. The truth of his relationship to love is much darker and more complex than his initial clarity let on. The couples' failure to arrive at a definition of love is partially due to their inability to grapple with its darkness. But Carver also suggests that it's impossible—and maybe even undesirable—to talk about love, since love is primarily felt rather than understood. Throughout the story, the warmest moments between characters are unspoken: Nick touches the back of Laura's hand, or Mel reaches for Terri's cheek. Once, when Laura tries to goad Nick into defining what love means for the two of them, his response is purely physical: "For an answer, I took Laura's hand and raised it to my lips." It's possible to interpret this as Nick deflecting attention from his inability to answer, but perhaps he's being honest: what love is, to them, is something bodily and unspoken. Carver also suggests that love is physical rather than verbal when Mel tells a story about an elderly couple who miraculously survived a car crash. Afterward, the husband became depressed, but Mel clarifies that this wasn't because he was traumatized over the accident: the man was upset because his full-body cast made it so he couldn't "turn his goddamn head and see his goddamn wife." The man could speak to his wife (his cast had a mouth hole, and his wife was in the same room), so it's significant that what he really cared about was seeing her. This suggests that the power of their love is physical and intuitive—it cannot be spoken. At the end of the story, the gin runs out, and the couples—exhausted and confused by their conversation about love—fall silent. They're drunk and sitting in darkness, likely stewing about all the frightening aspects of love they've just discussed. It's certainly possible to see this ending as a pessimistic commentary on how little they understand about the darkness and uncertainty of love. But there's also an optimistic interpretation: the story ends with Nick hearing everyone's hearts beating, which seems to mark a transition from talking to feeling. As Nick listens to the heartbeats, he calls them a "human noise," and the word "noise" is conspicuous. Unlike "sound," "noise" suggests unintelligibility. Maybe feigning certainty about love and trying to define it leads only to confusion and dismay; maybe the heart simply can't be understood. - Theme: Love and Violence. Description: At the beginning of "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," Mel McGinnis—a heart surgeon—insists that love and violence cannot coexist: "The kind of love I'm talking about, you don't try to kill people," he says. But the remainder of the story contradicts him. As the couples discuss love, they constantly invoke violence: Mel's wife, Terri, believes that violence can prove the existence of love; Mel reveals his own violent fantasies toward his ex-wife; and Terri talks about her ex-boyfriend who killed himself when she didn't reciprocate his love. Throughout the story, Carver suggests that violence and love are not as different as they may seem: they're emotionally linked, arising from intense feelings for another person, feelings that these characters cannot rationalize or fully control. At the beginning of the story, the characters openly debate whether love and violence can coexist. Terri sets the stage for this debate when—after describing how her abusive ex-boyfriend would beat her while telling her how much he loves her—she asks, "What do you do with a love like that?" Instead of answering her question, Mel rejects the premise: "My God, don't be silly. That's not love and you know it," he says, implying that real love cannot be violent or abusive. Over the course of several pages, Terri and Mel continue to disagree, with Terri insisting that this man did love her. She momentarily offers a compromise—that love means different things to different people—but neither one of them seems to accept this. Mel won't concede that anyone could call this behavior love, while Terri continues to ask Mel to agree with her: "You can grant me that, can't you?" she pleads. That this debate is so prolonged and emotional hints at its stakes: Terri and Mel seem unsettled that, despite believing themselves to be in love with each other, they have radically different definitions of love. Perhaps they wonder if, since they each understand love so differently, their shared love is shakier than it once seemed. Mel and Terri never resolve their disagreement, but as the story progresses, Mel's behavior suggests that he doesn't separate love and violence as neatly as he claims. For one, Carver portrays Mel as demeaning and hurtful to Terri, linking her ex-husband's physical abuse with Mel's emotional cruelty. As Terri expresses concern about how drunk Mel is getting, for instance, he tells her to "Just shut up for once in your life." Afterward, Nick observes that Terri "seemed anxious," but then, moments later, she accepts her husband's behavior: "'I love you, hon,' she said." Terri's willingness to quickly forgive Mel echoes how she forgave her ex-boyfriend's physical abuse, writing it off as an expression of love. Mel's mixing of violence and love isn't only emotional: several times, he implies that he has physically violent fantasies that are tied to love. The first instance of this is easy to miss. When Mel imagines being a medieval knight, he describes how he could carry a woman with him everywhere. Laura's playful yet cautious response ("Shame on you") emphasizes that Mel's fantasy reduces women to objects. And this objectification is arguably violent, given that in his fantasy, Mel is physically forcing a woman to accompany him. Later, after drinking more gin, Mel says that if he weren't married to Terri, he would abduct Laura under the guise of love. Needless to say, he never asks Laura what she thinks about this. Mel's imaginary scenario echoes something Terri described about her ex-boyfriend: that he would physically drag her around a room while telling her that he loved her. This conflation of love and violence, coupled with Mel's sudden resemblance to the ex-boyfriend, suggests that Mel's clean separation of love and violence is false. Without resolving the debate between Terri and Mel, the story does suggest that violence and love are linked. This is consistently apparent in Mel's erratic behavior toward Terri. For instance, after Mel berates Terri for interrupting him, she interrupts him again. Instead of snapping at her, as he did previously, Mel responds by kissing her and declaring his love. That these two back-to-back interruptions are met first with hostility then with love suggests that Mel's angry and loving reactions are related—or even interchangeable. Mel's feelings for Terri are intense; sometimes they manifest lovingly, other times with a hint of violence. The blending of love and violence is even clearer in Mel's confusion over his love for his ex-wife, which suddenly transforms into hatred without him understanding why. He says, "There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do. How do you explain that?" What links this love and hatred is intensity of emotion; one replacing the other so quickly suggests that they are, in some way, two sides of the same coin. Carver later makes this link even more explicit when Terri describes Mel's two desires for his ex-wife: "he wishes she'd get married again," Terri says. "Or else die." Mel's wish that his ex-wife would remarry is somewhat selfish (he wants someone else to financially support her), but it's still revealing to see love and death directly juxtaposed, as though they're similar fates. Near the end, there's a moment that encapsulates the story's attitude toward love and violence. As Mel describes his violent fantasy of killing his ex-wife with a swarm of bees, he moves his buzzing fingers around Terri's throat, explicitly blending Mel's violent fantasies toward his ex-wife, his playful love for Terri, and the violence toward her that has been simmering throughout the story. It's a confusing image, but one that suggests the ease with which love and violence can mix. The story does not end with a moral about violence and its connection to love, nor does it judge or condemn the characters. It does, however, suggest that love and violence—which are linked by an intensity of feeling—cannot be neatly separated. - Theme: The Failure of Language. Description: The title "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" implies that language will play a central role in this story: for its duration, the four characters are in conversation with one another, trying to define the meaning of love. However, they struggle to clarify what love means—it's a complex phenomenon, and language seems inadequate to describe love (or anything else). Over the course of the story, language continually fails: the characters misspeak, miscommunicate, or find themselves at a loss for words altogether. This is not, however, a bleak picture of social isolation. By paying attention to other kinds of communication (body language, for example), Carver demonstrates that spoken language is just one of many ways to communicate—and often, other forms of communication are more effective at conveying complex ideas or deep emotions. Throughout the characters' conversation, they fail to properly express themselves or understand one another through language. Mel McGinnis is adamant that he knows the definition of love, and in a moment of vulnerability, he rambles out loud about what love is and what happens to love when a couple separates. He then asks the others to evaluate his thoughts: "Am I wrong? Am I way off base? Because I want you to set me straight if you think I'm wrong. I want to know. I mean, I don't know anything, and I'm the first one to admit it." Mel is trying to convey something profound about love to the other characters, and he's clearly worried that they won't understand where here's coming from. Indeed, they are confused about what Mel is trying to say: after Mel candidly shares his thoughts, his friends Nick and Laura are unsure of how to respond. Mel's wife, Terri, asks him, "Are you getting drunk? Honey? Are you drunk?" Mel replies, "Honey, I'm just talking […] I don't have to be drunk to say what I think." Terri seems to be embarrassed of Mel, and so she tries to distance herself from what he's just said. Mel, however, doubles down on his points and insists that he was being honest. Though his diatribe wasn't particularly lucid or logical, he spoke at length about a topic he deeply cares about. Now, he's hurt that his wife and close friends don't understand him and so can't share in his emotions. This exchange thus shows how language can easily be muddled and misconstrued (especially when alcohol is involved). In this instance, it's an insufficient way to communicate profound truths about love. While words tend to mislead or confuse, other forms of communication, like body language, can offer better ways of demonstrating things like love. While Nick and Laura discuss their love, Mel believes that the couple's body language tells a fuller story. "You guys have been together eighteen months and you love each other. It shows all over you. You glow with it." Language sometimes deceives, but outward signals like a body's "glow" are harder to fake. Indeed, although Mel and Terri speak to each other throughout the story, readers don't get a sense that there's deep understanding or intimacy between them. Nick and Laura, on the other hand, express their affection nonverbally—by holding hands, for instance, or exchanging smiles. Their love for each other is made clear in these simple moments of touch or eye contact, their bond transcending words. Communicating through body language strips away the variables associated with speech—like tone of voice or word choice—allowing Nick and Laura to express themselves without the pitfalls of spoken language. When Mel eventually tells a story about an elderly couple involved in a car crash, he explains why the husband became depressed: it wasn't trauma over the accident, but rather that he "couldn't see [his wife] through his eye-holes" while he was in a full-body cast. The elderly man survived against all odds and could talk to his wife, but he clearly felt like he'd lost something more important than language: the ability to make eye contact with his wife. This further implies that nonverbal, bodily communication can be more meaningful than speech. Such an unspoken connection, Mel believes, is "what we're talking about when we talk about love." As the story draws to a close, the characters fall silent. Nick hears all of their hearts beating as though united, an image which suggests that deep human emotions, like love, are universally felt even though they can't always be described. The anatomical heart has long been used as a symbol of love, a parallel that's particularly ironic given Mel's career as a cardiologist. He's an expert at heart surgery, yet he doesn't have any more clarity about the figurative heart—that is, love—than other people do. No one, it seems, can explain love. Indeed, that the story ends with the four friends' hearts beating together, with nothing left to say to one another, sends the message that matters of the heart are better left unsaid. Love is something that resonates with everyone on a level that transcends language—words don't do it justice. - Climax: Nick hears his heart beating along with Mel, Terri, and Laura's as the four friends sit in silence. - Summary: Two married couples—Mel and Terri, and Nick and Laura—sit around Mel and Terri's kitchen table as the afternoon sun streams in through the window. The four friends are drinking gin and tonics and talking about love, which Mel (a cardiologist and former seminarian) believes is spiritual in nature. Terri recounts how her ex-boyfriend, Ed, used to beat her while telling her that he loved her. Mel is adamant that this wasn't real love, but Terri is sure that it was. Mel asks Nick and Laura what they think, but neither of them have an opinion since they didn't know Ed personally. During this exchange, Nick touches Laura's hand, and Laura smiles at him. Mel remains firm that the kind of love he's talking about is something absolute and nonviolent. As the friends continue sipping their gin, Terri and Mel recount Ed's two botched suicide attempts: first by drinking rat poison, and later shooting by himself in the mouth. The gun Ed used to shoot himself was also the one he later used to continually threaten Terri and Mel—he was clearly unhinged over his breakup with Terri. Eventually, Ed shot himself in a hotel room, and he was brought to the hospital on a night when Mel was on call. The shot didn't initially kill Ed—he lived for three days, his head swelling to twice its normal size. Terri and Mel had gotten into a fight about Terri wanting to visit Ed and sit with him while he died (which she eventually did). Presently, Terri insists that Ed really loved her because he was willing to die over their failed relationship. Mel, however, remains staunch in his belief that this doesn't constitute real love. After this story, Terri finishes off the bottle of gin, so Mel goes to get another from the cupboard. Laura then chimes in to say that she and Nick know what loves is for them. She playfully bumps Nick's knee with hers, and in response, Nick makes a show of kissing Laura's hand. Terri teases the couple about their affectionate relationship, lightheartedly warning them that things will be different once they've been together longer than a year and a half. Just then, Mel returns with the new bottle of gin and proposes a toast "to true love." As the friends toast, the sun washes over them, making them feel warm and comfortable. Mel abruptly declares that he knows "what real love is," and he goes on a long ramble about what happens to the love between couples who break up. After all, he once loved his ex-wife, Marjorie, and Terri once loved Ed. Nick and Laura were also both married to other people before they met each other. Mel says that it's sad yet beautiful that if any of them were to die, their respective spouse could move on and fall in love again. If that were to happen, the love they're discussing now would fade into memory. He asks whether this makes sense and prompts the others to correct him if they disagree. A concerned Terri asks Mel if he's drunk, but Mel snaps back that he doesn't have to be drunk to say what he's thinking. They both sip their drinks. Mel then changes the topic to a story about something he experienced a few months ago, hoping it'll prove the point he's trying to make about what love is. Terri and Mel have another tense exchange about Mel being drunk, and then Mel begins his story as he passes the gin around the table. He recounts a night at the hospital when an older couple had been brought into the ER after a bad car accident on the highway. Both the husband and wife were severely injured and in critical condition—but against all odds, the couple made it through their extensive surgeries and survived. At this point, Mel interrupts his own story to suggest that they all go out to dinner after they finish the second bottle of gin. He says that he loves food and wishes he could have been a chef. But what he'd really love to be, he says, is a medieval knight who carries women around with him on horseback. He also likes the idea of being safely encased in a suit of armor. Terri questions what would happen if Mel came back as a serf instead, and then she and Mel get into a spat when Mel uses the word "vessels" instead of "vassals." Mel spits that it doesn't matter which word he uses if they all know what he means, and then he sarcastically says that being a heart surgeon is no different than being an uneducated mechanic. As the sunlight in the room begins to dissipate, Laura and Nick ask Mel to continue his story. Terri interjects with a joke about the old couple, which offends Mel, prompting him to tell Laura that he'd fall in love with her if Terri and Nick were out of the picture. Then, Mel gets back on topic, recounting how he checked on the old couple every day during their recovery. The husband and wife were both in full-body casts, and the husband grew depressed because he couldn't turn his head to look at his wife. Mel repeats this point several times, clearly moved by the idea of a man's heart breaking over not being able to see his wife. He again asks the others if they understand what he's saying, but they just stare at him. By this point, the sun has mostly left the kitchen, and Nick thinks that they're all a bit drunk. Mel encourages everyone to finish the gin so that they can go to dinner, to which Terri suggests that Mel is depressed and needs to take a pill. Suddenly, Mel feels compelled to call his children, but Terri reminds him that he'll feel worse if he talks to Marjorie. They tell Nick and Laura about how Mel wants Marjorie to either remarry or die so that he can stop paying her alimony. Mel then shares a fantasy about releasing bees into Marjorie's house so that she'll get stung to death. He pretends that his hands are bees, buzzing them around Terri's throat. Mel then concedes that it isn't a good idea to call his kids, and he suggests they go to dinner instead. Nick says that he'd be equally content going out to eat or continuing to drink; Laura, on the other hand, is starving. Terri offers to go get some cheese and crackers, but she doesn't get up to do so. Suddenly, Mel intentionally spills the rest of his drink onto the table, declaring that the gin is gone. Terri asks what they should do next, but the four friends just sit without speaking as the kitchen goes dark. Nick hears all of their hearts beating together in the otherwise silent room.

- Genre: Short Story, Native American Literature - Title: What You Pawn I Will Redeem - Point of view: First Person - Setting: Seattle, Washington - Character: Jackson Jackson. Description: Jackson is a homeless Spokane American Indian man living on the streets of Seattle. He is an alcoholic with an unspecified mental illness, and before he ended up homeless, he dropped out of college, was married a few times, and had a couple of kids. Jackson believes that being homeless is the one thing he's been most successful at in life. The story revolves around his 24-hour journey to earn the $1,000 he needs in order to buy his grandmother's powwow regalia (which was stolen from her 50 years prior) back from a pawnbroker. Jackson belongs to the sizeable community of homeless American Indians who live on the streets of Seattle, and it's with them that Jackson maintains a sense of belonging and family—although by the end of the story, each American Indian that he's met along the way has disappeared. While Jackson is often highly suspicious of white society, he repeatedly praises the white people he encounters throughout the day and believes that they are both fair and genuine in their attempts to help him buy the regalia. Jackson comes to view the task of earning the regalia back as quest that he must complete for himself—to him, the regalia is a way of connecting with his late grandmother and, by extension, the cultural traditions that died with her. While he manages to come into some money in a variety of different ways, each time he has money he can't help but spend it (usually on food or alcohol) or give it away to others. At the end of his 24-hour quest, Jackson has five dollars in his pocket, which is exactly how much he had when his quest began. The pawnbroker ends up giving Jackson the regalia for free, which Jackson views as a grand and generous offer, even though the regalia rightfully belonged to him all along. At the end of the story, Jackson wears the regalia and, in front of stunned onlookers, dances in the middle of the street, feeling that he has become his grandmother. - Character: Agnes. Description: Agnes was Jackson's grandmother. Although she died of breast cancer in 1979, years before the story takes place, she and her powwow regalia are in many ways the heart of the story. Each of Agnes's family members have different theories as to where her cancer may have come from, but each of their theories are universally tied back to violence or heartbreak. She died when Jackson was only 14, but she is deeply important to him and his grief for her is a fresh as if she'd died only yesterday. Jackson views Agnes and the powwow regalia that was stolen from her as connections to his Spokane American Indian roots and culture. He mourns the fact that he never got to see her dance in a powwow, feeling that when she died, so did a piece of his cultural heritage. Jackson doesn't have many memories of his grandmother, but one of her stories that remains with him is about the time that she met a Maori man when she was working abroad as a military nurse. The two of them discussed how indigenous people worldwide are oppressed by white society. At the end of the story, Jackson gets the regalia back and wears it while dancing in the street, a moment that he feels symbolically connects him with Agnes. - Character: The Pawnbroker. Description: The pawnbroker is an old white man who claims to have paid $1,000 for Jackson's grandmother's powwow regalia, which was stolen from her 50 years ago. The pawnbroker immediately assumes that Jackson is lying about the regalia belonging to his family but isn't surprised when Jackson proves it's his with the yellow bead sewn into garment. The pawnbroker acts sympathetic and even admits that the right thing to do would be to give the regalia back to Jackson—but he claims he can't shoulder the financial loss. When Rose of Sharon threatens to go to the police, the pawnbroker claims that he had no idea the regalia was stolen. The pawnbroker believes the "fairest" offer he can make Jackson is to sell it back for $999, give Jackson 24 hours to come up with the money, and give $20 to get him started. At the end of the story when Jackson returns to the pawnshop with just five dollars, the pawnbroker appears most concerned with whether Jackson worked hard for the money. When Jackson says yes, the pawnbroker offers up the regalia for free and admits that he doesn't want Jackson's money. Jackson is dejected because he was invested in truly winning it back, but the pawnbroker assures him that he did win it back. For this, Jackson praises the pawnbroker as one of the many great men in this world—though, really, the regalia rightfully belonged to Jackson all along. - Character: The Aleut Cousins. Description: The Aleut Cousins are three American Indians from Alaska that Jackson first discovers crying on a bench while looking out over the water. Jackson describes that the Aleuts, like many others, came down to Seattle on a fishing boat to earn money, but then spent it all on alcohol and became stranded and homeless with no way to return home. The cousins explain that they are sitting on the wharf waiting for their boat to come back. Jackson returns to the cousins throughout the course of the story: he cries with them, asks them to sing him ceremonial songs, and finally spends the last of his money treating them to a meal at a diner. The cousins' boat never comes, and later Jackson hears from other homeless American Indians that they'd waded out into the sea and disappeared. While some insist that they walked on the water and headed back to Alaska, others claim that they witnessed them drown. The cousins' tragic fate represents the fact that it's impossible for many American Indians to return home or regain the land that once belonged to their people. - Character: Officer Williams. Description: Officer Williams is a Seattle police officer who has gotten to know Jackson well over the years that he's been homeless. While the way Williams talks to Jackson and helps him out suggest that he has respect and sympathy for Jackson, his actions often conflict with his words. Williams believes that Jackson is smart and can't understand why he ended up on the streets, but at the same time, he doesn't believe that Jackson could get himself off the streets even if he did have money, because he'd spend it all on alcohol. Jackson believes that Williams is a "good cop" because he reminds him of his grandfather, who was a tribal police officer back home on his reservation. Jackson believes that, like his grandfather, Williams is dedicated to helping people rather than just punishing them, despite that fact that Williams doesn't help Jackson in any lasting way. - Character: Junior. Description: Junior is a part of Jackson's "regular crew." He is a Colville American Indian, and he makes Jackson feel insecure because he has what Jackson views as distinctively American Indian features, whereas Jackson sees his own features as evidence of the destruction that colonialism wreaked on indigenous people. Junior is drunkenly passed out for most of the story, and Jackson returns to him periodically to make sure he is still alive and to rummage around in his clothes for money. Eventually, Jackson returns to find that Junior, like Rose, has abandoned him. Junior had hitchhikes to Oregon, where he tragically dies of exposure in an alley behind a Hilton Hotel. - Character: Rose of Sharon. Description: Rose of Sharon is a part of Jackson's "regular crew." She's Yakama American Indian from Washington, and Jackson describes her a short woman with a tall personality. She's with Jackson when he initially finds his grandmother's powwow regalia in the pawnshop but abandons him shortly after the quest to earn it back begins. Instead, Rose hitchhikes to go live on her sister's reservation. - Character: Big Boss. Description: Big Boss works at Real Change, a social service organization in Seattle whose mission it is to alleviate poverty and homelessness. Homeless people like Jackson go to Big Change to make money by selling the organization's newspapers. Big Boss is unwilling to loan Jackson the hundreds of papers he would need to sell to earn the $1,000 required to buy back his grandmother's powwow regalia—he knows that Jackson would never be able to sell enough papers, given that the average profit for a day of selling papers is only $30. Instead, he makes what he believes is the most generous offer he can and gives Jackson 50 papers for free, which would leave him with $50 if he managed to sell them all. Big Boss is blind to the reality that the small actions that both he and his organization take are insufficient to accomplish their stated mission about poverty and homelessness. - Theme: Native American Culture and Identity. Description: In Sherman Alexie's "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," Jackson finds his late grandmother's beloved powwow regalia, which was stolen from her 50 years before, hanging in the window of a pawn shop. The white pawnbroker tells Jackson that he'll sell him the regalia at a slight loss, since it's the "moral thing" to reunite the regalia with its rightful owner. But nonetheless, Jackson must come up with nearly $1,000, which is essentially impossible for him; he's homeless and unemployed, and whatever money he does come up with, he spends on liquor or gives away to other struggling American Indians. So, while this might seem like a fair bargain to the white pawn shop owner, Jackson's fruitless quest to gather the money shows how American Indians continue to be systematically oppressed by a culture that doesn't value or understand them. Furthermore, Jackson's efforts during his 24 hours of moneymaking show the lengths that American Indians must go in order to preserve their culture and carry it from one generation to the next. The relationship between Jackson and the pawnbroker is a metaphor for how white people have systemically stripped American Indians of their cultures and identities since the initial colonization of the Americas. When Jackson proves that the regalia belongs to his family, the pawnbroker doesn't deny that it's rightfully Jackson's—but he still refuses to give it back to Jackson because he doesn't want to shoulder the economic loss. This relationship mirrors the historical relationship between white colonizers and American Indians: colonizers stole American Indian land and, in the process, destroyed American Indian people's cultures and identities (and indeed their very lives) for economic and political gain. Even in the present day, when white people like the pawnbroker are more willing to admit that land and culture was stolen from its rightful owners, white society is still unwilling to make reparations by giving back stolen land and cultural artifacts, because to do so would come at an economic cost. In the present, white people like the pawnbroker continue to actively inhibit American Indians from passing their culture from one generation to the next. In light of this symbolism, Jackson comes to understand his quest to earn back his grandmother's powwow regalia as a way to regain the cultural knowledge that his family has lost over the generations. Because his grandmother's powwow regalia was stolen from her, and because she died when he was still young, Jackson never got to see his grandmother in her regalia. His deepest wish is that he could have seen her dance. His cultural inheritance and identity exists only in the photographs he's seen of her wearing the regalia, which is representative of how his entire cultural identity feels lost to and trapped in the past. Therefore, Jackson comes to view earning the regalia back as a quest that he must complete to bring his stolen culture back into his life. At one point, he muses, "I know it's crazy, but I wondered if I could bring my grandmother back to life if I bought back her regalia." While Jackson knows he can't literally bring his grandmother back to life, earning the regalia back would give him a tangible connection to her and would mean that his culture (or at least a small piece of it) could be passed on to the next generation. Furthermore, this quest to earn the $1,000 to buy back the powwow regalia represents the lengths that American Indians have had to go to in order to preserve their cultures amid centuries of violence and destruction. Jackson lacks the resources to earn back the powwow regalia, and he lacks the resources precisely because white society oppresses him and his fellow American Indians. Without the proper resources, the sheer impossibility of his task reflects the often-insurmountable obstacles American Indians face if they want to preserve their cultures. The fact that their cultures live on to thrive in the present despite the odds stacked against them is testimony to their drive to keep their identities alive, and this resolve is reflected in Jackson's determination to win back the regalia. Even though he likely knows that he won't be able to raise $1,000 in 24 hours, he tries anyway. In addition, Jackson speaks directly to the readers in a way that presumes his audience is primarily white people, and in his narration is careful not to reveal secrets that white people may use to further their destruction of American Indian culture. In the very first line of the story, Jackson makes clear that he won't be telling the story of how he ended up homeless because it's his "secret story" and "Indians have to work hard to keep secrets from hungry white folks." This direct address presumes that the readers of his story are the "hungry white folks" that Jackson and other American Indians must keep at arm's length if they are to preserve their cultural "secrets." Similarly, Jackson mentions that he is often scared of history because of the horrors and atrocities that have been carried out on American Indians, but he won't reveal the depths of his fears to his readers, as he knows that "silence is the best method of dealing with white folks." Again, this suggests that American Indians must be careful not to reveal anything that white people may later use against them and for their own destruction. By the end of the story, the pawnbroker agrees to give Jackson the regalia, and Jackson symbolically carries his grandmother's legacy into the present by putting on her regalia and dancing in the street. He feels that he has become his grandmother, and his dancing embodies the generational transfer of cultural knowledge and identity. However, his surroundings haven't changed—the passersby (who are implied to be white) stop and stare, and there's no indication that they understand the significance of what he's doing. This suggests that as Jackson fights to keep his cultural legacy and inheritance alive, white society will likely continue to misunderstand and harm American Indians like him. - Theme: Money, Capitalism, and Morality. Description: "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" can be read as an allegory for how capitalism fails American Indians. At the heart of the story is Jackson's quest to come up with nearly $1,000 to buy his grandmother's powwow regalia from a pawn shop, regalia that was stolen from her 50 years before. The white pawnbroker may feel that he's offering a fair bargain (taking a slight loss on an item he bought without knowing it was stolen, while Jackson gets his heirloom back), but Jackson's 24 hours of desperate moneymaking show that this proposition was always doomed. Jackson is unemployed and homeless—he has no way of making that kind of money and no friends wealthy enough to lend it to him. This plot evokes generations of predatory capitalism ruining American Indians' lives. The stolen powwow regalia echoes the way white settlers stole Indian land, and Jackson's quest to buy this stolen heirloom back shows how fundamentally unfair it is to ask someone without access to money—in fact, someone whose capital has been stolen for generations—to "earn" what should simply belong to them. Throughout the story Jackson is caught in an endless cycle of earning and then immediately spending his money, which makes him unable to save. His difficult life circumstances drive him to drink, and his addiction to alcohol eats up much of the money he earns, which keeps him on the streets. By the time Jackson reaches the end of his 24-hour quest to earn $1,000, he has just five dollars left, which is exact same amount that he started out with. This is a moment of cruel irony that represents the ways in which capitalism keeps poor people from accumulating wealth and instead traps them exactly where they started out in life. Additionally, although the regalia was stolen and rightfully belongs to Jackson, he's asked to buy it back, which is another way that American Indians have been denied wealth. Just as someone stole and sold the powwow regalia, white colonists have, for generations, stolen American Indian wealth and resources and then forced American Indians to exist without access to capital. The regalia represents the generations of wealth that have been stolen from American Indians—the most important example of which is their land, which is the foundation of economic success in American society. Furthermore, Jackson's habit of giving his money away to others represents how American Indian culture in incompatible with, and even runs directly counter to, the individualistic and profit-driven motivations that are the heart of capitalism. With the initial $5 they earned from panhandling, and the $20 from the pawnbroker, Jackson treats Rose of Sharon and Junior to three bottles of alcohol under the pretense that it'll help them brainstorm ideas to earn money for the regalia. Then, when Jackson wins $100 on a lottery ticket, he gives a portion of his prize money to the cashier at the grocery store where he purchased the ticket. When the cashier tries to reject his offer, knowing that he's homeless and struggling, Jackson insists that "It's an Indian thing. When you win, you're supposed to share with your family." Although she is not actually Jackson's blood relative, Jackson's definition of family extends beyond the nuclear family (itself an invention of capitalism) to a more communal sense of the term. That he shares the money out of commitment to an American Indian tradition likewise demonstrates how capitalism is opposed to his cultural norms. Therefore, he must either retain his cultural beliefs and suffer the economic consequences, or abandon his beliefs in pursuit of capitalist success. Later that night, Jackson spends the remaining $80 of his prize on the patrons in "Big Heart's" bar. He calls the American Indians there his cousins, even though they are strangers to him, because he says that "Indians like to belong, so we all [pretend] to be cousins." At the end of the story, when Jackson has $30 to his name, he spends $25 of it on breakfast for himself and the Aleut cousins whom he's returned to throughout the course of his quest. Before inviting them out to eat, the Aleuts sing Jackson ceremonial songs that speak to Jackson's grief for his grandmother, and his decision to treat them to breakfast can be read as a reciprocal gesture and thank you for what they've given him. Finally, Jackson's insistence that he must earn the regalia back himself points to how he's internalized the capitalist and American belief in meritocracy (the belief that individuals deserve wealth and economic stability only if they've invested time, effort, and hard work into earning it), despite that fact that the regalia is rightfully his and is owed back to him. When the pawnbroker gives him the regalia for free at the end of the story because he's decided that Jackson worked hard for the five dollars he has, Jackson is disappointed, because he was invested in truly winning it back. He even praises the pawnbroker for his gesture, exclaiming, "Do you know how many good men live in this world? Too many to count!" Even though the pawnbroker wasted Jackson's time with the impossible quest for $1000, Jackson's still regards the pawnbroker as a good man. This reveals the extent to which Jackson has internalized the capitalist belief in meritocracy. He still believes it's fair to expect people to earn what they want through hard work, even when that something is owed to them in the first place. - Theme: Racism and Colonialism. Description: Throughout "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," Jackson encounters well-intentioned white people who try to help him in controlling or condescending ways. The pawnbroker offers to let him buy his grandmother's stolen powwow regalia—but only if he can come up with an impossible amount of money. Big Boss, the man who runs an anti-poverty organization, gives Jackson a token number of newspapers to sell, as though that will help him at all. Officer Williams, who finds Jackson passed out drunk on the railroad tracks, gives him a small amount of money and asks him, since he's so smart, why he's living on the streets—a question that reveals the officer's profound ignorance of the centuries of colonialist oppression that have contributed to Jackson's circumstances. These white people have genuine sympathy and goodwill for Jackson, but they're reluctant to do anything to meaningfully improve his life, and they seem incapable of recognizing that the racist systems and ideas that benefit them have also caused Jackson's misery. In this way, the story satirizes how small acts of "generosity" can make white people feel moral while failing to actually improve the lives of those they ostensibly wish to help. While the pawnbroker admits that the right thing to do would be to give Jackson the regalia back for free, he still tells Jackson he has to buy the regalia for $1,000, which shows that he's unwilling to act morally if it comes at a financial cost. In this way, his actions mirror those of modern white American society at large. Many people have sympathy for American Indians and other marginalized groups, but few seem to want to give the economic support required to actually improve their lives. Instead, the pawnbroker sends Jackson out on what he knows is an impossible mission: to earn $1,000 in 24 hours. In the end, however, when Jackson returns with five dollars (just like he had when his quest began), the pawnbroker judges that Jackson has worked hard for the money and thus deserves the regalia back. While this is certainly a meaningful gesture to Jackson, who is reunited with a beloved family heirloom, it's odd that the pawnbroker justifies giving him the regalia in terms of how hard he has worked for his money. In fact, the regalia is stolen and rightfully belongs to Jackson's family in the first place, so he shouldn't have to work hard to deserve it—he inherently deserves it because it's his. So the sympathy and goodwill of the pawnbroker are somewhat condescending and manipulative, even as he does something kind for Jackson. Big Boss and his organization, Real Change, reveal how the efforts of non-profit and charitable organizations are not enough to remedy the root causes of poverty. Big Boss is unwilling to give Jackson the 1,000 or so newspapers he would need to earn his $1,000 because he knows that selling that many papers is an impossible task. He reminds Jackson that, on average, someone can make $30 in a day selling papers—but because Big Boss feels bad for Jackson, he decides to give him 50 papers for free, hoping that he can make a $50 profit. Jackson sells papers for an hour, and in that time, he only makes five dollars. At that rate, he'd have to sell papers for 10 hours in order to make a mere $50. In this sense, Big Boss's gesture is an empty one, and it represents the reality that non-profits and charitable organizations offer sympathy but aren't addressing the root causes of the problems they're claiming to fix. "Real Change," in other words, can't offer any change at all. Finally, Jackson insists that Officer Williams is a "good cop" who is more interested in helping people than punishing them—but Williams's actions only further fuel the vicious cycle that Jackson is trapped in. Officer Williams has been encountering Jackson on the streets for years, but he doesn't do anything to truly help him, nor does he really know him. For example, at one point, Jackson muses that Williams has been giving him candy bars for years, and he wonders if Williams knows that he's a diabetic. What Williams thinks is a kind gesture is actually bad for Jackson, and this mirrors how white American society contributes to the poor health outcomes and subpar quality of living that American Indian communities face.   Officer Williams tells Jackson that he's too smart to be on the streets, which he seems to believe is a compliment. It's an insulting statement, though, that reveals Williams's ignorance: Jackson's intelligence has nothing to do with him ending up on the streets, as his circumstances are the result of centuries of systemic oppression of American Indians. But Officer Williams's belief that Jackson is homeless because of some kind of personal failing, rather than a systemic issue, illuminates his behavior: he thinks he can help Jackson by tweaking various aspects of his life—such as repeatedly dropping him off at a detox center—when helping Jackson would require a much more significant change in American culture. In this way, the routine between Williams and Jackson (where Williams makes futile and misguided attempts to help Jackson) represents the greater cycle that Jackson is trapped in as a homeless, alcoholic American Indian. Williams the other white characters Jackson encounters on his quest highlight how sympathy and good intentions aren't enough to make real social change. Instead, white people merely use these acts of generosity to make themselves feel better. In the end, they are unwilling to give what is truly needed, which is economic support. - Theme: Death and Grief. Description: The many deaths referenced in the story reflect the horrific conditions of American Indian life. For instance, Jackson's grandmother died from cancer that was caused either by the uranium mine on her reservation, an injury from getting run over by a motorcycle, or her grief over her stolen powwow regalia. Each of these explanations points to the disproportionate hardships that American Indians face, which often shorten their lives. Furthermore, the community of homeless American Indians that Jackson lives among in Seattle also frequently meet tragic fates. For instance, the Aleut cousins Jackson hangs out with appear to walk into the sea and drown because they realize they can't go home to Alaska, and Jackson's close friend Junior later dies of exposure in an alley. The story depicts a cycle in which white people oppress American Indians, American Indians die horrible deaths because of it, and those left alive are forced into constant grief. This grief then makes their lives even harder, leading to their early deaths. But in addition to providing evidence of the cruel conditions of American Indian life, these deaths point to another tragedy: the loss of indigenous culture among the younger generations. Part of Jackson's deep mourning for his grandmother has to do with his loss of cultural knowledge and connection in the wake of her death; had she lived, she could have shared more memories with him and connected him more deeply to his heritage and culture. Because of this, death in the story is doubly tragic; it both reflects the hardship of Indian life and contributes to that hardship by estranging the living from their culture. Jackson's memories of his grandparents are limited due to their early and traumatic deaths. Rather than the cultural inheritance he longs for, Jackson has inherited an unrelenting grief that fuels the mental illness and alcoholism keeping him on the streets. When Officer Williams finds Jackson passed out on the train tracks, Jackson tells him that got so drunk and passed out there because he's mourning his grandmother. Although she passed away years ago, Jackson explains, "I've been killing myself ever since she died." This speaks to the deep grief he feels for the people and culture that he's lost, which is part of what's driven him to alcoholism and homelessness. Officer Williams asks Jackson who beat him up, and Jackson jokes that it was "Mr. Grief" who "always wins." This personification of grief as what brutalized Jackson's face the night before highlights its painful physical and emotional effects. Grief is literally a wound that contributes to the many hardships of American Indian life. It also suggests that grief can haunt generations who feel that pieces of their identity have been lost along with their dead family members and friends. Later, Jackson asks the Aleut cousins to sing ceremonial American Indian songs about wishing and hoping, because he's wishing and hoping that his grandmother was still alive. The cousins respond that every song they know is about this longing. This points to the prevalence of grief in American Indian life. Jackson's grandmother, especially, represents how the horrible and often deadly conditions that American Indians must contend with destroy American Indian culture, preventing it from being passed on from one generation to the next. Each member of his family has a theory as to what could have caused his grandmother's cancer, and Jackson believes that it could have "started in her broken heart and then leaked out into her breasts" after her regalia was stolen. Her broken heart represents the pain of having one's culture stolen and erased, and the idea that her broken heart could have killed her suggests that the pain of being separated from one's culture can be fatal (even if indirectly). One of the few things Jackson remembers from his grandmother is a story about her time working as a military nurse in World War II. She met a Maori man while stationed in Australia who explained the cruel irony of the war was that "brown people are killing other brown people so white people will remain free." Rather than inheriting cultural artifacts like the regalia, this story Jackson has inherited from his grandmother is one of death and resulting grief suffered at the hands of the white society. Finally, many of the American Indians that Jackson meets during his quest likewise meet tragic deaths. Jackson thinks of his friend Junior as a "Before Columbus Indian," as compared to an "After Columbus Indian" like himself who is "living proof of the horrible damage that colonialism has done to us Skins." In this way, Jackson views Junior as a link to a past before colonization, and this link is lost when Junior later dies of exposure in an alley behind a Hilton Hotel. The juxtaposition of his horrible death and the Hilton Hotel, and symbol of wealth and luxury, represents how colonial destruction lives on in the present and continues to prevent American Indian people from carrying their cultures on to future generations. Likewise, the Aleut cousins later die a tragic death—and with them, their cultural knowledge (including the ceremonial songs they sang to Jackson) disappears. The Aleut cousins die trying to return home, and their deaths therefore represent the impossibility of returning to a home that's been destroyed and erased. Death and grief are so present throughout "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" that they almost become characters in their own right who haunt Jackson and other American Indians throughout the story. Death erases their cultural ties to past and future generations, and their resulting grief exacerbates the many hardships they face. - Climax: Jackson dances in the street while wearing his grandmother's regalia. - Summary: "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" is the story of one day in the life of Jackson Jackson, a homeless, alcoholic Spokane American Indian man living on the streets of Seattle. The story begins at noon, when Jackson and his friends, Rose of Sharon and Junior, see Jackson's grandmother's powwow regalia in the window of a pawnshop. The regalia had been stolen from her 50 years prior, but the pawnbroker claims that he bought the regalia for $1,000 and that he didn't know it was stolen. He feels sympathetic toward Jackson but is only willing to sell it back to him for $999. Jackson only has five dollars, and the pawnbroker gives him $20 and 24 hours to come up with the remaining cash. Jackson and his friends immediately spend the $25 on alcohol, get drunk, and pass out in an alley. When Jackson wakes up, he finds that Rose has abandoned them (he later learns that she hitchhiked to her sister's reservation). Junior remains passed out, so Jackson leaves to find the money for the regalia on his own. He comes to view the task of earning the regalia back as a quest that he must complete on his own, and one that he wishes could bring his grandmother, Agnes, back to life. Although Agnes died of breast cancer when Jackson was only 14, his grief for her is all-consuming. He wishes he could have seen her dance in her regalia at a powwow and views her as a lost connection to his Spokane culture. Like Jackson, she was acutely aware of how white society discriminates against indigenous people. After Rose of Sharon has left, Jackson meets and befriends three Aleut cousins from Alaska who came to Seattle 11 years ago on a fishing boat and are still waiting for the boat to return to take them back home. The cousins don't have any money to give Jackson, so he then attempts to sell newspapers for a charitable organization called Real Change. The organization's leader, Big Boss, gives him 50 papers to sell, but Jackson gives up after selling only five in one hour. After this, Jackson plays the lottery and wins $100, $20 of which he gives to Kay, the cashier at the Korean grocery where he bought the tickets. When he goes to tell Junior the good news, he finds that his friend has left. (He later learns that Junior hitchhiked to Portland and died of exposure in an alley.) Jackson spends his remaining lottery winnings at an "official Indian bar," where he treats the patrons to $80 worth of shots and has a sexual encounter with a woman named Irene. After this long night of drinking, Jackson wakes up on the train tracks to a policeman, Officer Williams, kicking him the ribs. Jackson and Officer Williams have gotten to know each other throughout Jackson's years living on the streets, and while Officer Williams can't understand why someone as smart as Jackson is homeless, he also doesn't have any faith in Jackson's ability to get his life together. Jackson believes that Officer Williams is a "good cop" because he reminds him of his grandfather, who was a tribal police officer more interested in helping people than punishing them. Officer Williams gives Jackson $30 towards his regalia fund. Jackson spends $25 of the $30 Officer Williams gave him on a meal for himself and the three Aleut cousins and then bids them farewell. (He later learns that they walked into the sea and likely drowned). Jackson's 24 hours to earn back the regalia have come to an end. He has five dollars to his name, which is the same amount he started out with the day before. When Jackson shows up at the pawnshop, the pawnbroker asks him if he's worked hard for that five dollars. When Jackson says yes, the pawnbroker gives him the regalia for free. Jackson then puts on the regalia and dances in the middle of the street, stopping traffic as drivers and pedestrians watch him. In this moment, he feels that he has become his grandmother.

- Genre: Short Story, Realism, Dystopian Fiction - Title: When It Happens - Point of view: Third Person - Setting: A farm in an unspecified location - Character: Mrs. Burridge. Description: Mrs. Burridge is a 51-year-old woman who lives with her husband Frank Burridge on an isolated farm. Mrs. Burridge thinks Frank is a good man and relies on his care and protection, though she is often frustrated with him and fears he's becoming weaker lately. She and Frank have three children together, all of whom are now adults and live elsewhere. Despite being the main character, Mrs. Burridge's first name is never revealed. She lived through the Great Depression and World War II, both of which created in her a skepticism toward social institutions, particularly the media. At the start of the story, Mrs. Burridge is canning green tomato pickle, a process that normally makes her feel safe. Mrs. Burridge used to enjoy canning food to put in her cellar because it was something to rely on in case of hardship. However, more recently, Mrs. Burridge has become increasingly apocalyptic in her thinking. She spends much of her day waiting for a doomsday scenario that she is convinced will happen soon. In the event of such a catastrophe, Mrs. Burridge does not think that the food in her cellar will help her survive and she begins to make other plans. While writing a grocery list, Mrs. Burridge begins daydreaming about an apocalyptic scenario. In her daydream, Mrs. Burridge almost immediately sets out on her own with only a few personal items and a shotgun to keep her safe. Soon, she comes across two men in the woods who she thinks plan to harm her. She raises the gun, intending to fire at one of the men, and then the daydream stops. Afterwards, the story ends abruptly as Mrs. Burridge completes her grocery list and then leaves the house. - Character: Frank Burridge. Description: Frank Burridge is Mrs. Burridge's husband. He is a hard-working and generally kind man, although Mrs. Burridge is regularly annoyed with him and refers to him as "pigheaded." Frank does a majority of the manual labor around the Burridge house including tending the farm and performing menial tasks such as fixing the cellar stairs. Mrs. Burridge feels that she relies heavily on Frank to survive and does not know what she would do without him. Similarly, Frank relies on Mrs. Burridge to keep him fed and run the home. Mrs. Burridge and Frank know each other well and their marriage has fallen into certain patterns that Mrs. Burridge finds tiring. However, it is difficult to know if Frank feels the same way because the story never reveals his perspective. Largely, Frank leaves his wife alone and does not push her for answers, even when he knows she is lying. Throughout most of the story, Frank moves around in the background as Mrs. Burridge watches him and worries that he has become too weak to protect her. In Mrs. Burridge's apocalyptic daydream, Frank goes off with Henry Clarke and another farmer to try to find out what is going on. Mrs. Burridge abandons him in the daydream because she thinks he will not come back. - Character: Sarah Burridge. Description: Sarah Burridge is the daughter of Mrs. Burridge and Frank Burridge. She is the only Burridge child mentioned by name in the story, although little is known about her except that she is the eldest, and that Mrs. Burridge was pregnant with her when she first started gardening. Sarah is now fully grown and no longer lives with her parents. - Theme: The Mundane and the Apocalyptic. Description: Margaret Atwood's "When It Happens" demonstrates how boredom and dissatisfaction can quickly twist themselves into something more sinister. Mrs. Burridge is a 51-year-old woman in a loveless marriage who constantly worries about the future. On the surface, she has no reason to be concerned: her children are alive and healthy, she and her husband Frank have more money than ever, and the farm they live on is largely self-sustaining. However, the information she hears in the media, the concern she reads on people's faces, and the apocalyptic visions she reads in Watchtower all make her believe something terrible is going to happen. Mrs. Burridge begins to imagine herself taking off on her own with a gun, eventually coming across some men who she believes she needs to shoot. Although Mrs. Burridge's fears are genuine, the story also suggests that this possibility excites her; her life has become so mundane and easy that these apocalyptic fantasies are her way of passing the time. At this point in her life, her children are raised and there is little she needs to do to satisfy Frank. Instead, she spends much of her time staring out the back window, waiting to see smoke on the horizon that signals the coming apocalypse. By the end of the story, the same boredom that created this line of thinking makes even menial tasks difficult for Mrs. Burridge, as a grocery list written on the back of the calendar page quickly becomes an exercise in catastrophic thinking. Ultimately, Mrs. Burridge's apocalyptic predictions never come to fruition, yet the effect they have on her is keenly felt. - Theme: Control vs. Lack of Control. Description: "When It Happens" depicts an extreme case of a universal fear: the lack of control one has over the future. Mrs. Burridge desires to control every aspect of her life. Her home is largely self-sustaining and includes animals for food and milk, a gas pump, and plenty of room for storage. Yet, Mrs. Burridge constantly worries that these things are not enough. She works hard to create a surplus of goods, only to worry about people coming to steal those goods. Her life is a vicious cycle in which she performs an action that is meant to make her feel more in control, but that action actually creates more problems, at least in her mind. Mrs. Burridge also regularly worries about the abilities that she lacks. For a long time, she has relied on Frank for protection, but she realizes that this is no longer a viable option in his old age. She wants to be able to use a gun to protect herself, but she never asks him to teach her how, and even in her fantasies she has a hard time pulling the trigger. Ultimately, then, there is a cruel irony to Mrs. Burridge's actions (or failures to act), because her desire for control results in a repetitious and mundane way of living that only perpetuates her fears rather than helping her confront them. - Theme: Family, Community, and Isolation. Description: In "When It Happens," Atwood suggests that Mrs. Burridge's boredom and unhappiness stem from her lack of interaction with her family and the broader community. From the beginning of the story, it is clear that Mrs. Burridge is not happy with her marriage; she does not hate Frank, but she also no longer loves him. This fact is solidified later in the story, during the apocalyptic fantasy where she sets out on her own, leaving Frank behind. In addition, while Mrs. Burridge occasionally speaks to her children, none of them feature regularly in her life, and two of them are never even given names in the story. Similarly, while Mrs. Burridge knows her neighbors, none of them could be classified as friends. As such, Mrs. Burridge has no one to confide in; she does not even tell Frank about her concerns for the future, and she plans to hide one of his guns from him if something were to happen. Although Mrs. Burridge spends most of the story worrying about isolation due to a catastrophic event, what she does not realize is that she has already isolated herself by doing so. While the story doesn't specify how and at what point Mrs. Burridge's isolation began, it's clear that her way of coping—chiefly through worry and fantasy—only makes her isolation intractable. - Theme: The Patterns of Domestic Life. Description: "When It Happens" is concerned with the patterns people fall into after living together for a long time. Mrs. Burridge and Frank have lived together for many years; they have three children, all of whom are now fully grown and live elsewhere. During their many years together, they have come to know each other intimately. Although the story never allows access to Frank's thoughts, Mrs. Burridge has a clear sense of what she sees as Frank's strengths and faults. She despises what she calls his "pigheadedness" but ultimately sees him as a kind man who never wishes anybody any harm. However, despite her overall positive opinion of Frank, it is obvious that Mrs. Burridge no longer loves him. They do not communicate in any significant way, but instead revert to common rituals that feel comfortable. For instance, Mrs. Burridge will tease Frank about what he eats, and he responds that she needs to have more fun in life. This is not a sporadic moment in the story, but rather something that happens on a daily basis, always more or less the same way. This creates a monotonous existence for both Frank and Mrs. Burridge that they seem unable to break out of. Again, Frank's thoughts never enter the narration, but Mrs. Burridge is clearly unhappy. Her fantasies take the form of hiding things from Frank and abandoning him in the event of a catastrophe—fantasies that, as the story goes on, Mrs. Burridge almost seems to want to happen. Although these fantasies are also spurred on by other larger social institutions such as the media, the core of Mrs. Burridge's uncertainty and unhappiness originates in her marriage, which has settled into a seemingly unbreakable cycle—one so stagnant that it can only be broken by an apocalyptic event. - Climax: Mrs. Burridge imagines an apocalyptic scenario where she is pointing a gun at two threatening men. - Summary: Mrs. Burridge, a 51-year-old woman, spends her day canning and storing green tomato pickle, a favorite food of her husband Frank. She and Frank live alone on an isolated farm. Though they have three children, all of them are now grown and live elsewhere. Therefore, Mrs. Burridge and Frank must fend for themselves and keep themselves occupied. It is the former that concerns Mrs. Burridge. Mrs. Burridge is a catastrophic thinker who is constantly worried about an apocalyptic scenario. She does not tell Frank about her thoughts, although Frank knows something is wrong. Mrs. Burridge is also concerned about her relationship to Frank. The two of them are very comfortable around one another, but any sense of love and romance has been lost. Both are getting older, and Mrs. Burridge feels their mortality creeping up on them. She also worries about Frank's declining mobility and his capacity to protect her. While her second batch of green tomato pickle simmers, Mrs. Burridge stares out her back door. This is something she does multiple times a day. Eventually, she believes she will see smoke on the horizon which will signal that something terrible has happened. Soon, her second batch of pickle is finished, and she takes it to the cellar. There, she thinks about how all of her canned food once brought her comfort. It doesn't anymore because Mrs. Burridge thinks that in the event of an apocalyptic scenario, she will have to leave her home, rendering most of the food useless. After returning upstairs, Mrs. Burridge makes a grocery list on the back of a calendar page. While making her list, Mrs. Burridge daydreams about a doomsday scenario. In the daydream, two farmers come to get Frank, and the three of them head straight for the source of the ambiguous catastrophe. Mrs. Burridge, convinced that she will never see Frank again, begins packing up her things with the intention of setting off on her own. She packs up all the essentials for survival, including a shotgun she has deliberately hidden from Frank in case of an event like this. Afterwards, Mrs. Burridge frees all the farm animals and begins hiking up the road. She walks until it gets dark and then strays off the road and into the forest. She knows she has been to this area before with Frank, but for some reason it does not seem familiar. As she walks through the woods, she comes across two men sitting at a campfire. The two men immediately spot her and start moving toward her. This frightens Mrs. Burridge and so she raises her gun. Soon, she realizes she will have to shoot the men, although she does not know if she is capable of doing so. As the men come closer, the daydream suddenly ends. Mrs. Burridge is back in her kitchen and looking at the clock. She then finishes her grocery list and heads out the door.

- Genre: Historical Fiction - Title: When the Emperor was Divine - Point of view: Third-person omniscient, first-person plural, and free indirect discourse - Setting: - Character: The Woman. Description: The woman—who, like the other main characters, is never named—begins the novel as an upper middle-class Japanese-American housewife living in California. She is quiet, confident, and graceful, and keeps her inner emotional life to herself. Caring deeply about her absent husband and two children, she alone shoulders the burden of preparing the children to evacuate during the Japanese American internment, performing the necessary actions with methodical determination and a bit of resignation to her fate. At the internment camp, she loses this emotional strength and clear-sighted practicality as she psychologically disconnects from her children and the world around her, spending most days asleep and dreaming of her childhood in Japan. After returning home, she regains her composure and her pragmatism, eventually becoming a maid for wealthy white families so that she can provide for her family. - Character: The Girl. Description: At the cusp of adolescence, the girl is inquisitive, friendly, and has a strong American identity: she wears Mary Jane shoes, listens to Dorothy Lamour, and loves American candy. Because she has internalized white American beauty standards, she often looks in the mirror and fears that she is a plain-looking girl. At the internment camp, she goes through the familiar rebellious stages of becoming a teenager. She pulls away from her younger brother and mother—the boy and the woman, respectively—as she spends more time with friends and experiments with testing social boundaries by smoking cigarettes and staying out past curfew. When she returns from the camp, she loses this rebellious streak and becomes obedient, afraid of once again being mistaken for the enemy and being sent back to the camps. - Character: The Boy. Description: The woman's younger child, the boy is seven when the novel starts. A dreamy child, he has a strong imagination and a deep connection to the natural world. Sensitive, intuitive, and compassionate, the boy deeply misses his father and tries to care for his mother as she struggles to stay grounded in reality at the internment camp. While the girl rebels against the family structure, the boy is more resistant to the oppressive life of the camp. While he too shows all the signs of being a well-assimilated American boy, he also asserts his identity as Japanese through small acts of resistance, like muttering the name of the Emperor under his breath. Like the girl, the boy stops resisting oppression when he returns home, as he is afraid of being sent back to the camps. - Character: The Man / The Father. Description: For most of the novel, the father only exists in the memories of the other family members and in the short, censored letters he writes from the detention camp (he was detained by the U.S. government months before the story begins). The family remembers him as a loving, mild-mannered, and gentle man, and his warm letters, though censored, confirm that he loves and cares for his family. However, when we see the man at the end of the novel, he is a bitter and weary, reeling from the psychological effects of being unjustly interned as an "alien enemy." Gripped by his rage and resentment at America for imprisoning him and his family, the man slowly disconnects from the family, becoming more sullen and withdrawing into his inner world. Though he did not physically die at the camp, he does return as a ghost of his former self. - Character: Joe Lundy. Description: The white owner of the general store in Berkeley that the woman visits. Sympathetic to the woman's forced relocation, he offers her candy for her children while at the same time scrubbing a stain from the cash register. Joe appears to be a stand-in for all white Americans who disagreed with the evacuation but did nothing to stop it, and thus are still symbolically "stained" by the terrible American tragedy that was Japanese-American internment. - Character: Emperor Hirohito. Description: The Japanese Emperor during the war. According to Japanese traditions, the Emperor was the divine embodiment of a god. The boy repeats his name over and over as an act of defiance against the prison guards. At the end of the war, the Emperor repudiates his divinity, signaling the end of a period of Japanese pride and self-determination. - Theme: Racism. Description: Beginning in February, 1942, the United States government sent over 100,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps for the duration of World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government feared that Japanese-American citizens would ally themselves to Japan and engage in acts of sabotage and espionage against America. In the 1980s, however, a congressional commission reviewed the situation and found little evidence of Japanese-Americans having expressed any disloyalty to the United States. The committee concluded that internment was a product of racism against Asian-Americans rather than of a legitimate concern about national security. In its recounting of one family's experience of internment, Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor was Divine explores the various racist stereotypes surrounding Asian identity that contributed to the unjust incarceration of so many people. On one level, Otsuka demonstrates how the fear of Japanese-American disloyalty stems from the racist tendency to lump all Asian people together as the same. For the U.S. government, there was no difference between the Japanese air force pilot bombing Pearl Harbor and the Japanese American citizen filling a prescription at the local pharmacy. Both were labeled as enemy aliens: foreign, different, and dangerous. It was this belief that Japanese-Americans were perpetual foreigners—never fully able to assimilate into American culture—that led to the fear of their disloyalty to the American government. Otsuka illustrates the prevalence of these beliefs at the time by showing how even the unnamed character of the boy has internalized the same racist beliefs as white Americans. Since the boy has lived his entire life in America, he is so assimilated into American culture that he adopts the prevalent racist beliefs about Japanese people. When he first arrives at the internment camp, he uses racially-insensitive terms to describe how all the Japanese men look the same. Indoctrinated in the American belief system, he holds the same stereotypes as the average American who fears that Japanese-Americans are no different than enemy Japanese soldiers. Even the main characters' namelessness embodies how racism eradicates individuality. Racism works by applying a stereotype or judgment to an entire group of people, erasing the individual identities of the people in the group. The lack of names, therefore, represents how racism can make individuals appear like the same nameless members of a minority group—a demonized "other." - Theme: The Model Minority. Description: The term "model minority" refers to minority groups that have supposedly achieved high levels of socioeconomic success in America. The term initially was used to describe Japanese-Americans, but has since extended to include people from Jewish, East Asian, and South Asian communities as well. In this novel, Otsuka suggests that the experience of internment acted as a sort of cultural trauma in the minds of Japanese-Americans, causing them to react by seeking conventional forms of success in the United States. For example, as a result of their traumatic experiences in the camp, the boy and girl decide to be obedient and work extra hard so that they will never be mistaken for "the enemy" again. The children hope that by conforming to conventional American definitions of success, they will appear as upstanding citizens and thus be safer from future discrimination. This fear of returning to the camp essentially forces the children to construct a new, psychological kind of prison for themselves. To be part of the model minority, the children have to repress emotions like anger and frustration—anything that might be seen as negative and used as an excuse for discrimination. They even have to accept the racism and intolerance of their white American peers without complaint, so as not to appear that they want to change the racial status-quo. To conform to the ideal of the model minority, the children have to restrict their behaviors, feelings, and desires. In the end, however, they have simply moved from a physical prison to a prison of the mind. - Theme: Imprisonment and Freedom. Description: While reading When the Emperor was Divine, some readers might ask themselves why Japanese-Americans did not resist their own unlawful incarceration. The novel answers this question in the opening scene, when the woman obligingly follows the evacuation order displayed in the post office window. For the woman, being a good citizen entails following the nation's laws. Having lived as a law-abiding citizen her entire life, she does not need a police officer or a soldier to force her to evacuate because she has already internalized the value of obeying the law. The novel therefore suggests that people quickly learn to normalize the laws of their society, even when these laws are unjust towards the very people defending and obeying them. As the novel progresses, Otsuka provides numerous examples of how people come to consent to their own imprisonment. The boy blames himself rather than the government for getting his family sent to the camp. The prisoners tell themselves they prefer the camp over the outside world of racism and discrimination, and no one even complains about or questions their internment itself. Instead of struggling against the injustice through acts of resistance, most people simply accept their imprisonment because they feel as if they have no other choice. Even after the family's literal imprisonment is over, the family cannot escape the psychological affects of their traumatic experience—essentially a mental prison that is much harder to escape. On the first night home, the family sleeps in the same arrangement as they did in the camp. In this way, they turn their own home into a reflection of the camp—like the family's pet bird, they have gotten used to their cage, and find it difficult to give up what is familiar. On a deeper level, the characters want to forget their time in the camp, but the past won't let them go. By the end of the novel, they become prisoners of their own memories, unable to move on from the experience. As mentioned in the previous theme, the children also try to conform to the ideal of the "model minority" and, as a result, construct new psychological restrictions for themselves. Freedom, though never truly attained, is always a possibility just beyond the characters' reach, an ideal for which they yearn. In one of the final scenes of the novel, the rosebush represents that ideal of freedom. Unlike the family, the rosebush is "blossoming madly, wildly, pressing one perfect red flower after another out into the late afternoon light." The rosebush's wild growth is its freedom, representing people's potential when they are not constricted by oppressive laws or discrimination. The novel concludes with this image of wild freedom, a freedom the characters long for despite the various prisons that confine them. - Theme: Social Class and the American Dream. Description: The novel opens with the family having achieved the economic prosperity and success associated with the "American dream." Wealthy enough not to have to work, the woman's life is full of traditional American signs of prosperity and class. She owns her house in the suburbs, wears white gloves, and hires a maid to clean her house. For all intents and purposes, she has achieved the American dream of a secure, middle-class lifestyle. It quickly becomes clear, however, that the woman's class status and wealth cannot protect her or her family from racism and internment. As soon as the U.S. government turns on its Japanese-American citizens, the woman's wealth and perceived security all disappear. Overnight, the government freezes her bank accounts and takes away the family's civil liberties. This sudden and staggering injustice, especially compared to the family's previous status in America, suggests that the "American dream" might only be a fantasy for minority groups. Because they don't have the security of being a part of the dominant white majority, Asian-Americans and other minorities can easily be turned against and demonized as "other" or not "real" Americans.Interestingly, at the internment camp class divisions within the Japanese-American community become more blurred. Businessmen become janitors and the wealthy have no access to their money, so there is no real way to back up any elite status they might want to maintain. In this way, institutional racism paradoxically equalizes the Japanese-American community by uniting everyone under the same shared struggle. There are still exceptions to this, however: even after the woman loses her wealth, her former maid—who is also interned at the camp—continues her social role as lower-class "help" when she helps carry the woman's bucket of water to the barracks. This small interaction suggests that class divisions do not ever fully disappear, even when a community shares a common race, ethnicity, and living situation, and is also struggling against a single mutual oppressor. When the family returns home after the war, the woman begins anew her pursuit of the American dream. With few job opportunities for Japanese-Americans after the war, the woman takes a job as a domestic worker in order to provide for her children. Having achieved the "dream" and then having had it snatched away from her, she is forced to begin again from the bottom. The novel ultimately suggests that for people of color, the American dream is something of a mirage, or perhaps a nightmare. - Theme: Assimilation and Loss of Identity. Description: Typically, assimilation refers to a group of people with their own heritage, traditions, and values adopting the culture of another group. But rather than the mingling of two cultural identities, When the Emperor was Divine depicts Japanese-American assimilation as more like the gradual loss of one's identity altogether. Before the war, the family's home was full of the markers of their assimilated, Westernized life (a grand piano, a framed picture of a classic Western artwork, a baseball glove) and also of their Japanese heritage (a bonsai tree, pictures of a family member in Japanese military regalia, a Japanese flag). Containing a multiplicity of cultural objects, their home illustrates the possibility of the coexistence of Japanese and American cultural identities. In this home, the characters do not need to sacrifice one side of their identity in order to conform to the other. This coexistence does not last, however. As soon as the government detains her husband under suspicion of being a spy, the woman destroys all the cultural links to Japan in their home. The war with Japan causes the family to give up their Japanese heritage in order to demonstrate their sole loyalty to the American side of their identities. As a result, assimilation causes them to eradicate a crucial part of their selves—and even this doesn't save them from internment.This loss of identity also occurs on a more personal level. Internment causes the woman to become a shell of her former self—she either spends hours in total silence or sleeps away her days. In the camp, she loses the strength that marked her personality in the first chapter. The children are more resilient, holding onto their identities for longer, although they too eventually succumb. The girl, who never showed much of a connection to Japanese cultural identity, holds onto her assimilated American identity. She appears to go through the normal stages of growing up: distancing herself from her family, spending more time with friends, and testing social boundaries. In contrast, the boy tries to keep his Japanese heritage. At one point, the boy mutters the name of the Emperor under his breath when passing the guard tower as an act of personal resistance against giving up his Japanese identity. But after the war, the children, like their mother, begin to lose their cultural identities and even their unique personalities. For fear of returning to the camps, the children conform completely to assimilated norms. They follow all the rules and avoid sticking out. Otsuka formally illustrates this conformity and lack of identity by writing the second to last chapter through the shared perspective of both children. Though the boy and girl were previously very distinct characters, Otsuka writes this chapter with the pronoun "we" to show that the two children have become essentially interchangeable, a unit of two personalities that are no different from one another. Internment and this fearful kind of assimilation, therefore, rob them of everything that made them complex and nuanced human beings. The novel concludes with the father, who likewise loses his original identity. After his detainment he is no longer kind and easygoing as he was before—he becomes an angry man who slips deeper and deeper into his interior world, eventually barely speaking to his family. By the end of the novel, he is a ghost of his former self, an empty void in the family. The novel thus illustrates how the horrors of institutionalized racism and oppression can cause a complete loss of identity, as being dehumanized by others for so long eventually makes one dehumanize one's own self. - Theme: Inscrutability and the Unknown. Description: At one point in the novel, the boy refers to all the Japanese-American people in the camp as "inscrutable," which means that they are impossible to know. This "inscrutability" was the exact reason why the U.S. government locked up innocent Japanese-American citizens. Since the government could never know for sure the loyalties of these citizens, the government decided to just incarcerate them all. Otsuka explores this idea of inscrutability in a number of ways in the novel. The family members' lack of names—they are "the woman," "the boy" "the girl" and "the man"—provides the most obvious example. Since Otsuka cannot write about every single Japanese person who went through internment, the family's namelessness makes them more symbolic, as if the family is a stand-in for the thousands of Japanese-Americans who went through similar experiences during the war. But their lack of names also represents how racism erases people's individuality. As mentioned in the themes of racism and assimilation, stereotypes make all the individuals in a group seem interchangeable, as if they were all the same. Finally, the family's namelessness could represent the fundamental inscrutability of identity. Names and the act of naming allow us to identify and know the different elements that make up our world. Naming something is almost like possessing it in a way—it becomes more familiar, less unknown. The family member's lack of names thus preserves their inscrutability, and in a way makes them seem more alive. This namelessness and the inscrutability it suggests ultimately show that Otsuka wants the reader to become comfortable with the unknown. From the man's censored letters and his untold experiences at the camps to the mysteriousness of the woman, so much in this novel is left in the shadows. With all these unknown elements, Otsuka seems to gesture towards the fundamental inscrutability of others—of all others, regardless of race or nationality. We can never truly comprehend the true feelings or experiences of other people, no matter how similar or close to them we are. But instead of fearing this unknown, Otsuka suggests that we should accept it as an essential part of our reality. Fear of the unknown is essentially what caused the unjust incarceration of thousands of innocent Japanese-American civilians, and this same fear has caused untold tragedies throughout history—it motivated the Nazis to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe, and causes people today to denounce all Muslims or Arabs as terrorists. In contrast to this fear that leads to violence and persecution, Otsuka suggests we should empathize with the unknown, accept it, and recognize the fundamental inscrutability of existence—something common to all of us. - Climax: When the family meets the character of the father at the train station - Summary: On a spring day in 1942 in Berkeley, California, the unnamed character of the woman reads a sign, Evacuation Order No. 19, in the post office. The sign says that all people of Japanese ancestry living in the city will be evacuated in the next couple of weeks. The woman returns home to pack and to get her two preadolescent children—known as the girl and the boy—ready to evacuate. Last December, the woman's husband was detained by the U.S. government under suspicion of being an "alien enemy." On the night before the evacuation, when her children are in bed, the woman sits on the floor of her kitchen and cries at the thought of leaving with no idea if she will ever come back. The woman, girl, and boy travel through Nevada on a train to a relocation camp in Utah. The train is full of people of Japanese ancestry and the armed guards who accompany them. The train passes through a town, and everyone must close their shades—the last time they passed a town with their shades up, someone threw a rock through the window. A few hours after she falls a sleep, the girl wakes up to see out the window a group of wild mustangs galloping across the desert. She wakes her brother and pushes his face gently to the glass. In a soft moan, he says, "They're going away." The next morning, soldiers with bayonets escort the family off the train and into a camp called Topaz, where hundreds of tar-paper barracks are lined up in a dried up salt lake. The camp is surrounded by barbed-wire fences. At the beginning of the internment, the boy thinks he sees his father in the faces of all of the other adult male prisoners. To him, they all look alike. He remembers how the day after the FBI took his father away, his mother burned all their relics from Japan: the letters from family, the Japanese flag, and the records of Japanese opera. In the winter, the boy asks the girl where their captors get the meat they're eating. The girl says the army rounds up the wild horses and shoots them. The girl starts going through a rebellious phase, spending less time with her family, eating her meals with the other girls, and smoking cigarettes. Meanwhile her mother spends all her days inside, staring at the stove or sleeping. In April, a man is shot near the fences for supposedly trying to escape, but the prisoners claim he was only reaching out to pluck a flower. Often at night, the boy imagines sitting next to his father and telling him everything that he has missed out on. When the family is finally released and returns home, they find their house in disrepair. The rosebush out front has been uprooted. Broken bottles, soiled mattresses, and empty food cans litter the floor, and someone wrote a racist slur in the bedroom. On the first night back, they sleep together in a room that looks almost like the one in the barracks. In class, the children behave very well so that no one will mistake them for the enemy ever again. Their mother looks for work, but few people will hire her since she is Japanese. She eventually finds a job as a maid. One day, a telegram arrives saying that the father will arrive home soon. When they meet him at the train station, he is a toothless, bald old man. The kids don't recognize him, even when he gets on his knees and hugs them, uttering their names. At home, he is either silent or flying into rages over the smallest things. He spends most of his days in his room, scribbling in his journal. In May, when the roses burst into bloom, the children wander the streets looking for their mother's rosebush. They cannot find it, but imagine that in some stranger's backyard, the rosebush is blossoming wildly. In the final chapter, written like a journal entry, the man tells his story. He sarcastically says that everything is true: he engaged in sabotage and spied on his neighbors. He says that Japanese traitors are all around: the priest, the reverend, the shoeshine boy, and more. He says that his crime was being too short, too dark of skin, too proud. The novel ends with him apologizing for these "crimes" before writing, "There. That's it. I've said. Now can I go?"

- Genre: Short story - Title: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? - Point of view: Third person - Setting: The suburbs of an unnamed town in the United States - Character: Connie. Description: The protagonist of the story, Connie is a pretty fifteen-year-old girl who loves spending time with her friends and flirting with boys. Connie takes great pleasure in her appearance, so much so that her mother often scolds her for being vain. Nonetheless, Connie's long blonde hair and general good looks make her supremely confident, and she enjoys the power she holds over boys her own age. Meanwhile, she feels suffocated by her home life and resents her mother's attempts to control her behavior as well as constant, unfavorable comparisons between her and her older sister, June. In many ways a typical teenager, Connie is eager to grow up and date; she also loves popular music, which has come to shape her expectations of romantic relationships and life in general. As the story unfolds, however, it becomes clear that Connie is hardly as mature and powerful as she would like to believe, and her vulnerability attracts the attention of the sinister Arnold Friend. When Friend arrives at Connie's house, he comments on how he was drawn to her because of her physical appearance, that her family will not return to help her, and that he intends to take her away with him and rape her. Over the course of their conversation, Connie becomes increasingly alarmed and disturbed, and her confidence and sense of control is slowly worn down until her free will is seemingly obliterated altogether. By the time she passively submits to Friend, she is experiencing such intense alienation that she sees herself in the third person and has seemingly accepted her fate. Though the story ends with her stepping out of her house, it is heavily implied that Friend later murders her. - Character: Arnold Friend. Description: The story's antagonist, Arnold Friend is a deeply sinister character—a man who pretends to be a teenage boy in his effort to kidnap, rape, and murder Connie. Connie first sees Friend outside a drive-in restaurant, where he immediately tells her, "Gonna get you, baby." Throughout the story it becomes clear that he is highly manipulative and that his appearance is deceptive. Not only does he use Connie's love of music to make himself seem like an ideal romantic suitor and speak to her in a lilting, sing-song fashion to distract her from the horror of his words, he also wears makeup and stuffs his boots to make himself appear both younger and taller. These are all parts of his attempt to manipulate Connie into coming out of her house so that he can abduct her and, it is implied, rape and murder her. Over the course of their disjointed conversation, there are references to biblical verses and Friend demonstrates an uncanny knowledge of Connie's personal life. He also seems to know exactly what her family is doing at that very moment. In this way, it seems possible that Friend is an evil supernatural force, perhaps even the devil himself. Oates has described how she based the character of Arnold Friend on the real life serial killer, Charles Schmid, who also wore makeup and stuffed his boots in order to alter his appearance, and was known for preying on teenage girls—taking three of their lives in Tuscon, Arizona the 1960s. - Character: Ellie. Description: Arnold Friend's sidekick, Ellie is passive and quietly disturbing character in the story. He sits in the passenger seat of Friend's car holding the transistor radio. Connie observes that while, like Friend, Ellie is also older than he originally appeared, he is also strangely undeveloped and completely submissive. Indeed, the only time he speaks is to ask Friend if he wants him to rip out the telephone cord to prevent Connie from calling the police. - Theme: Appearances and Deception. Description: "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" opens with a physical description of its fifteen-year-old protagonist, Connie—a pretty blonde girl living in 1960s America whose life revolves around bickering with her family, hanging out with her friends, and drooling over boys. Right away, Oates makes clear that Connie is highly conscious of her looks; she has a "habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right." As the story unfolds, it seems that Connie's attractiveness is the foundation of her self-worth and also provides her with a degree of control over boys, giving her a sense of independence and power. However, appearances also play a sinister role in the story. Through Arnold Friend, a strange adult man who arrives at Connie's home and kidnaps her with the intention to rape (and possibly kill) her, Oates demonstrates that appearances can be dangerous and deceptive. Initially, Connie believes her appearance gives her a kind of elevated status. At the opening of the story, she thinks her mother is jealous of her good looks because her mother's own beauty has long since faded. Connie's mother scolds her daughter for her vanity, yelling, "Stop gawking at yourself. […] You think you're so pretty!" In response, Connie thinks to herself that "she knew she was pretty and that was everything." The conflict between Connie and her mother is a power struggle rooted in appearances—and since Connie is the one who still has her good looks, she is the one with the power. Connie knows that she can use her appearance to her advantage; traits like her "long dark blond hair" frequently draw "anyone's eye," and she enjoys both the attention she attracts and especially the power she has in being able to reject or accept boys' advances. Connie's appearance is also often deceptive, however. Connie looks and behaves differently when she is at home and when she is out with her friends: "Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head." Connie presents one version of herself at home so that she seems agreeably childlike and innocent to her mother, and another version when she is out with her friends and wants to appear alluring and confident. It is Connie's mature, seductive appearance when she's out—itself a sort of costume—that then attracts the strange, deeply deceptive Arnold Friend. When Friend first catches a glance of Connie, he can't stop staring, and says, "[I'm] Gonna get you, baby"—a creepy moment that foreshadows her abduction. Later, Friend admits, "I took a special interest in you, such a pretty girl, and found out all about you." He rattles off a list of things he knows about Connie, including her best friend's name and that her parents and sister, June, are gone. Arnold himself points out that his predatory interest in Connie comes from the fact that she's "such a pretty girl." Friend is the story's strongest example of shows how appearances shouldn't be trusted, and this deceptiveness takes an outright sinister turn when he shows up at Connie's house. At first, Friend seems like a normal teenage boy; he's dressed "the way all of them dressed," and his smile assures Connie "that everything [is] fine." However, it's soon clear that Friend's clothes, car, speech, and even his taste in music are all part of a carefully-crafted disguise. Furthermore, Friend claims to be eighteen, but she can tell that he's at least thirty years old—a realization that makes her heart "pound faster," as she realizes she's in genuine danger. Slowly, Friend's guise is dismantled. Studying him more closely, Connie also notices that other aspects of his appearance also seem fake. His hair looks like a wig, and even his "whole face was a mask." It seems that Arnold Friend has invested a great amount of time and effort into concealing his actual appearance, and that he doesn't want Connie to see his true self. Oates, has stated that Arnold Friend is based on Charles Schmid, a serial killer in Arizona who stuffed his boots and wore makeup. Schmid, like Friend, charmed and manipulated young women. This connection leaves the reader in no doubt as to Connie's fate, and highlights that appearances can be used to cover up malicious intentions. There are also suggestions that Friend's real identity is supernatural in nature, further emphasizing that appearances can be dangerous. Most startlingly, Friend knows everything about Connie, including where her family is and what they are wearing and doing at this very moment. When he reports these details, it seems like he is peering into some kind of vision As his disguise falls apart, it becomes increasingly clear that Arnold Friend means Connie harm, and that her good looks in this moment offer her nothing in the way of independence, power, or control. Oates thus spins a cautionary tale, emphasizing that although appearances can sometimes serve as a source of validation or power, they must not be relied upon—they can be deceiving, dangerous, and even fatal. - Theme: Agency, Control, and Manipulation. Description: The teenage Connie frequently bristles against her mother, who attempts to control her daughter's behavior and encourage her to be more like her responsible older sister, June. Yet where Connie seems somewhat at the mercy of her family at home, she holds an effortless kind of control over the boys she has sexual encounters with, and she takes pleasure in the simple sense of power this gives her. Oates introduces a subtler kind of control when Arnold Friend appears at Connie's house, one that is more psychological and manipulative. The majority of the story consists of Friend convincing Connie to step out of her house, and though Friend does not yet physically touch Connie, he wears her resistance down to such an extent that, while she is not technically forced to leave the house, nor can she be said to do so of her own free will. Judging from her relationship with her mother and her encounters with young men, it is clear that Connie is determined not to be controlled by anyone, and that she enjoys exercising power over others because it makes her feel independent and important. Specifically, she resents her mother's attempts to make her conform to a certain version of femininity: to be humble, responsible, and domesticated like her sister. Her mother asks Connie, "Why don't you keep your room clean like your sister? How've you got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don't see your sister using that junk." Connie's violent responses show how intensely she resents her mother's attempts to control her. Not only does Connie tell her friends, "She makes me want to throw up," but inwardly she wishes she and her mother were both dead: "Connie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over." Compared to her relationship with her mother, the easy control Connie exerts over boys is both unspoken and uncomplicated. Oates describes how one boy, Eddie, whom Connie meets at the plaza, buys her food so that he can spend time with her and have some sort of sexual encounter. Connie also reflects that, when she has these encounters, they occur on her own terms. In this way, Oates establishes Connie's understanding of control as based either in bullying and nagging, as when her mother repeatedly tells her how to behave, and also as a matter-of-fact process of exchange, as when she chooses whether or not to give boys what they want from her. Arnold Friend's method of controlling Connie is very different from how the reader has previously seen Connie interpret and exercise control, and a key element of Friend's gradual psychological control over Connie is his use of repetitive and highly manipulative language. When he first arrives at Connie's house, Friend behaves and speaks as though his presence makes perfect sense. For example, he apologizes for being late (as if she were expecting him), and claims, "This is your day set aside for a ride with me and you know it." His outlandish and nonsensical statements are delivered in a matter-of-fact way, as though he is being reasonable and it is Connie who isn't making any sense. By repeating his instructions for her to come out of the house over and over, and by telling her what he is going to do to her as though there is no other possible outcome, Friend gradually wears down Connie's sense of agency and her ability to make choices, all the while paradoxically telling her she will leave the house of her own free will. Friend seems to know that he can control Connie with his words: if she simply listens to him for long enough, the desired effect will take hold. Friend goes on to say, "I'll tell you how it is, I'm always nice at first, the first time. I'll hold you so tight you won't think you have to try to get away or pretend anything because you'll know you can't." Not only does he tell her these sexually explicit things as though there is no possible alternative, he suggests he will do away with her need to make choices. While the kind of control Friend wishes to hold over Connie becomes increasingly sinister, he presents Connie's seemingly inevitable actions as a positive thing. Friend's use of manipulative language makes her believe she not only has no other option than to go with him, but that she has chosen to go with him. As the story comes to a close, Friend successfully manipulates Connie: he has worn down her agency and free will so completely that she is unable to act in her own best interests. After her long and irrational exchange with Friend, Connie runs back into the house and picks up the phone, ignoring Friend's claim that he will leave her family unharmed unless she picks up the phone and tries to call the police. However, when she reaches the phone, she is paralyzed, and it seems that Friend has successfully gotten into her head. When Connie picks up the phone, "Something roared in her ear, a tiny roaring, and she was so sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen to it." Unable to dial a number or to speak, Connie simply screams against the sound of the dial tone. When Connie eventually leaves the house with Friend, she disassociates and watches herself in the third person: "She watched herself push the door slowly open […] watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited." In this way, Oates suggests that though Connie is obeying Friend's instructions, she is no longer fully present or in control of her actions. This is further insinuated by the suggestion that her identity is now irrelevant: "'My sweet little blue-eyed girl,' [Friend] said in a half-sung sigh that had nothing to do with her brown eyes." Although Connie used to be in control of all of her sexual encounters, her power is no match for Friend's. Through psychological control and manipulation, Friend successfully robs Connie of her agency, innocence, identity, and presumably, her life. - Theme: The Presence of Evil. Description: In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" fifteen-year-old girl Connie is confronted—and it's implied, raped and killed—by a sinister stranger named Arnold Friend. As the story unfolds, Friend manipulates and terrorizes Connie to such an extent that he becomes an embodiment of evil. In fact, the story goes so far as to suggest that Friend might be a personification of death, or even the devil himself—the very picture of violence, danger, and cruelty. This, combined with the story's biblical allusions and moments of religious imagery, allows Oates to explore the nature of good and evil in the context of everyday life. The story particularly wrings fear and tension from its assertion that evil and death exist—or can infiltrate—anywhere. Oates establishes the ordinariness of Connie's life to suggest that her eventual, terrifying confrontation with Friend could happen to anyone. The story begins with the simple declaration, "Her name was Connie," before diving into the details of Connie's family and home. These include her tensions with her mother and elder sister, June, as well as the comparative absenteeism of her father, who is more concerned with his work than the squabbles of teenaged girls. Oates also informs the reader that Connie likes hanging out with friends and meeting boys. None of these details are particularly strange, and instead paint a picture of Connie as a perfectly normal fifteen-year-old girl. The day that Friend comes to Connie's house, her family is away at a barbecue that Connie hadn't wanted to join. Though Connie is alone, a suburban home in the middle of the day is hardly the typical setting for a horror story—making Friend's sinister presence all the more chilling and suggesting that the safety implied by "home" is in reality nothing more than an illusion, knocked aside as easily as the screen door Friend threatens to open if Connie doesn't do as he says. Of course, at first, Friend also seems like an ordinary, if odd, man. Yet he quickly becomes distinctly incongruous with the quiet suburban world in which he abducts Connie. As his conversation with Connie unfolds, he comes across as manipulative, sadistic, and threatening—in short, as pure evil. Friend easily manipulates Connie, handily deducing her desires for romance and turning them against her. He makes her promises, but they are to break into her house if she disobeys him; he speaks in a sweet, lilting tone as he talks of graphic sexual violence and harming Connie's family; his name is "Friend," yet he is anything but that. Friend clearly takes pleasure in perverting the quiet, normal world and values that surround Connie—that is, in robbing her of any sense of comfort or security. That he appears in an almost parodical form of a man—he wears mask-like makeup and wobbles across Connie's porch in shoes stuffed to appear taller—makes this all the more disturbing, as if he is perverting not simply the world Connie holds dear, but humanity itself. Even though Connie and her family are distinctly not religious, religious symbolism appears throughout the story—further creating the sense that, however normal she may be, Connie's fate is tied to broader, near-mystical battles between good and evil. For example, Connie and her friends view listening to music as a kind of "church service." Meanwhile, none of Connie's family members "bothered with church"—a fact that contributes to Connie to being at home on the Sunday that Friend arrives. The numbers written on the side of Friend's car—33, 19, and 17—have distinct biblical undertones. Judges is the 33rd book of the Bible if counting backwards from Revelation, and verse 19:17 reads, "When he looked and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, 'Where are you going? Where did you come from?'" This clearly evokes the story's title, suggesting perhaps that Friend does not belong in this world at all. Connie also repeatedly says "Christ" when flustered by Friend's presence, creating a subtle invocation of good in contrast to the evil presented by Friend. Through all these details, Oates imbues her tale with a sense of grand, inescapable evil that belies its suburban setting. The insidiousness nature of such evil is further bolstered by the fact that Arnold Friend was based on a real-life serial killer Charles Schmid, a.k.a. "The Pied Piper of Tucson," who murdered three teenage girls and buried them in the desert in the early 1960s. Like Friend, Schmid wore makeup, stuffed his shoes to seem taller, and had striking (dyed) black hair; more sinisterly, he was described as particularly charismatic, and lured his victims through the use of his car, parties, and gifts. Schmid and Friend reveal how evil can exist anywhere, and that even the innocent are not safe from its reach. - Theme: Music and Romantic Fantasy. Description: Throughout the story popular culture—particularly music—is presented as a medium through which adolescents make sense of their inner emotional lives. As a fifteen-year-old girl who struggles to get along with her family and enjoys nothing more than spending time with her friends and flirting with boys at the plaza, Connie is highly attuned to music and the affect it has on her. Connie herself is described in musical terms: she wears "jingling" charms on her bracelets and her laugh is "highpitched." In many ways, music suggests an escape from Connie's humdrum suburban existence and a connection to an exciting world of romance and passion. Yet in fueling her sense of romantic fantasy, music also primes her to be taken advantage of by Arnold Friend. The world of adult sexuality is nothing like the gentle romance of movies and pop songs, and Friend twists Connie's love of both—which, in essence, reflects her desire for fulfillment, connection, and escape—against her by using it to seduce her out of the house. The story thus points to the inauthenticity of the culture with which teens like Connie surround themselves. At first, Oates directly links Connie's love of music to moments of passionate emotions or pleasure, which, in turn, are distinctly separate from the stifling world of her parents' home. While with friends, Connie's walk becomes "languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head." When she and her friends go to their usual restaurant, they listen "to the music that made everything so good: the music was always in the background, like music at a church service; it was something to depend upon." That Connie "depends upon" something suggested to be little more than empty fantasy adds to the story's tragedy. As she and Eddie, a boy she meets and flirts with, make their way to his car, Connie is overcome "with the pure pleasure of being alive," and reflects that "it might have been the music." Later, when she is home alone listening to music, she again feels an intense kind of pleasure, "bathed in a glow of slow-pulsed joy that seemed to rise mysteriously out of the music itself and lay languidly about the airless little room, breathed in and breathed out with each gentle rise and fall of her chest." Oates further suggests that, because music is tied to passion, its absence signals a return to calm and order—or, perhaps, a return to reality. For example, after Connie has spent time with Eddie and she and her friend are being driven home by her friend's father, Oates writes that Connie "couldn't hear the music at this distance." Given Connie's love of and constant exposure to popular music, it's no surprise that it has come to shape her expectations of romance and inform her encounters with young men. Music plays a role in even her most private and personal reflections; when Connie is reflecting on her previous sexual experiences, she refers directly to the way it is "in movies" and the promises made in songs, namely that it was "gentle and sweet." The appearance of Arnold Friend, however, reveals the artifice of the soundtrack to Connie's passions. Nearly every time Connie takes pleasure in music, Friend appears. In this way, Oates draws connection between the enticing escape presented by pop culture's depiction of romance and the danger of being seduced by such fantasy.  When Friend arrives, the radio in his car is playing the same station as the radio in Connie's house—the same station with which she'd only just been singing along. Given Friend's obvious attempts to adopt teen lingo and pass himself off as decades younger than he is, this is clearly his way of further signaling to Connie that they are one in the same; that Friend understands her longing for a more passionate world and can in fact give her what she desires—that is, what the songs she so loves have promised her. Friend even uses song lyrics to connect with Connie, playing on her idea of romantic love. When he speaks to her, Oates writes, "Connie somehow recognized […] the echo of a song from last year, about a girl rushing into her boyfriend's arms and coming home again…" Oates also explicitly suggests the musicality of Friend's voice, describing it in turns as "monotone", "lilting," and "chanting." Friend not only continually mimics the properties of music, he also draws on the promises it holds to take advantage of Connie. He tells Connie that her family "don't know one thing about you and never did and honey, you're better than them because not a one of them would have done this for you." By suggesting that he is the only one to see her for who she really is and that he appreciates her in a way that no one does, Friend uses the romantic ideals inherent in the lyrics of popular music to make Connie feel desired and special. Of course, none of this is true, and Friend is masking his horrific, violent intentions. In the climax of the story, when Connie does finally leave the house, Friend's recitation of a Bob Dylan lyric cements his utter insincerity: "My sweet little blue-eyed girl', he said in a half-sung sigh that had nothing to do with her brown eyes." Friend continues to spout romantic platitudes that clearly have nothing to do with Connie herself, further highlighting the artifice and fantasy of the world popular culture represents—at least for those who, like Connie, are young, naïve, and all too eager to escape the comparative mundanity of their reality. - Theme: Loss of Innocence. Description: Over the course of the story, fifteen-year-old Connie is eager to appear like a mature young woman, and she believes a key aspect of this is to engage in sexual experiences. As such, she uses her good looks to attract the attention of boys and feels her knowledge in this area makes her independent and powerful. Connie's desire to fast-forward her adolescence and become an adult, however, is fulfilled in a cruel and sinister way by the appearance of a strange adult man named Arnold Friend. Friend forces a heightened level of sexual awareness upon Connie—and then presumably rapes her, forcing her to give up her sexual innocence. Though the reader understands Connie has previously taken part in consensual sexual activity with boys her own age, it is suggested that she's still a virgin, and this lack of knowledge or experience enables Friend to use sex in a threatening way to frighten and provoke her. The tragic impact of the story is rooted in how unwanted and irrevocable this loss of innocence is; by raping and murdering Connie, Friend takes away both her innocence and her young life. Sexuality is introduced as a natural part of adolescence, as Oates makes clear that Connie enjoys spending time with boys and has thus far only had positive, consensual experiences. After her impromptu date with Eddie, for instance, they spend time together in his car "down an alley a mile or so away." Later, when she reflects on her time with Eddie and other boys, she describes that it is always "sweet" and "gentle." Many of Connie's thoughts revolve around boys, and she and her friends spend time at the plaza in the specific hope of meeting boys. Oates may paint Connie as a little boy-crazy, but she is ultimately a normal fifteen-year-old girl. Much of the media Connie consumes (including popular music) largely centers on sex and love as well, perhaps leading Connie to believe herself more mature than she actually is. Friend, however, represents a distinctively adult—and malicious—type of sexual encounter that Connie cannot yet understand or hope to control. After Connie's initial refusals to get into the car with Friend, he begins to tell her, "You're my date. I'm your lover, honey." Connie responds with shock and dismay, but nonetheless he repeats his claim and suggests that he intends to rape her: "Yes, I'm your lover. You don't know what that is but you will." Friend's use of distinctly graphic, sexual language both frightens and appalls Connie: "And I'll come inside you where it's all secret and you'll give in to me and you'll love me." In response, Connie tells him to "shut up" and covers her ears as "if she'd heard something terrible, something not meant for her." Her discomfort reflects the gravity of the situation, but it also emphasizes that—despite her experiences with boys—she is still largely innocent about sex. Though Connie intuits what Friend's intentions are and can grasp the full meaning of his words, she also wants to resist the knowledge he is trying to impart and, in this way, makes a flimsy attempt to preserve her innocence. Friend also uses sexual imagery and portrays sex with him as an inevitability over which Connie has no control. This goes against the grain of Connie's own sexual experiences, which have all been "gentle" and consensual. In this way, Oates makes clear that Friend uses sex and sexual knowledge to force Connie's adolescence to an unnatural conclusion and jolt her into a kind of cruel adulthood. Through the fact that Connie has only had positive experiences prior to meeting Friend but still resists Friend's advances, Oates seems to be suggesting that adolescence is a necessary period for young people to discover sexuality on their own terms, and that for a third party to force this discovery in any way can have dangerous and terrifying results. She also seems to suggest that sexual awareness, if delivered prematurely or violently, is extremely traumatizing. - Climax: Connie agrees to go with Arnold Friend and leaves her house in a trance-like state. - Summary: Connie is a fifteen-year-old girl who loves nothing more than spending time with her friends at the plaza and flirting with the boys she meets there. She is frustrated by her family and her life at home, where her mother scolds her for her vanity and continually compares her to her older sister, June. One summer night, she and a friend go to the drive-in restaurant at the plaza, and while Connie reflects on how the music playing in the background "made everything so good." After a while, Connie leaves the restaurant with a boy named Eddie. On their way to Eddie's car, Connie notices a boy with shaggy black hair staring at her from his gold car. He tells Connie "Gonna get you, baby," and draws an X in the air with his finger, but Connie ignores him. One Sunday, Connie's family goes to a barbecue at her aunt's house, and Connie stays at home. She sits out in the yard, dreaming of boys she has been with in the past. When she opens her eyes, she is disoriented and goes to listen to the radio in the house. She becomes completely absorbed in the music, and after some time hears a car coming up the drive. Though she stays inside the house, Connie can see there are two boys in the car, which is a gold jalopy convertible. The driver behaves as if there's nothing unusual about his being there and apologizes for being late. The boy in the passenger seat simply plays music on a transistor radio. Though Connie is reluctant to speak with the driver, once it becomes clear they have the same taste in music, she begins to engage more in conversation. The boy tells Connie his name is Arnold Friend and tries to convince her to come for a ride. Eventually, Connie remembers that he is the same boy she recently saw at the restaurant. Friend now begins telling Connie things about her own life, speaking in a lilting voice "as if he were reciting the words to a song." When Connie continues to refuse to come out of the house, Friend again tells her that he's her friend and that he put his "sign in the air" when she walked by. Connie studies his appearance and reflects that while she recognizes most things about him, including his smile and the way he dresses, "all these things did not come together." She now asks Friend how old he is, and though he tells her he's around her own age, she can tell he's at least thirty, maybe more. Friend turns his attention to Ellie, the boy in the passenger seat, and Connie realizes that he too is older than she initially thought. She suggests that the two of them should go away, and Friend becomes more forceful, telling her they won't leave until she goes with them. He also tells her he knows her family won't be coming home, and describes the scene unfolding at the barbecue with eerie detail. He tells Connie that he's her lover, and describes how he will have sex with her. Frightened, Connie threatens to call the police, but Friend is unperturbed and continues to tell her that she'll come out of the house and they'll drive away together, again threatening her family and declaring that he will have sex with her. Connie runs into the house and picks up the telephone, but can only hear a roaring sound and is unable to dial a number and call for help. She screams into the phone and, after a while when she can hear again, Friend begins telling her to put the phone back and to come outside. He again describes how he will have sex with her and threatens her family before repeating his instructions for her to come out of the house. Connie leaves the house, watching herself in the third person. She notices the landscape and understands that she will disappear into it.

- Genre: Realist Short Story - Title: Whirlpool - Point of view: Second Person - Setting: Australian suburbs - Character: Anna (The Narrator). Description: Anna is the 12-year-old narrator of the story. She lives in the Australian suburbs and spends almost all of the Christmas holidays swimming with her sister Louise in the above-ground pool that their Dad built in the family's backyard. Anna adores the pool—it's the only place where she feels happy, free, and powerful. This is in part because Anna's Mum is domineering and manipulative, so the house—which is Mum's domain—is unpleasant. But in the pool, Anna can form an alliance with Louise (with whom she has an otherwise contentious relationship) and invite the neighbor kids, Chris and Leanne, to play with her. The pool also fuels Anna's relationship with Dad, who's supportive of her love of swimming. Anna's favorite game to play in the pool is Whirlpool. The game allows her to feel powerful, but it also gives Anna the opportunity to feel safe in her powerlessness as she floats in the middle of the pool and allows the current to dictate her movements. This is the only time that Anna feels safe giving up any modicum of control, as in the house, Mum controls Anna's every word and move. This becomes especially apparent when Mum hires a photographer to take the perfect family Christmas photo. Her idea of perfect, though, doesn't seem to have room for Anna just as she is. Though Anna is just beginning puberty and is starting to physically mature, Mum insists that Anna wear an uncomfortable, unflattering dress designed for a child several years younger. Mum also makes Anna feel self-conscious about her body and her weight. Anna generally feels as though she can't stand up to Mum, but this begins to change at the very end of the story as she and Louise both refuse to smile for the photo. Anna hopes that when Mum's friends receive this photo in the mail, they will see that Anna is too old to be forced into such a childish role, and that Mum is cruel and manipulative. - Character: Mum. Description: Anna and Louise's Mum is the manipulative and domineering antagonist of the story. She's a gorgeous, perfectly coiffed woman, but her beautiful outward appearance masks her meanness. Mum is obsessed with making her family appear perfect to others. Much to her chagrin, though, none of her family members care about this—and they all fall short of her expectations in one way or another. Instead of staying inside and joining Mum in sipping iced coffee and watching tennis on television, for instance, Anna, Louise, and Dad spend as much time as possible outside in the pool. The pool—which is an above-ground, temporary one—also feeds into Mum's sense of inadequacy, as she believes a perfect family should have a proper in-ground one instead. It also seems that Mum hates the pool because it gives her husband and daughters someplace away from her, where they can enjoy agency. Mum's controlling behavior follows a very specific format: she draws a family member in with what seems like kindness and then says something horribly mean. Mum is also very frightened of the prospect of her daughters growing up. Thus, her attempts to control Anna and Louise often center on making them seem as childish as possible, such as when she makes them wear dresses made for much younger kids for the family photo. This is also why she refused to get Anna a training bra for Christmas—buying her a bra would mean acknowledging that Anna is growing up. Though Mum succeeds in getting her family members dressed up and seated for the Christmas photo, Anna implies that this is all Mum will get. Anna and Louise refuse to smile for the photo, which will make it clear that Mum's family isn't as happy and perfect as she'd like people to believe. - Character: Louise. Description: Louise is Anna's sister; it's unclear if she's older or younger than Anna, but she's implied to be around the same age. Most of the time, Anna and Louise ignore each other. The only time they break this habit is when they invite the neighbor kids, Leanne and Chris, to come swim in the pool so they can play Whirlpool. Louise's one defining characteristic is that she's thin—or at least thinner than Anna is, something that may help Louise stay in Mum's good graces more often, given that Mum often makes disparaging comments about Anna being overweight. Possibly because of Mum's attempts to manipulate her family members, Louise is cruel to Anna—she's the one to explicitly call Anna fat, for instance, and she seems to feel happy at times when Mum picks on Anna. But Louise also seems to resent Mum, just like Anna does. Like Anna, Louise tries to spend as much time as possible outside in the pool, and she also seems unimpressed when Mum attempts to get her to make fun of Dad. The story offers hope that Anna and Louise will be able to improve their relationship when the girls find themselves in silent agreement that they shouldn't smile for the family Christmas photograph. This, more than anything else, makes it clear that Louise is just as unhappy as Anna is—but perhaps because of her thinness, she may just suffer slightly less. - Character: Dad. Description: Anna and Louise's dad is a supportive figure in their lives, though Anna implies that his and Mum's marriage is an unhappy one. Dad spends his summer days tending to the pool in the backyard, keeping it clean and filled so Anna and Louise can play in it as much as possible. In this way, Dad resists Mum's attempts to control the family, though he consistently refuses to actually confront Mum about her bad behavior. Anna finds his silence particularly difficult to bear, though she recognizes that Dad suffers Mum's cruelty too. Mum regularly asks her daughters to join her in making fun of Dad and seems to see him as a disappointment and a failure. Despite Mum's ungenerous view of him, though, Dad is the only person in the story to show Anna genuine kindness: during the family photo, he tells her that he's filling up the pool for her so that she can swim again later. With this, he shows that he understands that the pool is Anna's one safe space and pledges to maintain it for her. In this way, Dad shows that he's supportive of his daughters, but only to a point. He still falls short in protecting them from Mum's cruelty, even as he offers them a place to escape it. - Theme: Family, Appearances, and Dysfunction. Description: "Whirlpool" follows 12-year-old Anna as she prepares for her family's Christmas photograph. Having the family professionally photographed was Anna's Mum's idea—Mum wants to include the photo in the Christmas cards that she sends to all of her international friends every year. To Mum, it's extremely important to show these friends that her family is perfect—this is why she forces her husband and daughters, Anna and Louise, to wear their best clothes and then meticulously poses her family members around her, instructing them on how to smile. In the photo, the girls look prim, proper, and obedient, and the whole family looks polished, harmonious, and tight knit. But this veneer of perfection is just that—a front that's masking the family's dysfunction. By juxtaposing the family's appearance in the Christmas photo (and the way Mum acts during the photo) with their day-to-day reality, Kennedy emphasizes that it's impossible to judge a family's functionality or happiness from the outside—a beautiful exterior can easily obscure dysfunction within. The photo that Mum crafts paints the picture of a close, loving family. Mum makes her daughters wear matching sundresses, while Dad—who's usually behind the camera and not in the shot—is in the frame in a neat shirt. Mum, for her part, is in a beautiful linen dress and arranges her family members around her. The resulting photograph portrays what might seem like a well-groomed and harmonious suburban family. Mum's behavior also adds to this image. While the photographer is there to take the photo, Mum acts kind, courteous, and upbeat as she speaks to her husband and daughters, and she makes sure to broadcast that the Christmas photos will be received by a number of international friends. With this, Mum suggests that her family is well connected, too. However, the story shows that Mum is anything but the perfect wife and mother. For one, Anna and Louise seem to live in fear of angering her. When Anna discovers that Mum wants her to wear a sundress for the photo, she's distraught by the prospect (the dress is too small and isn't flattering). But Anna doesn't feel as though she has any power to push back; indeed, she consistently describes Mum as someone who frightens her and will dole out undescribed but presumably harsh punishments for voicing dissenting opinions. And while Anna and Louise seem to bear the brunt of this treatment, Dad suffers too. Dad mostly avoids Mum by spending as much time as possible working on the backyard swimming pool, which Mum hates on the grounds that her children should have an in-ground pool, not a temporary above-ground one. He also brings home what Mum refers to as a "dud" Christmas tree every year—and though there's no indication he does this on purpose to upset Mum, it nevertheless feeds into Mum's sense that her family is failing to achieve perfection. In real life, Anna and Louise are also not the perfect little girls portrayed in the photo. Indeed, their interactions suggest that they're almost constantly at odds—while Anna is entering puberty, making it clear that she's no longer a child. The dresses themselves make it clear that Anna and Louise aren't little girls anymore. On Anna, the dress is both childish and too small: it's "tight under the arms" and "squeeze[s] across the tingling, embarrassing swell of [her] chest," showing clearly that her body isn't that of a prepubescent child anymore. Rather, her breasts are developing and she no longer fits into clothing designed for children. Louise's matching dress "doesn't look quite so ridiculous" because Louise is thin, but Anna nevertheless implies that the dress is just as inappropriate for her sister as it is for her. In this way, the dresses illustrate the disconnect between the perfect family Mum wants and the reality of what she has. Mum clearly wants to show off her adorable little girls in matching dresses to all her friends—and while Mum might be able to bully her daughters into wearing unflattering dresses that don't fit, Anna thinks it'll be clear to the photo's recipients that she and Louise are far too old to be dressed and posed in this way. Ultimately, Mum's attempts to craft the perfect Christmas photo—and the perfect family—fail. Even aside from the fact that Anna and Louise refuse to smile happily, Anna suggests that it will be obvious to recipients that she and Louise are being forced to dress and pose like young children, not the budding adults they are. With this, Kennedy shows that Mum's attempts are misguided in every way. Not only can Mum not bully her family into embodying her idea of perfection, she also can't stop the dysfunction from showing through. - Theme: Power, Control, and Freedom. Description: Anna and Louise's Mum is extremely controlling, as she will go to great lengths to manipulate or bully her family members into looking or acting a certain way. However, there's one thing that Mum can't control: the above-ground pool in the backyard, and her husband and daughters' love for it. The pool is the one place where Anna, Louise, and Dad can feel autonomous and joyful. By exploring this tension between Mum and her family members over the pool, the story shows how Mum attempts to create harmony by controlling her family—but in actuality, her attempts only make her family members rebellious and unhappy. Anna and her sister, Louise, live in fear of upsetting or contradicting Mum. Anna makes this clear when she recalls several times in the last few weeks when Mum forced the girls to agree with her disparaging assessments of Dad. It's telling that neither Anna nor Louise say outright that they disagree with Mum; this implies that the girls don't feel comfortable or safe speaking their mind. Instead, Anna shows readers that she does love and support her father by describing her compliant nods and smiles as "traitorous." Agreeing with Mum may be the safest way to navigate the situation, but it won't allow Anna to express herself or voice support for the one parent she does love and trust. Later, as Anna prepares for the Christmas photo, it's also clear that she's constantly fearful and anxious about upsetting Mum. Despite heeding Mum's demands—like wearing an uncomfortable dress and sitting cross-legged on the floor for the photo—Anna still worries that she'll set Mum off. With this, the story offers the possibility that there is no real way to please Mum. Even going along with what Mum wants is no guarantee of harmony or happiness. There is one place where Mum doesn't have total control: the pool in the backyard. Anna implies that Mum regularly tries to control how her family interacts with the pool. She notes that "Each morning of the school holidays, you feel a faint, smothered panic that the pool will sooner or later be the subject of attack." But even though Mum regularly "attack[s]" the pool, she nevertheless fails to keep her husband or daughters from it. Thus, the pool becomes the one place where Anna, Louise, and Dad can enjoy a sense of agency. For instance, though Mum gripes about and seems ready to outright forbid the neighbor kids, Chris and Leanne, from knocking on the door to swim in the pool, Anna and Louise can—and regularly do—invite them to climb over the fence instead. Out in the pool, Anna and Louise can experiment with social groups of their own choosing and make choices about who they spend their time with. Dad also finds autonomy as he maintains the pool. Though Anna gives few clues about her parents' relationship with each other aside from the implication that it's not happy, Dad appears far happier and more relaxed when he's either outside working on the pool or talking about the pool with his daughters. This suggests that he, too, suffers from Mum's controlling nature. Dad's constant maintenance also happens to undermine Mum's power. He seems well aware that the pool is the one place where his daughters are happy and free—and it's certainly no accident that he throws himself into keeping the pool clean and useable for them. In this way, even though he doesn't stand up to Mum in more overt ways, Dad shows his daughters he cares about them and wants them to be as happy and free from Mum's abuse as possible, given the circumstances. For Anna, Louise, and Dad, the choice is obvious: spend as much time as possible in the pool so they can feel powerful and autonomous in at least one part of their lives. And while "Whirlpool" offers no solutions to this power struggle, the story does suggest that as long as Mum continues to try to control her family members, they will continue to find ways to subvert her—and the family as a whole will never achieve the happiness and harmony that Mum so desperately desires. - Theme: Cruelty, Self-Esteem, and Adolescence. Description: Though Mum attempts to control almost every aspect of her husband and daughters' lives, she's particularly interested in controlling her daughters' bodies. At 12 years old, Anna is on the brink of puberty; Kennedy never reveals Louise's age, but she seems close in age to Anna. Despite the fact that her daughters are approaching their teen years, Mum does everything in her power to keep them looking and feeling as young and powerless as possible. Kennedy underscores Mum's cruelty in attempting to control her daughters' bodies—and through this, she shows how Mum denies Anna and Louise the self-esteem or confidence that would make growing up easier. The fact that Anna and Louise are growing up seems to terrify Mum. When Anna recalls asking Mum for a training bra for Christmas, she initially only fixates on the fact that Mum refused on the grounds that 12-year-old Anna is "nowhere near old enough for that." Anna's first description of this event shows clearly that Mum doesn't want to accept that her daughter is growing up. After all, Anna describes the "tingling, embarrassing swell of [her] chest," suggesting that she's physically and emotionally ready for a bra no matter her age. But when Anna revisits this memory later, she realizes that Mum is actually fearful of Anna growing up. It dawns on her that "what [she'd] seen in [Mum's] face when [she'd] asked for the training bra was a tremor of terror, not scorn." In other words, it's terrifying for Mum to confront that her daughters are growing up and entering puberty. And any proof of her daughters' maturity, like Anna's developing breasts, causes Mum's fear to bubble up—so she attempts to mask that fear with scorn. It's telling, though, that Anna initially interpreted Mum's reaction as a scornful one. This suggests that Mum deals with her fear by being cruel to her daughters. The story is peppered with accounts of Mum's meanness, as when Mum regularly asks her daughters to laugh or agree with her when she speaks poorly of Dad. Anna also notes that throughout the summer, once Dad sets up the pool, she spends her days fearful that Mum is going to take issue with the pool—a clear indicator that Anna feels as though Mum constantly victimizes her. Mum's cruelty intensifies when she speaks cruelly about Anna's body. When Anna asked for a training bra, Mum didn't just refuse—she told Anna that "it's normal for young girls to feel self-conscious about their weight." With this, Mum essentially told Anna that she is overweight and should feel self-conscious about that. But it's telling that it's only at the end of the story, when Anna and Louise refuse to smile for the Christmas photo, that Anna realizes why Mum is so cruel. That Anna makes this leap in understanding shows that despite Mum's cruelty and fear of her daughters' maturity, Anna is well on her way to growing up. She's developing a more critical and thoughtful way of seeing her parents and is no longer a child who accepts Mum's behavior at face value. Mum deals with her fears about her daughters' maturity by making them feel as childish as possible. This shows up most clearly in Mum's refusal to get Anna a bra for Christmas—and then in her insistence that her daughters wear childish sundresses for the Christmas photo. Refusing to buy Anna a bra denies her a garment that would mark her as an adult, while forcing both Anna and Louise into dresses designed for children undermines the girls' budding maturity. And to make things worse, the dress fits Anna poorly and is unflattering, which continues to destroy her self-esteem. It also forces Anna to think about her size—and makes Anna an easy target for Louise's bullying when she says disparagingly that Anna has to wear a dress like a tent because she's fat. In this way, the story shows how Mum makes her daughters accomplices in this project of keeping them young and powerless. Mum doesn't have to say anything about the dress to hurt Anna's feelings when Louise has already done so. "Whirlpool" ultimately suggests that Mum won't be successful in keeping her daughters children forever. The simple fact that Anna is entering puberty makes it impossible to ignore that she's growing up and will one day have the opportunity to escape Mum, simply by virtue of becoming an adult. But even more than this, Kennedy suggests that despite their youth, the girls are already well on their way to escaping Mum's control. Indeed, it's significant that the girls refuse to smile genuine smiles for the Christmas photo—in this instance, they refuse to play along with Mum's games and instead assert their agency over their bodies. Decisions like this one suggest that the girls will take control of their bodies as they grow up and gradually subvert Mum's attempts at control. - Climax: Anna and Louise refuse to smile genuine smiles for the family Christmas photo. - Summary: Louise stands at the edge of her family's aboveground pool, telling the narrator—her sister, Anna—that Mum wants her to get ready for the family's Christmas photo. Dad has taken lots of photos of the family, but when Mum looked through these photos, she decided that they were all awful, so she hired a professional photographer to come. The family lives in an Australian suburb, and every year they know that summer has begun when Dad mows the lawn and sets up the pool. A few weeks later, he picks up a Christmas tree, although Mum wasn't impressed by his choice this year. Mum spends her summers watching tennis and drinking iced coffee. She bemoans that Dad is "obsessed" with the pool and wishes it were in-ground. When Anna agrees, she feels like a traitor. Every morning, to avoid provoking Mum, Anna and Louise try to sneak outside without her noticing. Even though Mum complains about the kids next door always coming over unannounced, Chris and Leanne don't come to the front door these days—instead, they stand by the fence and wait until Anna and Louise invite them to swim. The four of them love to play Whirlpool. This consists of running around the pool's perimeter to create a current and then throwing oneself in the middle to enjoy the spinning sensation. Chris doesn't like to be in the middle, but the girls force him in anyway. When Anna heads inside to prepare for the photo, she finds what Mum laid out for her to wear: a sundress that doesn't fit anymore. Louise is wearing a sundress too, but she's thin enough that it looks okay. The sundress strains over Anna's developing breasts. Not long ago, she asked Mum for a training bra, but Mum replied that Anna is too young and that it's normal to be self-conscious about her weight. Louise notices Anna pulling at her dress and she calls Anna fat. Downstairs, Mum arranges roses on the mantel with the Christmas cards from Canada and England—cards from friends that Mum and Dad met on their Tahitian honeymoon 14 years ago. Anna can tell that Louise is Mum's favorite child today, and when Mum arranges the family around her, she makes Anna sit on the floor. Dad nudges Anna and quietly says that he put the hose in the pool, but Mum stiffly asks that they not talk about the pool. When the photographer tells everyone to smile, Anna quickly glances at Louise and is shocked that Louise meets her eyes. Something passes between them and they both smile "robot smiles," hoping that when Mum's friends see the picture, they'll realize that Mum is manipulative. But in an instant, Anna realizes that Mum is mean and controlling for a reason: she is afraid, especially of her daughters growing up. Once they're done, the photographer offers to take some pictures of just Mum and Dad, which seems to catch Mum off guard. Anna can see Mum plotting her next move as she adapts to this new development. Holding back tears, Anna races to change into her swimsuit and heads for the pool.

- Genre: Adventure novel - Title: White Fang - Point of view: Anonymous narrator, third-person omniscient, predominantly from the perspective of White Fang. - Setting: The late 1890s in the Canadian Klondike and then Weedon Scott's estate in Sierra Vista, California. - Character: White Fang. Description: One-quarter dog and three parts wolf, White Fang is a strong and resilient canine who is bred in the wild, raised by Indians, and becomes a ferocious fighting dog under the care of the cruel Beauty Smith. Under the care of Weedon Scott, White Fang learns the laws of man and transforms into a loyal and loving dog. - Character: Gray Beaver. Description: White Fang's first owner. A wise Indian, experienced in the ways of animals and nature, he takes White Fang and White Fang's mother, Kiche, into his care. He teaches White Fang how to behave in the camp and run a sled. Though he shows no affection towards White Fang, they share a mutual respect for one another. - Character: Kiche, the she-wolf. Description: White Fang's mother. Half wolf, half dog, Kiche is also the red she-wolf, who lures members of Bill and Henry's sled dog team into the forest. Raised by Indians, Kiche escapes to the wild, where she mates with One Eye and gives birth to White Fang. A fierce fighter and hunter, she teaches White Fang how to survive in the Northland. - Theme: The Struggle for Survival. Description: White Fang's Wild Northland is a harsh and merciless place, where every living being struggles to survive. London illustrates this struggle by showing Bill and Henry's sled dog team mushing across the still and frozen Klondike. Against this cold and desolate expanse, they are the only signs of life. Even so, their sled tows a coffin, an ominous reminder that death could strike at any moment in this perilous place. The image shows the reader that life in the wild maintains a vulnerable existence. The reoccurrence of devastating famines throughout the novel further highlights the uncertainty of life, as well as its fragility. Since the line between life and death is very thin, White Fang, from an early age, learns that nature's law is simple—"eat, or be eaten." Like his ancestors, he knows this through hunting. He must kill his prey, or risk being eaten, himself, by a bigger, more calculating predator. Because life exists in such a precarious state, man and beast alike must actively struggle to survive. Gray Beaver and his Indian clan must migrate when food runs short in one area and becomes abundant in another. Similarly, both Kiche and White Fang return to the wild when famine hits the Indian camp. Yet, the struggle for life is most powerfully felt in the battles between rivals. Kiche fights the Lynx to the death in order to save herself and White Fang from its murderous rage, while White Fang struggles to hang on to life against the bulldog's lethal grip. Though death is an ever-present threat, the yearning for life is inborn and strong. White Fang's existence is marked by an intense will to live. As a pup, he longs for the sunshine's life-giving rays. When attacked by the bulldog, White Fang fights for as long as he can. Finally, after his near fatal fight with Jim Hall, White Fang's miraculous recovery shows that his tenacious will to live overcomes all obstacles to life, making him a true survivor. London values this will to live, and glorifies it throughout the novel. - Theme: Domestic Yearnings v. Natural Instinct. Description: Throughout the novel, White Fang struggles to reconcile his feral instincts with the expectations of the domestic world, highlighting the conflict between nature and society. Part wolf and raised in the wild, White Fang's natural instincts to fight and hunt are at odds with man's ways. For instance, White Fang bristles at being petted, or tied down with a leather thong by his human masters. Through these measures, humans expect and demand obedience and respect from their dog, but White Fang, being a wild animal, perceives such behaviors and devices as threats to his survival. White Fang often misreads human behavior, as well. When he sees Scott embrace his mother, White Fang interprets the hug as a "hostile act," and nearly attacks the woman. White Fang similarly misunderstands human laws of hunting. When he lays out all the chickens he has killed before Scott's front door, he thinks that he is honoring his master with food, but really he has committed a grave crime by hunting a domesticated animal. Even though White Fang's nature conflicts with society's rules, there is a certain aspect of White Fang's character that inclines him towards deeply respecting mankind. White Fang not only considers humans to be gods, he is capable of expressing loyalty, faithfulness, and obedience towards man, especially Scott. It is these traits, which make White Fang long for the "security" and "companionship" of man. When White Fang escapes from Gray Beaver, he is overcome by an intense loneliness, compelling him to return to the Indian camp and give himself over to man's care. White Fang's internal struggle between his wild nature and his yearnings for companionship highlights the conflict between nature and civilization, but also shows that they are not mutually exclusive worlds. White Fang's movement from one realm into the other demonstrates the permeability of these borders, while his transformation into a domesticated animal with wolfish instincts shows him to be a hybrid animal of both environments. Through White Fang's transformation, London shows the natural and human worlds to be opposed, but also linked. - Theme: Nature v. Nurture. Description: In White Fang, London prods a question at the core of "environmental determinism"—does nature determine our course, or does our environment play a greater role? Is nature, or nurture more decisive? London appears to come down on the side of nurture by suggesting that White Fang's character is a kind of "clay," shaped and molded by the circumstances he encounters and the people he meets. As White Fang's environment shifts his demeanor changes. In the Northland, White Fang must follow his instincts to hunt, fight, and kill in order to defend himself against threats and survive in the wild. But in the safe and sunny Southland, his ferociousness is allowed to dissipate, as his life becomes less dedicated to work and fighting and more dedicated to the guardianship of Scott and his family. White Fang's character also undergoes dramatic shifts under the care of his various masters. Beauty Smith accentuates White Fang's naturally fierce nature by turning him into a hateful and vicious fighting dog. Yet Scott, through love and respect, converts White Fang into a loyal and loving guardian. With every change, White Fang transforms. Therefore, London suggests that the way one is nurtured indelibly shapes his/ her nature. - Theme: Mastery. Description: Though White Fang is born a free and wild wolf, he gives up his independence for the security and companionship that man's mastery over animals and matter provides. For White Fang, however, his subservience to man is a normal configuration of the natural code he lives by: "obey the strong, oppress the weak." He participates in this social order by giving himself over to the care of strong human lords, like Gray Beaver, whom he regards as powerful and superior gods, and persecuting the animals that are weaker than him, like the puppies at the Indian camp. In this way, London suggests that the tendency towards mastery is a condition common to nature and civilization. Over the course of his life, White Fang has three masters: Gray Beaver, Beauty Smith, and Weedon Scott. Though White Fang obeys most humans out of awe, each human owner commands his authority over White Fang in a different manner. Gray Beaver masters White Fang through the disciplinary power of the club, but also by providing him with food, shelter, companionship, and work. A feeling of mutual respect characterizes their relationship. Beauty Smith controls White Fang through violence. He clubs White Fang into submission and pits him against other fighting dogs, causing his most ferocious and bitter characteristics to come out. Their relationship is marked by antagonism and bitterness. Weedon Scott casts violence aside, gaining White Fang's trust and confidence through care and respect. Their companionship is one of loyalty and love. By portraying three different forms of mastery, London shows that the mastery of man over canine is characterized by violence and obedience, but also tempered by love and faithfulness. - Theme: Domestication. Description: From bitter and hateful beast to man's best friend, White Fang undergoes a process of domestication. He is born a wild wolf, becomes a morose and aloof pariah in the Indian camp, is trained as a vicious fighting dog under Beauty Smith, and finally transforms into a loving and loyal companion dog to Weedon Scott. Yet, White Fang becomes domesticated because he's trained, rather than tamed. Gray Beaver and Beauty tame White Fang to obey them with their clubs, but he still maintains his naturally fierce demeanor. Under the "tutelage" of Scott, however, White Fang's character actually changes and adapts to society's ways. From Scott's stern warnings with his voice and the cuff of his hand, White Fang learns not to attack other humans, and to never hunt farm animals. At the same time, Scott's patience and confidence in White Fang also teaches him to be a dutiful canine that embraces his owner's laughter and barks at the sign of trouble. Above all, White Fang's unswerving devotion to his master marks him as a domesticated creature. That White Fang nearly sacrifices his life to defend Judge Scott against the maniacal Jim Hall demonstrates this transition. In this instance, White Fang exercises his natural instincts not to hunt or fend for himself, but in order to defend and service his human owners. Because White Fang selflessly fights for his human family, he shows himself to be a loyal and devoted canine. Fathering a litter of pups with Collie, a domesticated animal, also confirms his place in the domestic sphere. Although Scott trains White Fang well, his natural instincts are still present. London gives White Fang various names, a "tame wolf," a "Blessed wolf," and "the sleeping wolf," all of which suggest that White Fang's inner beast, though trained, lies dormant. In this way, London reminds us that within every domesticated dog there lies a trace of the wild. - Theme: Mating and Parenthood. Description: Parenthood begins and ends White Fang. The she-wolf, Kiche, and One Eye mate to become the parents of White Fang, while White Fang becomes a father in his own right when he has a litter of pups with Collie. Pups signal birth and new life, but mating and parenthood in White Fang are also closely associated with ferocity and violence. One Eye kills his rivals to mate with Kiche, while Kiche, out of an inborn distrust of the father of her pups, snarls at One Eye to protect her pups. She later attacks White Fang to defend her new litter. Meanwhile, One Eye must hunt and kill game to feed his family, but meets a violent end at the paws of the lynx, who feeds on him in order to defend her own kittens. Kiche makes a similarly violent sacrifice for the sake of her pups. She kills the lynx's kittens to feed White Fang. This act comes with a violent consequence. The lynx attacks White Fang and his mother. They, in turn, kill the mother lynx, highlighting that the price of new life can come at a violent cost to the parent and child, alike. But such violent parenthood is justified in London's Northland, because it is used to defend the next generation's survival. Parenthood in the domesticated world of California is different. Collie snarls at White Fang after she gives birth to pups just as Kiche does after White Fang is born, but White Fang proves such fears of his wildness unwarranted when he plays with and nuzzles with his pups. Parenthood in California centers around love rather than survival. In having pups, White Fang cements his lineage in the domesticated world. In treating his pups with love, he ensures that his own pups won't experience the kind of cruelty and alienation from other dogs that made him wild. White Fang's loving actions begin the process of passing down the tradition of domesticity to his pups. - Climax: White Fang's attack on Jim Hall. - Summary: Against a desolate and frigid wilderness, a pack of sled dogs toil on an icy trail, towing a sled that carries a coffin containing the remains of an aristocratic adventurer, struck down by the Wild. As darkness falls, the sled's mushers, Bill and Henry, grow anxious. They are running low on ammunition and a hungry pack of wolves is following them closely. Bill also suspects that a wolf is stealing food from their camp. Every morning Bill and Henry discover another one of their dogs missing, presumably eaten by the wolf pack. One night, a mysterious she-wolf reveals her self in the firelight. Bill and Henry conclude that she has been roaming on the fringes of the camp and luring their dogs into the wild. The two mushers and their three remaining dogs continue on the trail, but are attacked by the wolf pack. Bill attempts to shoot down the wolves to save his dogs, but misses and is devoured by the pack. With two hounds left, Henry struggles to fend off the wolves' advances. He builds a fire around himself, but the wolves circle dangerously close. They nearly eat him, but a group of travelers saves Henry before he's consumed. Meanwhile, the wild wolf pack, starved from famine, splits into smaller groups to scavenge for food. The she-wolf and a gray wolf, One Eye, pair up, becoming mates. They settle in a secluded cave, where the she-wolf gives birth to a litter of pups. All the pups die, save one—White Fang, who grows strong and fierce, learning to hunt and fight on his own and alongside his mother. Together, they take down a ferocious Lynx. One day, White Fang and the she-wolf come to an Indian camp, where the she-wolf's former master, Gray Beaver, captures them. (Gray Beaver raised the she-wolf, who is actually named Kiche, before she ran away to the wild.) Gray Beaver eventually sells Kiche, but keeps White Fang. The pups of the camp, led by Lip-lip, terrorize White Fang, making him a bitter outcast. White Fang escapes from Gray Beaver once, returning to the wild. But he's overcome by so much loneliness that he returns to his master, who teaches him to work in the sled and encourages his ferocious behavior. White Fang's nature becomes so brutal that he kills Lip-lip when they encounter each other alone in the forest. Gray Beaver takes White Fang to Fort Yukon, where he trades animal skins and takes to drinking. One night, drunk, he sells White Fang to Beauty Smith, a monstrous man who transforms White Fang into a vicious and victorious fighting dog. In the ring, White Fang encounters a bulldog, which nearly kills him with a severe bite to the throat. A man named Weedon Scott saves White Fang, taking the canine into his care. Scott gradually befriends White Fang, who sheds his mistrust of man and becomes devoted to his new master. When Scott is about to leave the Yukon for good, White Fang breaks out of the cabin where he's being held and rushes to Scott's side at the docks. The gesture convinces Scott to take White Fang to his family home in Sierra Vista, California. In the Southland, Scott's family and his sheepdog, Collie, distrust White Fang's wild ways. But White Fang grows into a tamer animal by learning the laws of man and society. He learns not to hunt chickens and not to bristle at human touch, or laughter. White Fang proves himself to be a loving and devoted dog when he uses his bark to alert the Scott family that Weedon has been in a horse riding accident. White proves his loyalty again when he attacks and kills Jim Hall, a convict, who breaks into Scott's home to seek revenge on Scott's father, Judge Scott. Though badly injured, White Fang miraculously survives, gaining enough strength to see the litter of pups that Collie has borne him. Surrounded by his pups and his human family, White Fang becomes a beloved and "Blessed Wolf."

- Genre: Postmodernism, realism - Title: White Noise - Point of view: First-person from Jack Gladney's point of view. - Setting: American suburbia - Character: Jack Gladney. Description: Jack is the protagonist and narrator of White Noise. A middle-aged professor at the College-on-the-Hill and a multi-divorcé, he is intelligent and unimposing, a curious man willing to engage in thoughtful conversation. He is a notable figure in Hitler Studies, an academic field he founded in the '60s when he suggested that the college build an entire department around the life and history of Hitler. Despite his thorough knowledge of Nazi Germany, though, he does not speak German, a shameful secret he hopes his colleagues will never discover. In fact, Jack's entire campus persona is markedly different than the easygoing air he adopts at home, where he lives with his wife Babette and four children, two of whom (Heinrich and Steffie) are his own. On campus Jack is powerful and authoritative, making sure to wear thick, dark glasses and affecting a professorial austerity. Despite his even-keeled temperament and powerful presence, though, he harbors strong existential anxieties, the most prominent of which is an acute fear of death. This fear is only exacerbated by his exposure to a potentially toxic chemical and the battery of medical testing he must undergo in the aftermath, as well as his discovery that his wife Babette is also irrationally afraid of dying, a topic they jointly obsess over during long late-night conversations in their bedroom. - Character: Babette. Description: Jack's fourth and current wife. Like Jack, Babette has been married multiple times and has retained custody of two children, Denise and Wilder. She is intelligent while projecting a pragmatic and wholesome sensibility. In addition to attending to the young Wilder, of whom she is protective, she reads to the blind (in particular, an old man named Mr. Treadwell) and teaches a twice-weekly class about correct posture to adults in the basement of a church. Beneath her confident, good-natured personality, though, she is desperately afraid of dying. This fear leads her to participate in an experimental trial of Dylar, a medication that supposedly eliminates one's fear of death, and to engage in an affair to keep on getting Dylar from Willie Mink, the head researcher of the drug. Contrary to the seemingly honest nature of their marriage, Babette conceals all this from Jack until he finally finds a bottle of the pills and confronts her. - Character: Murray Jay Siskin. Description: Jack's colleague at the College-on-the-Hill. An ex-sportswriter, Murray works in the American Environments (or popular culture) department and hopes to corner the market on Elvis Studies, just like Jack has done with Hitler Studies. Murray is extremely intellectual and pedantic, liable at any moment to excitedly launch into convoluted diatribes about the messages embedded in consumer culture, a phenomenon he refers to as "psychic data." Hailing from New York City, which he fled in order to "'be free of cities and sexual entanglements,'" he is charmed by the quaint city of Blacksmith and very obviously attracted to Babette, a fact that doesn't seem to bother Jack. - Character: Heinrich. Description: Jack's fourteen-year-old son, and the oldest of the children living with the family. Heinrich is an eclectic know-it-all determined to confound his father by intelligently employing obscure knowledge that distorts simple logic. Armed with esoteric facts, rhetorical finesse, and strange fascinations, he is constantly ready and willing to refute common knowledge. His friends are severe: one, Tommy Roy Foster, is a prisoner convicted of murder with whom Heinrich plays chess by mail; another, Orest Mercator, is an older boy training to beat the Guinness World Record for the length of time spent in a cage with poisonous snakes. As evidenced by these friends with warped interests and pasts, Heinrich is drawn to calamity and is brought to life by disastrous events, ultimately coming into his own while lecturing a group of panicked evacuees about the airborne toxic event. - Character: Willie Mink (Mr. Gray). Description: The head researcher in the development of Dylar, a medication that eliminates the fear of death. He tests Babette and deems her suitable for trial treatment, but because of the dangerous side-effects of Dylar, he is soon abandoned by his research team. Nonetheless, he carries on in secret, striking an arrangement with Babette that, if she periodically visits him to have sex in his motel in Iron City, he will go on giving her Dylar. To protect Willie from harm, Babette shields his identity by calling him Mr. Gray when telling Jack about Dylar. This precaution ultimately fails, and Jack tracks Willie down in his motel in Iron City. There, Willie has become nearly incoherent and incapable of differentiating his own speech from the slogans and phrases he randomly spews during conversation, all the while taking massive amounts of Dylar. Jack shoots Willie twice in the stomach, and Willie shoots Jack in the wrist, which makes Jack come to his senses and take Willie to the hospital, saving his life after having decided—and attempted—to kill him. - Character: Denise. Description: Babette's smart and exacting eleven-year-old daughter, whose father is Bob Pardee. Denise is obsessed with monitoring her mother's health, playing close attention to what Babette eats and never hesitating to inform her of a product's health risks. It is because of her careful scrutiny that Jack finds out about Babette's Dylar use, as she tells him that her mother has been secretly taking pills. - Character: Wilder. Description: Babette's son, and the youngest of the children living with her and Jack. Wilder, who behaves like a good-natured toddler, can't speak more than twenty-five words, a fact that both worries and pleases Jack. Both he and Babette delight in spending time with the effectively nonverbal child, finding his innocence and curiosity infectious and soothing. Murray is particularly interested in Wilder's impressionable age and the fact that the boy is growing up awash in consumerism. - Character: Winnie Richards. Description: A colleague of Jack's at the College-on-the-hill. Winnie is a relatively young neuro-chemist whom everybody on campus regards as brilliant, an assessment that makes her sheepish and reclusive. When Jack finds Babette's stash of Dylar, he tracks down Winnie, who is hard to find because of her wish to slink around unnoticed. When Winnie first analyzes the pill, her tests are inconclusive regarding Dylar's purpose, but she later finds and shares a scholarly article with Jack that outlines not only the drug's intended use, but also the controversial story of Willie Mink and his anonymous test subject, whom Jack knows to be Babette. - Character: SIMUVAC Technician. Description: A man working for an organization that stages simulated evacuation drills. Jack talks to this technician during the Airborne Toxic Event, telling him the details of his exposure to Nyodene D. The technician also explains to Jack that SIMUVAC is using the real-life catastrophe of the Airborne Toxic Event as practice for future simulations, arguing that the reality of the situation poses certain frustrating variables that prevent them from rehearsing a flawless simulation. This technician also says that Jack's exposure to Nyodene D. is cause for concern but that they won't know more for another fifteen years—that is, if Jack is still alive at that time. This vague diagnosis unsettles Jack, who is put ill-at-ease by this blend of bad news and uncertainty. - Character: Vernon Dickey. Description: Babette's father, who visits unannounced in the middle of the night and stays for several days. Vernon is a gruff man who appreciates manual labor and is highly intelligent in a more pragmatic, working class manner than the sorts of people Jack and Babette normally entertain. A man who likes to stay up late and wake up early, he insists on giving Jack a gun during a late-night conversation. - Character: Howard Dunlop. Description: Jack's German teacher. Dunlop lives in the same boarding house as Murray, but is reclusive and private. At times, he has also taught Greek, Latin, ocean sailing, and meteorology. Once Murray describes Dunlop as someone who might be sexually attracted to corpses, Jack is creeped out—less by the moral insinuations than by the notion that someone might find death alluring instead of terrifying—and he discontinues his German lessons. - Character: Sister Hermann Marie. Description: The German nun who treats Jack's bullet wound in the Pentecostal hospital in Iron City. In the course of tending to his wrist, she reveals to Jack that she doesn't actually believe in God, arguing that it is enough for others to think that she believes so that they don't have to do so themselves. - Character: Old Man Treadwell. Description: A blind man Babette reads to on a weekly basis. The old man has a taste for tabloid magazines like the National Enquirer and the National Examiner, which tout conspiracy theories and rumors. He and his sister go missing for several days, and they're found stuck in a shopping mall, completely overwhelmed by the saturation of consumerism that they don't understand. - Character: Bob Pardee. Description: Denise's biological father. A glad-hander and natural schmoozer, he is often down on his luck and unreliably searching for new opportunities. When he arrives at Jack and Babette's house, it is clear that he is in yet another transition period, something Denise is able to discern almost right away with an exasperated, jaded air. - Character: Bee. Description: One of Jack's daughters. Bee, who comes from Jack's marriage to Tweedy Browner, does not live with Jack and Babette. Because of Tweedy's insistence that it is good for children to travel, Bee travels from Indonesia—where she was staying with her stepfather, the undercover spy Malcom Hunt—to visit Jack for Christmas. Bee's adult mannerisms unnerve Jack and make him feel observed and judged. - Theme: Fear, Death, and Control. Description: White Noise, a book about the influence of fear on human life, focuses on small everyday worries, as well as deep, existential crises. The novel's most prominent manifestation of fear is the characters' hopeless quest to control their own mortality: frightfully obsessing over their health, jogging up and down stadium steps, reading food labels with a dire sense of dread, and carefully considering the physical effects of chemicals with which they may have come into contact. In this way, life seems fragile. The inevitability of death looms large, treated as "some inert element in the air," a pervasive entity that the characters "breathe." Despite Jack and Babette's understanding that death is inescapable, they remain unable to accept it. This accounts for their interest in Dylar, a drug that lessens a person's terror of death. Though Dylar does not delay death, it makes them feel proactive and, thus, ever so slightly less helpless in the face of death. Jack's desperation makes clear his need for control over his life and death, indicating that the root of his fear has less to do with death itself and more to do with his inability to control or affect its arrival. That death is everywhere only increases his feelings of helplessness in the face of a powerful, un-addressable phenomenon. He becomes, in essence, afraid of fear itself—the only thing he might be able to change. Jack and Babette also reveal their fear of death and their desire to control their health by incessantly lying to doctors. Worried sick after his exposure to Nyodene D., Jack schedules multiple check-ups with his physician. But when Dr. Chakravarty asks if he has any reason to believe he's been exposed to harmful chemicals, Jack lies. He does this because he's terrified of how Chakravarty might respond if he tells the truth. Though he knows that lying to Chakravarty won't keep him alive, he seems to think that keeping Chakravarty from giving him bad news will suppress his own fear. Though Jack initially seems aware that conquering his fear of death will not change his fate, by the end of the book he begins to convince himself that by getting rid of fear, he might avoid death, too. "It's almost as though our fear is what brings it on," he tells Murray. "If we could learn not to be afraid, we could live forever." This exaltation of a clearly untrue theory shows that Jack's intellectual approach to death easily leads him to false conclusions. Thus, DeLillo uses Jack's reaction to death as a way of revealing the human tendency to use analysis as a way of over-compensating for fear. The characters in White Noise commit themselves so wholeheartedly to flawed logic that they appear willing to abandon fact—that is, as long as their theories are rhetorically (not factually) sound. By formulating such strongly intellectual arguments, they therefore feel more in control of their circumstances. - Theme: Uncertainty and Authority. Description: White Noise is awash in uncertainty. Even the name evokes a nonspecific quality, white noise being an indistinct, indescribable stream of sound. Jack's deepest fear is of his own death, and this fear is shown to center on the uncertainty of death—not knowing what death will be like and when it will come. In fact, Jack is so uncomfortable with uncertainty that, when his son Heinrich wants to get a rise out of him, all he needs to do is draw his father into a conversation that shows him how little he knows about everyday objects, processes, and technologies. Throughout White Noise, Jack and others grasp at certitude in many different ways, trying to attain it however they can, whether through alternative theories, authority, or willful ignorance. In White Noise, uncertainty often invites long, freewheeling academic ruminations, which lead to absurd theories. The intellectual babble streaming back and forth between Murray and his colleagues strives to answer various questions, but their extensive theorizing rarely gets to the heart of the matter, instead spinning into outlandish conclusions. The uncertainty of death, for example, eventually drives Murray to suggest—"in theory"—that Jack should kill somebody. DeLillo seems to enjoy poking affectionate fun at the ways in which academic philosophizing can work itself into strange circuitous places, often resulting in abstract ideas that are held together only very loosely, since they're based on highly speculative postulations. Desperate to minimize life's uncertainty, Jack and Murray only obfuscate the very ideas they aim to clarify. The more they talk, the further away they get from decisive answers. Uncertainty, then, engenders more uncertainty, and Jack is caught in this loop. Ironically enough, Murray seems somewhat cognizant of the fact that Jack is caught in a loop of uncertainty. Seeming to recognize that all their theoretical musings have done nothing to help him, he suggests that Jack take practical action. By killing somebody, Jack would at least break out of this useless cycle of intellectual conjecturing, which only leads to further uncertainty. The problem with this suggestion, though, is that it is the very result of that useless cycle, meaning that it is just another far-fetched idea the two men have hatched in order to create the illusion that they have any control at all over death. Killing somebody else could only solve a philosophical problem of their own making, doing nothing to answer Jack's questions about when, how, or where he will die. Beyond the question of death and its influence, DeLillo is interested in exploring the nature of uncertainty in times of crisis, particularly when there is a vacuum of authority. The story Jack hears about a plane almost crashing illustrates the relationship between authority and uncertainty. After the pilot incites panic in the cabin by admitting over the loudspeaker that the plane is "falling out of the sky," a shrewd flight attendant wrests control by suggesting that they would actually be "crash landing." The difference between a "crash" and a "crash landing" is semantic, but Jack notes the psychological effect of the flight attendant's reframing: the added word enabled the passengers to "maintain a grip on the future," since giving them an event for which they could prepare gave them a sense of control and eliminated a margin of uncertainty. Notably, the flight attendant wasn't exactly telling the truth—his or her power came from providing a narrative of certainty at an uncertain time. "In a crisis," Jack thinks, "the true facts are whatever other people say they are. No one's knowledge is less secure than your own." There is a comfort, then, in receiving information—true or untrue—from somebody else, especially if that person is in a position of relative power, since "what people in an exodus fear most immediately is that those in positions of authority will long since have fled, leaving [them] in charge of [their] own chaos." Health (and the desire to control it) surfaces as another locus of uncertainty in White Noise. The results of Jack's exposure to Nyodene D., for example, are vague; when Jack tries to obtain information about how the chemical will affect his life, the SIMUVAC technician says, "We'll know more in fifteen years," and when Jack asks if he's going to die, the man responds, "Not as such." Thus, concrete answers prove hard to come by. However, Even though Jack appears to go in search of answers regarding his health and death, he also tends to shy away from such information when on the verge of receiving it. For instance, when he goes to a new doctor for a battery of tests, he asks when the results will be ready, giving the impression that he is eager to receive them. But when the doctor tells him the results are available immediately, Jack backs off, saying, "I'm not sure I'm ready." By seeking out information about his health, he indulges an illusion of control, but when he must face the hard facts, he is forced to realize that such data will only render him even more helpless. Therefore, he opts to remain in a nervous state of uncertainty. In other words, Jack's fear of uncertainty is so strong and illogical that it leads him into yet another loop, choosing one kind of uncertainty over another, a paradox that reveals the futility and emptiness of his quest for certainty in the first place. - Theme: Consumer Culture and Identity. Description: By associating moments of transcendence with trivial and vapid artifacts of popular culture, DeLillo blurs the line between spiritual existence and consumer culture. When Jack hears Steffie mutter Toyota Celica in her sleep, he admits: "The utterance was beautiful and mysterious, gold-shot with looming wonder. It was like the name of an ancient power in the sky […]. Whatever its source, the utterance struck me with the impact of a moment of splendid transcendence." As such, DeLillo sanctifies consumer culture. But he also presents it as trivial, often allowing TV and radio programs to cut into the narrative at unexpected moments to say out-of-context phrases like, "Hog futures have declined in sympathy, adding bearishness to that market." In doing so, he depicts TV, radio, and marketing as suspicious media capable of strongly influencing human identity. Although White Noise does not fully condemn consumer culture, it does critically examine how humans receive this kind of information and entertainment, a process DeLillo sees as emotionally charged and potentially harmful to the psyche. DeLillo often refers to "psychic data" throughout the novel, a term that attempts to explain the ways in which consumer culture appeals to humans. "Psychic data" encompasses the messages embedded in advertisements and labels, which the brain picks up on either consciously or subconsciously. In the supermarket, for example, the psychic data come from the "bright packaging, the jingles, the slice-of-life commercials." According to Murray, psychic data is always "radiating" out of TV and other media that transmit consumer culture, creating an "aura" of signs and symbols that consumers live in. The language DeLillo uses to describe consumer culture, then, is both clinical and spiritual. The word "radiation" evokes an ease of transmittance, in addition to suggesting a risk of harmful exposure. An "aura," on the other hand, brings to mind a religious glow, thereby sanctifying the possible toxic messages emitted by consumerism. In addition to emphasizing the ambiguous duality of consumer culture (its potential for both transcendence and corruption), psychic data also captivates the characters, sometimes inspiring them to search for consumerism's hidden significance. Murray, for example, believes that psychic data—the products and advertisements in the supermarket—contain hidden symbolism and meanings that he can discern. "It is just a question of deciphering," he says, "rearranging, peeling off the layers of unspeakability." This description intentionally invokes hermeneutics, or the practice of interpreting the minutiae of religious texts to discern esoteric spiritual meanings. However, Murray then doubles back on his glowing endorsement of the supermarket, saying "Not that we would want to [decipher the symbols], not that any useful purpose would be served." As such, DeLillo praises consumer culture, while maintaining suspicion about whether consumerism is capable of revealing any important message about humanity beyond the existence of an innate desire to passively consume. DeLillo, then, refuses to decisively weigh in on the meaning of consumer culture, instead positing that its inexplicable blend of the spiritual with the vapid and banal compels people to worship and interpret popular culture as an end in itself. Consumer culture, in other words, is self-propelled, and it derives its power from a combination of mystery and ubiquity. Despite its unknowability, DeLillo posits that psychic data has a profound significance for human identity. According to Jack, identity is an amalgamation of data; he even tells Babette, "We are the sum total of our data." This provides insight into why the messages of consumer culture are given such high importance in White Noise; if the construction of human identity is dependent on the "sum total" of "data," then the "psychic data" transmitted from TVs, radios, and products are the building blocks of an individual's personality. The most extreme example of human identity as an amalgamation of consumerism's psychic data comes in the form of Willie Mink, the creator of Dylar. Willie is so immersed in consumer culture that he randomly quotes TV slogans and dialogue, as if there's no difference between who he is and what he consumes. He has allowed too much unmitigated "psychic data" into the construction of his identity, making him the human manifestation of gluttonous cultural consumption. To Jack—and to readers, too—he is an example of what people can become if they rely too heavily on the media and other vapid distractions to allay fear, insecurity, or other naturally human existential misgivings. Willie's presence in White Noise is the closest DeLillo comes to condemning consumerism and issuing a warning of its negative side effects. - Theme: Plots and History. Description: Jack is fascinated by history and conspiracy and the relationship of both to death. Through these fascinations with plots and history, he seeks new ways to clarify, define, and eke meaning out of his existence, hoping to alleviate the banal but overwhelming existential anxiety from which he suffers. When a student asks him in class about the plot to kill Hitler, he says, "All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots." In somewhat reductive terms, he means that to plot is to plan, and planning involves projecting oneself into the future. At the end of that future—no matter what—lies death, the only thing a person can fully count on. Thus, to plot is to project and propel a person towards death. "Plot" also evokes the idea of narrative—the story a person can tell about his or her own life. Because he fears death so much, Jack obviously doesn't want to reach the end of his narrative. As such, he condemns the act of plotting. As White Noise progresses, he grows increasingly disdainful of plotting, as if by refusing to engage in the act, he can avoid its inevitable end. Murray, on the other hand, believes that to plot is to live. According to him, plotting is to "seek shape and control." By striving toward something, he believes, people can "advance the art of human consciousness." Murray's outlook is much more optimistic than Jack's, and the stark contrast between the two illuminates the fact that, while Jack resentfully tries to avoid his life's story, Murray celebrates his own personal agency by taking an active role in plotting his life. However, Murray's philosophy about plotting is shown to be no more coherent than Jack's when he suggests that Jack plot and carry out a murder as a way of relieving his fear of death. Murray, then, suggests a dangerous, immoral, and absurd plot as a way for Jack to feel control over his life, which is just as ludicrous as Jack's insistence on avoiding death through a refusal to actively engage. In addition to plot, Jack turns to history—or his idea of it—when considering death. Despite his best efforts, he seems to have constructed a self-image based on the belief that he is weak. He compares himself to the leaders of history, like Attila the Hun, the great 5th century leader who died in his forties. Jack imagines Attila dying in a tent, "wrapped in animal skins" while saying "brave cruel things to his aides." He imagines "no weakening of the spirit" and that the fearless man was not "ineffably sad" at the fact that he knew he was destined to die. This mentality stands in direct opposition to Jack's own unwillingness to accept the cold hard facts of mortality. History also figures into Jack's conception of his own identity. When the SIMUVAC technician tells Jack that he "tapped into [his] history" in order to arrive at the numbers indicating the danger of Jack's exposure to Nyodene D., Jack is disconcerted; "I wondered what he meant when he said he'd tapped into my history. Where was it located exactly?" In keeping with his skittishness when it comes to uncertainty, Jack is troubled by not feeling in command of his own personal history. He becomes afraid of himself because of the possibility that the details of his personal history will have negative repercussions on his present wellbeing. History, then, presents yet another threat to Jack's conflicted desire to live in a willfully ignorant present, a mentality that keeps him from looking both backwards and forwards. - Climax: Having finally tracked down the man who slept with his wife and gave her experimental medication, Jack shoots Willie Mink twice in the stomach and, in turn, is shot in the wrist. - Summary: College professor Jack Gladney watches a long procession of station wagons drive through the campus of College-on-the-Hill in the town of Blacksmith. Observing the vibrant and healthy young students as they unpack their parents' cars for yet another school year, Jack takes note of the wealthy confidence surrounding these people as they handle various junk foods, pieces of technology, and medications. Jack is the head of the Hitler Studies department—a field he founded—and he has made a point of watching the students arrive on campus each Fall for the past 21 years. After taking in the spectacle, he returns home to tell his wife Babette that she has once again missed the fantastic parade. As he describes to her the mannerisms of the rich parents he watched, she remarks, "I have trouble imagining death at that income level," a remark that inspires a conversation about the impact of riches on one's perception of mortality. Jack and Babette live in a house at the end of a peaceful street that overlooks an expressway in the distance. Four children "by previous marriages" live with them: Heinrich, Steffie, Denise, and Wilder. As such, children and teenagers alike drift through the house, tuning into the radio, answering the phone, watching TV, or engaging in conversations ranging from the health concerns of Babette's diet to the effects of various chemicals on lab rats. Jack and Babette take part in these conversations, often verbally sparring with their children and finding themselves intellectually challenged by their rhetoric. They also have deep private conversations in their bedroom at night. As they lie in bed, they often wonder who will die first, arguing over which of them would be more traumatized by losing the other. Since Hitler Studies shares its offices with the popular culture department—called "American Environments" at the College-on-the-Hill—Jack becomes close friends with Murray, a visiting professor and former sportswriter. Murray is obsessed with the way Americans consume popular culture, marketing, and anything that seems to stand for something significant in the eyes of the consumer. He speaks at length about these topics, exuding an intellectual style mixed with a certain slyness. Jack finds Babette at the high school stadium as she runs up and down the steps, which is part of her exercise routine. He embraces her, feeling a deep and affectionate attraction to her as she stands there in her sweat suit. That night, the entire family sits down to eat dinner in front of the TV, a Friday night ritual they've established because of Babette's belief that indulging the children's desire to watch TV will successfully "de-glamorize the medium in their eyes, make it wholesome domestic sport." Throughout the text, DeLillo frequently intersperses short lists of product or company names, such as: "The Airport Marriot, the Downtown Travelodge, the Sheraton Inn and Conference Center." Television and radio snippets also jut into the narrative, weaving their way into the background noise of Jack's world; "After dinner, on my way upstairs, I heard the TV say: 'Let's sit half lotus and think about our spines.'" Babette and Jack run into Murray at the supermarket, a place he loves. Moving through the aisles, Murray waxes poetic about the various forms of packaging on the shelves. He also speaks eagerly to Babette, whom he's just met for the first time and to whom he is clearly attracted, commenting to Jack that her hair is "a living wonder." Excitedly sniffing the products in Jack's and Babette's shopping basket, he walks outside with the couple before they drive him home. As the semester progresses, Jack continues to see Murray, with whom he has long and wide-ranging conversations inspired by relatively ordinary events, like grocery shopping. Meanwhile, the elementary school that Steffie and Denise attend is evacuated because of a chemical contamination causing students to experience a battery of physical ailments. While Steffie and Denise stay home, a team tests the school, measuring for various chemicals. However, because their suits are made of Mylex, which is itself "a suspect material," the final results of their tests are inconclusive, and they are forced to re-inspect. Once again, Babette and Jack find Murray at the supermarket. While Murray follows Babette down an aisle—speaking rapturously about the "psychic data" projected onto the consumer by all the colorful packaging and brand advertisements on the grocery store shelves—Steffie takes the opportunity to tell Jack (her biological father) that Denise (her stepsister) is worried about Babette's use of a certain unknown medication. Jack admits he hadn't known she was taking anything at all. Later, as they traverse the parking lot, they hear that one of the men in Mylex "collapsed and died" while doing a sweep of the elementary school. In the kitchen at home, Denise chastises her mother for chewing gum that causes cancer in laboratory animals. Babette insists that this habit is harmless and that she only chews two pieces per day, an assertion Denise and Steffie don't believe. They argue that Babette is so forgetful she wouldn't even be capable of remembering how many pieces of gum she chews, to which Babette responds, "What do I forget?" Later, Babette asks Jack if her forgetfulness is as noticeable as Denise made it sound. Jack tries to reassure her that everybody forgets things, saying that these days "'forgetfulness has gotten into the air and water.'" When she wonders if the gum she's chewing is causing her memory to fail, Jack brings up the medication Denise mentioned. Babette claims that, to the best of her knowledge, she isn't taking anything. At the same time, though, she concedes that—if her memory is truly bad—she might be taking something and then forgetting about it. "'Either I'm taking something and I don't remember or I'm not taking something and I don't remember,'" she says. Between the fall and spring semesters, a train carrying deadly chemicals derails not far from Jack's house. The chemical—eventually identified as Nyodene D.—rushes out in huge amounts. In the attic, Heinrich watches this disaster through binoculars as Jack periodically comes up to trade information with him about the disaster. Soon they are instructed to evacuate. The family gets in the car and joins a mass exodus as everybody in their part of town heads for an emergency-ready Boy Scout camp. On the way, Jack pulls over at a gas station and refuels the car's empty tank. At the Boy Scout camp, Blacksmith citizens gather in huddles, passing information back and forth. Since Jack possibly exposed himself to Nyodene D. while refueling the car, he stands in line to speak with a technician who works for a program called SIUMVAC, an evacuation simulation. The technician takes down several particulars regarding Jack's medical history, typing them into a small computer. "'You're generating big numbers,'" he says, telling Jack that the computer is showing "bracketed numbers with pulsing stars." In the vaguest possible terms, he informs Jack that he certainly has a "situation" on his hands, but that they won't know more for another fifteen years—that is, if Jack is still alive. "'If you're still alive at the time, we'll know that much more than we do now,'" the technician tells Jack. In the middle of the night, the Gladneys are woken up by an announcement that everybody needs to evacuate the Boy Scout camp because of a wind change: the toxic cloud is now headed directly in their direction. The family scrambles into the car and once more joins the mass chaos of drivers trying to escape. Jack does everything he can to stay away from the cloud, even driving through a snowy field before finally reaching Iron City, a nearby metropolis, at dawn. After spending nine days in a karate studio in Iron City, the Gladneys can return home. One night not long after the Spring semester begins, Jack finds a medication bottle taped to the underside of the radiator. The pills he finds are called Dylar and are unlisted in Denise's Physician's Desk Reference, so Jack takes one of them to the College-on-the-Hill to be analyzed by a brilliant young science professor, Winnie Richards. He also tries asking Babette—who has been acting uncharacteristically withdrawn—about the medication, but she feigns ignorance and distracts Jack by telling him she wants to hop into bed with him. When Winnie finishes analyzing the Dylar, all she can tell Jack is that the pills are exquisitely constructed. Regarding their medical use, though, she has no insight to offer. In bed one night, Jack finally forces Babette to talk to him about the Dylar. She tells him that she had been going through what she thought was a phase, but she eventually came to see it as a condition. It becomes clear that this condition she's referring to is an acute fear of death. She tells him that she saw an advertisement in a newspaper calling for volunteers for secret research. After a number of screenings and preliminary considerations, she was chosen as a test subject for Dylar, a drug that eliminates an individual's fear of death. Because Dylar has so many side effects, though, the trial was stopped and the research company's support was revoked. But Babette was desperate to continue, so she struck a deal with one of the head researchers, to whom she refers by the pseudonym "Mr. Gray." In exchange for Dylar, she had sex with Mr. Gray in a motel on a regular basis. The medication, however, failed to work. Babette refuses to tell Jack the researcher's actual name, for fear that he will succumb to the male impulse toward violent rage and seek revenge on Mr. Gray. She also won't allow him to get ahold of some Dylar for himself, which he begins to yearn for with great intensity, claiming that he's the one who has always feared death. At around that same time, Babette's renegade father arrives for an unannounced visit and privately gives Jack a handgun. During a long walk around campus, Murray and Jack talk about his fear of death. Winding through many highly obtuse theories and philosophies, Murray eventually suggests, hypothetically, that if Jack killed somebody, he would be released from his fear. Not long after this conversation, Jack starts carrying the handgun around, feeling its power and heft as it sits hidden in his pocket. When Winnie tells him she found a scientific article about Dylar that anonymously reveals Babette's story, he is pleased to finally learn the location of Mr. Gray's motel. Shortly thereafter, Jack steals his neighbor's car from their driveway and drives to the old German section of Iron City, where he knew Mr. Gray's motel would be. When he arrives in Gray's room, the man is watching TV. His real name is Willie Mink, and he acts very strange, often throwing whole fistfuls of Dylar into his mouth. He answers Jack's questions about Dylar disjointedly and distractedly, frequently reciting lines from past TV or radio shows with no apparent ability to separate real life from the media he has consumed. Eventually Jack corners him in the bathroom, reveling in the power he feels at having freed himself of his fear. He shoots Willie twice in the stomach. Then he sets to work putting the pistol in Willie's hand, to make the death look like a suicide. When he's not paying attention, though, Willie unsteadily shoots Jack in the wrist. The bullet eviscerates the power and elation Jack has been feeling, and he suddenly sees Willie for what feels like the first time. After using a handkerchief to slow his own bleeding, he sets to work helping Willie, dragging him across the motel room floor and loading him into his car, all the while feeling like a proud savior. After driving around Iron City with the wounded Willie Mink in the backseat, Jack finds a hospital in a Pentecostal church staffed by nuns. Luckily, Willie doesn't remember what happened, so Jack is able to convince him that he—Willie—shot Jack and then turned the gun on himself. After a nun—who tells Jack she doesn't believe in God—patches up his wrist, he leaves Willie at the hospital and drives home, parking the car back in his neighbor's driveway despite the fact that the interior is covered in blood. At home he climbs into bed with Babette but can't sleep, so he goes downstairs and has a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. Later that same day, Babette's young son Wilder ventures away from the house with his tricycle, winding up at the expressway, which he then purposefully crosses despite the zooming traffic. Cars careen by, but he pedals steadily to the other side, where he then gently falls off the low shoulder and begins to cry. The book concludes with Jack and Babette realizing disconcertingly that the supermarket shelves have all be rearranged.

- Genre: Short story - Title: White Spirit - Point of view: First person - Setting: A public housing centre in an unnamed Australian suburb - Character: Narrator. Description: The narrator is an unnamed white woman who works for a public housing centre in Australia. The narrator is portrayed in the story as being both well-intentioned and at times biased and ignorant. She writes the grant to fund the mural meant to celebrate the centre's residents, and oversees its creation, including hiring the artists to paint it. However, by the time the story begins and increasingly throughout the story, she experiences a crisis of conscience as she realizes the flaws of the mural. She has a close relationship with the women in her fabric-painting class but they are the only residents of the centre she seems to know personally. She works hard and even to spend her own money on materials for the women in her class, but she also can be misguided in her efforts to celebrate the diversity of the community, which sometimes leads to a self-aggrandizing celebration of the white leadership and organization behind the centre rather than the residents themselves. By the end of the story, the narrator's growth has made clear to her both the mural's weaknesses, and the way that those flaws expose the deeper problems with the centre's leadership and her society more broadly. - Character: Mandy. Description: Mandy is one of the two white artists working on the mural, along with her boyfriend Jake. While Mandy seems generally to be nice and hardworking, the story shows how such traits are not enough to overcome her ignorance about and lack of ability or will to connect with the community she is representing in the mural. - Character: Jake. Description: Jake is the other white artist working on the mural, along with his girlfriend Mandy. Like Mandy, he seems like a friendly person who is uninterested in or unaware of the work necessary to connect to and understand the people he is representing in the mural, or the necessity of making such connections before engaging in the sort of work he is doing. - Character: Minister. Description: The minister is a local Australian political figure who the mural is intended to impress. What he thinks of the mural seems to be the chief concern of the centre's leaders regarding whether or not the mural is considered a success or lack thereof. The minister comments positively on the authenticity of the mural and the collaborative process used to create it, without ever checking to see if his observations are accurate or with actually getting to know the community living in the centre. He is more eager to praise the mural in bland idealistic terms than in actually creating a society truly based on those ideals. - Character: Parking Inspector. Description: The parking inspector tries to give the narrator a ticket when she is overdue in her parking spot. She successfully manages to talk him out of it by commenting about how she has parked in this spot to buy supplies for the refugee women in her fabric painting class—by using her "goodness" to give herself a get-out-of-ticket free card. Little information is given about the parking inspector, but the narrator assumes based on his job and appearance that he too was once an immigrant living at the centre. - Character: Jameela. Description: Jameela is one of the women in thenarrator's fabric-painting class. She is kind to the narrator and patient with the narrator's requests regarding the women in the class's attendance at the unveiling of the mural, even as she firmly says no to some of those requests. She is the person who calls the narrator back to take a photo with the whole class near the end of the story, when the narrator is about to abandon the mural celebration. - Theme: Multiculturalism, Authenticity, and Appropriation. Description: In her short story "White Spirit," set in modern-day Australia, Cate Kennedy shows the limits of multiculturalism, specifically when these efforts toward diversity are spearheaded by the white people who hold the power in that society. The story focuses on an unnamed, white, Australian narrator who works for a public housing centre and oversees a grant to commission a mural at the centre depicting the different, mostly nonwhite refugee communities living there. As the story goes on, she begins to feel ashamed about the hypocrisy of the mural project, as she comes to see that it celebrates diversity while disregarding the needs of the actual residents. Through the lens of a narrator who realizes her own complicity in existing white power structures, Kennedy reveals how white-led calls for diversity—even if well intended—can appropriate the identities of the non-white peoples intended to be authentically represented. Kennedy first shows the white capacity for cultural appropriation when the artists hired to work on the mural demonstrate a lack of knowledge about the people they are depicting. When the narrator points out that the kids portrayed in the mural should be holding a soccer ball, instead of the basketball that the artists—Mandy and Jake—had painted, the artists are surprised by this information. They say that this information was "not in [their] brief," revealing that they don't know the community they're depicting in any deep way at all. Mandy then immediately shows a further lack of understanding about the resident community as she tells Jake that "the African kids" play soccer. The artists are either not able or not interested enough to distinguish between the different ethnic groups in the centre, seeing them instead as a homogeneous whole. The residents, accordingly, avoid the artists, even as the narrator recalls how, in Mandy and Jake's interview, they had expressed interest in getting to know the community during the job and talked about making a "celebration of diversity." The narrator sees that even if Mandy and Jake's good intentions of working within the community were heartfelt, in practice they are hollow. The hypocrisy of the mural and its planning becomes more evident as the residents' actual behavior differs from the story the mural tells about them. While the mural shows an image of a seamlessly-integrated and happy coalition, the actual residents stand mostly divided by ethnic difference. Further, the residents avoid the mural being painted to celebrate them: the kids who usually play basketball in the gym after school avoid the area entirely now that Mandy and Jake are there. When the narrator asks the resident women in her fabric-painting class if they would want to contribute to painting, they too refuse. That the community isn't interested in participating in the creation of the mural hints that it is being imposed on the residents—that it is speaking for them, not to them. The narrator also notices differences between how the women in her class are represented in the mural—wearing "traditional" dresses copied from images in library books—versus how the women actually dress, in typical Australian clothing such as "pastel windcheaters" (i.e. windbreakers). The mural is supposed to be an authentic representation of the residents, but it conceals the reality of the community members' experiences. In fact, the white characters in the story often fail to recognize how their efforts to celebrate diversity are ultimately self-serving. At the event celebrating the mural, the minister (a local government official) praises the mural's authenticity, mistakenly believing that the "community…had a hand in creating" the art. The problem with the minister's faulty assumption isn't just that it's wrong; it's that it's also lazy. The minister's assumption is what he wants to believe; he never makes an effort to find out if it's true or not. Meanwhile, he willfully ignores the actual community's actions at the event, ignoring that the residents "carefully distance themselves" from the image in the mural. While the mural is ostensibly meant to celebrate the residents, the minister's behavior makes clear that it instead allows the white people in power to congratulate themselves on their goodness while simultaneously ignoring those they are supposed to be helping. Right before taking a staged photo with the organizers and residents, the centre manager asks the narrator to get rid of some empty solvent tins left from the mural project, fearing that kids who live in the centre may "sniff them" to get high. The centre manager wants to create a smiling, positive image out of the mural event, while privately thinking disrespectfully of the communities being celebrated. The narrator leaves this interaction with the centre manager angry and disappointed as she realizes that he just wants an image of "local colour," an image of multiculturalism no matter how inauthentic and fabricated it is in actuality. She then thinks about the solvent itself—called white spirit—which she has been told will be able to clean any graffiti from the mural. She realizes, bitterly, that "no matter what gets scrawled there, whatever message of denial or contradiction" the white spirit will be used to wipe away and ignore it in favor of a white-led positive message. "White Spirit" shows how often attempts at diversity can be used as manipulative tools that, rather than meeting the needs of the actual people who make up that diversity, ultimately uphold power structures already in place. More specifically, in a white-dominated culture, the story shows how "diversity" is twisted to make the white people feel good about themselves, while the "diverse" people are concealed and ignored behind the false image. - Theme: Racism and Prejudice. Description: Throughout "White Spirit," the narrator, other staff at the public housing centre, and the mural artists benefit from their whiteness and even at times make prejudiced and racist assumptions about the mostly nonwhite refugees they work for. While the white organizers at the centre intend to create a positive living environment and community for the residents, in actuality they often are patronizing and unhelpful to the mostly nonwhite centre residents. In this way, the story demonstrates the pervasive nature of racism and prejudice, and how these sorts of intolerance can emerge from well-intentioned individuals and out of what may seem initially like "nice" behavior. While the white artists' and organizers' words about the nonwhite refugees may initially seem kind, the story shows how in practice they are often patronizing and disrespectful. When the narrator suggests that someone may graffiti over the mural, the artist, Mandy, is quick to deny that this would ever happen, claiming that "nobody will graffiti anything they feel a sense of ownership and inclusion about." While the idea behind Mandy's statement is superficially kind, in reality, it reveals her willful ignorance about the residents, who have not given any indication they feel ownership or inclusion about the mural. Further, Mandy's statement shifts the blame to the residents. Mandy's belief that the residents will and should feel a sense of "ownership and inclusion" toward the mural seems founded solely on the fact that she thinks they should. This circular logic would mean that, should any resident end up putting graffiti on the mural, Mandy will assume there is something wrong with the resident, not the mural. Even the narrator, who clearly has a more intimate relationship with the people living in the complex than the artists and other staff, acts in prejudiced ways. Like Mandy and Jake, the narrator makes willfully ignorant assumptions about what the residents want. She assumes that the workers will like a mural that shows "their community's diversity" and is initially surprised when the residents choose not to participate in painting. But the story makes clear that the narrator's perspective on the residents is not always accurate. She tries to encourage the women in her fabric-painting class to come to the mural opening in their "traditional dresses" because "the minister would love to see [it]." The narrator's suggestion is met with "charged awkwardness" and a no. Rather than respecting the women's autonomy, the narrator has attempted to make them into prop displays of diversity. Through the flawed narrator, the story shows how racist and prejudiced thinking can manifest in a multitude of ways. Another way that the story shows a less overt manifestation of racism and prejudice is through the mural itself, which initially seems to display a positive image of the community but is really an example of a patronizing and homogenizing form of racism. The mural's final product depicts "a rainbow of faces" in which everyone is standing "'We Are the World' style with arms round each other, grinning." The mural suggests a community that is effortlessly integrated, in which ethnic and racial distinction is not a divider. But in trying to promote an ostensibly positive image of integration, the mural's design diminishes the different community members, erasing their individualism as well as the reality of their experience. It makes them into a symbol of uncomplicated integration that benefits white perception of the work the centre is supposed to be doing. Moreover, it's clear that the mural has design elements intended to make it more palatable for white viewers. By noting that the "Anglo" (white) faces are "judiciously" present next to the nonwhite faces, the narrator makes clear that the mural works to make white people feel included in this image of diversity. Despite the fact that the mural is, in theory, meant to be for nonwhite members of the community, the narrator's observation gives away the fact that its real purpose is to make white people feel good about themselves. Finally, by referencing "We Are the World" (a 1985 charity song intended to raise money for famine relief in Africa) in her description, the narrator indicates that the mural, like the song, is something that promotes an outright message of unity and togetherness. However, she complicates this message by reflecting that "in real life" it would take "several simultaneous translators" to get everyone to laugh at the same time, as well as "a fair whack of fairy dust"—the narrator's sardonic commentary shows that the mural's homogenous depiction of the community is not authentic, but rather a patronizing fairytale which, despite its superficial positivity, perpetuates racist erasure of individual identity among the nonwhite community members. The story deftly reveals the many ways that subtle forms of racism can manifest. The narrator, the artists, the centre staff, and the local political minister all believe they are doing good, kind work to help the nonwhite residents in the community. But through the narrator's internal monologue and eventual realization about how these efforts are actually impacting the residents of the centre, "White Spirit" shows how a whitewashed, patronizing, artificial image of integration can actually do racist harm. - Theme: Selfishness, Selflessness, and Connection. Description: "White Spirit" shows the ways that the white character's good intentions often, through lack of effort or understanding, end up serving selfish ends. In addition, the story suggests that many of the characters may not, perhaps without even realizing it, actually have authentic good intentions. Rather, many of the characters seem to "perform" what might be described as a guise of selflessness in order to actually achieve selfish ends. The story drives this point home through the narrator's arc in the story, in which she comes to see the falseness of the selfless guise, even in herself, and, further, to recognize the ways in which her actual selflessness has allowed her to make a real connection with the women from the centre who come to her fabric-painting class. The false selflessness that so many of the white character's display is evident in the mural artists, Mandy and Jake. The artists say they want to connect with the community, using their art for selfless purposes, but their actions say otherwise. The narrator remembers how, in their interview for the mural painting job, Mandy and Jake had said they wanted to meet and collaborate with the community and insisted that they did this kind of work because of the "rich sense of connection…achieved working alongside the very people you were depicting." However, in practice, they remain distant from the community they are depicting. None of the people living in the complex go near them, and Mandy and Jake themselves make no effort to reach out and foster this connection they supposedly want. The only time Mandy and Jake are shown interacting with the community they represent in the mural is at the end of the story, after the art is already finished. At the celebratory event, they approach a group of resident teenagers and try talking to them, but the narrator notes that Mandy looks "self conscious" and that the teenage boys avoid eye contact. The lack of effort on Mandy and Jake's part to include or connect to the community suggests that Mandy and Jake's interest in doing the mural had more to do with furthering their careers or taking on a paid job than in truly trying to do something selfless and collaborative with the community. Like the mural artists, the narrator herself struggles to truly connect with the community. The narrator does have good intentions about supporting the people living in the complex, especially the women in her fabric painting class who she knows more personally. But she also uses the women in her class and trades on her "goodness" when it is convenient for her to do so. When she is about to get a parking ticket, she gets out of it by telling the parking inspector that she was buying stuff for the "group of refugee women" in her class. The narrator comments that she hates "trotting that out" and admits to herself that it's a white lie. But almost immediately she justifies the lie, thinking to herself: "this is my money we're talking about, my free time, my goodwill." Here, the narrator believes the lie—and the way she used the women's refugee status as an excuse for her convenience—is acceptable because of the importance of her own needs. In the moment, her selfish impulse overtakes her better intentions. The narrator and the artist's self-serving actions (which operate under the guise of selflessness) stand in contrast to the actions of several of the residents in the complex, who behave in more truly selfless ways. When the narrator tries to convince the women in her fabric painting class to come to the celebration for the mural, they agree to come, even though they are obviously wary of or disinterested in the project. Their willingness to come seems to be founded on wanting to do something for the narrator, not because of any benefit to themselves. Later, when the narrator sees the women in her class at the event, they acknowledge her in a way that the narrator recognizes as the "smiles of the truly dutiful, the truly kind." Kennedy's use of the word "truly" here is key, as it establishes a difference between the empty, ultimately selfish "kindness" that the mural represents and the real selflessness of the women showing up to the event even when they may not care about or even like the mural. Accordingly, the narrator has her only moment of true selfless connection through her relationships with these same women in her fabric painting class. At the end of the story, as the narrator, upset and disappointed by the mural she now understands is an expression of control rather than celebration or the centre residents, tries to leave the event, Jameela from her fabric painting class stops her to take a photo with them. While the narrator is frustrated and "drained of energy," when the women in her class call her back for the photo, she joins them. In this moment, she smiles, and it's not clear if she is smiling for the women or with them. That lack of clarity is intended—the narrator is doing both, she is doing something to help uplift the women, and she is in turn uplifted by them. In this way, the story presents a hopeful end, as the narrator has a moment of connecting with the community in an authentic way that the mural project, and the other people behind it, did not. "White Spirit" portrays a narrator who does ostensibly altruistic, charitable work for the public good to show how easily selfless intentions can slip into selfish actions. By showing how the narrator's own perception of the mural and the work the centre does changes over the course of the story, "White Spirit" shows how real selfless decisions may not always be the easiest to make. Ultimately, the story ends with a hopeful but ambiguous ending. The narrator does connect with the women in her class, but it seems as though she is the exception to the rule. The narrator has done real work to foster a relationship with her class, but the same cannot be said of the rest of the white power characters. The story makes clear that true, authentic connection across groups is possible, but that it is also rare and takes work to achieve. - Theme: Bureaucracy and Systemic Inequality. Description: The narrator's desire to be kind and helpful is often thwarted by the bureaucratic structure of her job, placing her in a ladder of systemic inequality which limits every individual's ability to support other people. While the work of the centre is intended to be altruistic, its mere existence is indicative of a system of economic inequality which leads to an inherited scarcity of and competition for resources. The mural's very existence comes out of the bureaucracy of the centre (and, by extension, the local government), which creates a system based on competition, economic scarcity, and commodification of people and resources. Throughout the story, the characters deal with financial limitations and struggles of varying degrees of difficulty. The cycles of systemic inequality divide every person into different economic classes. The artists, Mandy and Jake, have to apply to sell themselves as the best artists for the job (even though, it becomes clear, they may not be) in order to gain a paid job. Even with the grant funding, the narrator spends her own money on the centre's projects, knowing that going through the process of getting the money can be a hassle and that it's often "easier if [she] just pays for it." Additionally, it's clear that even the grant funding is not a hefty amount, as by the end of the project, the narrator is counting the remaining grant money in the account, and sees that there is only enough left to buy "snacks at the opening." Still, the narrator sees how even with her financial frustrations, she has class privilege that many others do not possess. When she is getting a parking ticket, she observes the inspector giving her the ticket and makes an assumption that he probably used to live at the centre himself, assuming based on her understanding of class division in Australia that it's likely that someone in his job is a refugee or first generation immigrant. Similarly, she reflects on the "demands of getting by" that the entire community of two thousand who lives in the housing complex struggle with—while the narrator sees her own life as a bureaucratic struggle, she recognizes how her life is still in many ways easier—because of her whiteness, by her economic class—than the lives of those living in the complex. The center's bureaucracy—and the society-wide, systemic scarcity of resources—creates a situation in which the centre, which purportedly exists to serve its residents, in practice prioritizes its own funding and sustained existence above the actual needs of its residents. The grant used to fund the mural is itself shown to be a commodity. The narrator gets the grant approved by proposing the mural as a good investment, and when she imagines the event celebrating the mural, she pictures "community workers from other centres" coming to the opening to "marvel and envy, and apply for their own grants." The narrator's observation indicates the competitive nature of the centre's very existence and the overall societal scarcity of financial resources. Ironically, the centre must work against other centres in order to succeed in its own goals. But while the centre competes with other institutions to win funding and sustain its own existence, it ignores and overrides the material needs of its residents. While the mural is being painted in the gym, the kids who live in the centre are unable to do what they actually want to do—play basketball. And the mural itself makes use of grant funds that the residents of the centre would rather use for other purposes, like purchasing pool tables (as the narrator recalls). But the centre does not want to actualize residents' desires as much as it wants to justify its own existence, which it does through commissioning the mural that, while ostensibly celebrating diversity, actually just celebrates the centre through a homogenized presentation of the centre's residents that is designed to appease the white bureaucracy in which the centre is embedded. In all, "White Spirit" portrays a modern Australian society in which systemic socioeconomic inequality—and the way that inequality is expressed through bureaucratic structures—makes it difficult for people to really support one another, or even to really understand each other. The centre, ostensibly, is supposed to exist for its residents. But the story shows how limited resources, the need to make the centre "look good" in order to keep those resources flowing, and the desire of the centre staff to personally be successful, actually creates a misalignment between the centre's goals and the needs of the residents, such that the residents' needs and desires are always ignored and pushed to the bottom. - Climax: The narrator realizes she has failed the community and moves to leave the mural celebration event - Summary: In modern-day Australia, an unnamed female narrator works for a public housing centre that houses refugees and immigrants of a multitude of different ethnic backgrounds. The narrator's centre has won a grant allowing the narrator to commission two artists to design a mural celebrating the centre's residents. As the story begins, she stands in the centre's gym with the artist couple—Mandy and Jake—who are in the midst of painting the mural, which needs to be completed in time for the opening celebration event in just a few days. As she talks to Mandy and Jake, the narrator privately feels awkward and embarrassed about the way the mural is going so far. While it was intended to be a collaborative project between the artists and the community living in the centre, it has not gone according to plan. None of the residents have come to help paint the mural and have instead avoided both the artists and the entire gym entirely while the painting has been going on. The narrator points out to the artists that the kids depicted in it should be holding a soccer ball rather than a basketball, because that's the kid's preferred sport. The artists say they will paint over the mistake but the narrator still leaves them feeling weary of how the project is going. The narrator goes to get cash (using her own money, rather than the centre's) for supplies for the women's fabric-painting class she runs at the centre. When she gets to her car, she sees a parking inspector who is about to give her a ticket. She pleads with him, and mentions her class of refugee women as an excuse to get out of the ticket. Later, at her class, she asks the women in her class if they would help paint the mural, but they don't want to. The narrator then asks if they will attend the mural opening on Friday and wear their traditional dresses at the event. The women in the class say yes to the former but no to the latter, and seem uncomfortable about the question. The next day, the mural is almost complete: it shows a big row of people from all different ethnicities and races with their arms around each other, smiling. The narrator tells the artists it looks great but privately thinks it looks nothing like real life. A man from the company Pro-Guard comes to inspect the mural's wall surface and help select an anti-graffiti sealant that will protect the art from any damage. The man recommends the sealant called "white spirit," which will both prevent any attempted graffiti from sticking and also make it easy to wipe away any graffiti that does get onto the surface. The narrator works with Mandy and Jake apply both coats of the sealant together, working late into the night on the day before the opening event. At the opening event, the minister—a local political figure—praises the mural for its authenticity and collaborative design, both of which the narrator knows are not true. The narrator feels increasingly ashamed as the event goes on and she observes the residents, who are all avoiding getting near the mural, which inaccurately represents the actual community. As the event is happening, the centre manager privately asks the narrator to get rid of some empty paint solvent tins, as he's worried the teenage residents might take them and get high sniffing them. The narrator, feeling upset, moves to leave the event, giving the camera she is supposed to take pictures of the events with to Jameela, a woman in her fabric painting class, who stands with two other women in the class, Nahir and Mawiya. Just as the narrator is about to go, she is stopped by Jameela, who calls her back to take a picture with the whole class. The narrator, despite how bad she is feeling, smiles for the photo.

- Genre: - Title: Wide Sargasso Sea - Point of view: - Setting: - Character: Antoinette Cosway. Description: The protagonist and partial narrator of the novel, Antoinette Cosway is a creole, or person of European descent born in the Caribbean. Throughout the novel, her relationships with others are marked by alienation, exclusion, and cruelty, so that she consistently seeks solace in the natural world. She watches her family home burned to the ground by a mob of disenfranchised former slaves, and witnesses her mother's descent into madness as a result. She is married to an Englishman she barely knows, for his financial benefit. After a disastrous honeymoon, her husband finally locks her away in his attic, from which her only escape is suicide. - Character: The Husband. Description: Though never named in the novel, Antoinette Cosway's husband is understood to be Jane Eyre's Mr. Rochester, an English gentleman. The husband is deeply disoriented, even disturbed, by the Jamaican landscape and culture, and sees Antoinette as emblematic of both. Though he experiences a short period of passion with Antoinette during their honeymoon, his feelings of distrust and animosity eventually outweigh his love, so that he ends up imprisoning her in the attic of his English manor. - Character: Christophine. Description: Antoinette's nurse, Christophine is respected and feared among blacks and whites alike. She is a practitioner of obeah (a voodoo-like magic), which both accounts for her power over others and ultimately gets her in trouble with the law, rendering her powerless to help Antoinette. Other than the landscape, Christophine is the only real constant in Antoinette's life, until she too abandons her to her fate with the husband. - Character: Annette. Description: Antoinette's mother, Annette is a widow at the start of the novel, sunk into debt after the death of her husband. Her relationship with Antoinette is distant, owing partially to her preoccupation with her sick, mentally handicapped son, Pierre. She marries a rich man, Mr. Mason, in order to save her family from destitution in the wake of Emancipation, and goes mad with grief as a result of the destruction brought about partially by his failure to listen to her warnings about the anger of the black residents at his shows of wealth. - Character: Mr. Mason. Description: Annette's second husband, Mr. Mason is an Englishman who, like the husband, seems incapable of understanding Jamaican culture. He ignores Annette's warnings of the danger presented by the nearby village of disgruntled former slaves, preferring to view them as benign children. As a result, he is unprepared when the villagers burn down Coulibri. - Character: Daniel Cosway. Description: Possibly the half brother of Antoinette through an illicit affair between her father Old Cosway and one of his slaves, Daniel Cosway is deeply embittered by his exclusion from the Cosway fortune. He writes to the husband, informing him of the madness that runs in Antoinette's family, and attempts to blackmail him. Daniel Cosway is obsessed with gaining vengeance for his disenfranchised and marginalized existence, for which he holds Antoinette and her family responsible. - Character: Grace Poole. Description: Antoinette's caretaker in the husband's manor in England, Grace Poole is paid handsomely for her discretion, which she maintains despite her misgivings regarding the husband's treatment of Antoinette. A partial narrator of Part 3 of the novel, she often drinks to excess and falls asleep, allowing Antoinette to steal her keys and roam the rest of the house. - Theme: Otherness and Alienation. Description: The problem of otherness in the world of Wide Sargasso Sea is all-pervading and labyrinthine. The racial hierarchy in 1830's Jamaica is shown to be complex and strained, with tension between whites born in England, creoles or people of European descent born in the Caribbean, black ex-slaves, and people of mixed race. The resentment between these groups leads to hatred and violence. Antoinette Cosway and her family are repeatedly referred to as "white cockroaches" by members of the black population, and are eventually driven from their home by a mob of discontented former slaves. These dynamics are further complicated by the fact that inclusion and exclusion in the novel are based not solely on race, but also on geographical origin, appearance, wealth and status, and fluency in shared cultural symbols and values. As such, the major characters in Wide Sargasso Sea are primarily defined by their separateness from any cultural group. The novel opens with Antoinette explaining, "They say when trouble comes close ranks, and the white people did. But we were not in their ranks." Antoinette and her family, though white, do not belong to the dominant class of white Jamaicans, for many reasons including local disapproval of her mother Annette Cosway's behavior, appearance, and French origins, as well as the family's poverty after the death of Alexander Cosway, Antoinette's father. Christophine, Antoinette's black nurse, suffers a similar type of exclusion. A native of Martinique, she is set apart from the other black people of the region. As Antoinette describes, "Her songs were not like Jamaican songs, and she was not like the other women." The novel makes repeated reference to Christophine's headdress and clothing, which she styles "Martinique fashion," despite having lived and worked in Jamaica for many years. When Rochester arrives in Jamaica to wed Antoinette, he is repeatedly disoriented and paralyzed by his failure to understand Caribbean culture and custom. It is alienation that leads the characters of the novel to the destructive acts at its center. Annette, driven by her family's exclusion from white society, is driven to seek remarriage to the wealthy Mr. Mason, a union that ultimately brings about the tragic loss of her son, her home, and her sanity. The mob at Coulibri, angry at the disenfranchisement and exclusion that the Mason's opulent house symbolizes, is driven to commit the violence and arson that destroys Annette and Antoinette's family. Later in the novel, Daniel Cosway, the mixed-race, illegitimate child of Alexander Cosway, is obsessed with avenging his marginalized existence. His exclusion from the Cosway family leads him to write a series of letters to Rochester maligning Antoinette and her family. These letters disturb Rochester, and form the catalyst for his ultimate distrust and distaste for Antoinette. The consequences of alienation become both increasingly isolating as well as increasingly dire as the novel progresses. The tensions at the start of the novel are between groups, "us" vs. "them." Race and class difference leads an entire mob to burn down the house at Coulibri, and the family escapes damaged but together. Over the course of the novel, however, the family is drawn apart, and by the end, Antoinette is alienated even from herself. Rochester denies her even her own identity by repeatedly calling her "Bertha," and in her madness and captivity she speaks of "the ghost of a woman they say haunts this place," unaware that she is referring to herself. - Theme: Slavery and Freedom. Description: Freedom in the novel is double-edged and troubled. Its ideal is presented in stark contrast, again and again, to its reality. At the start of the novel, we see that the Emancipation Act of 1833 leaves discontent and violence in its wake. Mr. Luttrell, a white former slaveowner and neighbor to the Cosways, commits suicide after Emancipation, unable to adjust to the new social and economic landscape. At Coulibri, the local population of black former slaves is deeply angry. As Antoinette remembers at the start of the novel, "They hated us." Even the children threaten and enact violence on white people. A girl follows a young Antoinette singing, "White cockroach, go away, go away. Nobody want you." Antoinette's one-time friend Tia, a black girl, ends up hitting Antoinette in the head with a rock as the mob burns her family's house down. In Wide Sargasso Sea, freedom can mean abandonment or isolation, the fear of which leads many to enter complacently and sometimes even willingly into their own imprisonment. We see this with various black servants who elect or wish to stay on with their former slave masters, including, notably, one young boy who cries "loud heartbreaking sobs" because Rochester refuses to bring him to England to continue in his service. Of this boy, Antoinette tells Rochester, "He doesn't want any money. Just to be with you." This holds true for relationships as well. After Annette's marriage to Alexander Cosway, which was characterized by repeated infidelities, ends in his death, she becomes preoccupied with her isolation, referring to her new status as being "marooned," and enters into another marriage, to Mr. Mason, with restrictive and then disastrous results. When Antoinette's marriage to Rochester first begins to deteriorate, she imagines leaving him, and is urged by Christophine to "pack up and go," but does not. This decision leads to her literal imprisonment by Rochester. Even if it is violent and ultimately tragic, freedom is shown to be inevitable, the necessary path to redemption in the novel on both a societal and personal level. Oppression and imprisonment are unsustainable. Antoinette ends the novel and her life by setting fire to the house in which she is imprisoned by Rochester. Her narration ends with a sense of purpose and self-knowledge that she lacked in the rest of the novel. In reference to her own emancipating destruction, she says, "Now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do." This fire connects her to the angry mob that, in an act of protest against their own oppression, sets fire to her family's house early on in the novel. Both seek freedom in the flames. - Theme: Women and Power. Description: The female characters in Wide Sargasso Sea must confront societal forces that prevent them from acting for and sustaining themselves, regardless of race or class. The two socially accepted ways for a woman to attain security in this world are marriage and entering the convent. Marriage ends disastrously in most cases, especially for the Cosway women. Husbands have affairs, die, ignore their wives' wishes with tragic results, imprison them, take their money, drive them to madness. In Annette Cosway's case, her marriages destroy not only her life, but also her children's lives. Her first husband, Antoinette's father, carries on multiple affairs publicly, one of which yields a child, Daniel Cosway, who eventually has a hand in destroying Antoinette's happiness. When Alexander Cosway dies, he leaves the family destitute. Annette's second husband, Mr. Mason, ignores her pleas to move the family away from Coulibri, leaving them vulnerable to the attack that destroys their home, kills her son Pierre, and precipitates Annette's decline into madness. For Antoinette's part, it is clear that her marriage is for the financial benefit of Rochester, who sleeps with their servant Amelie within earshot of Antoinette while still on their honeymoon, and eventually imprisons Antoinette in the attic of his home in England. It is claimed in a letter from Daniel Cosway to Rochester that madness runs in the Cosway family, but for both Annette and Antoinette, their descent into madness is a direct result of the grief and desperation brought to them by their husbands. The nuns at the convent school, though seeming to be outside of this system, spend their lives training their female students to be respectable wives of wealthy men. The female characters who embody strength and agency are those who elect to remain outside of these structures. The most notable example is Christophine, a powerful and respected figure in her community. Other servants fear her, largely because of her expertise in obeah, a Caribbean folk magic, and Antoinette depends on her. Christophine tries to counsel Antoinette to protect herself and her fortune by telling her that "Woman must have spunks to live in this wicked world," and, "All women, all colours, nothing but fools. Three children I have. One living in this world, each one a different father, but no husband, I thank my God. I keep my money. I don't give it to no worthless man." There is also Aunt Cora, a widow who does not remarry. She is a relatively stable force in Antoinette's life, able to control her own health and movements, able to provide for Antoinette's childhood. She promises safety for the young Antoinette and follows through on it. Amelie, though a minor character, is also pivotal in demonstrating that power comes to women only outside of traditional marriage. She manipulates sex to exercise control over her employers, Antoinette and Rochester. After sleeping with Rochester, she receives money from him, and speaks of her plans to move to Rio to continue this tactic: "She wanted to go to Rio. There were rich men in Rio."Female independence is shown to be temporary, though. Women who do assert themselves outside of or in direct defiance of the system of marriage are ultimately thwarted by men in some significant way. It eventually comes out that Christophine is wanted by Jamaican law enforcement for her practice of obeah, and Rochester plans to turn her in. Even Aunt Cora is ignored when she attempts to persuade Richard Mason to secure Antoinette's inheritance, and she despairs to Antoinette, "The Lord has forsaken us." - Theme: Truth. Description: Wide Sargasso Sea is a revisionist novel, written to complicate and push up against the accepted truth of Antoinette or "Bertha" Cosway's character as it is put forth in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre—the archetypal "madwoman in the attic." The novel questions the very nature of truth in its premise, form, and content. Within the novel, truth is shown to be slippery at best, difficult if not impossible to recognize and trust. Every story has at least two competing versions. The narration itself is unstable, switching between the perspectives of Antoinette and Rochester, often giving the reader contradictory perspectives and opinions on the same characters and events. Daniel Cosway, in his letters to Rochester, provides a troubling version of the history of the Cosway-Mason family, at odds with Antoinette's narration, thereby injecting a third competing narrative. Cosway's version highlights Alexander Mason's depravity, and casts Annette, Antoinette, and Christophine as self-serving liars. Many of the characters' identities are forged in gossip and hearsay. Christophine, in particular, is a character with multiple backstories. When Rochester writes to Mr. Fraser inquiring about her, there are shown to be conflicting accounts of her whereabouts ("my wife insists that she had gone back to Martinique... I happen to know that she has not returned to Martinique") and even her name ("the woman in question was called Josephine or Christophine Dubois.") When Rochester decides to turn her in, he highlights the indeterminacy of her identity in the novel, "So much for you, Josephine or Christophine. So much for you, Pheena." Even Antoinette is not entirely sure of Christophine's abilities, and can only speculate at the scope of her obeah prowess. Rochester's interactions with Antoinette are also riddled with confusion about the truth. He tells her, "So much of what you tell me is strange, different from what I was led to expect," and in his narration remembers, "She was unsure of fact—any facts."Even the senses are not to be trusted. Vision plays tricks on people, and hallucinations abound. As a child, Antoinette cannot be sure whether she sees or imagines seeing feathers and chicken's blood, remnants of obeah rituals, in Christophine's room. While at Granbois, Rochester becomes lost in the woods and stumbles upon a paved road, where he frightens a child walking by. Later, he is assured that there was never a road there. Of Granbois and the mysterious instability of the senses that he experienced there, Rochester remembers, "it kept its secret. I'd find myself thinking, 'What I see is nothing—I want what it hides." Denial or madness are shown to be the two alternatives for dealing with the crushing and confounding nature of truth in the novel. Either a character can "turn her face to the wall," and deny the complexity and tragedy before them, as Christophine accuses Aunt Cora of doing, or go mad with grief, as Annette and Antoinette both do. Rochester ultimately takes the path of denial by imprisoning Antoinette, shutting her away forever rather than reconciling the truth of her nature and their marriage with what he'd expected, or been led to believe. Even Christophine finally retreats into denial, or refusal, when Rochester and Antoinette leave for England. Rochester offers, "You can write to her," to which Christophine replies, "Read and write I don't know. Other things I know," and walks away without saying goodbye. - Climax: - Summary: Antoinette Cosway, a creole, or Caribbean person of European descent, recounts her memories of growing up at her family's estate, Coulibri, in Jamaica in the 1830's. Her family, consisting of her mother, Annette, and her mentally disabled younger brother, Pierre, are destitute and isolated after her father's death and the passage of the Emancipation Act of 1833, which freed Jamaica's slaves. Annette becomes withdrawn and depressed, shunning Antoinette and talking to herself. Antoinette seeks refuge in the gardens and the company of her nurse Christophine, who is known for her practice of obeah, a voodoo-like folk magic. Antoinette has a short-lived friendship with a little black girl, Tia, until the two fall out over a bet while they're swimming, and Tia runs away with Antoinette's money and clothes. After seeing Antoinette in Tia's dirty dress, Annette resolves to lift the family out of poverty. She soon marries Mr. Mason, a wealthy Englishman. Mr. Mason has Coulibri completely renovated. The show of ostentatious wealth causes resentment in the neighboring village of poor ex-slaves. Annette and Aunt Cora, fearing retribution, urge Mr. Mason to move the family out of harm's way, but he ignores them. One night, a mob sets fire to the house at Coulibri. The family narrowly escapes, but Pierre is badly injured. Antoinette descends into a fever for six weeks. When she finally awakes, she learns that Pierre has died, and that her mother Annette is being kept at a convalescent house in the country. Antoinette goes to visit her, but finds her mother unrecognizable, mad with grief. Antoinette begins to attend an all-girl's convent school. The nuns there instill the values of chastity and good behavior in their students, and place a high premium on appearance. Antoinette is comforted by the routines of the convent, but fails to find faith or solace in prayer. After eighteen months, during which time Annette has died, Mr. Mason comes to visit her and informs her that he is taking her out of the convent school, implying that there is a suitor waiting for her. Antoinette has a recurring nightmare about a stranger leading her through the woods and up a flight of stairs. Part Two of the novel begins during Antoinette and her new husband's honeymoon, on the island of Granbois, near Jamaica. This section is narrated from the point of view of the husband, an unnamed Englishman who feels menaced by the strange landscape, language, and customs of the Caribbean. He distrusts the servants, particularly Christophine and the young and defiant Amelie. He has married Antoinette for her money, and sees her as a beautiful but unsettling stranger. The two spend afternoons swimming and nights making passionate love, until one day the husband receives a letter from Daniel Cosway, who claims to be Antoinette's half-brother, the product of an illicit relationship between her deceased father, Old Cosway, and one of his slaves. The letter warns the husband that madness runs in the Antoinette's family on both sides, relating rumors that both Antoinette's mother and father died "raving." Daniel Cosway insists that Antoinette's family, especially Richard Mason, deceived the husband when making the marriage arrangements. The husband does not mention this letter to Antoinette, but becomes distant and cold. Christophine leaves Granbois because of her dislike of the husband, which devastates Antoinette. Shortly after Christophine's departure, the husband gets lost in the woods and is sure he sees a 'zombi,' or the walking dead, near an abandoned house. He is finally found by Baptiste, the butler, who refuses to answer his questions about the house. The narration switches to Antoinette's point of view. She goes to Christophine's house to beg her to use obeah to make the husband love her again. Christophine refuses at first, advising Antoinette to act for herself. Antoinette eventually wears her down, though, and Christophine supplies her with a bottled liquid. The narration shifts back to the husband's point of view. He goes to see Daniel Cosway, who attempts to blackmail the husband into giving him 500 pounds. That night, the husband and Antoinette argue, and he demands to know the truth about her past. She tells him of Coulibri burning, Pierre's death, and her mother's descent into madness. It is revealed that her mother was sexually abused at her convalescent home. The husband begins to call her Bertha, which disturbs her. The two go to bed, and Antoinette hands him a glass of wine, after which point the husband loses all memory of the rest of the night. The next morning, he realizes that Antoinette has drugged him, and runs into the woods. When he returns, Amelie tends to him, and they sleep together. When he emerges from his room, Antoinette, who listened to their tryst from the next room, has fled the house. She returns with Christophine several days later. As a distraught Antoinette barricades herself in her room and drinks to excess, Christophine and the husband argue. When the husband threatens to go to the police and report her practice of obeah, Christophine, though outraged, has no choice but to relent. She leaves without saying goodbye to Antoinette. The husband decides that they must leave Jamaica. Antoinette is numb and silent on the day of their departure. The husband is overtaken with remorse, but the hatred between himself and Antoinette soon outweighs it. Part Three opens in the point of view of Grace Poole, Antoinette's caretaker in England. It is revealed that Antoinette is being kept against her will in the attic of the husband's house, in conditions that make Grace Poole uncomfortable, but she is paid twice what the other servants are for her silence. The narration switches to Antoinette's consciousness. She is unsure of where she is or how much time has passed. She often steals Grace Poole's keys and explores the rest of the house at night. One day, Grace Poole tells her that the night before she, Antoinette, was visited by Richard Mason and attacked him with a knife. Antoinette does not remember this. That night, she has her recurring nightmare for the last time. It is clear that the stairs she has dreamt of her whole life have led here. In this version of the dream, she takes a candle and sets fire to the house, sits out on the roof watching it burn while recalling the fire at Coulibri. In the dream, she hears the husband calling to her and jumps to her death. When she wakes, she is filled with a sense of purpose, lights a candle and descends into the house to act out her dream.

- Genre: Short Story - Title: Winter Dreams - Point of view: Third-person omniscient - Setting: Minnesota and New York City - Character: Dexter Green. Description: Dexter Green, the story's protagonist, begins the story as a class-conscious teenager in Black Bear, Minnesota, and Fitzgerald chronicles his maturation into a successful New York businessman. Despite this professional growth and achievement, Dexter doesn't mature emotionally until the end of the story when he realizes that his youth is gone. At first, Dexter is the middle-class son of a grocer in Black Bear, Minnesota who spends his summers working as a caddie at the Sherry Island Golf Club where he learns to model himself after wealthy members of the community. Despite his modest origins, he is eager to achieve wealth and social prestige—not only wanting to become an equal to those at the golf club, but also the equal of the Eastern elites who belong to old, well-established families. His social climbing leads him to attend university in the East, then to settle in New York after selling the chain of laundries he opened and operated in Minnesota. Throughout this journey, Dexter lusts after and falls in love with Judy Jones, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy club member. The two have an on-again-off-again relationship; after one break-up, Dexter becomes engaged to Irene Scheerer, but he breaks the engagement due to his obsessive love for Judy. Dexter loves Judy less for who she is than for the status she can offer with her great beauty and her family's wealth. When Dexter learns that Judy's beauty has faded, his "winter dream"—his illusion that money and proximity to the right kind of people can offer him security and happiness—also fades. - Character: Judy Jones. Description: – Judy, the beautiful daughter of the wealthy Mortimer Jones, is Dexter's obsessive love interest throughout the story. She first appears as a "beautifully ugly" eleven-year-old girl who tries to order Dexter around on the golf course and she transforms, in Dexter's eyes, into an "arrestingly beautiful" twenty-year-old woman. Judy, who has a reputation for promiscuity due to her serial dating of wealthy young men, begins dating Dexter (alongside many other men) after he becomes successful from his string of laundries. Though Dexter asks her to marry him and she agrees, Judy breaks her engagement and winds up marrying Lud Simms. Judy is carefree, direct, and self-possessed, which makes her irresistible to Dexter, but it also makes her unattainable. With Simms, she has children and becomes a housewife, but by the end of the story she has supposedly lost her looks and is miserable due to her husband's alcoholism and carousing. - Character: T.A. Hedrick. Description: Hedrick is one of the wealthy people who plays on the Sherry Island Golf Course in the summers, and one of Dexter's winter dreams is to defeat Hedrick in a game of golf. According to Dexter, has a reputation as a "good golfer," but Dexter changes his mind about this after playing a game with him. As an adult with increasing wealth, Dexter feels a "tremendous superiority" over Hedrick and considers him "a bore." While the men are searching for a lost golf ball, Hedrick is hit in the abdomen by one of Judy's balls. He is annoyed by Judy's presence on the course, both because she is a woman and because of her reputation for promiscuity. - Character: Mortimer Jones. Description: – A wealthy patron of the Sherry Island Golf Club and Judy's father. Jones takes particular interest in fourteen-year-old Dexter due to the boy's exceptional work as a caddie and he is upset to learn that Dexter intends to quit the job, though he does not know that his daughter was the cause of that decision. Dexter wants to be a man of Jones's caliber and he even has a fantasy of emerging "from a Pierce-Arrow automobile" and walking "frigidly into the lounge of the Sherry Island Golf Club" like Jones. - Character: Devlin. Description: A business associatewho visits Dexter in New York. Devlin is friends with Judy (whom Dexter has not seen in years), because he is best friends with her husband, Lud Simms. He casually mentions that Judy's beauty has faded and that she is in an unhappy marriage with Simms who "drinks and runs around." Unlike Dexter, Devlin never found Judy's beauty remarkable and, despite thinking her "a nice girl," he believes that she is inferior to Simms. - Character: Irene Scheerer. Description: – Dexter's fiancée whom Dexter describes as "light-haired and sweet and honorable, and a little stout." Unlike Judy, she quickly gives up her other suitors when Dexter asks her to marry him. Both she and her family are pleased with the engagement, which Dexter breaks off after sleeping with Judy. Though Irene is honorable, she is unexciting and Dexter feels that, while she offers security and domestic satisfaction, he does not feel for her the passion that he feels for Judy. - Character: Hilda. Description: The nurse who brings eleven-year-old Judy to the golf course the day she meets Dexter. She tries to enlist Dexter's help to teach Judy how to play golf, though he has already been assigned to another club member. Judy does not like that Hilda has told Dexter that she does not know how to play. In addition to her profession, Hilda's speech and absence of discretion reveal her to be of a lower social class. When they walk away from Dexter, Judy threatens to hit Hilda on the breast with a club. - Theme: Class Mobility and the American Dream. Description: "Winter Dreams" illustrates how social class defines people's lives, often with unfortunate results. Dexter Green, the story's protagonist, is a fourteen-year-old caddie and the son of a small-town Minnesota grocer. However, Dexter is determined to become one of the wealthy men for whom he works at the Sherry Island Golf Course. These ambitions are "dictated to [him] by his winter dreams." These "dreams" to possess "glittering things and glittering people" (the people and objects that he associates with being wealthy) are a metaphor for the American dream of economic success and social prestige. In the story, the American Dream, or the "winter dream," is an endless—and ultimately unfulfilling—pursuit based on external standards of success and happiness. Dexter's pursuit of his "winter dreams" compels him to model himself after wealthy people:  he views wealth as the only valid measure of success. Thus, it is significant that Fitzgerald begins the story by describing Dexter's position in the social hierarchy, indicating that this is the most important thing to know about him. Although Dexter is working as a caddie, he is careful to mention that the other caddies "were poor as sin and lived in one-room houses," whereas his father "owned the second best grocery-store" in Black Bear, Minnesota. Dexter provides this information because it is important to him that people know that his earnings are "pocket-money," and not a source of his family's income. Dexter notes that what separates his father's store from "The Hub"—the best grocery store in town—is that the latter is "patronized by the wealthy people from Sherry Island." Dexter's opening thoughts on class suggest that this is a community that operates according to a strict class hierarchy, and that, at least according to Dexter, the "best" things are those desired by the wealthy. This belief influences his decision to "pass up a business course at the State university" in favor of attending "an older and more famous university in the East" which costs much more. He associates the East with the world of "old money," firmly entrenched in American enterprise. As the son of a bohemian in the "new money" Midwest, Dexter thinks that the "old money" culture will legitimize him. However, Dexter never overcomes his obsession with hierarchy. Just as he was aware of his father's grocery being "the second best," he notices his relative poverty at the elite university. Therefore, Dexter's new experiences encourage him to "[reach] out for the best" or, to fit in among even wealthier people than those in Black Bear. Despite Dexter's notion that wealth makes one person better than another, Fitzgerald demonstrates that class affiliation has little to do with one's true nature and more to do with the self-image that person projects. For example, Dexter tries very hard to appear wealthy. He wears clothes from "the best tailors in America" because he is not yet confident enough in his social position not to worry about sending the wrong message to other members of his class. His projection of the image of a perfectly-tailored man is meant to disguise his mother's lowly, foreign origins. Furthermore, it is only Dexter's own inflating sense of superiority—rather than the vapidity of his performance of wealth—that gives him insight into the ways in which other wealthy people might not be as fabulous as he once thought. After achieving success with his laundry, Dexter recognizes T.A. Hedrick, the most prominent golfer on the Sherry Island Golf Course and a wealthy citizen, as rather mediocre at the sport and a "bore." Though he is not yet as wealthy as the others, Dexter feels a "tremendous superiority" over Hedrick who, due to Dexter's recent success, seems less impressive than before. However, Dexter's newfound ability to see through T.A. Hedrick does not make him question whether the more rarified forms of wealth and status that he seeks might be similarly vapid—Dexter's class obsession only allows him insight that puffs his ego, not insight that might readjust his priorities. Dexter's lack of self-awareness regarding his conflation of wealth with desirability is perhaps clearest when Judy Jones, Dexter's love interest, breaks up with a man because she finds out that he is poor. Instead of making Dexter wary of Judy or aware of his own shallowness, he only desires her more. He "frankly" informs her that he is "probably making more money than any man [his] age in the Northwest." This news "brought her closer to him, looking up into his eyes." Dexter's value is, thus, confirmed by Judy's willingness to look at him and to be pleased with him because she knows he is rich. Dexter is unbothered by her fickle relationships with other men, perhaps because they are all wealthy, which places him in good company. He has become someone Judy would desire—one of the "glittering people." In the end, like "the snow that hid the fairways of the golf course," Dexter's "winter dream" evaporates. After he learns that Judy's youth has faded and that she entered an unhappy marriage, he realizes that the "glittering things and glittering people" cannot sustain him. He can no longer retreat to them or to their memory to find something to care about. Thus, he cries for the first time in years, but only for himself and for the "thing" that was in him which "will come back no more." Fitzgerald's characterization of the dream and its loss suggests that Dexter never had a self-defined motivation, nothing outside of Judy and materialism, to give him purpose. - Theme: Gender and Ambition. Description: Judy Jones, the daughter of the wealthy Mortimer Jones, is introduced as an eleven-year-old with a "passionate quality" and a perceptible "spark" that Dexter immediately finds bewitching. However, her imperiousness on the golf course leads Dexter to quit his caddying job. His "winter dreams" remind him that he should not be taking orders from someone so young. After making his fortune in the laundry business, Dexter sees Judy again; she is now "arrestingly beautiful," but not known for much else. Interestingly, the reader knows nothing of Dexter's appearance, but only about his class background and his ambition. On the other hand, Judy is defined solely by her looks and how she uses them to her advantage. Fitzgerald's characterizations of Judy and Dexter illustrate the limitations of gender. While Dexter is able to channel his vitality into his business ventures, Judy's only hope is to use her allure to find a suitable husband. T.A. Hedrick, however, is contemptuous of Judy's tendency to turn her "big cow-eyes on every calf in town," a metaphor that overlooks the deliberateness of her actions. She turns her gaze on men to make them consider her for marriage—though she isn't quite sincere about her interest in them, having many suitors (and therefore many options for her future) makes tactical sense. It's clear, then, that Judy is planning for her future as deliberately (and some might say as cynically) as Dexter; however, Judy is criticized for this while Dexter is praised. Dexter hears about Judy's lover from New York—"the son of the president of a great trust company"—whom she jilts in favor of "a local beau" who does not bore her. Just as Judy is flighty and indifferent to her suitors, Dexter acknowledges that Irene Scheerer will not bring him happiness, but a "bushel of content." She offers domestic comfort—a prospect that he eschews in favor of another month of Judy's fickle passion. Like Judy's indifference for her "mournful" New York lover, Dexter, after telling Irene about his infidelity, recalls nothing "sufficiently pictorial about Irene's grief to stamp itself on his mind." Both consume people like objects, picking them up then discarding them at their whim. Fitzgerald shows that both Dexter and Judy share a "hard-minded" attitude borne from their respective ambitions for wealth and influence. When Judy marries Lud Simms, a prominent man from Detroit, she becomes a housewife who is treated carelessly by a man whom she loves. There is a cruel irony in this fate: Judy has secured the wealthy man whom she wanted, but is now treated with the indifference she had once inflicted on her beaus. When Devlin, a business associate, tells Dexter about Judy's marriage, Dexter seems both surprised and disappointed by the report that Judy "[s]tays at home with her kids" while her husband runs around. He is surprised because he had associated that careless behavior with Judy. Devlin insists that, despite Simms's running around, "they're not going to get divorced or anything" and that "she forgives him" when he's "particularly outrageous." This forgiveness mirrors Dexter's own habit of returning to Judy every time she treated him poorly. Her vulnerability reminds him of his own—not just that which he felt in the past, but also the vulnerability he still feels, despite all of his material acquisitions. The difference is that Judy has no other recourse than to be a wife and mother. While Dexter had the option to discard Irene, and then put his failed engagement with Judy out of his mind to focus on his business pursuits, Judy's business was to marry a man who could bring her wealth and prestige. - Theme: Dreams, Happiness, and Reality. Description: Dexter pursues his "winter dreams" as though they will come true exactly as he envisioned them at fourteen. While the dreams provide him with the drive to become successful, they never bring him happiness—if they come true, he is dissatisfied, and if they fail to materialize, he is unfulfilled. Therefore, for Dexter, happiness is always just out of reach. His inflexibility and his fixation on illusions of perfection prevent him from being satisfied with any aspect of his life. Over the course of the story, several of Dexter's winter dreams do come true. For example, he defeats T.A. Hedrick—the Sherry Island Golf Club's best athlete—during a game of golf, which he had fantasized about since he was fourteen. However, the win is less satisfying than he had imagined, since his very ability to defeat Hedrick seems to signal to Dexter that Hedrick was not a worthy opponent. Instead of relishing his victory, Dexter dismisses Hedrick as a poor golfer and begins looking towards his next challenge that he thinks will satisfy him by proving his worth. Dexter's constant reaching for the next rung of prestige and success is also evident in his college experience. His winter dreams dictate that he should go to a more famous university in the East instead of enrolling at a business course at the state university, as he originally intended. He is accepted to the school, which enables his dream of living among northeastern elites, but it's not enough—once there, he cannot help but compare himself to other students who are wealthier than he. Though his father's business is prospering and he is living a life about which he could once only fantasize, he is "bothered by his scanty funds." Despite that, time and time again, Dexter is dissatisfied by his dreams coming true, he never comes to understand that realizing his next goal might also leave him unfulfilled. In other words, Dexter is possessed by the dreams that remain unattained, obsessing over them rather than acknowledging reality and finding satisfaction with what is available to him. This is clearest in his relationship to Judy. Dexter wants to marry Judy because he thinks that she is the most beautiful girl in Black Bear. In his imagination, she is one of the "glittering people" he wants to become, and he thinks that, if he marries her, he will be happy. This erroneous belief causes Dexter to chase after her for most of his twenties, believing—despite all evidence to the contrary—that one day she will change her ways and commit to him. The destructive nature of this behavior is apparent when he breaks up with his fiancée, Irene, who is kind, wealthy, and stable. Though he finds Irene less exciting than Judy, he feels a "tranquility" with her that he knows could lead to domestic contentment. Despite this life being available to him, he throws it away to take one more chance with Judy, who then breaks up with him after a month. Dexter's inability to link his constant dissatisfaction with the pursuit of his winter dreams seems rooted in his fundamental inability to recognize happiness. During dinner at Judy's home, for instance, he is "disturbed" to find on her face a smile that has "no root in mirth, or even amusement." However, instead of understanding that this is a sign that something is wrong, her false smile only makes him want to kiss her. If Judy's own happiness is only a front, then it's delusional to think that marrying her would make Dexter happy. However, Dexter doesn't seem to distinguish between genuine happiness and the achievement of his dreams—he never considers what it would take to make himself, or anyone else, feel satisfied or fulfilled. Dexter's struggle to reconcile his illusions to reality, therefore, is a result of his dreams preventing him from noticing and appreciating reality. No wonder he is so shocked and broken at the end of the story when he learns that Judy is in an unhappy marriage and that her beauty has faded—he has always expected the world to conform to his vision, and when he learns that this expectation has always been a fantasy, he realizes how little he has. - Theme: Time, Progress, and Repetition. Description: Time in "Winter Dreams" moves according to two competing models: Fitzgerald juxtaposes a linear concept of time with a cyclical one. In the linear narrative, Dexter moves from Minnesota to the East Coast and becomes wealthy—his career progress, which occurs in tandem with his aging, is straightforward. However, Fitzgerald also uses the cyclical nature of time, depicted through the seasons, to tell the story of Dexter's lack of emotional maturation. From the moment he is introduced as an eager, ambitious teenager, Fitzgerald presents Dexter as someone in a perpetual cycle of hope and melancholy, nurtured by his "fleeting brilliant impressions of the summer at Sherry Island." This cycle is associated with Dexter's "winter dreams," which, like the winter season itself, are recurrent and cannot be captured or sustained. While Dexter's business career makes a linear progression, his psychological state is cyclical. He regularly returns to the island, both physically and in his imagination, until he "awakens" from his dream at the end of the story and realizes that he can no longer return. Winter is important to the narrative both structurally and symbolically. The story begins and ends in winter, which suggests that Dexter's journey from being an ambitious youth in Minnesota to a successful East Coast businessman (who is realizing the emptiness of his life) forms a natural cycle. When the story beings, Dexter describes "the long Minnesota winter" as something that "[shuts] down like the white lid of a box," leaving everything, particularly the golf course, covered in snow. Though it offends Dexter to see a site of so much activity become so "desolate," he eagerly skis over the course, which he can usually access only for work. At this moment, he feels a part of the rarefied world that the golf course represents, even though that world only truly exists in summer. Dexter's winter dreams, just like his relationship to the golf course in winter, seem delusional.   Indeed, at the end of the story (which occurs during another winter), Dexter must reckon with the fact that even though he has achieved tremendous success, his life will never be the one he imagined. He will always, in some sense, be skiing on the golf course in winter—that is, imagining himself to be a part of something that only exists in his imagination. This revelation that his winter dreams will not be fulfilled comes after he learns, once and for all, that he will never marry Judy. This is fitting, as Judy is associated with summer, which is the season when the members of the glamorous Sherry Island Golf Club flaunt their wealth, and also the season that first inspired Dexter's winter dreams. The first time Dexter sees Judy is during the summer, and he notices "a sort of glow…shining through her thin frame," as well as a "feverish warmth." Their subsequent romantic encounters occur only during the summer—when the weather cools, so do her passions, and when the warmth inevitably returns, so does she.  When Dexter last sees Judy, he describes her as a "slender enameled doll in cloth of gold." Years later, while contemplating the news of her decline, Dexter watches the evening sun "[sink] in dull lovely shades of pink and gold." The pink that he had seen in Judy's "feverish" cheeks and the "gold color" he had noticed on "her neck's soft down" have faded just like the day's sun, which parallels Dexter's acknowledgement that those summers have truly ended and his winter dreams are dead. Dexter cries then, not only because his realization marks the end of something warm and beautiful, but also because his awareness that he can never return to those summers—just as one cannot relive a day—means that time must march forward, toward eventual darkness. The sun, like Judy, had faded, leaving only the closed gates and "the gray beauty of steel that withstands all time." The gates refer to those that enclosed the golf club, but they also evoke images of the gates of cemeteries, as well as those which mark the entry to the after-life. Fitzgerald leaves the reader, then, with the awareness that time must move forward, while dreams are cyclical illusions—just as winter and summer cannot coexist, Dexter's winter dreams can never be his reality. - Climax: Devlin, a business associate from Detroit, tells Dexter that Judy is unhappily married and has lost her looks. - Summary: Fourteen-year-old Dexter Green is a caddie at the Sherry Island Golf Club, a popular summer destination for the wealthy citizens of Black Bear, Minnesota. Throughout the year, Dexter occupies himself with memories of previous summers at the club and looks forward to the next summer there. He is particularly lost in reverie during the Midwestern winters, which are long and dreary and leave the golf course covered in deep mounds of snow. His memories of summers at the club are often blended with "winter dreams," including fantasies of being a man as prominent as Mr. Mortimer Jones, but even more wonderful, and an even better golfer than the club's best athlete, T.A. Hedrick. One day, Dexter has his first conversation with Mr. Jones, after Jones learns that Dexter will quit caddying at the club. What Mr. Jones does not know is that Dexter is quitting due to an incident on the course with Jones's "beautifully ugly" eleven-year-old daughter, Judy Jones, which left Dexter feeling insulted. The narration skips ahead nearly a decade. Dexter has returned to the golf club, but he now is playing on the course. He left Black Bear to go to an "older and more famous university in the East," instead of the state university where he had expected to take "a business course." He returns home to open a small laundry, which he expands into a chain of laundries. This makes him, at twenty-seven years old, the owner of "the largest string of laundries in his section of the country." While on the golf course, he reunites with Judy who, according to Dexter, has grown into an "arrestingly beautiful" twenty-year-old woman. Through his golfing companion, T.A. Hedrick (with whom he is now unimpressed), he learns about Judy's reputation for promiscuity. Later that evening, while swimming in the lake, she comes upon him in her motor-boat and introduces herself. She invites him to dinner at her house the next evening, and Dexter envisions Judy in a glamorous evening gown with a butler presenting cocktails, though neither of these things happens. During dinner, Dexter talks about his years at university and his newly found wealth, which puts Judy at ease. She dismissed her last beau after finding out that he was poor. Judy decides rather quickly that she has fallen in love with Dexter and he returns her affections, but soon doubts her sincerity after seeing her go off with other men. Their relationship is characterized by moments of intense ardor followed by a cooling of affections. Dexter asks Judy to marry him. She half-heartedly accepts, then becomes involved with a New Yorker whom she promptly dumps. After Judy leaves town to travel, Dexter becomes engaged to someone else, Irene Scheerer, a "light-haired…sweet and honorable" girl whose family welcomes him. Still, he persists in thinking about Judy who "had treated him with interest, with encouragement, with malice, with indifference, with contempt." A week before announcing his engagement to Irene, he sees Judy again at a dance at the University Club. Her absence had allowed Dexter to believe that he could move on, but once he sees her again he is "filled with a sudden excitement." They leave the dance in her coupe and spend the night together. He quickly breaks his engagement to Irene to become engaged to Judy, a commitment that lasts only for one month. After several years of entertaining the possibility, he decides to sell his laundries and move to New York. His plans are briefly interrupted by the First World War, which he enters as an officer, but he finally moves back East. The narrative relates a final incident in Dexter's life which occurs when he is thirty-two. He has a visitor from Detroit, Devlin, a business associate who knows Judy, as he is best friends with her husband, Lud Simms. Judy moved to Detroit to be with Simms who "drinks and runs around," despite her and their children. Dexter is surprised by the news and even more surprised by Devlin's assessments of Judy – that she is too old for Simms and that her looks have faded. The knowledge is devastating and Dexter suddenly feels "[f]or the first time in his life…like getting very drunk." The destruction of his illusion of Judy, whom he saw as an emblem of great beauty and a representation of the rarefied social world that he had strived to join, results in the evaporation of his winter dream. He watches the sun set and, with the loss of the day, feels the loss of his youthful ideals, which no longer seem to matter.

- Genre: Fiction; Country noir; Southern Gothic - Title: Winter’s Bone - Point of view: Close third person perspective which tracks Ree Dolly. - Setting: Ozark Mountains, Missouri - Character: Ree Dolly. Description: The protagonist of the novel, sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly is the primary breadwinner for and caretaker of her family. Stubborn, resilient, and introspective, Ree is charged with the task of turning up her missing father Jessup, who some time ago put up as his bail bond the house and land where Ree, her mother Connie, and her younger brothers Sonny and Harold live. Ree's father's court date is approaching, and if he does not show himself, the land will be repossessed. Ree's journey to find her father becomes one not only of self-discovery, but of uncovering an entire network of violence, decadence, and secrecy throughout the Ozark underworld. Ree makes a name for herself in Rathlin Valley through her struggles with the neighboring Thump clan of Hawkfall, some of whose members may or may not be involved in her father's disappearance. - Character: Sonny Dolly. Description: Ree's younger brother, a tough and hostile boy. He is ten years old, but already has a sense of responsibility and initiative, and is often shown to be itching to prove his maturity. He offers to get into fights on Ree's behalf, and is eager to learn how to shoot and scrap. His true father is Blond Milton, one of Ree's cousins. - Character: Jessup Dolly. Description: Ree's father, a well-known crystal meth cook. Though he is not physically present in the novel, his absence drives the narrative. Before the start of the novel, in order to get himself out of jail after a recent incarceration—presumably for cooking methamphetamine—Jessup put up as his bond his house and land, a vast swath of ancient, valuable timber woods. It's eventually revealed that Jessup was murdered for betraying other meth cooks to the police, and the gruesome exhumation of his corpse by Ree and the Thump women is the emotional climax of the book. - Character: Uncle Teardrop. Description: Ree's uncle and Jessup's brother, nicknamed Teardrop for the teardrop prison tattoos on his face. A fearsome figure and crystal meth cook, Teardrop seems at first to be the novel's antagonist. His violent demeanor and physical disfigurement (the result of a meth lab explosion) intimidate Ree, but as the hunt for her father intensifies and she finds herself delving deeper and deeper into the increasingly dangerous underworld of the Ozarks, Teardrop becomes her ally and protector. - Character: Gail Lockrum. Description: Ree's best friend from high school, forced to drop out after becoming pregnant. Gail is Ree's ally and confidante, and helps her with both her hunt for her father and with the care of her younger brothers. Gail's constant struggles against her cheating husband, Floyd, bring her closer to Ree—she lives with her for a time, though Gail eventually returns to her husband's home when Ree's troubles with the neighboring Ozark clans escalate, and she fears for the safety of her son. - Character: Merab. Description: Thump Milton's wife and the leader of a violent attack against Ree; she eventually brings Ree to her father Jessup's body. Merab is tough but practical, and though her actions are brutal, the logic behind them is, to her, clear as day. Her devotion to her husband, to protecting the "old ways," and to the preservation of her own reputation are all staunch and unmovable. In many ways, the only match to her stubbornness and allegiance to her clan is Ree herself. - Character: Blond Milton. Description: A member of Ree's extended family, he brings her to a long-ago-exploded meth lab in an attempt to deceive her into believing her father died there. Later, he offers to take in one of Ree's younger brothers in order to lessen the burden upon her, an offer she vehemently refuses due to his involvement with the drug trade. - Theme: Silence and Secrets. Description: Winter's Bone follows Ree Dolly's epic journey through the Ozarks in search of an answer to her missing father Jessup's whereabouts; he's on the run from the law, and has put up as his bond his family's house and timber woods. If Ree is unable to turn him up by the date of his scheduled appearance in court, the Dolly family home will be repossessed, leaving Ree, her silent, mentally ill mother Connie, and her two young brothers Sonny and Harold with nowhere to go. Ree makes her way through the physically desolate and economically isolated landscape of the Ozark mountains, encountering a labyrinthine network of increasingly distant relatives who consist of crank (meth) cookers, drug dealers, and powerful, shadowy figures. Each member of her extended family whom she encounters warns Ree against seeking the truth, and advises her to stay close to home and out of trouble. The secrets that keep the communities within the Ozarks alive and functioning are the selfsame secrets that stand to tear them apart. Ree's defiance of the veil of secrecy over the Ozarks and her journey toward understanding disrupts a longstanding, seemingly ironclad pattern of hidden, unspoken things and brings to light—for everyone she encounters—the true consequences of silence and the effect it has created throughout the Ozark community. "Talkin' just causes witnesses," says Thump Milton's wife Merab when Ree first requests an audience with him. The Thump clan frightens Ree, but soon we learn that they, in turn, are frightened of her and what she represents: a thirst for understanding, a new way of communicating, and a bringing to light of the dark and dangerous inner workings of their family's business. Daniel Woodrell, an Ozark native and the author of Winter's Bone, is clearly demonstrating something in the novel about the cycle of silence in rural communities. By choosing as his main character a young girl, Ree, who is (though tough, self-sufficient, and in many ways wise beyond her years) seemingly in a lowered position of power, Woodrell is forcing readers to challenge their perceptions of what and who can act as an agent of change in parts of the country that are governed by an ancient, esoteric kind of law. It's revealed, eventually, that Ree's father Jessup was murdered because he snitched—he betrayed his own, and was killed for his breach of the silence that keeps the Ozark crank operation running just out of sight of the law. Though Ree is indeed an agent of change in her community, it's implied that there are some traditions that will never be broken and some breaches of custom that will never go unpunished. Ree's horrifying exhumation of Jessup's corpse at the novel's end is an unforgettable focal point in the narrative, showing the lengths the community is willing to go to preserve its secrets and hidden workings. Yet at the same time, this literal uncovering of the physical evidence of a secret suggests that a change or a break in the cycle of silence at last seems possible. - Theme: Family, Destiny, and Inheritance. Description: Family is paramount in the Ozark community of Woodrell's novel—blood ties are shown to carry a weight that is at various turns burdensome, protective, and redemptive. Ree Dolly clings to the idea that blood is "s'posed to mean somethin'," to provide her with leverage and immunity against those who might otherwise harm her, her mother, or her brothers. Ree knows that she is bound inextricably to her family, and that her future, as well as her brothers', will be determined by the bonds of loyalty and duty that define the Dolly clan. Ree even tells the bondsman, Mike Satterfield, who comes looking for her father that she is a Dolly, "bred and buttered." The idea that being a Dolly denotes a certain set of values—independence, resilience, loyalty—is one that Ree holds on to, and one that she knows the locals and the law know well, too. Ree teaches her younger brothers Sonny and Harold how to make deer stew, how to shoot a gun, and how to hunt for squirrels to use as meat. She is desperate, at times, to pass onto them the bits of knowledge that might mean the difference between life and death in the event of her disappearance, ailment, or absence. The idea that they stand only to inherit what Ree can give to them weighs heavily on her, and deepens the atmosphere of dark destiny that seeps through the novel. The boys and men of the Dolly clan, Ree knows, are named at birth for what their roles within the family will be. In order to keep out of sight of the law, and to confuse those who might attempt to harm, trespass, or "keep accounts" against the Dolly clan, the overwhelming majority of men born into the family are named, over and over again, either Milton, Haslam, Arthur, or Jessup. "To have but a few male names in use," Woodrell writes, "was a tactic held over from the olden knacker ways." Each first name serves as a sort of code for what the man's role in the clan will eventually be, and what duties will fall to him. "Some names," Ree observes, "could rise to walk many paths in many directions, but Jessups, Arthurs, Haslams, and Miltons were born to walk only the beaten Dolly path." Ree wants for her brothers to be able to live lives free of crime and duty, able to "rise" to meet new paths. Their inheritance, though, of a tradition of dangerous and nefarious "bloodline customs" becomes more palpable to Ree with nearly every passing day, and as the threat of the repossession of her home and her land looms larger and larger. As Ree's journey into the heart of the Ozarks stretches on, she is confronted with the dark side of unquestioned loyalty; there are costs to living in this world, and Ree learns them when she pursues information from the secretive, volatile Thump clan. In the wake of her attack at their hands, Ree's loyalty to her own family—her mother and her brothers—does not waver, but the sense that the bonds of loyalty between Dollys, Thumps, and the other clans that make up the Ozark landscape is more of a prison than a safety net sharpens in Ree's mind. At the end of the novel, the surprise of the surplus bond money and the promise it holds seems to be an opportunity for Ree to break the cycle of dark destiny and dangerous inheritance that's imprisoned her family for centuries. - Theme: Violence and Decay. Description: From the meat carcasses swinging low on the branches of the Dolly family's timber woods at the start of the novel to Ree's sickening encounter with her father Jessup's corpse at its end, decay defines the atmosphere of Winter's Bone. Woodrell painstakingly shows his readers time and time again how the environment's physical destitution reflects the emotional voids his characters experience due to a lack of stability, lack of trust in one another, and lack of hope for a better future, both economically and emotionally. The physical decay Woodrell describes directly reflects the intense moral decay that blights Ree's world, and physical injuries characters suffer are similarly used to illustrate those characters' injured internal states as well. Ree's Uncle Teardrop, a complicated moral figure throughout the novel, is disfigured from a meth lab explosion, and is covered in prison tattoos. His compromised physical form reflects the consequences of his dangerous and morally shaded past. When Ree is beaten by the Thump women, her injuries are described in mortifying detail; two of her teeth are knocked out, one of her eyes is swollen shut, and she soils herself out of fear. Readers are confronted with an image of Ree that directly reflects her internal state; she is exhausted, beaten down, and completely at the mercy of the shadowy figures that comprise her rural community. Ree helping to sever Jessup's hands from his bloated, pond-sunk corpse is easily the most horrifying image in the novel. Merab Thump and her sisters, in the wake of their beating Ree, recognize that their reputations have been tarnished by "upset talk" traveling through the Ozarks. In exchange for her continued silence, the Thump women offer to take Ree to her "Daddy's bones." They bring Ree to a frozen lake, cut through the ice, and tell her to reach down for his body; when she does, they sever his hands ("flecks of meat and wet bone hit Ree in the face" as they do) so that Ree can bring his hands to the police as evidence of Jessup's death, and can keep her home and land. Ree's having to be complicit in the mutilation of her own father's corpse for her own benefit, and that of her family, is both physically and emotionally grotesque. It represents a point of no return—though in finding her father's body Ree is able to uncover a secret and obtain both closure and freedom for herself, her mother, and her brothers, she has had to succumb to the influence of the cyclical violence and horror that permeates her homeland in order to do so. - Theme: Isolation and Independence. Description: The physical, psychological, and emotional atmosphere of Winter's Bone is one of extreme desolation. The cold valleys and ramshackle hillside compounds that the characters inhabit are cut off from much of what traditional readers would consider "civilization." A trip Ree makes to a nearby grocery store is one of the few times we see her in the public sphere; her life is almost entirely enveloped in the remote and the rural. Because of this, Ree, her family, and the other clans who make their homes in the Ozarks have a fiercely independent worldview that excludes and rejects almost everything and everyone outside of their insular community. Woodrell creates this atmosphere in order to display the conditions necessary for the persistence of the cyclical way of life that the Ozark clans cling to and inherit from one another. An isolated community is one that must protect its own in order to ensure its survival. It is a community that demands isolation in order to maintain its independence from the rest of the world. That isolation is not just physical, but also economic and emotional. And yet, Woodrell makes clear in his portrayal of this community that such staunch adherence to the principle of indpendence, and the isolation required to maintain that principle, ultimately harms the community itself. "Never ask for what ought to be offered," Ree warns her younger brother Harold in the opening pages of the novel. These words define Ree's worldview from the outset—she is dependent on the other members of her family, but is also proud, strong, and reluctant to ask for help lest she make herself appear weak and incapable of making do, or, worse, revealing to the stronger, more wily members of her family a weakness that might be exploited or preyed upon. Though this is a network of families that rely on each other and, for the most part, take a certain kind of care of one another, there's a ruthlessness and a dog-eat-dog mentality to the Ozark clans. Ree understand this nature of her community abstractly at the start of the novel, but as the novel progresses and her search for her father brings her in contact with other extended family members she comes to understand it more concretely. Sonya, one of Ree's cousins, brings her and her siblings a box of goods early on in the novel; later, Teardrop and Victoria give Ree money; everyone Ree visits offers her drugs. There's the sense that there's a very specific kind of symbiosis in this community. Favors and goods are given and traded, but always with a price, or always as a stand-in for what should be offered—in Ree's case, information or help in finding her father. Ree's independent nature and need to prove herself make her strong and also make her vulnerable. At just sixteen, she is the primary provider for her younger brothers and her sick mother Connie. She is both too proud and too fearful to allow herself to become indebted to her extended family, however, and so her burden deepens and worsens the more she isolates herself from them. Ree's predicament is thus a microcosm of the larger predicament of the Ozark community as a whole. - Theme: Women and Matriarchy. Description: At the heart of Winter's Bone is the question of who, truly, is in charge of the Ozark underworld. While it seems at first that men are the ones in power in the Dolly clan and the clans that comprise their many extended relations, it becomes clearer to the reader as the novel progresses that the women, too, wield a quiet and dangerous power. Ree is, for all intents and purposes, the matriarch of her own family, and mother-figure to her younger brothers. She is strong, capable, and independent. She is a survivalist, and her headstrong ways both help and harm her as the novel unfolds. On the one hand, she knows the fearsome power and dangerous doings that define much of her extended family; on the other, she is desperate to save herself, her mother, and her brothers, and she wants, in some ways, to break the cycle of silence and male domination that surrounds her. By going into the homes of people who frighten her, of people who don't take her seriously, and of people who intend to mislead, deceive, and even harm her, Ree proves her strength and worth. It's Thump Milton's wife, Merab, and her sisters who perpetrate the violent attack against Ree that forms a huge part of the novel's emotional climax. And it is the Thump women, too, who eventually bring Ree to the frozen pond where Jessup's body lies buried beneath the ice. The women in Winter's Bone are agents both of the most devastating violence against Ree and, in the end, the greatest service to her. The double-edged power that the Thump women possess speaks to Woodrell's vision of a community so entrenched in its customs and traditions that it's unable to see the ways in which things actually unfold, and which individuals are actually the arbiters of action, vengeance, justice, and even charity. In choosing for his main character a young woman, Woodrell creates a protagonist who seems to have the odds stacked against her, but who rises to meet her fate with a kind of courage and resolve not demonstrated by any other character in the novel—especially any of the men. By the novel's end, Ree has made herself not just known, but both unforgettable and sympathetic to several members of her extended family. She cements her place as a provider and an agent of change when she brings Jessup's hands to the law and, in return, is allowed to keep her home and her land. The novel ends on a note of hope, as Ree tells her younger brothers that she plans to use the extra bond money given to her to procure a set of "wheels," a literal vessel—a vehicle—that might give her mother, her brothers, and herself all an opportunity for movement and freedom such as they've never seen or experienced. - Climax: Ree's relatives lead her to an icy pond where her father's body lies frozen in the water. - Summary: Deep in the Ozark mountains of Missouri, Ree Dolly and her family live in an old house on the edge of a sprawling timberwood. Though they have fallen on hard times and food and comfort alike are scarce, Ree takes dutiful care of her two younger brothers, Harold and Sunny, and her mother, Connie, who is "medicated and lost to the present." One morning, amidst heavy snow, a deputy from the sheriff's department—Baskin—arrives at Ree's house to inform her that her father, Jessup—a "half-famous crank chef" is missing just a week ahead of his upcoming court date. Baskin tells Ree that her father has put the house and timber acres up for his bond, and that unless he turns up in time for his arraignment, Ree and her family will lose both their house and their property. Ree assures the deputy that she will find her father. Ree decides to start her search by going to her uncle Teardrop, also a crank chef, "though he scare[s] her." He and his wife Victoria live just a few miles away, and Ree visits them and expresses her dire need to "run [her father] to ground." Teardrop tells Ree that it's Jessup's choice whether or not to show up, and advises her to stop her search. When Ree presses him further, he grabs her by the hair and shakes her, then retreats to his room. Victoria follows, and emerges with fifty dollars. She gives it to Ree, and warns her once again to stay close to home. Ree visits her best friend, Gail Lockrum, who dropped out of high school and married a local boy named Floyd; together, Gail and Floyd have an infant son named Ned. Ree asks to use Gail's husband's truck in order to follow up on a lead—she needs to get to the Arkansas border to visit April, one of her father's old girlfriends—but when Gail asks her husband, Floyd, for permission, he refuses. The next day, Ree hitches her way to Hawkfall, a village where some of her distant relatives live. When she arrives, a young woman, Megan, emerges from one of the homes. Ree asks after Little Arthur, an acquaintance of her father's. At Little Arthur's, Ree asks after her father, and Arthur deflects, claiming that he hasn't seen Jessup in nearly a year; Arthur flirts with Ree and offers her crank and weed. After she refuses, he tells her to leave. Megan tells Ree to go up the hill and talk to Thump Milton, who will surely know her father's whereabouts, though Megan warns Ree that Thump Milton "scares" her, and that he may not even agree to talk. When Ree arrives at Thump Milton's home, his wife Merab turns her away. Ree implores Merab to give her a chance, invoking their distant blood ties. Merab goes into the house, and, when she emerges again "after most of an hour," tells Ree that Thump Milton refuses to see her. Ree, indignant, shouts loudly at Thump Milton from outside of the house. Merab sends her away with a warning not to return. Ree returns home, where her cousin, Blond Milton, is waiting for her. Angered, he tells Ree that people throughout the Ozarks are talking about her, telling each other of her ill-advised hunt for Jessup. Blond Milton drives Ree to the ruined shell of an exploded meth lab, which he claims was Jessup's last-known whereabouts. Ree notes that the meth lab is full of "chin-high" weeds, and thus a false lead. At home, Ree teaches her brothers how to fire a shotgun, having realized that they may need to be able to defend themselves sooner than she'd imagined. While in the middle of a lesson, Gail shows up, her son in tow, revealing that she has obtained the keys to her in-laws' truck. She offers to drive the two of them, plus the baby, down to the Arkansas border to visit April. When the girls arrive at her home, April relays a story about Jessup that frightened her; though she doesn't know his current whereabouts, she remembers having seeing him in a bar just a few months ago. He was in the company of a group of unsavory characters, April says, and he refused to recognize her in order to "protect" her. On the drive home, Ree thinks that she sees her father's car on the road; she implores Gail to follow it, but they lose sight of it. The next day, Gail shows up at Ree's house; her husband, upset that she stayed out so late, took their baby to his parents' house and kicked Gail out. Ree takes Gail in, happy to have her. Ree teaches her brothers to hunt and skin squirrels. The three of them and Gail eat heartily, and Ree falls asleep peacefully on the couch. She wakes to find Teardrop standing over her. He tells her that the authorities found Jessup's burnt car earlier that morning, but that he wasn't in it. Teardrop gives Ree some more money; Jessup was due in court earlier, and didn't show. He advises Ree to sell off the timber acres while she still can, and offers her crank once again. She refuses, and he leaves. Gail's husband arrives with their baby and asks Gail to come home. Gail chooses to stay at Ree's, and her husband leaves the baby with her. The next day, a bondsman, Mike Satterfield, arrives at Ree's home. Ree assures the bondsman that if her father missed his court date, he must be dead. The bondsman tells Ree that she has about thirty days left before her home and land is repossessed, and that there is nothing more she can do to reclaim them unless she can prove to the authorities that Jessup is dead. Despite Gail's warning not to, Ree returns to Hawkfall, to Thump Milton's house. She knocks on the front door, and Merab and two other women emerge and begin to beat Ree mercilessly. When Ree regains consciousness, she is being held in a barn, with many members of the Thump clan, including Megan, around her. Thump Milton approaches Ree, and she begs him for help in proving that her father is dead. Her words are met with silence. The sound of a truck pulling up the drive can be heard; it is, the bystanders say, Teardrop's truck. The Thumps agree to release Ree to Teardrop as long as he agrees to "stand for her." He does, and she is released to him. On the drive home, Teardrop tells Ree that she "owns" him—if she continues to "do wrong, it's on [him.]" Teardrop reveals that Jessup "turned snitch" after being caught in another bust. Jessup leaked information to the deputy Baskin about the Dolly clan's rivals. Teardrop claims that he suspects one or two men in Jessup's murder, but that he can't ever know who—and he implores Ree to never let him know who is responsible for Jessup's death, as "that'd just mean I'll be toes-up myself soon," he tells her. Back at home, Gail and the women of Rathlin Valley tend to Ree's horrific wounds and soothe her with the help of painkillers. Over the course of the next several days, Ree begins to recover, though she still frets endlessly about how to prove Jessup's death and regain her claim on her home and her land. She tells Gail that she plans to bring her mother to a hospital and "leave her on the steps," then "beg" Victoria and Teardrop to take her younger brother Harold in. Gail tells Ree that she needs to return home to her husband for the sake of her child's safety and happiness. Ree offers to sell the timber acres to Gail and Floyd; "if I've got to sell these woods," she tells her, "I'd want it to be you'n yours." Eventually the Thump women visit Ree, and tell her that they are going to "fix [her] problem for [her.]" Ree is angry and distrustful, but the Thump women point out that Ree has no better option, and no choice but to trust them. They "need to put a stop to [the] upset talk" they've heard spreading through the Ozarks, they say, and they tell Ree that they will take her to her father's "bones." The Thump women drive Ree, with a bag over her head, to a frozen pond, bring her out into it in a small boat, and tell her to crack the ice, reach down, and find her father's body. Merab tells Ree that she needs to saw off Jessup's hands so that the law will know he is dead. The Thump women help Ree to sever Jessup's hands, as Ree imagines that she is far away, "on a distant tranquil shore." Deputy Baskin is called, and he comes for the hands the next morning. Ree tells him that "somebody flung 'em on the porch." After Baskin departs, Ree tells her younger brothers that their father is dead, and the three of them start to clean out his shed. Teardrop arrives, and he offers to "scare up" some money for Ree. She tells him she "won't touch crank," but he tells her that there are other things she can do to earn money, if she'll agree to do them. Satterfield, the bondsman, arrives, and Ree lets him in. He hands her a blue sack, "fat with crinkled bills," and tells her that it belongs to her. He tells her that a man with no name posted what remained of Jessup's bond in cash—the home and land was not enough. What's left of the bail now belongs to Ree. Satterfield leaves, and Teardrop tells Ree that he knows now who is responsible for Jessup's death. Ree embraces him, and he leaves. Harold and Sonny ask Ree if the money means she will "go away," and she assures them that she won't. They ask her what they'll buy with the money, and Ree answers them definitively: "Wheels."

- Genre: Southern Gothic Novel - Title: Wise Blood - Point of view: Third person, following the perspective of various characters - Setting: Taulkinham, Tennessee - Character: Hazel 'Haze' Motes. Description: A young soldier returning from the war, whose whole family has died, leaving him alone in the world. He was raised in a very religious family – his grandfather was a country preacher – but he has grown to reject all religion as false, and is angered by the vision of sin and redemption that it offers. Hazel is odd, lonely, fierce, and proud, and is constantly being mistaken for a preacher. Part of this is because he always wears the same severe-looking hat. In Taulkinham Hazel meets Enoch Emory and becomes fascinated and then disgusted with the blind preacher Asa Hawks, founding the Church Without Christ as a protest against Hawks and his daughter, Sabbath Lily. Hazel seems to be always trying to escape his religious calling, albeit unsuccessfully. - Character: Enoch Emory. Description: Enoch is an eighteen-year-old boy, a newcomer in Taulkinham, and desperate for friendship and human connection. He is animalistic in his approach to life, invested in rituals that indulge in the baser side of humanity – insulting people, lusting after women, eating sugary food, and interacting with the animals at the zoo where he works. He is a deeply instinctual outsider, tortured by certain parts of his past and driven by his "wise blood" to perform actions over which he seemingly has no control. He latches onto Hazel as a friend and guiding force. - Character: Sabbath Lily Hawks / The Young Girl. Description: The teenaged daughter of Asa Hawks, Sabbath helps her father in his begging and preaching ventures, fully knowing that he is a fraud. She decides early in the novel to seduce Hazel, and turns out to be more wily and experienced than he realizes at first. She is fascinated with children, telling multiple short parables about unwanted or dangerous children. - Character: Asa Hawks / The Blind Man. Description: The father of Sabbath Lily Hawks, he earns money begging as a blind preacher, but is in fact a fraud. The scars on his face are from a real event, at which he had promised to blind himself for Jesus, but he lost his nerve before he could put any of the dangerous lime into his eyes. Hazel becomes obsessed with this dark figure, who claims, correctly, that he (Hazel) will never be able to escape from Jesus. - Character: Mrs. Flood. Description: The landlady at the boarding house where Asa Hawks and Sabbath Lily Hawks have a room, and where Hazel moves in upstairs. The final chapter is told from her perspective, recounting her developing relationship with the injured Hazel, through the moment when Mrs. Flood asks Hazel to marry her. She doesn't believe much in religion, but is eager to make sure that she is not being cheated in any way by people who seem to see something she doesn't. - Character: Onnie Jay Holy/Hoover Shoats. Description: A scam artist and former radio preacher, he attempts to partner with Hazel to make money by founding the Holy Church of Christ Without Christ. When Hazel reveals that the "new jesus" is only a figure of speech, Hoover hires Solace Layfield to impersonate Hazel as the Prophet in his church, and runs a rival operation across the street from where Hazel is preaching. - Character: The Policeman. Description: A policeman who pulls Hazel over as he is on his way away from Taulkinham. The policeman tells Hazel that he pulls him over because he doesn't like his face. He tricks Hazel into driving his car to the top of a hill, and then pushes it off over the embankment. - Theme: Religious Belief, Redemption, and Sin. Description: Religion is at the core of O'Connor's novel, as Hazel Motes struggles against the belief he was born into, and Enoch follows his own strange mysteries, investing faithfully in private rites and rituals.Raised by a preacher, Hazel believed that he would become a preacher himself, but after time abroad in the war he became an impassioned atheist. Now Hazel struggles against that faith, a struggle that is both external (he aggressively struggles against Christians and preachers he encounters) but also internal, as he is never entirely able to escape the Christian tradition into which he was born. He struggles against it, he denies it, but it still defines him. Hazel even goes on to found the Church Without Christ as a protest against the work of street preacher Asa Hawks, with whom he becomes obsessed.Hazel is constantly being mistaken for a preacher, an impression that is reinforced by his suit and hat, as much as his serious air. His frustrated denial of any religious affiliation is received with simple disbelief by his cab driver, and with smiling dismissal by Leora Watts. Hazel's over-the-top anger at these constant misunderstandings suggest that he is fleeing a spiritual calling that is somehow visible to those around him, but which he refuses to recognize. O'Connor fills Hazel's landscape with evangelizing signs promoting Christianity and religious symbols, from hand-painted rocks to the image of the Madonna and Child formed by Sabbath Hawks cradling the shrunken corpse that Enoch steals from the museum. These signs chip away at his resolve, driving him into a rage. Hazel is most passionately opposed to the idea that men are all born with sin, and can only be redeemed through a belief in Jesus. He argues at multiple points in the novel that everyone is clean, denying the existence of sin and asking his listeners to point to where, exactly, the redeeming blood of Jesus has touched them, denying the existence of any redemption that is not physically present in the here and now. At the same time, Hazel is clearly very deeply affected by a sense of inner guilt, and feels the need to repent with physical self-harm when he has done something wrong – a feeling that began when he found his way into an erotic sideshow at a local fair as a child, and later walked a mile in rock-filled shoes to redeem himself. At the novel's conclusion, it is revealed that Hazel has been silently punishing himself by wearing barbed wire beneath his shirt, presumably repenting for the murder he commits earlier in the novel, when he runs down the man hired to by Onnie Jay Holy as his imposter in a car. He tells Mrs. Flood, his landlady, that he is "unclean," something that he has violently denied throughout he novel. This leaves the reader to question whether he has finally given in to the religious fate – the deep spiritual consciousness of sin, guilt, and redemption - that has followed him from childhood. Enoch displays signs of faith as well, although not in a strictly Christian sense; he invests heavily in ritual and shows a reverence for the "purpose of things," going about his days in a way that feels almost sacramental. He has an unshakeable, mystical belief in the 'new jesus,' a small, shrunken corpse that he steals from the city's museum, and a deep, fearful appreciation for everything that he doesn't understand. Ultimately, O'Connor's novel seems to endorse a type of Christianity – personal, intense, uncompromising – that is tortuously difficult, if not impossible, to come to in today's shallow world. - Theme: Free Will vs. Destiny. Description: Although Hazel tries to assert his free will by escaping religion, his destiny seems to be tied irreversibly to belief and the life of a preacher, which finds him wherever he goes. Enoch, too, is driven by a sense of destiny that he thinks of as the calling of his 'wise blood,' although he too tries to fight against it in certain moments, also without success. Both characters seem driven by the accumulation of events outside of their control into the murders they commit, which raises the question of responsibility. Are we in control of our actions? Can we be evil – or good – without free will?Hazel's quest for freedom is symbolized most fully by his car, which represents mobility, control, and independence. But of course, it is perpetually broken down, comically denying Hazel the free will he craves. After he finally gives in to Sabbath's romantic advances, his desperate urge to escape from her the next morning is driven by the hope that his car provides him – but this hope proves futile when his sickness prevents him from leaving. The fact that his car then becomes the murder weapon suggests that Hazel is, in fact, responsible for the murder of Solace Layfield, the sickly impostor hired by 'Onnie Jay Holy' to impersonate him, since his car represents his will. Later, the moment when Hazel's car is pushed to its destruction by the smiling police officer triggers his final collapse into his religious 'destiny,' as he becomes a silent ascetic, punishing himself physically in secret for the sins he has committed. The police baton that finally ends his life, almost accidentally, is in some ways another emblem of fate – he had tried, one last time, to exercise his free will in escaping the marriage proposal of his landlady, Mrs. Flood, and this senseless death serves as a final punishment for that search for freedom. Enoch has been assailed, since childhood, with the voice of his 'wise blood,' which drives his actions even when he attempts to disobey, often leading him into situations he would rather avoid, like Jonah in the whale, brought to Ninevah against his will. There is a suggestion here that Enoch suffers from some sort of mental illness, which again raises questions about his level of responsibility for the impulsive (and destructive) choices that he makes. The reader witnesses his struggle to avoid the calling of his 'wise blood,' to exercise his free will, and also sees his will collapse in small and then larger ways, as his 'destiny' draws him to movies he would rather not see, and then, escalating in intensity, on to the murder of Gonga the Gorilla. Ultimately, O'Connor's novel presents two characters whose struggle to preserve their free will in the face of the force of destiny fails, with disastrous results. What value there is to be found in Hazel's final, saint-like state suggests that the goal of man should be a stoic resignation to the forces of fate. - Theme: Instinct and the Animal. Description: The novel's treatment of its two main characters, Hazel and Enoch, illustrates a classic divide between the spiritual and the animal sides of humanity. While Hazel constantly attempts to escape his spiritual calling and often acts instinctively as a means of avoiding it, he ultimately fails to escape his inner spiritualism. In the moment that he finally gives in to Sabbath Hawks' attempts at seduction, for instance, she throws away his hat. This is the last item of his clothing, which is often thought of as separating men from animals, to be stripped off. It is also a symbol of his spiritual calling, since it often causes him to be mistaken for a preacher. As she removes the hat, Sabbath drives this transition from the spiritual to the animal home when she calls him the 'king of the beasts.' This animal moment does not last long, however – by the next morning Hazel is eager to escape again, deeply uncomfortable with Sabbath's fleshly appetites. By the end of the novel, he has retreated completely from the world by blinding himself, withdrawing further and further into himself such that his landlady Mrs. Flood suggests that he ought to live in a "monkery."Enoch, in contrast, is a pure vessel for the animal urges of his 'wise blood,' driven by instincts that seem outside of his control until he is finally stripped of his humanity and takes on the form of a gorilla. Enoch's antagonistic relationship to animals is a running theme of the novel, as he insults the bears at the zoo, feels threatened by a painting of a moose in his room, and is terrified by Gonga the Gorilla. His actions, though, are often animal-like, driven by instinct. He burrows down through a tunnel to hide in the bushes and eye the women swimming in the pool near the zoo, and prowls about town indulging his habits and appetites, reveling in 'base' pleasures – sugary food, women, insults. When the reader is first introduced to Enoch, he follows Hazel like a wounded animal looking for help, resembling nothing more than a lost puppy, doggedly pursuing a friend (or, even, a master). In some ways, though, Enoch's intense devotion to the rituals of his life, the calling of his blood, and the mummy-like figure of the 'new jesus,' suggest an inner spiritualism, an animal-like fear and appreciation for mysteries he does not understand.O'Connor doesn't just limit her exploration of animal behaviors to Hazel and Enoch. In fact, the novel portrays a grotesque, animal aspect to all of the people in the town. Their uglier instincts rear up in the form of offhand racism, persistent sexism, and dishonesty. Many characters are driven by instinct or desire, and O'Connor's prose does not give much room to the intellectual or spiritual side of these figures, whose animal nature sometimes seems to assail Hazel's attempt to communicate a deeper spiritual truth. One striking image comes when, at the pool, the woman with two kids catches Hazel watching her and leers back, undoing her shoulder straps. Hazel is so taken aback by this open display – reminiscent of an animal's mating ritual – that he jumps up violently, retreating to his car. - Theme: The Nature of Truth. Description: Perhaps Hazel's most lucid and compelling point as a preacher is the assertion that there is no truth, aside from the truth that there is no truth. He promotes empiricism, the belief that one can only know whatever one has direct experience of, and rejects those who claim to find truth through faith. This intellectual argument, though piercing, has little effect on the few listeners who assemble to hear Hazel's speeches in the street. On the other hand, the secondary characters in the novel seem capable of seeing a truth about Hazel that Hazel himself prefers to deny – that is, the spiritual calling that is a product either of his background or his inherent nature. Nearly everyone he meets seems aware of this spiritual side of Hazel, assuming he is a preacher, which only frustrates him. Hazel is blind to the 'empirical' truth of his life in other ways as well, most obviously in his constant insistence that the broken down old car he buys has nothing at all wrong with it. By showing us the ways that Hazel is not always able to see the truth that is in front of him, O'Connor gives the reader a reason to suspect that his denial of Christianity may not be valid either. In a novel so concerned with the nature of truth, it is significant that the town of Taulkinham is populated by so many liars, from scheming scam artist Hoover Shoats, who becomes a money-grubbing competitor of Hazel's church under the alias Onnie Jay Holy, to lying auto mechanics, to the enigmatic Asa Hawks, who only pretends to be blind. There is a dark humor in the fact that Hazel, who so fervently denies the existence of sin, hates deception so deeply, and is disgusted by the easy lies of the Christian people he attempts to convert away from their religion – since they themselves seem quite comfortable with living sinful lives and telling lies.Hazel refuses to lie or to compromise his integrity at the request of scam artists like Onnie Jay Holy, even when it would make him money or increase his appeal. Truth is a very important principle to him, even as he denies Christianity's claim to it. Ultimately it is partly this respect for the truth that seems to drive Hazel's choice to blind himself, an act that rejects the dishonesty of Asa Hawks' false promise to do so many years before. Although still conflicted in the way he discusses Jesus with his landlady, Mrs. Flood, Hazel's actions suggest that he has come around to the idea that there is a deeper, fuller truth to be found in religion – one that can only be found, perhaps, by escaping the shallowness of the world. He says that "if there's no bottom to your eyes, they hold more," and seems to have access, after blinding himself, to a truth about what comes after life that Mrs. Flood, for one, is desperate to uncover. - Theme: Isolation and the Outsider. Description: O'Connor's novel tells the story of two deeply lonely outsiders - Enoch and Hazel – along with a set of supporting characters who are often equally isolated, from the tormented false preacher Asa Hawks to the lovelorn landlady, Mrs. Flood. These lonely characters are often driven primarily by a desire to connect with one another. Enoch, for example, follows the unwelcoming Hazel in pursuit of a friend. Enoch has habitual (and thorny, characterized by insults) interactions with many people (and animals) – waitresses, salesmen, his landlady – that reveal a desire to belong, but their contempt for him is obvious in O'Connor's descriptions. This pursuit of connection is what pushes him to his most vulnerable moment, when, face to face with Gonga the Gorilla, whose warm, furry handshake is the first offered him since arriving in Taulkinham two months earlier, he makes an attempt to connect by telling the gorilla about his life, only to have the actor behind the mask lean in and tell him to go to hell. Thwarted here, his pursuit of connection continues through his final moment in the novel, when, dressed in the stolen gorilla suit, he reaches out to an unnamed couple in the woods for a handshake, just as he has witnessed Gonga do, and is left sitting alone on a rock when they run away.Hazel, too, is alone in the world. In the first chapter we are told the story of Hazel's return from the war, and given a window into the deep longing for home that he feels – in many ways this chapter provides the deepest view into Hazel's hard-to-pierce inner thoughts, revealing just how lonely he is. Death is the ultimate isolator – in the first chapter we learn that Hazel has lost every member of his family, and he vividly remembers the closing of each of their coffins as he begins to panic, triggered by the coffin-like bunk of the train in which the porter has locked him. Still, although he longs for a home, connection to other people often seems to send Hazel into a blank, withdrawn, or angry state – perhaps because their actions are often disappointing, grotesque, or animalistic. Although conflict draws Hazel out of his shell at a few points in the novel, his interactions with the people around him are nearly always forced and awkward. In fact, by the end of the book it seems that what Hazel wishes above all else is to be isolated from the world, living life as a monk. Finally, after having blinded himself, he withdraws completely into his inner world, and the reader retreats into the lonely Mrs. Flood's perspective as the protagonist becomes silent, his life summed up into a single point of light that she sees retreating into the distance. - Climax: In the novel's climax, both protagonists commit separate murders. Hazel runs down the man hired to be his imposter with his car, and Enoch murders the man in the Gonga the Gorilla suit. - Summary: Flannery O'Connor's novel follows the experience of two protagonists, Hazel Motes and Enoch Emory. Hazel, or Haze, is from the small town of Eastrod, but everyone in his family is now dead, and he has no home to return to after serving in the army. He was raised very religiously and planned to become a preacher like his grandfather, who instilled in him a strong sense of his own guilt and the deadliness of sin, both of which require the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. Over the course of his time in the army, though, Hazel comes to believe that there is no such thing as a soul, and he becomes a passionate atheist. As he makes his way to a new life in Taulkinham, Hazel has a series of awkward, bitter interactions with the people he encounters, who often mistake him for a preacher – he has a quarrel with Mrs. Wally Bee Hitchcock on the train, and a porter whom Hazel is convinced comes from Eastrod leaves him locked in his berth after he has a nightmare about coffins. Another quarrel about his identity as a preacher ensues with the taxi driver who takes Hazel from the train station to the home of Mrs. Leora Watts, a prostitute whose address Hazel finds in a bathroom stall. After Leora tells Hazel that "Momma don't care" if he's a preacher, he sleeps with her, the first time he has been with a woman. The next day he encounters the blind preacher, Asa Hawks, and his daughter, Sabbath Lily, and follows them, followed in turn by the eighteen-year-old Enoch Emory, who is a newcomer working at the zoo in Taulkinham. After a confrontation with Asa Hawks, Hazel decides to found the Church Without Christ to preach his message that Jesus is a liar, that all men are "clean," and there is no such thing as sin or redemption. Hazel buys himself a car with forty dollars, a beat-up old Essex that barely runs, but he is convinced it is perfect. He finds Enoch at the zoo, but cannot get Enoch to tell him the Hawks' address. He follows the Hawks home one night, and ends up renting a room upstairs in their boarding house. He decides to seduce the daughter, Sabbath, as a means of proving his convictions to Asa, but fails to reckon with Sabbath's wily, experienced, and persistent attempts to seduce him in return. Hazel begins to preach from on top of his car outside of movie theaters, but fails to gather any disciples – except for one, Onnie Jay Holy (whose real name is Hoover Shoats), who turns out to be a conman, interested only in using Hazel's platform to make money. When Hazel rejects his efforts, revealing that the "new jesus" he has been preaching about is only a figure of speech, Shoats recruits another man, Solace Layfield, to impersonate Hazel, and begins to preach across the street from him. Hazel is deeply affected by the sight of his double, combined with his discovery that Asa Hawks is a fraud – a man who lost his nerve and failed to blind himself in his early days as a committed preacher, but then pretended to be blind. Hazel returns home in his car to find Sabbath waiting in his bed. He undresses entirely, except for his hat, which she takes off for him, calling him the "king of the beasts" as he finally gives in to her romantic advances. The next day Hazel resolves to escape and leave the city, but seems to snap entirely when Sabbath appears in the doorway cradling a mummy that Enoch delivered that morning, forming a Madonna-like image. Hazel destroys the mummy, and that night he follows his impersonator, Solace Layfield, and confronts him in his car. Hazel tells Solace to take off his suit and hat, and then Hazels runs him over with his car, killing him. Enoch, meanwhile, is a lonely eighteen-year-old boy, who has lived in Taulkinham for two months and works at the city zoo. He displays more "animal" tendencies in contrast to Hazel's spiritual side, and is deeply affected by food, women, animals, and aggression in any form. Possibly mentally ill, Enoch is driven by the instincts he refers to as his "wise blood." When he first encounters Hazel, Enoch follows him like a lost dog looking for a friend. Later, he draws Hazel into his daily ritual in the city park, desperate to show him the dark secret center of the city that only he knows about – a shrunken corpse in the city museum. Hazel runs away, however, and throws a stone at Enoch's head when he tries to follow him. Later, Enoch finds himself following the voice of his "wise blood," despite his efforts to avoid its call. He cleans up a tabernacle-like cabinet in his room, and then feels compelled to go to the movie theater, where he finally runs out during a movie about an orangutan who saves children from a burning building – Enoch feels a deep antagonism toward animals. Hearing Hazel preaching afterward about the need for a "new jesus," Enoch realizes that his task will be to steal the shrunken man from the museum. This is what the cabinet in his room has been prepared to receive. On his way to deliver the corpse to Hazel, though, burning with regret and tormented by the rain, Enoch stumbles upon a publicity event for Gonga the Gorilla, where the star will appear to shake the hands of a line of waiting children. Planning to insult the gorilla, and ready for his "supreme moment," Enoch waits in line, but when he shakes Gonga's warm hand – the first that has been offered to him since he arrived in Taulkinham – he finds himself telling Gonga about himself and his life. The human actor behind the gorilla's mask leans forward and tells him to go to hell, and Enoch runs away, humiliated. After delivering the damaged bundle to Sabbath Hawks, Enoch waits for his reward from the new jesus, and finds it in a newspaper advertisement for Gonga's last appearance. Enoch sneaks into the back of the truck with the "gorilla," and murders him with the sharp end of his broken umbrella. Then Enoch leaves the truck, strips, buries his clothes, and puts on the gorilla suit, transforming in a moment of ultimate joy. He comes across a couple on the edge of the woods and tries to shake their hands, but they run away. He is left sitting alone, looking out over the city. Meanwhile, Hazel has cleaned off Solace's blood from his car and decides to leave the city forever, eager to start a new life elsewhere. On the highway five miles out of town, though, he is stopped by a vengeful police officer, who tricks him into driving to the top of a hill and then pushes his car off the embankment. In that moment, Hazel seems to withdraw entirely into himself, and doesn't respond to the policeman at all. He walks the five miles back to town, buys some lime and a bucket, and blinds himself, as Asa had promised and failed to do years earlier. Mrs. Flood, his landlady, becomes more and more obsessed with Hazel's strange ways, as he goes on living a very monkish lifestyle in the house, throwing away whatever money he doesn't spend on rent and barely speaking to anyone. Mrs. Flood discovers that Hazel is walking miles each day in shoes that are filled with stones and glass, and that he wears barbed wire around his chest. When Mrs. Flood confronts him about this, Hazel tells her that he has to pay, and that he is unclean. More and more curious about the mysteries that drive Hazel, Mrs. Flood proposes that they get married, but this horrifies him. After Mrs. Flood's proposal, Hazel dresses and leaves, going out into a freezing storm. He is found two days later by a pair of policemen, one of whom accidentally kills Hazel by hitting him over the head with a billy club. Thinking he is still alive, the policemen deliver Hazel to Mrs. Flood. She props his dead body up in her bed and stares into his empty eye sockets, her own eyes closed, imagining the dark world inside of him gradually receding into the distance until all that is left is a single point of light.

- Genre: Young Adult Novel - Title: With the Fire on High - Point of view: First Person - Setting: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Character: Emoni Santiago. Description: The protagonist of the novel, Emoni is a 17-year-old senior at Schomburg Charter. She's also the mother of two-year-old Babygirl, whom she coparents with Babygirl's dad, Tyrone. After her mom died in childbirth, Emoni's dad, Julio, left Emoni with his mom, 'Buela, who has been Emoni's parent and caregiver since then. 'Buela is convinced that Emoni's talent for cooking and combining spices and herbs borders on magic. Though Emoni isn't sure of this, she dreams of becoming a chef—so she's thrilled when Schomburg offers a culinary arts elective for the first time. Over the course of the school year, Emoni learns to balance her creativity and natural talent with the norms of a professional kitchen. She takes on most of the responsibility for fundraising for the class trip to Spain, which helps her feel competent and powerful. However, throughout the year, Emoni remains unsure of herself and conflicted: she's not sure how (or even if) to balance college with caring for Babygirl, and she's reluctant to enter a relationship with Malachi, a new boy whom she likes, but whom she's afraid is going to hurt or manipulate her like Tyrone did. Ultimately, with 'Buela and her friend Angelica's support, Emoni decides to attend Drexel University's renowned culinary arts program part-time so she also has time to work in an upscale restaurant. It's important to Emoni to live and work in Philadelphia so she can one day give back to her community. - Character: 'Buela/Gloria. Description: 'Buela is Emoni's paternal grandmother who raised Emoni from infancy. She was also instrumental in helping Emoni through Babygirl's infancy, though in the present, she's making sure Emoni takes on more responsibility for Babygirl. A Black, middle-aged Puerto Rican woman, 'Buela is an avid Eagles football fan and is often impeccably dressed. After spending decades working as a seamstress, 'Buela got her hand caught in a sewing machine, resulting in injuries that left her unable to work. So, she's been supporting herself, Emoni, and Babygirl on her disability checks and some side gigs. 'Buela is extremely supportive of Emoni: she insists that Emoni's cooking talents border on magic, and despite the financial difficulties college will pose, she desperately wants Emoni to attend college. However, in some ways, Emoni takes 'Buela's support for granted. Early in December, 'Buela reveals that she's been lying about attending doctor's appointments to have an excuse to get out of the house and remember who she is when she's not parenting her granddaughter or great-granddaughter. Several months later, 'Buela admits that she's been dating Mr. Jagoda and might like to marry him, in part because he allows her to feel like herself, Gloria, rather than just a caregiver. - Character: Babygirl/Emma. Description: Emma—whom Emoni calls Babygirl—is Emoni and Tyrone's two-year-old daughter. She was born in August, right before Emoni started her sophomore year of high school. In the present, Babygirl is just beginning to attend daycare and has recently started spending every other weekend with Tyrone and his parents. Though Emoni loves how obviously happy Babygirl is to be getting new experiences at daycare, she wonders if Babygirl's more frequent tantrums have to do with Tyrone and his parents spoiling her. Over the course of the novel, Babygirl gradually adjusts to her weekends with her dad; by the end of the novel, she no longer sobs when Tyrone takes her on his weekends. - Character: Malachi Johnson. Description: Malachi is a new student in Emoni's grade from Newark; he quickly becomes her love interest. Though Malachi is tall and adorable, Emoni is initially unwilling to get close to him or give him a chance. Part of this is because Malachi and Pretty Leslie quickly form a close friendship, though Malachi doesn't realize that Pretty Leslie has a crush on him (while Emoni is well aware). When it comes to his budding relationship with Emoni, Malachi is kind, courteous, and accommodating. He tries to make it clear that he doesn't need to have sex in order to enjoy a relationship with her, and he's willing to take it slow if that's what Emoni wants. He also has no issue with the fact that Emoni is a mother; indeed, he adores Babygirl. Though he's a good cook, Malachi dreams of becoming a doctor and eventually returning to practice in Newark. Eventually, he shares with Emoni and 'Buela that he moved to Philadelphia after his younger brother was shot, and his mom feared for his safety. - Character: Angelica. Description: Angelica is Emoni's best friend. She's beautiful, with her hair often done in colorful styles, impeccable makeup, and on-trend clothes. Since coming out to Emoni several years ago and the rest of Schomburg Charter last year, Angelica has recently begun dating a girl named Laura, whom she met at a summer arts camp. Angelica dreams of being a graphic designer and of attending Pratt Institute in New York; she spends much of the novel perfecting her portfolio and worrying about whether she's good enough to get in. According to Emoni, Angelica is the best of the best; ultimately, Angelica does get accepted to Pratt. Over the years, Angelica and Emoni have supported and defended each other from bullies, as when Emoni was pregnant, and when Angelica first came out. In the present, Angelica encourages Emoni to be careful, but she also encourages Emoni to follow her heart and date Malachi—and she pushes Emoni to follow her dreams to study culinary arts. Angelica also dotes on Babygirl and crafts Babygirl's Halloween costume from scratch. - Character: Tyrone. Description: Tyrone is Babygirl's father. He and Emoni dated briefly when Emoni was a freshman (he's a year older), had sex a handful of times, and then broke off their romantic relationship not far into Emoni's pregnancy. Emoni describes Tyrone as a pretty boy who's skilled at using "pretty words" to get what he wants—that is, he knew how to flatter Emoni and convince her to have sex with him. She sees him as untrustworthy and disappointing due to his behavior. He saw other girls while Emoni was pregnant (and blamed his desire to not be exclusive on Emoni's changing body), and while he refused to take the paternity test, he didn't stand up for Emoni when his parents insisted he take one. Emoni recognizes that Tyrone is a good dad—he shows up on time to get Babygirl, and Babygirl clearly adores him—but a terrible partner. For instance, he jealously tries to forbid Emoni from dating (though he continues to date lots of girls), and he's unsupportive of her college plans or her dreams to be a chef. Ultimately, after Tyrone gets a job and his own apartment, Emoni agrees to let him to take Babygirl for longer weekend visits and okays a weeklong vacation in the summer. - Character: Julio/Emoni's Dad. Description: Julio is Emoni's dad. He lives in Puerto Rico, where he works as a barber and is also a heavily involved community organizer. Emoni's relationship with him is fraught: after Emoni's mom died giving birth to Emoni, Julio left his hours-old daughter with his mother, 'Buela, and returned to Puerto Rico alone. So, Emoni feels abandoned and as though he doesn't truly care about her or support her—this is why she calls him by his first name instead of Papi. She accepts his yearly summer visits and sometimes appreciates his regular phone calls, but she also resents that he does little to support her financially and refuses to talk about her mom. It's not until the end of the novel, when he unexpectedly shows up in Philadelphia to attend Emoni's high school graduation, that the two finally speak honestly and Emoni tells him how she feels. Julio admits that he can't bring himself to stay in Philadelphia very long because it brings up too many painful memories of Emoni's mom. This is also why he always refuses to try Emoni's cooking when he visits. However, on this visit, he asks if he could stay and try to provide more support for Emoni and Babygirl so Emoni can more easily attend college. - Character: Aunt Sarah. Description: Aunt Sarah is Emoni's aunt; she was Emoni's mom's sister and lives in North Carolina. Though Emoni has never met Aunt Sarah, the two began exchanging emails a few years before the novel begins, and they maintain a relatively close relationship this way. They most often exchange family recipes. Aunt Sarah is the only person in Emoni's family willing (and able) to talk about Emoni's mom, so she's an important source of information for Emoni. Emoni and Aunt Sarah strengthen their relationship over the course of the novel, and Sarah rallies Emoni's Raleigh relatives to donate money for Emoni's trip to Spain. At the end of the novel, Emoni finally agrees to visit Aunt Sarah in person later that summer. - Character: Emoni's Mom. Description: Emoni's mom died giving birth to Emoni, but she nevertheless looms large over the novel. Emoni thinks often about what kind of person her mom was, and what her mom would want for Emoni. As the novel progresses, Emoni also discovers that her dad, Julio, is still haunted by memories of her mom—this is why he can't bring himself to stay in Philadelphia or eat Emoni's cooking, as the city and the food reminds him of his deceased wife. Since 'Buela didn't know Emoni's mom well and Julio refuses to talk about her, Emoni learns about her mostly through her mom's sister, Aunt Sarah. Emoni's mom shared Emoni's love of cooking, and at the end of the novel, Emoni makes her mom's pound cake recipe. - Character: Chef Ayden. Description: Chef Ayden is Emoni's culinary arts instructor; she describes him as a Black man with a belly and perfectly smooth skin. At first, Emoni finds Chef Ayden insufferable: he demands obedience and perfection, and he seems not to understand that his teenage charges hear sexual innuendos in everything he says. Though he insists he can teach his students to succeed in a professional restaurant setting, Emoni struggles to believe this—he refuses to let her spice recipes her way, even though he admits her food is delicious. However, once Emoni decides to set aside her pride and allow Chef Ayden to teach his way, she finds him an important ally. He instills in Emoni the basic skills (like knife handling and proper food storage) that she'll need in a restaurant setting while also giving her the opportunity to almost singlehandedly develop the menu for the Winter Dinner. In Spain, Chef Ayden also shows Emoni that he understands and values her talent by apprenticing her to Chef Amadí, who practices a more instinctual cooking style. Though Emoni knows little about Chef Ayden's personal life, she ascertains that he attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and is highly educated—and respected—in the culinary arts field. - Character: Ms. Fuentes. Description: Ms. Fuentes is Emoni's Advisory (homeroom) teacher. She's young, hip, and is generally well-liked among the students, Emoni included. Emoni appreciates Ms. Fuentes because Ms. Fuentes is so supportive and encouraging—she was a huge advocate for keeping Emoni at Schomburg Charter when Emoni got pregnant, for instance. However, over the course of the novel, Emoni begins to see Ms. Fuentes as somewhat out of touch and naïve. Ms. Fuentes encourages Emoni to apply to Philadelphia colleges and insists that Emoni will need a college degree to succeed, though Emoni isn't convinced this is true. As Emoni sees it, Ms. Fuentes doesn't understand Emoni's reality: Emoni has to balance being a parent, making money, and getting an education, and for much of the novel, Emoni suspects that her education will need to take the lowest priority. However, Emoni ultimately takes Ms. Fuentes's advice and enrolls to attend Drexel's culinary arts program in the fall. - Character: The Chef/Chef Lisa Williams. Description: Chef Williams is the executive chef at Café Sorrel, an upscale restaurant in Philadelphia. Until Emoni learns her name, she simply refers to her as "the chef." Emoni first meets Chef Williams when 'Buela takes her to Café Sorrel for lunch. Later, Chef Williams attends the Winter Dinner and gives Emoni her card, as she's impressed with Emoni's cooking. Unwittingly, Chef Williams encourages Emoni to go back to culinary arts class with Chef Ayden, as she knows Chef Ayden and says that he'll prepare Emoni well for a career in the restaurant industry. At the end of the novel, Chef Williams hires Emoni at Café Sorrel. - Character: Chef Amadí. Description: Chef Amadí is the chef whom Emoni apprentices with while on her class trip to Spain. She's a young woman, only in her late 20s, and she believes in using instinct and a sort of magic to create her North African-inspired Spanish dishes. For instance, she encourages Emoni to "listen to" the herbs in her herb garden as Emoni gathers a bunch for seasoning a rabbit dish. She teaches Emoni to trust her instincts and reminds Emoni that cooking for people is giving them a gift. She also helps Emoni realize that it is, in fact, possible to marry her instinct and talent for flavors with the professional norms that Chef Ayden taught in his class; instinct and professionalism, Chef Amadí argues, aren't mutually exclusive. - Character: Pretty Leslie. Description: Pretty Leslie is one of Emoni's classmates. She's one of only three kids from Emoni's neighborhood to get into Schomburg Charter, but she and Emoni aren't friends—in fact, Pretty Leslie is cold and mean to Emoni for much of the novel. This has to do, in part, with the fact that Pretty Leslie has a crush on Malachi and is jealous that he's interested in Emoni, not her. But Pretty Leslie later reveals that she was put off by how proud and superior Emoni acted when she got pregnant, as though she was better than everyone else. She also resents the way Emoni seems to sweet-talk the teachers. For much of the novel, though, Emoni doesn't know this and simply tries to avoid Pretty Leslie's wrath whenever possible. She's not entirely convinced that Malachi is right that Pretty Leslie has had a difficult past and just lashes out in inappropriate ways. Ultimately, though, Pretty Leslie confirms Malachi's assessment. She'll be the first person in her family to graduate high school and attend college. After she drunkenly is cruel to Emoni in Spain, the girls speak honestly with each other and form, if not a friendship, then an understanding and a truce. - Character: Mrs. Palmer/Tyrone's Mom. Description: Tyrone's mom, Mrs. Palmer, is an antagonist of sorts. She's never liked Emoni. When Emoni was pregnant with Babygirl, for instance, Mrs. Palmer wanted Emoni to get an abortion and demanded (unsuccessfully) that Tyrone get a paternity test, as she was certain Emoni was having sex with other guys. In the present, Mrs. Palmer insinuates that Emoni is an unfit mother and insists that Babygirl show up at her home on visitation weekends dressed in church clothes. Due to this pattern of behavior, Emoni is shocked to discover at the end of the novel that she's also been bugging Tyrone to support Emoni and Babygirl more financially. - Character: Steve. Description: Steve is Emoni's manager at the Burger Joint. A middle-aged white man who does very little work himself, he makes work very difficult for several employees, including Emoni. He resents having to schedule her around her school and childcare responsibilities, and though he doesn't fire her, he severely cuts her hours when she asks for the week off to go to Spain, ultimately leading her to quit. Emoni also thinks the Burger Joint's food is terrible, which she blames Steve for. - Character: Mr. Jagoda. Description: 'Buela initially introduces Mr. Jagoda as a friend and acquaintance from her doctor's office, but she later reveals that he's her boyfriend and, depending on whether she agrees to marry him, her fiancé. A Polish immigrant, Mr. Jagoda is the office manager at his son's doctor's office, which is where he meets 'Buela. He kindly shows up to help Emoni at various points, as when he attends the Winter Dinner fundraiser and drives her to the airport. 'Buela describes how he makes her feel like Gloria and a woman when they go on dates, rather than just a mother, grandmother, and caregiver. - Character: Amanda. Description: Amanda is one of Emoni's Culinary Arts classmates; they're in the same cooking group along with Richard for much of the school year. In Spain, Amanda apprentices with a baker—meaning she starts work very early in the morning—and so she doesn't take advantage of Spain's low drinking age to drink at bars and clubs. - Theme: Coming of Age and Teen Parenthood. Description: With the Fire On High follows 17-year-old Emoni through her senior year of high school. While Emoni's friends, teachers, and even her grandmother, 'Buela, insist that senior year is Emoni's last chance to experiment and find herself before she must face the realities of the adult world. But Emoni doesn't fully buy that this is the case: between caring for her two-year-old daughter, Babygirl, juggling a part-time job, worrying about college applications, and keeping up in school, Emoni struggles to find the time to be a kid herself. With the Fire On High illustrates how Emoni's coming-of-age journey is necessarily complicated by the fact that she's a teen parent and so can't focus solely on her own wants and needs. In one anecdote Emoni shares from when she first found out she was pregnant, she describes 'Buela asking her what she wanted to do about her pregnancy. If she has the baby, this is the last time, 'Buela warned, that anyone would ask Emoni what she wanted—after having a child, her priorities will necessarily shift to focus on Babygirl first and herself second. So, throughout the novel, Emoni struggles to balance her own dreams and desires with the fact that she must consider Babygirl before making any decision. This leads Emoni to, for instance, question whether to take a culinary arts elective. Though Emoni has dreamed of being a chef since she was Babygirl's age, taking the class means she won't have an in-school study hall where she can do homework. The class also entails a week-long trip to Spain, something that's expensive and will mean Emoni can't work that week or care for Babygirl. Ultimately, though, as Emoni throws herself into her culinary arts class and takes on responsibilities for organizing class fundraisers, she manages to strike a balance between chasing her dreams and caring for her family. Though she certainly has to make sacrifices (such as only signing up to attend college part-time so she has time to work), the novel suggests that by prioritizing her dreams and seeking an education in culinary arts that will prepare her to be a chef one day, Emoni will ultimately be in a better position to care for Babygirl as she formally enters adulthood. - Theme: Creativity vs. Professional Norms. Description: Seventeen-year-old Emoni is passionate about food and cooking. Her grandmother, 'Buela, insists that Emoni's talent borders on actual magic, as Emoni can intuit what flavors work well together and create dishes so good that they often make people cry. Because of this, Emoni is thrilled when her high school decides to offer a culinary arts elective—finally, she believes, she'll be able to hone her skills and prepare for a career in the restaurant industry. However, Emoni is shocked when Chef Ayden, her teacher, insists on spending the first few weeks learning knife skills and safe food handling practices. When the class finally does begin cooking, Emoni is enraged on the day that Chef Ayden tells her to trash a recipe that she spiced differently than the recipe called for. Thus, much of Emoni's journey centers around her struggle to marry her instincts and creativity with professional norms, something With the Fire on High suggests is necessary if Emoni is ever going to move beyond cooking as just a hobby. At first, Emoni chafes under Chef Ayden's tutelage. His admonishment that she can't sneakily add ingredients to recipes because she may inadvertently poison a patron doesn't seem reasonable when, in Emoni's experience, her dishes consistently bring people to happy tears. But eventually, Emoni realizes that cooking Chef Ayden's way doesn't mean she can't be creative—she just has to learn basics and professional norms first. After applying herself for months in his class, she spends her class trip to Spain apprenticing with Chef Amadí, who allows Emoni to make up recipes for the daily lunch special. Her creativity, Emoni realizes, is still an asset; her dishes in Spain still move patrons to tears. But she also knows that without the skills she learned from Chef Ayden, she'd never be able to singlehandedly plan, prep, and plate identical meals for 20 to 30 patrons in only a few hours, while also following professional food safety standards. Indeed, this experience leads Emoni to see Chef Ayden as one of her biggest allies and supporters, despite their rocky start: he makes sure she has the skills to help her talents shine in a professional setting, not just in her home kitchen. - Theme: Food and Connection. Description: With the Fire On High is, at its heart, a story about the power of food and cooking to bring people together. Seventeen-year-old Emoni wants to be a chef because when she was three or four, she discovered that comfort food spiced just right can bring people to tears by causing them to recall happy memories of years past. For instance, both Emoni and 'Buela take comfort in the other's cooking. Emoni's dishes bring back happy memories of 'Buela's childhood and young adulthood in Puerto Rico, while 'Buela's food makes Emoni feel safe, secure, and cared for like the child she still technically is. Emoni also maintains a relationship with her Aunt Sarah in North Carolina as they email recipes back and forth, sharing their love of food virtually though they've never eaten together in person. Rejecting food, on the other hand, is something the novel suggests creates strife and tension. Emoni is enraged and skips her Culinary Arts class for a week after Chef Ayden tells her to throw away a dish in which Emoni deviated from the recipe, and it takes time for Emoni to trust her teacher again after what she perceives as a cruel rejection. For much of the novel, Emoni doesn't understand why her dad, Julio, flat-out refuses to eat her cooking when he visits from Puerto Rico every summer, and this contributes to the tension in their relationship. However, when Julio visits for Emoni's high school graduation, he finally reveals that eating Emoni's food is simply too painful for him—it dredges up memories of Emoni's mother, who died giving birth to Emoni. His willingness to finally tell the truth and sample a bit of Emoni's bread, however, coincides with his announcement that he'd like to spend more time in Philadelphia to try to help Emoni, 'Buela, and Babygirl so Emoni can more easily attend college. With this, With the Fire On High highlights food and cooking's power to not just connect people to their roots and their memories, but also to bring people together and begin healing old wounds. - Theme: Caregiving, Independence, and Identity. Description: As 17-year-old Emoni and her grandmother, 'Buela, navigate the trials of raising a toddler and as Emoni completes her senior year of high school, With the Fire On High suggests that being a caregiver can't—and perhaps shouldn't—be a person's sole job and identity marker. While the novel goes to great lengths to show how fulfilling caregiving can be, it also doesn't shy away from portraying how essential to a person's mental health having a life and identity outside of parenthood or guardianship is. Through Emoni's first-person narration, she makes it very clear that she needs time and space away from her daughter. As much as she loves Babygirl and being a mother, she also makes sure to carve out time for herself by going out for afterschool treats with her friends and ultimately going to Spain on a class trip. In Emoni's mind, it's not strange that she needs time apart from Babygirl to develop other aspects of her identity—she's 17, and all the adults in her life tell her that she's supposed to be doing this. However, Emoni's understanding that she needs this time away from Babygirl doesn't mean that she's able to extend this same understanding to 'Buela. 'Buela, Emoni eventually realizes, has spent her entire life raising children. After she raised Emoni's dad, Julio, Julio essentially abandoned hours-old Emoni with 'Buela—and when Emoni had Babygirl at age 15, 'Buela stepped up again to raise another child. Throughout the novel, 'Buela subtly implies that she's tired after spending decades being a parent and grandmother first and her own person second. Ultimately, she reveals that she's been lying about going to doctor's appointments, as this has been the only way she can justify getting out of the house for some time to herself. 'Buela's lie, and her reason for lying, highlights what the novel suggests is an uncomfortable truth about caregiving. It's tempting (and even easy) to believe that caregivers' only concern should be the children in their care. This is, however, not at all the case, and believing this denies caregivers the freedom to develop their identities separate from the roles they play in their families. - Theme: Support, Community, and Mentorship. Description: Emoni knows that she can't do everything alone—she has a two-year-old daughter, Babygirl, and her grandmother 'Buela's support has been essential as Emoni progressed through high school. Still, Emoni nevertheless struggles to accept various kinds of help from friends, family, and teachers. Part of this is because Emoni is a naturally independent person, so With the Fire On High suggests that part of Emoni's transformation from child to adult hinges on her discovery that she can (and should) rely on her family, friends, and community to support her as she moves forward in life. But more broadly, Emoni also discovers that everything she wants to do—from being a chef, to raising her daughter, to even being in a romantic relationship—isn't something she can do alone. Rather, it takes teamwork and community to accomplish a goal, even if that goal is simply to have fun or make good food. Emoni learns most of these lessons in her Culinary Arts class. At the beginning of the school year, Emoni is incensed when her teacher, Chef Ayden, punishes her for altering recipes. Part of being a good restaurant employee, he insists, is being a team player and following the chef's instructions—not taking a dish into one's own hands. Eventually, Emoni realizes that in this context, Chef Ayden is right—she and her classmates have to work together and follow recipes exactly to cater the successful Winter Dinner, and she understands that it would've insulted her classmates' hard work to alter recipes without consulting them. Learning this lesson in class later prepares Emoni to accept more help from her dad, Julio, and Babygirl's dad, Tyrone, as she pieces together a childcare schedule for Babygirl that will allow her to attend college and work after graduation. It's only through accepting support from friends, family, teachers, and mentors, Emoni realizes, that she'll be able to achieve her dreams and confidently step forward into her future. - Climax: Emoni learns she's been accepted to Drexel University. - Summary: Emoni got pregnant her freshman year of high school. Her boyfriend at the time, Tyrone, was charming—though he kept seeing other girls and was dismissive and cruel to Emoni throughout her pregnancy. Emoni decided to remain pregnant and then parent her daughter Emma (whom Emoni calls Babygirl) with her grandmother 'Buela's support. 'Buela has raised Emoni from infancy; Emoni's mom died in childbirth, and Emoni's dad, Julio, returned to Puerto Rico to deal with his grief. He visits every summer. Now, Emoni is starting her senior year of high school. She's excited and scared when she discovers that her school is offering a culinary arts class—she's wanted to be a chef since she was a kid, and 'Buela even insists that Emoni has a way with spices and food that borders on magic. Though she wants to take a real culinary arts class, she also worries about giving up her study hall. The class also includes what's bound to be an expensive spring break trip to Spain, which Emoni isn't sure she can afford. Additionally, she's not certain that college is the right path for her, even if she enrolls in a culinary arts program. Emoni remains uncertain, but she signs up for the class. Throughout the first few weeks of school, Emoni remains skeptical of the culinary arts class and of her teacher, Chef Ayden, who reminds her to follow recipes instead of spicing things her own way. Also complicating things is the fact that Malachi, a new boy, clearly has a crush on Emoni—but Emoni has no interest in dating and doesn't trust boys after Tyrone. Still, she agrees to go out for water-ice with him after school, and her best friend Angelica tags along. Angelica gives Malachi her seal of approval. Things come to a head between Emoni and Chef Ayden when he tells her to throw away a dish in which she deviated from the recipe. Enraged, Emoni skips class for a week. That Saturday, Angelica is celebrating her six-month anniversary with her girlfriend, Laura, and Emoni has agreed to cater their dinner. Malachi helps Emoni cook and carry the food to Angelica's house. The next morning, Tyrone confronts Emoni: a friend saw Emoni with Malachi, and Tyrone doesn't want Emoni dating other people. This conversation upsets Emoni, so 'Buela suggests they go out for lunch. 'Buela takes Emoni to a fancy restaurant, Café Sorrel, and insinuates that she knows Emoni has been skipping her culinary arts class. However, the food at Café Sorrel wows Emoni, and she gets to meet the chef—who knows Chef Ayden and says he'll teach Emoni the skills she needs to thrive in a professional kitchen. On Monday, Emoni apologizes to Chef Ayden and promises to work hard. He appoints her the head of the fundraising committee: she has to come up with ways to raise thousands of dollars for the class trip to Spain. Over the next several weeks, the culinary arts class puts several of Emoni's ideas into action. They open up the school's training restaurant and begin serving lunches to teachers, and they convince the principal to let them cater the annual Winter Dinner. Emoni and Chef Ayden work on the Winter Dinner menu together, and Emoni's classmates help develop a silent auction fundraiser. The dinner is a huge success—though by the end, each student is still responsible for almost $300 for the trip. Emoni is certain she can't come up with the deposit by the deadline, though she's flattered when the chef from Café Sorrel, Chef Williams, gives Emoni her card and offers Emoni a job. Later that week, Emoni's Aunt Sarah, who lives in North Carolina and emails recipes back and forth with Emoni regularly, unexpectedly gifts Emoni $300 for the trip. Malachi and Emoni have been spending more time together, and he invites her to bring Angelica, Laura, and Babygirl to Disney On Ice. The evening is magical, and when Malachi walks Emoni and Babygirl home, Emoni makes it clear that she likes him—but she wants to take things slow. He's fine with this. Just before winter break, Emoni gets caught with her phone at school and a security guard takes it away. This means that Emoni only finds out early that evening that Babygirl's daycare has been trying to contact her—Babygirl is sick, and Tyrone's mom, Mrs. Palmer, ended up picking her up. Emoni is so upset after Mrs. Palmer brings Babygirl back that when 'Buela (whom Emoni thought would pick Babygirl up) gets home, Emoni asks where 'Buela has been. 'Buela has been seeing the doctor a lot recently, and Emoni is certain that something is wrong with her grandmother. But 'Buela admits that she's been lying about having doctor's appointments so she has an excuse to take time for herself. Emoni and 'Buela remain at odds with each other over the break. When Emoni approaches her boss at her after-school job, Steve, about taking time off to go to Spain, he insults her and cuts her hours. Eventually, Emoni quits when it costs more to travel to work than she earns. The next few months pass in a blur and soon, it's the end of March. 'Buela's friend Mr. Jagoda drives Emoni to the airport; Emoni lands in Madrid several hours later. Unfortunately, Emoni and her nemesis, Pretty Leslie, are both staying with a woman named Señorita Mariana. But on the plus side, Emoni is apprenticing with a chef named Chef Amadí, who encourages Emoni to follow her instincts and pair herbs and spices as she sees fit. Chef Amadí puts Emoni in charge of coming up with the daily lunch special, a challenge that many of her classmates aren't getting in their apprenticeships. Emoni and Malachi decide to go out one night; they end up at a bar where several of their classmates, including Pretty Leslie, are drinking. Pretty Leslie is drunk, and she insults Emoni—and then vomits in the bar. Emoni and Malachi help her back to Mariana's, and the next morning, Leslie and Emoni speak honestly for the first time. Leslie admits that she's jealous that Malachi chose Emoni, and she's also resented how perfect and put-together Emoni has always seemed. The following night, their last night in Spain, Emoni and Malachi hang out at Malachi's host parents' house while his host parents are out. They decide not to have sex, but they kiss and have a good time anyway. When Emoni gets back from Spain, all her college admissions decisions are available. To her surprise, only one of four schools she applied to accepted her: her reach school, Drexel. It has a renowned culinary arts and restaurant management program. 'Buela is thrilled, and she finally tells Emoni that she's tired after raising three generations of children. In fact, she's dating Mr. Jagoda and he'd like to marry her. Emoni tells 'Buela to accept. Later, Julio cries when Emoni calls and tells him she got into Drexel. Emoni spends weeks worrying about what she should decide to do, but she finally mails her decision. Julio shows up unexpectedly the night before Emoni's high school graduation. She fully expected him to miss it and show up in July, as usual. But surprisingly, Julio says that he'd like to try to stay longer and help Emoni with Babygirl so she can attend college. He also says that he refuses to eat Emoni's cooking because it reminds him of Emoni's mother, and the memories are too painful. However, he eats a bit of Emoni's bread. Emoni and her classmates graduate the next day. Soon after, Tyrone shows up unannounced and says that he'd like to start taking Babygirl for longer weekend visits and a summer vacation—and he'd also like to offer Emoni and his daughter more financial support, now that he has a job. Several days after this, Emoni goes to Café Sorrel and asks to speak to Chef Williams. She asks for a job: she'll be attending Drexel's culinary arts program part time in the fall, but she'll be able to work the lunch rush. Chef Williams hires Emoni to start that day. Later in the summer, Emoni plans to visit her Aunt Sarah in North Carolina for the very first time while Tyrone takes Babygirl on vacation.

- Genre: Creative Nonfiction - Title: Woman at Point Zero - Point of view: First Person - Setting: Cairo, Egypt - Character: Firdaus. Description: Firdaus is the protagonist of the story and the primary narrator, based on an actual woman Nawal El Saadawi met in Qanatir Prison. Firdaus is born in rural Egypt to a poor family in the mid-20th century. From her earliest years, she experiences sexism and abuse. Firdaus's father beats her mother and demonstrates complete disregard for his daughters. Firdaus's mother has her circumcised as a young girl, cutting off her clitoris with a razor blade. The only adult with whom Firdaus has a relatively positive relationship is her uncle, who she enjoys spending time with even though he sexually abuses her as a child. When Firdaus's parents die, her uncle adopts her and takes her to Cairo, where he puts her through primary and secondary school. When she graduates, her uncles marries her off to a grotesque old man named Sheikh Mahmoud, who rapes and beats her until she runs away. A seemingly kind man named Bayoumi takes her in for several months, but once Firdaus decides she wants to find a job and be independent, he beats and rapes her and traps her in his house, prostituting her out to his friends each night. Firdaus eventually escapes and meets a woman named Sharifa, who teaches Firdaus her own high value while also pimping her out. For a brief time, Firdaus leaves prostitution to find a lawful job and lead a "respectable" life. However, after being betrayed by her lover, Ibrahim, Firdaus realizes that all relationships between men and women, even love affairs, are essentially transactional: men trade money or favor or tenderness for access to women's bodies. Firdaus then returns to prostitution, but when a pimp named Marzouk tries to control her, she stabs him to death with his own knife. This shows her that she has the power to react to men and call them "criminals," as she sees them. When Firdaus threatens a prince, the police arrest her and charge her with murder, since they are afraid of such a bold woman. She chooses to accept her death, rather than appeal her case and continue living in a male-dominated world. - Character: Nawal El Saadawi. Description: Nawal El Saadawi is the author and secondary narrator who recounts the days before she meets Firdaus in prison and her reaction to Firdaus's story. Saadawi is a psychiatrist, interviewing female inmates to study neurosis. Before she meets Firdaus, she feels the same sense of anticipation that she's only known from romantic encounters. After Firdaus is executed and Saadawi leaves, she finds that she feels small and insignificant compared to Firdaus's strength. - Character: Firdaus's Uncle. Description: Firdaus's uncle is a religious scholar and later a government official. He teaches Firdaus to read and write, and is her only childhood mentor, but he also sexually abuses her frequently. When Firdaus's parents die, he takes her to Cairo with him to live and attend school. However, when he marries an upper-class wife who does not like Firdaus, he marries her off to an old man Sheikh Mahmoud in order to be rid of Firdaus and take the dowry. Although Firdaus's uncle is a religious man, he beats and rapes his wife, demonstrating the hypocrisy of religious men in Firdaus's world. - Character: Sheikh Mahmoud. Description: Sheikh Mahmoud marries Firdaus when she is 18 and he is over 60. On his face, a large infection dribbles blood and pus, and it sometimes drips on Firdaus when he kisses her face. He is a miserly old man, who does not work or go out but spends all of his time watching Firdaus take care of his home, jumping on any opportunity to criticize her. He also regularly beats and rapes Firdaus. After he hits Firdaus so hard that blood comes out of her ears and nose, she runs away from him and never sees him again. - Character: Sharifa Salah El Dine. Description: Sharifa gives Firdaus shelter after she runs away from Bayoumi. She is a wealthy woman and lives in a luxurious apartment that overlooks the Nile River. Sharifa teaches Firdaus she must be "hard" to survive and must set her own value. Through this, she helps Firdaus recognize her own beauty and intelligence. However, although Sharifa seems kind, she too pimps Firdaus out to wealthy men, but keeps all of the money for herself. - Character: Ibrahim. Description: Ibrahim works at Firdaus's industrial company and leads a "revolutionary" group campaigning for workers' rights. Firdaus and Ibrahim briefly fall in love and tell each other all about their lives, their pasts, and their fears, baring their souls to each other. Firdaus willingly has sex with Ibrahim for her own pleasure. However, Ibrahim betrays Firdaus and marries the company chairman's daughter, since this will benefit his career. This betrayal crushes Firdaus, and she decides that principled men use their tenderness to get sex for free, rather than paying for it. - Character: Bayoumi. Description: Bayoumi is the owner of a coffee shop, who gives Firdaus shelter after she runs away from Sheikh Mahmoud. For the first several months, Bayoumi is kind and generous to Firdaus and never tries to take advantage of her. However, when Firdaus decides she will move out and become independent, Bayoumi beats and rapes her, and starts locking her in his house all day and prostituting her out to his friends at night. - Character: Firdaus's Mother. Description: Firdaus remembers nothing about her mother except that she loved her, and that her eyes seem to watch over Firdaus when she was a small child. Whenever Firdaus feels love for another person, their eyes reflect the same quality as her mother's eyes, appearing as if light pours out of them. Despite Firdaus's affection for her mother, she is also the person who coordinates Firdaus's circumcision as a young girl. - Character: The prince. Description: The prince solicits Firdaus right after she murders Marzouk and kills her fear, paying her a massive sum of 3,000 pounds. Midway through sex, Firdaus stops, tears the prince's money to pieces, and says that she ought to kill him since he is just an "insect" who spends his people's taxes on prostitutes for himself. The prince calls the police and accuses Firdaus of being a killer, and they arrest her. - Character: Miss Iqbal. Description: Miss Iqbal is one of Firdaus's secondary school teachers. When Miss Iqbal finds Firdaus crying alone one night, she sits with her. Firdaus thinks Miss Iqbal's eyes look like her mother's, as if light pours out of them, and when she takes Miss Iqbal's hand she feels the dim stirring of sexual pleasure. Miss Iqbal becomes Firdaus's first love, though neither she nor Firdaus truly realizes it. When Firdaus leaves school without ever having another encounter with Miss Iqbal, she is heartbroken. - Theme: Pervasive Sexism and Oppression. Description: Nawal El Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero tells the story of Firdaus—an Egyptian woman on death row in the 1970s for killing a pimp—who suffers oppression and abuse from men for her entire life. As Saadawi narrates from Firdaus's perspective, every single man in her life seeks to abuse or exploit her based on her female identity. Although Firdaus is a natural survivor, her story is unrelentingly bleak as she goes from oppressive situation to oppressive situation, with no hope for positive change. Firdaus's account depicts pervasive sexism in Egyptian society in the 1970s and demonstrates how it plagues women from birth to death, exerting powerful influence over every aspect of their lives. As a child, Firdaus's friends and family members oppress and exploit her for being born a woman, demonstrating how pervasive sexism affects women from the earliest years of their life. Firdaus's only recollections of her father are negative. Every night she watches him "beat his wife and make her bite the dust." Firdaus has many siblings, but they often die of dysentery. When a son dies, Firdaus's father gets angry and beats her mother; when a daughter dies, he eats his dinner and goes to sleep like any other day. Firdaus's father's utter disregard for his wife and daughters suggests that Firdaus's family structure is inherently sexist and places no value whatsoever on women and girls. As young children, Firdaus and her friend Mohammadain often sneak away to play "bride and bridegroom," a game in which they explore each other's bodies—this is how Firdaus first experiences sexual pleasure. However, before she is old enough to understand her body or where the pleasure comes from, Firdaus's mother has her circumcised, removing her clitoris with a razor blade. For the rest of Firdaus's life, during any sexual experience, she can sense that the pleasure is missing, "like a dream remembered from a distant past," but can never quite recover it. Firdaus never has any say in her genital mutilation, suggesting that even at any early age, she has no agency or control over her own body. Throughout her young childhood, Firdaus's uncle provides her sole affectionate relationship with an adult. She recalls, "My uncle was closer to me than my father." Although her uncle teaches her to read, puts her in elementary school, and eventually adopts her after both parents die, he also sexually molests her from an early age. Firdaus learns to expect his hands reaching for her with a "grasping, almost brutal insistence" and does not try to resist him, seemingly because of his authority as a man and his affection toward her. Firdaus's only remotely positive relationship with a man is still sexually exploitative, suggesting that her whole childhood is framed by sexism and oppression from men. Although Firdaus is intelligent and capable, her uncle's sexist ideals prevent her from pursuing her full potential as a scholar or professional, suggesting that society's pervasive sexism keeps women from reaching their true potential. After Firdaus's parents die, her uncle adopts her and puts her through primary and secondary school at an all-girls boarding school, where she excels—which suggests that without men oppressing or exploiting her, Firdaus is free to reach her own high potential. Upon graduating secondary school, Firdaus ranks "second in the school and seventh countrywide." She is obviously a talented student, and dreams of becoming a "head of state," though she knows this is impossible due to her gender, suggesting that societal sexism causes Firdaus to limit her own aspirations. However, when her uncle's new wife wants to "be rid of [Firdaus] by sending her to the university," Firdaus's uncle refuses, insisting that his niece studying alongside men would look indecorous and reflect poorly on him, since he is a religious scholar and public figure. Despite Firdaus's intellect, her uncle's sexist beliefs about women's role in society prematurely end her education and stop her from reaching her full potential as a scholar. Instead of letting Firdaus study, Firdaus's uncle and aunt marry her off to Sheikh Mahmoud, a grotesque old man who pays a hefty dowry for Firdaus, effectively buying her from her family. Sheikh Mahmoud routinely beats and rapes her until she runs away and wanders the streets, desperate for shelter and a new life. Unable to find a lawful job with her secondary school certificate, Firdaus spends most of her adult life as a prostitute, exploited and abused by several different pimps until she becomes her own manager. Her uncle's refusal to let her study in university, based solely on his sexist ideals, sets Firdaus down a path of hardship and exploitation, demonstrating that personal and societal sexism oppress women by withholding them from their true potential and forcing them into lives of desperation and abuse. When Firdaus finally leaves prostitution and works for an industrial company, she finds that company executives regularly harass women and pressure them to have sex with them, suggesting that sexism and oppression even dominate career women's lives. Although Firdaus refuses to have sex with her superiors—not for their lack of trying—she watches her female co-workers "offer their bodies and their physical efforts every night in return for a meal, or a good yearly report, or just to ensure that they would not be treated unfairly" and realizes "that a female employee is more afraid of losing her job than a prostitute is of losing her life." That is, women's fear of losing their jobs allows powerful men to prey on them. Firdaus's account suggests that even for professional, independent women, pervasive sexism dominates their lives and has an outsized effect on their careers. If even working women, who earn their own living and are not dependent on a husband or father, suffer pervasive sexism, then every level of society appears to be rife with gendered oppression. No woman escapes it. Firdaus's testimony is unrelentingly dark, suggesting that pervasive sexism exists on every level of Egyptian society, plaguing women from birth to death. Though the story itself offers no hope for women, it represents the very real need for feminism and women's liberation in the Egypt in the 1970s. - Theme: Prostitution and Transactional Relationships. Description: Although Firdaus (an Egyptian woman in the 1970s) is smart and once excelled as a student, she spends most of her adult life as a prostitute, first by coercion and later by choice. Because of her role as a prostitute, the men who pay for her services hypocritically scorn her for trading sex for money. However, even when Firdaus leaves prostitution behind, she discovers that society expects women to trade their bodies for various gains in every environment and scenario. Through Firdaus's experiences in and out of prostitution, the book argues that although society looks down on prostitutes, all relationships between men and women in a patriarchal society are essentially transactional, hardly different from prostitution. Although prostitution seems common in Egypt, people often demean Firdaus for the life she lives, indicating that society views transactional sex—having sex for money—as "not respectable," even when much of that society takes part in it. After Firdaus runs away from her husband, Sheikh Mahmoud, a seemingly kind man named Bayoumi lets her live in his house with him for several months. However, when Firdaus decides she wants to find a job and be independent, Bayoumi beats her and locks her in his house. He starts raping her each night when he comes home, and lets other men enter and have sex with her as well, beginning Firdaus's life as a prostitute. Bayoumi and the others often call her "slut, bitch," reinforcing their disregard for her and her humanity. When Firdaus escapes Bayoumi, she wanders the streets until a policeman picks her up. The policeman berates her, saying, "You're a prostitute, and it's my duty to arrest you […] to clean up the country, and protect respectable families from the likes of you." Even so, the policeman offers her money to have sex with him, suggesting that society at large condemns women who have sex for money—including those who have been coerced into prostitution—even while paying for their services. Firdaus eventually works independently, still operating as a prostitute but charging such high fees that she becomes wealthy with a large apartment, good food, and servants. Even so, Firdaus's friend Di'aa—who also pays to have sex with her—tells her that she is "not respectable," suggesting that regardless of one's financial success, society still looks down on any form of transactional sexual relationship. Firdaus leaves prostitution for several years to lead a normal life, become a "respectable" woman, and even fall in love, but she soon discovers that all relationships between men and women are essentially transactional. With her secondary school certificate, Firdaus finds work for an industrial company, though it pays so little that she must live in a much worse apartment than she did as an independent prostitute. Even so, she initially considers the sacrifice worthwhile, saying, "I was prepared to do anything to put a stop to the insults that my ears had grown used to hearing, to keep the brazen eyes from running all over my body." Although poor again, Firdaus believes she is freed from being demeaned by society and exploited by men. However, before long she realizes that most women in her company have sex with their superiors to earn better treatment or avoid losing their jobs. She posits that just as she used to trade sex for money, her coworkers trade sex for favors. Since they can effectively buy their female employees' bodies, the male superiors still look down upon the women. Firdaus observes, "I realized that as a prostitute I had been looked upon with more respect, been valued more highly than all of the female employees, myself included." Her words indicate that, although society disrespected her as a prostitute, this is no different than male society's disrespect for women in general. Firdaus falls in love with a man at her company named Ibrahim, a principled revolutionary leader. For a brief time, they are happy together. She has sex with him willingly—the only time in her life that Firdaus reports having sex for pleasure. However, when Ibrahim abruptly leaves her and marries a wealthy woman, Firdaus is crushed. She feels that Ibrahim simply used her, and decides that "men with principles were not really different from the rest," because they use their principles and kind words to get "what other men buy for money." Firdaus's realization suggests that even in romantic relationships, men only trade their tenderness for sex, making the relationship just as transactional as prostitution, albeit less honest. Firdaus ultimately returns to prostitution, since both parties are at least honest about their sexual transaction. It also pays better, giving her more agency. She concludes that since men control the world, they "force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife," since a wife is not paid, and her husband owns her (by Egyptian custom). She goes on, "All women are prostitutes of one kind or another. Because I was intelligent I preferred to be a free prostitute, rather than an enslaved wife." Firdaus's words suggest that, in a world run by men, any relationship between a man and a woman—whether an affair, marriage, or employment contract—is transactional, little different from outright prostitution. Firdaus's view of relationships between men and women is certainly cynical, but reflects the reality of living as a woman in male-dominated Egypt in the mid-20th century. - Theme: Fear and Survival. Description: After decades of sexism and abuse, Firdaus, an Egyptian woman in the 1970s, sees the whole world as a conflict between men and women, "masters" and "slaves," governed by fear. As a child and then as a wife, professional woman, and prostitute, Firdaus lives in constant fear of men and what they can do to her, which keeps her in a subservient position. However, when Firdaus kills a man who exploits her, she feels her fear diminish and finds that she has the power to act and fight, to call men what they are: criminals. Firdaus's transformation from subservient, fearful victim to fearsome woman suggests that men use fear to hold women down and stop them from speaking the truth about women's oppression in society. Because of her constant oppression and abuse, Firdaus's life is full of fear, suggesting that fear plagues all women who live in oppressive, male-dominated societies. When Firdaus learns she will be married to Sheikh Mahmoud, she briefly tries to run away to avoid the horror of an arranged marriage. However, as night falls and she wanders the streets alone, she feels a pair of eyes watching her from the darkness, wandering over her body. The feeling terrifies Firdaus so severely that she runs back to her uncle's house and submits to the awful and abusive marriage, demonstrating that general fear of the wide world causes her to accept her more specific fear of oppressive situations. Both Sheik Mahmoud and the pimp Bayoumi use violence to control Firdaus, beating her until she submits to letting them rape her. Similarly, a policeman coerces Firdaus into having sex with him by threatening to throw her in jail. In all three instances, men use fear and threats to make Firdaus compliant with their abuse. Fear becomes such a constant presence in Firdaus's life that even when men don't immediately threaten violence, she often lets them have their way with her—when a man picks her up on a cold night and initiates sex with her, she makes no attempts to resist or reciprocate, but rather passively accepts the encounter. This suggests that Firdaus's fear conditions her behavior and makes her docile toward men's advances and abuses. Firdaus learns to endure her fear and survive abuse and assault by disassociating her mind from what happens to her body, suggesting that fear encourages women to withdraw from themselves, rather than be active participants in their own lives.  Whenever Firdaus's husband or Bayoumi rapes her, she does not fight back, but endures the assaults by becoming "like a piece of dead wood," "emptied of all desire, or pleasure, or even pain, feeling nothing." Because men regularly inflict violence or sexual assault on her body, Firdaus learns to mentally detach herself from it, demonstrating how one can mentally disassociate to survive pain and abuse as it happens. Disassociation also helps Firdaus deal with her fear. After she runs away from yet another exploitative situation, she observes, "I was no longer afraid. Nothing in the streets was capable of scaring me any longer […] Had my body changed? […] And where had my own, my real body, gone?" Although it protects her from fear, Firdaus's disassociation also stops her from acting in the real world. She reflects, "I learnt to resist by being passive, to keep myself whole by offering nothing, to live by withdrawing into a world of my own." Firdaus's withdrawal protects her mind, but it also allows the men who hurt and abuse her to continue doing so unchecked. This implies that by withdrawing into herself, Firdaus loses her ability to respond to men's advances or fight back. When Firdaus kills an abuser—and thus acts against her fear—she realizes that she is an active person, able to fight and to speak the truth about the oppression of women. This transformation makes her a powerful threat to all men, suggesting that women who are not held down by their fears have the capability to fight back against oppressive men. Late in her life, Firdaus loses her independence when yet another pimp named Marzouk takes control of her. When Firdaus challenges him and tries to leave, she sees fear in his eyes: "I saw from the expression in his eyes that he feared me as only a master can fear his slave, as only a man can fear a woman." Emboldened, when Marzouk strikes her, rather than disassociate, Firdaus actively strikes him back. Marzouk tries to pull his knife, but Firdaus takes it from him and stabs him to death. She acts, rather than withdraws. Firdaus is surprised at how easy it is to kill an abuser, and that she did not do it sooner. She reflects, "I realized that I had been afraid, and that fear had been with me all the time, until the fleeting moment when I read fear in his eyes." When she kills Marzouk, Firdaus recognizes her own ability to retaliate against men. After the police arrest Firdaus for murder, she boldly tells them she simply killed a criminal: "I am saying that you are all criminals, all of you: the fathers, the uncles, the husbands, the pimps," suggesting that all men are culpable for oppressing women. To the police, Firdaus's boldness makes her a "savage and dangerous woman," to which she responds, "the truth is savage and dangerous." The police arrest Firdaus and sentence her to death "not because [she] had killed a man […] but because they are afraid to let [her] live." Firdaus remarks, "I am speaking the truth now without any difficulty," suggesting that now that she recognizes her own ability to act, she is free to criticize their sexist society as she sees it, making her a threat to all men in power, who maintain their power by keeping women fearful and repressed. Firdaus's transformation suggests that when women recognize their ability to act in spite of fear, they can tell the dangerous truth about male domination and call out their abusers. At the same time, Firdaus's transformation also results in her own death, demonstrating that as powerful as it is for women to overcome their fear and resist oppressive societies, there's also genuine risk involved in doing so. - Theme: Religious Hypocrisy. Description: In Egypt, religion plays a prominent role both in society and in government. Firdaus, an Egyptian woman on death row for killing a pimp, grows up surrounded by religious men who, in spite of their moralistic pretenses, frequently exploit and abuse her. Although such figures should theoretically be a source of protection and safety for women, they prove to be as manipulative and oppressive as anyone else, concerned primarily with their own self-interests. Firdaus's depiction of religious figures in her life makes the case that in Egypt, religion is not a source of virtue or moral fortitude, but merely a tool to uphold the ruling class's power. Many of the men in Firdaus's early life are deeply religious, yet act in reprehensible ways toward women, suggesting that religious involvement does not confer any actual virtue, justice, or moral character. Firdaus's father goes to mosque every Friday to pray, and talks at length with his friends about the imam's sermon and about virtue, asking, "Was it not verily true that stealing was a sin, and killing was a sin, and defaming the honor of a woman was a sin, and injustice was a sin, and beating another human being was a sin…?" However, Firdaus recalls that her father spends the rest of the week beating his wife, stealing his neighbor's crops, and selling sick animals as if they are healthy. Her father is clearly hypocritical, suggesting that his religious convictions don't actually produce moral character. Firdaus's uncle, a respected religious scholar, sexually abuses her as a child, which indicates that the religious leaders are as hypocritical as their followers. Moreover, when Firdaus's husband Sheikh Mahmoud beats her until she is bruised and bloody, she runs to her uncle for protection, assuming that as a religious figure, he will protect her. However, Firdaus's uncle claims that all men beat their wives, and his wife tells Firdaus that "it was precisely men well versed in their religion who beat their wives. The precepts of religion permitted such punishment." Rather than protecting women, Firdaus's experience suggests that religious leaders encourage women's oppression, seemingly justified by their religious "precepts." Firdaus observes that rather than serving God, religious leaders and rulers seem more interested in defending their own wealth and power, suggesting that religion is only a tool to protect the ruling class. Firdaus notes that men like her father believe "that love of the ruler and love of Allah [God] were one and indivisible," which implies that organized religion is inherently nationalistic, wedded to the state and its power. When Firdaus is in secondary school, she often sees pictures in newspapers of "one or other of these rulers" praying at the mosque, surrounded by his entourage. The ruler always wears "an expression of great humility, like a man stricken to his depths," but Firdaus knows that "he was trying to deceive Allah in the same way as he deceived his people" by solemnly praying and chanting. The rulers' showmanship suggests that their religion is simply a façade, a tool to make them look noble and innocent. Such rulers and religious leaders often pray for "the souls of the nation's martyrs" who died in war. However, watching them, Firdaus posits, "When they pronounced the word 'patriotism' I could tell [they] feared not Allah, and that at the back of their minds patriotism meant the poor should die to defend the land of the rich, their land, for I knew the poor had no land." Firdaus's statement pointedly argues that religion is not a way to serve God, but merely a system for the ruling class to enforce their rule and protect their money by manipulating those below them. Overall, Firdaus takes a cynical view of religion in Egypt, arguing that it is merely a façade that the ruling class uses to reinforce their own power and wealth—and that those who profess to be religious tend to be at least as immoral as anyone else. - Climax: Firdaus kills Marzouk and threatens the Arab prince, which leads to her arrest. - Summary: Egyptian psychiatrist Nawal El Saadawi visits a woman named Firdaus in Qanatir Prison, where she is about to be executed for murder. Firdaus narrates her life story. Firdaus spends her early childhood in a rural village. Her father is terribly abusive and deceitful, though every week at the mosque he pretends to be religiously devout. Firdaus has little memory of her mother, though she knows that her mother had her circumcised when she was still too young to understand what it meant—though not before her first sexual experience with a young boy named Mohammadain. Firdaus's uncle routinely sexually abuses her, but she still likes being with him because he teaches her to read and write. When Firdaus's parents die, her uncle takes her with him to Cairo and enrolls her in school. She enjoys her life with him and excels as a student. However, after Firdaus marries an upper-class wife he becomes cool and distant, and abandons Firdaus to a secondary boarding school. Firdaus thrives here as well, though her painful childhood troubles her. One night, her teacher Miss Iqbal gives her comfort, and as Firdaus holds her hand she feels a muted stir of sexual pleasure, though she does not understand what this feeling means. Firdaus expects that Miss Iqbal feels it too, but her teacher never recognizes it or pays Firdaus special attention, which disappoints Firdaus. Although Firdaus graduates secondary school as one of the top students in the country, her uncle refuses to send her to university, since his niece studying alongside young men would reflect poorly on him as a public figure. Instead, at his wife's suggestion, he marries Firdaus to Sheikh Mahmoud, a wretched old man who is over 60 years old, while Firdaus is only 18. Before the wedding, Firdaus briefly tries to run away, but realizes that the world is too frightening for her as a woman. Sheikh Mahmoud routinely beats and rapes Firdaus, and she learns to withdraw from herself, mentally disassociating from her own body to endure the abuse. Firdaus runs to her uncle for shelter, but he is unsympathetic, so she runs away again. A seemingly kind named Bayoumi takes her in and treats her well for several months. However, when Firdaus decides she wants to work and live independently, Bayoumi beats and rapes her and starts keeping her locked in his house all day, pimping her out to his friends at night. A neighbor helps Firdaus escape, and within a day she meets Sharifa, a wealthy woman who brings Firdaus to live with her in her lavish apartment. Sharifa teaches Firdaus that she is beautiful and can make men pay anything she wants for her body. However, Sharifa also pimps Firdaus out to men and keeps all of the money for herself. Firdaus eventually runs away from Sharifa as well, and beings working as an independent prostitute. She learns how to entice men and demand massive fees, and grows wealthy enough to have her own apartment, servants, and a cook. However, when one of Firdaus's friends tells her that she is "not respectable," she decides to leave prostitution and try to build a respectable life for herself. Firdaus takes a low-wage job for an industrial company and lives in a tiny, dirty apartment. Even so, she feels free. However, after several years, Firdaus realizes that the company executives pressure their female employees to have sex with them for favors or promotions. She decides that women in lawful professions are given as little respect by men as prostitutes are, but a prostitute can make a better living. Meanwhile, Firdaus briefly falls in love with Ibrahim, a union leader at her company who seems principled and noble. They have a brief affair, during which she feels so in love that she tells him every secret of her life and her past. She has sex with him willingly, for her own pleasure. However, Ibrahim suddenly betrays her and announces his engagement to the company chairman's daughter, which will benefit his career. This breaks Firdaus's heart, and she realizes that men like Ibrahim trade tenderness for sex, which is little different from those who buy sex with money. Firdaus returns to living as a prostitute and making good money. However, a pimp named Marzouk manages to take control of her through his contacts in the police and the courts. He starts taking the majority of her income. When Firdaus decides to leave Marzouk, he tries to stop her, but she recognizes fear in his eyes. When Marzouk strikes her, she strikes him back, then stabs him to death with his own knife. Firdaus realizes that she can act against men and has nothing to fear; she can say and do as she truly feels. Immediately after, an Arab prince solicits Firdaus and pays her 3,000 pounds. Midway through sex, Firdaus refuses to continue and shreds the prince's money in front of him. She tells him that all men are criminals and says she ought to kill the prince where he stands, since he is insignificant and corrupt. When she strikes him, the prince believes her and screams for the police. The police arrest her as a murderer, though Firdaus knows they are really just afraid of a woman who is bold enough to speak the "savage" truth. They throw her in jail, where she now awaits her execution. Saadawi listens to Firdaus finish her story. After she finishes, the two women sit in silence until men take Firdaus away to execute her. Although Firdaus is dead, her voice remains in Saadawi's head long after, and she realizes that she feels ashamed of her own fear and weakness compared to Firdaus's courage.

- Genre: Romanticism / Realism / Gothic (e.g., mysterious family relationships, vulnerable heroines, houses full of secrets, and wild landscapes) - Title: Wuthering Heights - Point of view: Nelly Dean, a housekeeper, tells the story of the Lintons and Earnshaws to Mr. Lockwood, who passes along her story to the reader. - Setting: Yorkshire, England, late 18th to early 19th century - Character: Mr. Lockwood. Description: A gentleman who rents Thrushcross Grange from Heathcliff. He is the narrator of the story; Nelly Dean tells him about all of the other characters, and he passes on her account to the reader. He is a somewhat smug and emotionally remote city boy who is not very involved in the action. - Character: Ellen "Nelly" Dean. Description: Housekeeper to the Earnshaws and Lintons. The novel is from her point of view; we see every character (aside from Lockwood) through her eyes. She grows up with Hindley, Catherine, and Heathcliff and works at both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Nelly is confidante to many, including both Catherines, Isabella, and even Heathcliff. She cares for Hareton when he is an infant and is a mother-figure to the younger Cathy. Though a servant, she is educated and articulate. Frequently, she does more than observe; she becomes very involved in her employers' lives. Some might call her meddlesome, but most of the characters are so comfortable with her that they have intimate conversations in front of her. - Character: Hindley Earnshaw. Description: Son of Mr. Earnshaw, brother of Catherine, foster brother of Heathcliff, father of Hareton, husband of Frances. He inherits Wuthering Heights from his father. A hardcore drinker and gambler, he falls apart after his wife's death. He evolves from a fun-loving, good-natured boy into an angry, bitter, jealous, and self-destructive man. - Character: Catherine Earnshaw Linton. Description: Daughter of Mr. Earnshaw, sister of Hindley, foster sister and true love of Heathcliff, wife of Edgar, mother of Cathy. Gorgeous and fiery with dark curls and penetrating eyes, Catherine is a woman in conflict— she craves the luxury, security, and serenity of ultra-civilized Edgar, even as she runs wild across the moors with brooding and unkempt Heathcliff. She loves Heathcliff with a huge and overwhelming passion. She is impetuous, proud, and sometimes haughty. - Character: Heathcliff. Description: Foster son of Mr. Earnshaw; foster brother of Hindley and Catherine; husband of Isabella; father of Linton. Heathcliff is the conflicted villain/hero of the novel. Mr. Earnshaw finds him on the street and brings him home to Wuthering Heights, where he and Catherine become soul mates. He is the ultimate outsider, with his dark "gypsy" looks and mysterious background. Though he eventually comes to own Wuthering Heights, he never seems as fully home in the house as he does on the moors. His love for Catherine is gigantic and untamed and matters to him more than anything else, but it is never easy— it leads him to control and belittle and manipulate nearly everyone around him. Despite his many horrible deeds, Heathcliff is not a straight-out bad guy; he is a poor orphan who finds material success but not what he really wants— the love of Catherine. - Character: Catherine/Cathy Linton Heathcliff Earnshaw. Description: Daughter of Edgar and Catherine; wife of Linton Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw (both her cousins). Young, beautiful, and good-hearted, Cathy has the gumption and passion of her mother and the calm and blonde beauty of her father. She is a complicated teenager who is frequently kind and compassionate but often selfish and inconsiderate, too. Ultimately, she shows the capacity to see past superficial things to the nobility and beauty beneath, a trait her mother lacked. - Character: Hareton Earnshaw. Description: Son of Hindley and Frances; husband of young Cathy. Hareton lives and works at Wuthering Heights, where his father ignores him and Heathcliff tolerates him; he is shy, rough, illiterate, hard-working, and neglected. By birth, he should be a gentleman, but his guardians purposely neglect his education. Underneath his gruffness is a smart, kind, and sensitive soul. - Character: Edgar Linton. Description: Brother of Isabella, husband of Catherine, father of Cathy. Sweet, loving, and kind, Edgar is the picture of a country gentleman; he is very handsome and dotes upon both wife and daughter. He initially appears fragile, but, in fact, he is quite strong in a quiet, introspective way. He's not pure goodness, however: he despises Heathcliff and can be unforgiving. - Theme: Gothic Literature and the Supernatural. Description: From beginning to end, Wuthering Heights is a novel full of ghosts and spirits. Dead characters refuse to leave the living alone, and the living accept that the deceased find ways of coming back to haunt them. In a departure from traditional Gothic tales, these hauntings are sometimes welcome. Heathcliff, for instance, repeatedly seeks out visitations from the ghost of his beloved Catherine. He even digs up her grave in order to be closer to her. Brontë uses otherworldly figures to emphasize the ferocity of Heathcliff's and Catherine's love; their connection is so powerful that even death can't stop it. - Theme: Nature and Civilization. Description: Pitting nature against civilization, Emily Brontë promotes the Romantic idea that the sublime—the awe-inspiring, almost frightening, beauty of nature—is superior to man-made culture. She makes this point by correlating many of the characters with one side or the other and then squaring them off against each other. For instance, Heathcliff, whose origins are unknown and who roams the moors, is definitely on the nature side, while his rival, the studious Edgar Linton, is in the civilized camp. Other pairings include Hareton Earnshaw vs. Linton Earnshaw; Catherine vs. Isabella; and Hareton vs. Cathy. In all of these cases, Brontë makes one character a bit wild (perhaps by showing them in tune with animals and/or the outdoors and/or their emotions), while portraying the other as somewhat reserved and often prissy or fussy. But nothing is black and white in Wuthering Heights. Many of the characters exhibit traits from both sides. While Brontë argues that nature is somehow purer, she also lauds civilization, particularly in terms of education. Hareton Earnshaw personifies this combination of nature and civilization: Brontë associates the young orphan with nature (he is a coarse, awkward farm boy) as well as civilization (inspired by his desire for young Cathy, he learns how to read). This mixture of down-to-earth passion and book-centered education make him, arguably, the most sympathetic character in the book. - Theme: Love and Passion. Description: Wuthering Heights explores a variety of kinds of love. Loves on display in the novel include Heathcliff and Catherine's all-consuming passion for each other, which while noble in its purity is also terribly destructive. In contract, the love between Catherine and Edgar is proper and civilized rather than passionate. Theirs is a love of peace and comfort, a socially acceptable love, but it can't stand in the way of Heathcliff and Catherine's more profound (and more violent) connection. The love between Cathy and Linton is a grotesque exaggeration of that between Catherine and Edgar. While Catherine always seems just a bit too strong for Edgar, Cathy and Linton's love is founded on Linton's weakness—Linton gets Cathy to love him by playing on her desire to protect and mother him. Finally, there's the love between Cathy and Hareton, which seems to balance the traits of the other loves on display. They have the passion of Catherine and Heathcliff without the destructiveness, and the gentleness shared by Edgar and Catherine without the dullness or inequality in power. - Theme: Masculinity and Femininity. Description: Written when gender roles were far more rigid and defined than they are now, Wuthering Heights examines stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. Emily Brontë constantly contrasts masculinity and femininity, but not all of the comparisons are simple; sometimes boys act like girls and girls act like boys. Edgar Linton and Linton Heathcliff, for instance, are men, but Brontë frequently describes them as having the looks and attributes of women. Likewise, Catherine Earnshaw has many masculine characteristics; even though she is outrageously beautiful, she loves rough, outdoor play and can hold her own in any fight. She is a complex mix of hyper-feminine grace and loveliness and ultra-masculine anger and recklessness. Heathcliff, with his physical and mental toughness, has no such ambiguities—he is exaggeratedly masculine and scorns his wife Isabella for her overblown femininity. Emily Brontë seems to favor masculinity over femininity, even in her women. In general, she portrays weak, delicate characters with contempt, while she treats strong and rugged characters like Heathcliff, both Catherines, and Hareton, with compassion and admiration, despite their flaws. - Theme: Class. Description: Understanding the importance of class in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain is essential to understanding Wuthering Heights. Generally, at the time, people were born into a class and stayed there: if your parents were rich and respected (like Edgar's), you would be, too; if your parents were servants (like Nelly Dean's), you probably would be too. Social mobility—the idea that you can change your class status (usually for the better)—was not commonplace. In Brontë's novel, however, class distinctions are constantly changing, much to the confusion of the characters. There are two primary examples of this: Heathcliff and Hareton. Because no one knows anything about Heathcliff's background, they all treat him differently. Mr. Earnshaw adopts him and treats him like a son, but the snobby Lintons refuse to socialize with him. When he disappears for a few years and comes back rich, the characters struggle even more over how to approach him—he now has money and land, but many of them still consider him a farm boy. Likewise, Hareton has a hard time gaining respect. The son of Hindley, Hareton should be the heir to Wuthering Heights. With land and standing, he ought to be a gentleman. However, Heathcliff refuses to educate him, and everyone else mostly ignores him, so his manners (a very important indicator of class status) are rough and gruff. Only when young Cathy helps educate him does he achieve the class standing to which he was born. - Theme: Revenge and Repetition. Description: Nearly all of the action in Wuthering Heights results from one or another character's desire for revenge. The result are cycles of revenge that seem to endlessly repeat. Hindley takes revenge on Heathcliff for taking his place at Wuthering Heights by denying him an education, and in the process separates Heathcliff and Catherine. Heathcliff then takes revenge upon Hindley by, first, dispossessing Hindley of Wuthering Heights and by denying an education to Hareton, Hindley's son. Heathcliff also seeks revenge on Edgar for marrying Catherine by marrying Cathy to Linton. Yet while Heathcliff's revenge is effective, it seems to bring him little joy. Late in the novel, Cathy sees this, and tells Heathcliff that her revenge on him, no matter how miserable he makes her, is to know that he, Heathcliff, is more miserable. And it is instructive that only when Heathcliff loses his desire for revenge is he able to finally reconnect with Catherine in death, and to allow Cathy and Hareton, who are so similar to Heathcliff and Catherine, to find love and marry. - Climax: Heathcliff and Catherine's tearful, impassioned reunion just hours before Catherine gives birth and then dies - Summary: Mr. Lockwood, an out-of-towner renting an estate called Thrushcross Grange, twice visits his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, who lives at a nearby manor called Wuthering Heights. During the first visit, Heathcliff is gruff but compelling. During the second, Lockwood meets other mysterious residents of Wuthering Heights, is attacked by dogs when he tries to leave, and endures a ghostly visitation overnight. Lockwood asks the housekeeper at the Grange, Ellen Dean (a.k.a. "Nelly"), to tell him about Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights. She recounts a complicated story of two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons.Mr. Earnshaw, a gentleman, owns Wuthering Heights. He has two children, Hindley and Catherine, and adopts a third, Heathcliff. Hindley is jealous of Heathcliff because both his father and his sister are very fond of the youngster. To avoid strife, Mr. Earnshaw sends Hindley away to college, during which time Catherine and Heathcliff become extremely close. Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley, with a new wife, returns to claim Wuthering Heights. Still bitter, Hindley forces Heathcliff to give up his education and treats him like a servant. Hindley's wife dies soon after giving birth to a baby boy, Hareton, however. Hindley descends into alcoholism, though he continues to abuse and mistreat Heathcliff. Meanwhile, Heathcliff and Catherine grow interested in the Lintons, a well-to-do family who live at Thrushcross Grange. The Lintons have two children, Edgar and Isabella, who seem very cultured and refined to the somewhat wild inhabitants of Wuthering Heights. After suffering an injury while spying on the Lintons, Catherine Earnshaw spends five weeks with the Lintons, becoming close to Edgar. She finds Edgar's wealth and blonde beauty enticing, yet her feelings for Heathcliff are far more passionate. Even so, Catherine tells Nelly that she can't marry Heathcliff because of how Hindley has degraded him. Heathcliff overhears Catherine, and flees Wuthering Heights that night. In Heathcliff's absence, a devastated Catherine marries Edgar Linton and moves to Thrushcross Grange. All is well—until Heathcliff returns, now rich and dignified, but just as wild and ferocious. Catherine is thrilled to see Heathcliff again. Edgar doesn't share her excitement. He tries to keep them apart, but Catherine continues to see Heathcliff despite her husband's disapproval. Heathcliff, meanwhile, moves into Wuthering Heights. Hindley, who has become a gambler, welcomes Heathcliff into his home because he lusts after Heathcliff's money. Soon after, Catherine reveals to Heathcliff that Isabella has a crush on him. Not long after that, she observes the two of them embracing. The developing romance leads to a conflict between Edgar and Heathcliff, after which Edgar demands that Catherine choose between the two of them. Catherine responds by locking herself into her room and refusing to eat for three days. On the third day, she is frenzied and delusional and believes herself near death. That same night, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella. Edgar nurses Catherine for two months. Her health improves somewhat, though not completely. She also discovers that she is pregnant. At Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff treats Isabella terribly from the moment after their wedding. Edgar, however, refuses to have any contact with Isabella, and fears that Heathcliff wed Isabella solely as a way to try to take Thrushcross Grange from the Lintons. Two months after the wedding, Heathcliff, concerned about Catherine's health, pays a surprise visit to Thrushcross Grange while Edgar is away. In a tearful reunion, Heathcliff and Catherine profess their continuing and eternal love for each other, but Edgar soon returns and Catherine collapses. That night, Catherine gives birth to a girl, Cathy, and dies a few hours later. Catherine is buried in a spot overlooking the moors where she used to play with Heathcliff as a child. Two days later, Isabella escapes from Wuthering Heights and goes to town outside London, where she gives birth to Heathcliff's son, Linton. Hindley dies six months later, so deeply in debt to Heathcliff that Heathcliff becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff then places Hareton into the same kind of servitude into which Hindley once placed him. Twelve years pass. Cathy grows into a beautiful young woman, while Hareton grows into a rough youth. Isabella dies, and Edgar brings Linton back to Thrushcross Grange, but Heathcliff insists that Linton come to live with him at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff then carefully and deliberately cultivates a friendship between the weak and spineless Linton and the strong-willed Cathy. Though Edgar at first forbids Cathy from seeing Linton at all, as his own health fails he relents and allows her to meet with Linton at Thrushcross Grange or on the moors. One day, while meeting with Linton on the moors, Heathcliff forces Cathy and Nelly to return with him and Linton to Wuthering Heights. He confines Cathy and Nelly in the house until Cathy marries Linton, which she ultimately does. Cathy escapes from Wuthering Heights long enough to be with her father as he dies, but is soon taken back to Wuthering Heights by Heathcliff. Edgar is buried next to Catherine. Linton dies soon after that, and Heathcliff, because of careful legal maneuverings, now owns both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Cathy reluctantly lives with Heathcliff and Hareton (whom she constantly mocks for his illiteracy) at Wuthering Heights. This brings the story up to the present, when Lockwood has rented Thrushcross Grange. Lockwood goes back to London, but passes through the region six months later. Much to everyone's surprise, Cathy and Hareton have fallen in love. Cathy has realized Hareton's nobility and kindness beneath his lack of education. Heathcliff, who sees strong a resemblance in both Hareton and Cathy to Catherine, no longer feels the need for revenge. He dies and is buried beside Catherine (on the side opposite where Edgar is buried). Cathy and Hareton, at last free of interfering adults, plan to marry and move to Thrushcross Grange.

- Genre: Short fiction - Title: Yellow Woman - Point of view: First person - Setting: New Mexico - Character: Yellow Woman/Narrator. Description: The unnamed narrator of the story is referred to as Yellow Woman—a mythological character from Native American folklore. She spends the story trying to determine whether it is possible that she could be both an ordinary woman living in the present and the mythical Yellow Woman of her grandfather's stories. After meeting Silva, who claims to be a mountain spirit, and going with him into the mountains, she wonders how her family will react to her disappearance and decides that "they will go on like before." From her thoughts about her family, it becomes clear that Yellow Woman doesn't feel strong ties to any of them, and perhaps was seeking a reprieve from her mundane life. Despite Silva's reassurances that he is ka'tsina and she is Yellow Woman, the narrator dismisses the seemingly far-fetched idea that she and Silva could be the characters of myth, claiming that such things didn't happen anymore. Even so, the Yellow Woman mythology functions as a kind of prophecy for the narrator, who finds herself compelled to follow the myth's trajectory despite questioning the possibility that she could truly be Yellow Woman. By the end of the story, it appears that the narrator has embraced a more fluid sense of self, thinking of herself as both the nameless woman from the pueblo and Yellow Woman. Through the narrator's thoughts, Silko gives a modern voice to an old tradition of storytelling. The narrator is a modern woman pulled into an old folktale, discovering that mythical stories often have ordinary beginnings. - Character: Silva/Ka'tsina. Description: The narrator meets Silva as he sits by the river bank. He claims to be ka'tsina (a mythical mountain spirit known for seducing native women) and says that he has been waiting for her. The narrator doesn't know anything about Silva when they first meet and then spend the night together, and he remains a mysterious figure throughout the text. Although the narrator remains skeptical about their mythical identities, Silva regularly and calmly insists that he is ka'tsina and she is Yellow Woman (another character from mythology), and in this way slowly pulls the narrator into a world of half-myth, half-reality. Silva and his connection to the mountains provide the narrator with an opportunity to escape from her ordinary life and to explore her identity as more fluid than she originally thought. Silva only parts with the narrator after they encounter a hostile but unarmed white rancher and Silva orders her to leave. As she rides off, the sound of several gunshots leave the narrator and the reader wondering if Silva has killed the other man. The narrator returns home believing that Silva will one day be waiting for her again, as the Yellow Woman story goes. - Character: The Narrator's Grandfather. Description: Although the narrator's grandfather is deceased at the time of the narration, he occupies an important space in the text and in her mind. The narrator thinks about how her grandfather loved to tell Yellow Woman stories. Her memory of the stories seems to function like a prophecy, and because her grandfather was the source of this information, he remains a powerful force in her life despite his absence. At the end of the text, when she returns home, the narrator wishes her grandfather were around to hear her story—a Yellow Woman story—because he would have understood in a way that the rest of her family would not. - Character: The White Rancher. Description: The white rancher intercepts Silva and Yellow Woman as they head to the town to sell Silva's butchered beef. The narrator describes the white rancher as having "thick rolls of belly fat" and smelling "rancid." Her description suggests a criticism of the gluttony of the white people who stole native land and used tit to feed themselves and line their pockets. The white rancher addresses Silva gruffly as "Indian," immediately accuses him of being the cattle thief, and expects him to willingly turn himself in to state police. Both because of the violence implicit in addressing someone by their race, and because of his connection to the state police, the white rancher represents the vestiges of colonial authority—the same authority that committed grievous offenses against indigenous populations and now polices those populations. He embodies the existential threat constantly faced by native people who struggle to maintain their cultures and communities. The narrator implies that Silva kills the rancher when she writes that she hears four gunshots in the distance, having earlier remarked that she thought the rancher was probably unarmed. - Theme: Identity. Description: Identity is perhaps the most significant theme explored in this story. The title character and narrator is only known to the reader as "Yellow Woman," a figure from Pueblo folklore, while the stranger she meets by the river, called Silva, claims to be "ka'tsina," a mountain spirit known to seduce native women and take them from their communities. The narrator becomes fixated on uncovering Silva's true identity, telling herself he couldn't possibly be the mountain spirit of stories, but must be a Navajo. The characters' identities are tied together because if Silva is indeed ka'tsina, that means that the narrator must be Yellow Woman. Thus, in her efforts to pin down Silva's identity, the narrator is also searching for her own identity. Faced with the unknown, identifying things can be a way of gaining a sense of security and control. The narrator seeks to gain control over her situation by identifying it and the stranger in a way that makes sense to her. The narrator reasons, "But I only said that you were him and that I was Yellow Woman—I'm not really her—I have my own name and I come from the pueblo on the other side of the mesa. Your name is Silva and you are a stranger I met by the river yesterday afternoon." Here, she is attempting to rationalize the situation and her place in it by using familiar terms in order to pull herself out of the unknown and back into her familiar reality. Though she names Silva, she fails to explicitly name herself, saying only that she has "[her] own name." By not replacing Yellow Woman with another name, she leaves her true identity a mystery for the reader. When leaving for the mountains with Silva, the narrator wishes to herself that they would come across another person who could confirm that he is a man and not a mountain spirit, for then she would be certain that she is not Yellow Woman. She is seeking confirmation from someone else of his identity and, by extension, her own. When Silva and Yellow Woman encounter a white rancher, the rancher addresses Silva only as "Indian"—a vague, catch-all term for indigenous American people—and accuses him of thievery. Though Yellow Woman and the reader know that Silva does indeed steal cattle, the rancher has no other evidence for this accusation beyond Silva being a Native American in possession of fresh meat. The rancher then instructs Silva to ride on to Marquez, stating, "We'll call the state police from there." The rancher believes he can exercise power over Silva, first, by calling him Indian (a term the rancher's white ancestors forced on Silva's ancestors while colonizing North America), and second, by alluding to the colonial authority behind him: the state police.  The rancher asserts his power by explicitly connecting himself to the state police and colonial authority, and he seems to identify with this power so confidently that he confronts an alleged thief unarmed. Interestingly, it is during this encounter with another person that the narrator glimpses something of "time immemorial" in Silva. As Silva confronts the rancher, the narrator sees "something ancient and dark" in Silva's eyes, which suggests a mystical presence underneath his human exterior. She was hoping for another person to confirm his ordinariness, but instead, the rancher summoned evidence of the ka'tsina lurking beneath Silva's human face. The story also explores the human tendency to identify things based on their relationships to or differences from other predetermined groups. The narrator argues that she cannot be Yellow Woman because she doesn't belong to "time immemorial," the time when stories were made, and that she has a different name, as does Silva. She wants to believe that he is a Navajo because if he is (she reasons) he cannot be a ka'tsina. However, she begins to consider the notion that identities can be fluid and people can be many different things. She explains, "I was wondering if Yellow Woman knew who she was—if she knew that she would become part of the stories. Maybe she had another name that her husband and relatives called her so that only the ka'tsina from the north and the storytellers would know her as Yellow Woman." Here, the narrator is thinking about Yellow Woman in the third person, but seems to be describing herself. She wonders whether Yellow Woman exists as one person separate from her family and community and as another person with another name when within those spaces. As the narrator moves farther away from her family, she seems to become increasingly enmeshed in the mysticism and Yellow Woman identity. The deeper into the mountains they go, the more the narrator seems to believe that Silva is a mountain spirit. Just as her proximity to her home influences her perception of her identity, their connection to the mountain space shapes her perception of Silva's identity as a mountain spirit. Thus, the characters' identities flow and change depending on their environments, suggesting that identity is perhaps much more fluid than either the reader or the characters may have thought. By the end of the story, the narrator seems to embrace a more fluid identity. Standing outside of her house, she identifies her family members' voices, and they draw her back into her relationship to and identification with each of them. Although she decides to tell her family that she was kidnapped by a Navajo, she thinks, "I was sorry that old Grandpa wasn't alive to hear my story because it was the Yellow Woman stories he liked to tell best." By associating her own story with the Yellow Woman stories, she's suggesting to the reader that she has embraced her identity as Yellow Woman in addition to her "real" identity, which is defined by her relationships at home. The narrator has returned from her journey with a more fluid sense of self, no longer wondering whether she is Yellow Woman or the woman from the pueblo, but rather accepting that she may contain multiple identities which she first thought to be irreconcilable. - Theme: Reality and Myth. Description: For most of the story, the narrator is in a dream-like state, taking in the details of her surroundings but constantly doubting her senses. Reality blends indistinguishably with myth and mysticism during the time she spends with Silva. In the end, she decides to tell her family a version of the truth—that she was kidnapped by a Navajo rather than by a mountain spirit. By making the narrative a blend of realism and mythology, Silko blurs the boundary between reality and myth and suggests that no such boundary actually exists. At various moments throughout the story, the narrator's senses compete to shape her present reality. Her knowledge of her home—and who she is in that home on the other side of the mesa—conflict with her feelings as Yellow Woman connecting with the mountain spirit. Additionally, her proximity to certain spaces seems to influence her perception of reality. At Silva's house in the mountains, she sits in silence and explains, "I drowsed with apricots in my mouth, and I didn't believe that there were highways or railroads or cattle to steal." When she wakes from her drowsing, she sees ants, which remind her of her family in the present, small and far below her. Like the ants, her family and community live on and "under" the ground—in houses made of bricks from the earth. In the mountains—above and away from that familiar world—she slips easily between myth and reality. Silva claims to be able to see the whole world from his spot on the mountain, where his vision is unobstructed, but the narrator cannot see her pueblo. Later, when riding down the mountains with Silva, she thinks she spots a town in the distance, but he tells her that there isn't a town there. She saw what she expected to see and her eyes fooled her. Silva's embrace of both the mythical and the real seems to give him a sense of clarity that the narrator lacks. In contrasting Silva and the narrator's perception in this way, Silko further dismantles notions of a boundary between the mythical and the real, suggesting that those who seek to establish such a boundary (like the narrator) only end up clouding their vision. Depending on one's perception of their encounter, Silva oscillates between the roles of abductor and seducer. At times he uses physical force to take the narrator with him, and at times she fears violence from him. At other moments, she thinks of him fondly and misses him, imagining him waiting for her until they meet again one day. Her feelings about their interactions ebb and flow depending on how immersed she feels in the Yellow Woman mythology. The more she believes in their roles as Yellow Woman and ka'stina, the more their relationship feels appropriate—since their story is, after all, legendary. But when she clings to the other reality that she's merely a woman from the pueblo with a family, a husband, and a child, the relationship feels wrong.  At times, the narrator claims to openly resist Silva, showing that his behavior is forceful. She says, "I walked beside him, breathing hard because he walked fast, his hand around my wrist. I had stopped trying to pull away from him, because his hand felt cool and the sun was high, drying the river bed into alkali." The narrator explains, "he pulled me around and pinned me down with his arms and chest. 'You don't understand, do you, little Yellow Woman? You will do what I want.' And again he was all around me with his skin slippery against mine, and I was afraid because I understood that his strength could hurt me. I lay underneath him and I knew that he could destroy me." This moment in particular makes their relationship appear more like assault than a romantic affair. In the very next moment, however, she describes her tender feelings towards him, as "a feeling" overcomes her. After they are separated and the narrator makes her way home, she misses Silva and believes that he will be waiting for her again one day. Her initial resistance to Silva perhaps was more of her resistance to the mythology, and in trying to push him away, she had been seeking an arbitrary boundary between the mythical and the real. Now that she is free to return to her "real" life, however, she looks forward to blending the mythical and the real in the story she plans to tell her family. At the end of the story, the mystical and realistic threads seem to join in harmony. The smells and sounds of home greet her when she returns to her family, reminding her and the reader that her family exists in a reality of highways, pickup trucks, and Jell-O. She keeps her Yellow Woman story to herself not because she doesn't believe it, but because perhaps that isn't a story her family would understand as real. She wishes her grandfather was around because he liked Yellow Woman stories. Like Silva, perhaps her grandfather could also "see the whole world" since he, too, seems to have accepted that the mythical and the real exist in harmony. The narrator's choice to tell her family that she was abducted by a Navajo suggests that she knows it would be easier for them to accept that than it would be for them to believe that she had gone away with a mountain spirit. Living with a fixed boundary is more comfortable for them. Thus, her story once again demonstrates that the difference between myth and reality often depends on one's perspective and willingness to relinquish control over boundaries. - Theme: Time, Storytelling, Prophecy. Description: The tradition of oral storytelling is central to many Native American traditions, and the Yellow Woman stories are popular folklore among the narrator's Pueblo community, particularly with her family. In "Yellow Woman," stories are shown to have a certain power over characters that verges, at times, on the prophetic. Throughout the text, the narrator searches for her identity and argues that she, a modern woman living in a time with highways, pickup trucks, and railroads, couldn't also be a mythical character since things like that don't happen in the modern world. Silko uses the narrator's resistance to the mythology as a voice for modern readers' disbelief of old folktales, but shows that despite modern advances, stories are just as important and powerful as ever. The narrator suggests that if she is, in fact, the Yellow Woman from the myths, that means she is also bound to Yellow Woman's fate. As she gets swept along in her romantic affair with Silva, the alleged ka'tsina mountain spirit, her memories of the Yellow Woman stories that her grandfather told blend together with her current experiences, creating a nonlinear storyline and placing the stories parallel with events in her present. For the narrator, the Yellow Woman stories function like a prophecy that dictates her present and future—such that, even if she chooses not to believe her place in the story, she is powerless against the story's prescriptive influence. The Yellow Woman mythology interrupts the story so that the tales that happened supposedly long ago are intertwined with the present narrative. By weaving the old stories in, Silko creates a nonlinear story and demonstrates that time can be experienced in different ways and sequences. Breaking from a rigid linear composition of time, Silko writes a more circular story to better capture her character's cyclical, timeless journey. Immediately after claiming that the ka'tsina and Yellow Woman stories can't be about her and Silva, the narrator remembers her grandfather telling Yellow Woman stories, specifically the one about Badger and Coyote. As Coyote makes his way back to Yellow Woman, Silva's voice cuts in and beckons to the narrator, thereby creating a link between him and the Coyote, as well as between the narrator and Yellow Woman. The narrator finds herself in a storyline very similar to that of Yellow Woman but refuses to believe that she is Yellow Woman because she doesn't belong to "time immemorial." Silva reminds her that, someday, the present moment will be long ago for someone else, and that all stories start somewhere—in other words, stories are not confined by time, and the stories people tell about long-ago times are likely to be repeated in different iterations throughout history. At the beginning, the narrator isn't sure whose story she's in, and she feels powerless, simply going along with events as they occur. As they lay by the river, the narrator explains, "This is the way it happens in the stories, I was thinking, with no thought beyond the moment she meets the ka'tsina spirit and they go." Though she is clearly thinking beyond the moment, the narrator cannot yet say for sure that she is not Yellow Woman and follows the storyline that has been laid out for her. She thinks of the Yellow Woman stories almost like memories and doesn't resist the events happening in her present because to her it feels as though they have already happened. In this way, the stories she knows from her childhood become like a script for her to follow, or even a type of prophecy dictating her own life. She reasons that if she isn't Yellow Woman then she should be immune to Silva's charms and free to return to her family. But since she remains unsure about her identity (and therefore her control over the narrative) she follows the person who seems sure about his own identity and allows him to control the events. She says, "I did not decide to go. I just went. Moonflowers blossom in the sand hills before dawn, just as I followed him." Again, she presents the story of Yellow Woman as a kind of fate against which she herself is powerless. It is only after Silva sends the narrator away that the forces keeping them together seem to slacken. She rides until she sees signs of the familiar river, and then follows the river to make her way home. When she comes across their first meeting place, the narrator experiences a strong urge to return to Silva, but she doesn't, knowing that he will be waiting for her again in the future. As she imagines what her grandfather's reaction to her disappearance would have been, she thinks about how Yellow Woman always comes back eventually. Just as the prophetic forces of the Yellow Woman stories compelled her to leave with Silva, they brought her back home, and she feels sure that one day the ka'tsina will beckon to her again. The narrator's deference to the Yellow Woman myths and her struggle to determine her relationship to them demonstrate Silko's preoccupation as a writer with the power stories can hold over people. When experiencing the same storyline as Yellow Woman, the narrator explains that she never chose to go with Silva. She went as blossoms bloom before dawn: she had no choice in the matter, it simply happened. Though she is the narrator of this story, the overlapping Yellow Woman mythology overpowers her control of the narrative, and eventually it seems that she accepts her place in it. Though she returns to her family life and offers them a story befitting a modern, skeptical audience, her final thoughts about wishing to share her story with her deceased grandfather forge a connection between her and the old traditions he represents. The narrator exists in the modern world but has experienced for herself the undeniable influence of times long ago on her own unfolding life—as history and storytelling guide her fate. - Theme: Native American Culture, Identity, and Experience. Description: This short story was written a few years after the beginning of the American Indian Movement in 1968. As more Native American artists and writers produced work that celebrated their cultural heritage, they also spoke out against the persecution of Native Americans, past and present. Silko's work in particular highlights the discord between Native American and white cultures. She fought against the erasure of her culture by centering the subjects of Pueblo identity, tradition, and experience in her writing. Her short story, "Yellow Woman," can be read as a story about a Pueblo woman's journey as she reconnects with her roots, though it can just as easily be interpreted as the story of her abduction and rape. In this way, the story celebrates Native American traditions of oral storytelling as a powerful force capable of transforming lives, even as it poses urgent questions about the place of violence in Native American history and identity—violence committed not only by white people against Native Americans, but between Native American people. While standing on the mountain together with the narrator, Silva points out the Pueblo, Navajo, Texan, and Mexican borders to the narrator, laying out a picture of how the land has been divided among the various groups to benefit of the white population. The borders are a vestige of the colonial concept of landownership; they function to establish a sense of control over an area and to keep outsiders from coming in. Perhaps more significantly, though, borders often function just as much to keep the inhabitants of an area in. Reservations may foster community, but they also delimit boundaries outside of which Native Americans are treated as outsiders in a land that was theirs to begin with. Silko is highlighting this dynamic when Silva and the narrator encounter a white rancher who only addresses Silva as "Indian" and immediately accuses him of theft. This kind of intolerance and hostility is portrayed as unexceptional in the narrator's experience; Silko is reminding readers that tension and violence have always been the chief characteristics of the relationship between Native Americans and white people. Based on the gunshots the narrator hears as she rides away, she can only assume the confrontation between Silva and the rancher ended in violence. Seeking safety, she rides back to the Pueblo reservation. Thus, in this story, borders represent both safety and restriction. In addition to physical and cultural violence, Native Americans are the most at-risk population for sexual violence in the United States. According to studies conducted by the Department of Justice, Native Americans are two and a half times more likely to experience sexual assault and rape than any other ethnic group, and the perpetrators are most often white or non-Native American men. In Silko's story, Silva (who is Native American) at times shows aggression toward the narrator. Her fluctuating feelings of fear and affection for him make it unclear whether she feels their relationship was consensual. In this light, the mythical or fantastical aspects of the story could be interpreted as a strategy on the part of one or both characters for justifying an otherwise problematic relationship—that is, by re-interpreting it within the framework of a mythical romance. The narrator likely would rather be the protagonist of a legendary love affair than an unfaithful wife or victim of rape. Thus, embracing the Yellow Woman mythology as a fate against which she is powerless could provide her with a sense of agency—if not over the events themselves, then over the way they are understood. The sexual liberation and empowerment of the Yellow Women in Pueblo mythology suggests that characters associated with her would have similar experiences of sexual empowerment, but that narrator in this story initially resists Silva as he physically pulls her along with him. The narrator also expresses fear at moments, realizing that Silva could easily "destroy" her. Depending on one's reading of the text, then, the narrator might be renewing her connection to old stories and traditions while exploring her spiritual identity and an uninhibited sexuality—but she also might be the survivor of an unfortunately common pattern of abuse against Native American women. "Yellow Woman" tells the story of a Pueblo woman whose name Silko never reveals—perhaps so that she can more easily serve as Native American "everywoman." The reservation borders in which Native American women live may provide a modest buffer against the pervasive onslaught of cultural violence, but they also cause many of those inside to feel trapped and seek an escape. Native American or not, myths and storytelling often provide such an escape for people who dream beyond the borders of their life. Silko's story celebrates the power and influence of Native American mythology as a living vessel of Native American cultural heritage, simultaneously enabling people to feel rooted and transported. Silko, like many of her peers in the Native American Movement, offers stories like "Yellow Woman" as a means of enhancing the visibility of Native American experiences. She employs storytelling to preserve Native American cultural identity and to shine a light on some of the problems facing Native Americans today. - Climax: Yellow Woman and Silva encounter the white rancher - Summary: The narrator wakes up next to the river at sunrise, her limbs intertwined with the man sleeping next to her. She notices the sounds and wildlife moving around her. She decides she cannot leave without saying goodbye and wakes the man to tell him she's leaving. Unperturbed, he merely reminds her that she is coming with him and calls her "Yellow Woman." She asks him who he is, but he tells her that she already guessed his name and his purpose last night. The narrator argues that they couldn't possibly be the ka'tsina spirit and Yellow Woman from the old stories, but the man, who is named Silva, continues addressing the narrator as Yellow Woman. Lost in thought, the narrator remembers her grandfather telling Yellow Woman stories, and she wonders if Yellow Woman had an ordinary identity and family life in addition to her role as the Yellow Woman of myths. After making love with Silva again, she thinks about how Yellow Woman left to live with the ka'tsina spirit for many years before returning to her home with twin boys. She considers the parallels between her current experiences and the Yellow Woman story but declares that she does not have to go with him because such things don't happen anymore. Silva doesn't argue but simply pulls her along with him, and she goes. As they ride north, further into the mountains, the narrator's thoughts wander to her family and she wonders what they are doing at home. Eventually, they reach Silva's home, and the narrator looks out across the mountain. Silva points out the boundaries of Pueblo, Navajo, Texan, and Mexican lands. When the narrator asks if he works for the cattle ranches, Silva confesses that he steals from them. She tells him that he must be a Navajo, but he insists that she already knows who he is, and the Navajo people know him, too. They climb under the blankets together and Silva kisses her face. She turns away from him, but he pulls her back, becoming forceful, and tells her that she will do what he wants. Yellow Woman feels afraid and recognizes that he is more powerful than she is. Later though, her feelings switch to tenderness, and she kisses his face as he sleeps. The narrator wakes the next morning to find that Silva has left, and she recognizes this as an opportunity for her to return home. As she wanders through the pine trees, she eventually ends up back at Silva's house instead of going home as she had intended. Silva is dressing an animal carcass when she returns and asks if she wants to accompany him to sell meat in a town called Marquez. As Silva and the narrator make their way down the mountain, a white rancher rides up to Silva and the narrator and demands to know where Silva got the fresh meat. Silva claims he was hunting, and the rancher accuses him of being the cattle thief he has been looking for. The narrator describes the rancher as fat, sweaty, and smelly. Silva turns to the narrator and instructs her to ride back up the mountain. As the narrator turns to leave, she sees Silva's hand on his rifle. She rides away as fast as she can. She thinks she hears four gunshots. When she spots the river, she leaves the horse and follows the river toward the pueblo. She stops to rest and thinks about Silva, feeling sad that she left him but still confused about him. She tells herself that he will be waiting for her again one day. Walking back into the village, the narrator reaches the door of her house and is greeted with the sounds and smells of home. Everything seems normal inside, with her mother and grandmother fixing Jell-O and her husband playing with the baby. She decides to tell her family that a Navajo had kidnapped her, but she wishes that her grandfather was around to hear her story, a Yellow Woman story.

- Genre: Short story, allegory - Title: Young Goodman Brown - Point of view: Third person - Setting: 17th century Salem, Massachusetts - Character: Goodman Brown. Description: A young man from Salem, Massachusetts and the descendent of a long line of Puritans, Goodman Brown was raised to be a pious Christian and is terrified of being thought a sinner. When the story begins, Goodman has been married to Faith, whom he believes to be a paragon of goodness and purity, for just three months. His curiosity leads him to go into the woods in the middle of the night to meet with the devil. The devil shows him that all the respected Puritans who Goodman has looked up to are in fact hypocrites and devil-worshippers, and that Faith, too, is tempted by the devil. Though Goodman's adventure may be just a dream, it ruins his life, making him mistrust his community, his family, and his faith. He lives to old age as a desperately unhappy man. - Character: Faith. Description: Faith, Goodman Brown's young wife, initially seems like the embodiment of innocence, as symbolized by the pink ribbons in her cap. Goodman thinks that she is angelic and worthy of the name "Faith." She complains of bad dreams and begs Goodman to stay at home. Goodman insists on leaving her, but in the forest, Goodman discovers that she, too, has been tempted by the devil to attend the satanic conversion ceremony. When Goodman returns to Salem the next morning, Faith greets him joyously, her pink ribbons untouched, and it is never made clear if Goodman dreamed the whole thing and Faith is still the pure woman he believed her to be, or if she really had been corrupted by the devil. Regardless, Goodman can't respond to her affectionate welcome. She and Goodman live to old age and raise children and grandchildren, but he never regains his faith in her or in the community. - Character: The Devil. Description: The devil first appears in the guise of Goodman's grandfather, carrying a staff that resembles a serpent. He later appears as a dark figure. He meets Goodman Brown in the woods, reveals the hypocrisy of all the Puritan leaders Goodman respects, and lures Goodman and Faith to a satanic conversion ceremony. - Character: Goodman Brown's Father. Description: Goodman Brown's father, who died before the story's start. The devil tells Goodman that he and Goodman's father were close friends, and describes helping his father set fire to an Indian village during King Philip's war. Goodman Brown thinks he sees his father's form in the smoke at the devil's conversion ceremony urging him to worship the devil. - Theme: The Hypocrisy of Puritanism. Description: Hawthorne sets "Young Goodman Brown" in the New England town of Salem, where the Puritans tried to create a religious society with strict morals and pious norms, but also where the infamous Witch Trials took place. The Puritans believed that some people are predestined by God to go to heaven, and that those people are identifiable by their morality and piousness; people cannot earn their way to heaven by performing good works, but if they are part of the elect, they will instinctively and naturally do good. As a result, Puritan communities were profoundly focused on the value and necessity of the appearance of goodness, believing that it was a reflection of inner goodness and therefore a sign of one's chance of heavenly redemption, and engaged in social policing to determine what counts as "good." Hawthorne uses the setting to explore the dark side to the Puritan emphasis on the appearance of good. At the beginning of the story, Goodman Brown believes wholeheartedly in these Puritan tenets, despite the fact that he himself is at that moment lying to his wife, Faith, saying that he is on an overnight business trip when in fact he is heading off into the forest out of curiosity to attend a witch's meeting. He believes in the perfect goodness of his wife who seems to radiate pureness, and generally believes in the goodness of everyone else, too. In fact, he believes that after his dalliance in the woods with the devil, he will be able to return home and live as a good man with his perfect wife and go along with her to heaven. However, when he gets to the forest, in what may or may not be a dream, he discovers that essentially the entire town, including Faith, whom he had thought to be incapable of sin, are at this convocation, are "friends of the devil." In horror, Goodman Brown concludes that "There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name." He concludes that everyone is evil, that the word "sin" means nothing because everyone is sinful. When Goodman Brown returns to the town, he is no longer the happy young newlywed he was when he left. He is bitter, stern, and gloomy and mistrusts the "good" appearances of everyone around him, instead seeing sin everywhere, hiding below that surface. When looked at from a modern perspective, Goodman Brown's revelation that everyone is sinful in some way seems obvious: of course no one is perfectly good, as Brown imagined Faith and many others to be. That's just human nature. But it is here that Hawthorne levels his most profound criticism of Puritanism. Goodman Brown believes that his experience or dream has forced him to see through the lies of perfect goodness told by his religion. And so he abandons it. Yet the story presents his actions not as a triumph but a tragedy, and Brown lives a life of suspicion, sadness, anxiety, and gloom. The story, then, suggests that the true issue is Puritanism and its internal logic, the way that it demands all goodness or none, perfect purity or eternally damned sin. Such a world, the story suggests, is one at odds with the realities of being human, one in which no one who takes it seriously can live a good life because it is impossible to live a perfect one. - Theme: Losing Faith and Innocence. Description: "Young Goodman Brown" is the story of how a young "good" man named Goodman Brown loses his innocent belief in religious faith. Goodman Brown's loss of innocence happens during a vivid nightmare in which he ventures into a dark forest and sees all of the people he had considered faithful in his life gathered around a fire at a witches' conversion ceremony with the devil presiding from on high. By the end of his journey into the woods, Goodman Brown learns that even the purest outward display of faith can mask underlying sin. Goodman Brown's wife, Faith, is the embodiment of faith and purity, even in her actual name. Goodman Brown's internal conflict is based on whether to "keep the faith." At first the struggle is literal: his wife begs him to remain at home and not head off into the woods; Goodman Brown's decision to leave behind Faith becomes a metaphor for his epiphany about religion, which he similarly abandons at the end of the story. When Faith begs him not to leave her for the night, Goodman Brown wonders if Faith has lost faith in him; he asks, wondering if she's questioning his fidelity, "dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?" Faith remains a symbol of Goodman Brown's religious faith throughout the story: when Goodman Brown first meets up with the devil, the devil accuses him of being late, which Goodman Brown explains by saying "Faith kept me back a while," a play on words meant to refer literally to his wife Faith begging him not to leave, and figuratively to his religious faith, which could have stopped him from meeting up with the devil, but didn't. The pink ribbons that flow from Faith's cap represent faith and purity; Hawthorne refers to them five times throughout the story, each time at a pivotal moment when Goodman Brown is feeling lost or troubled; the ribbons remind him of the purity of faith, but also of its shallowness. When Goodman Brown sees Faith at the witches' meeting, he realizes that the ribbons were merely a superficial outward symbol, not proof of actual piety. When he screams out for Faith after hearing her voice among the throng of heathens at the witches' ceremony, a pink ribbon falls from the sky. When Goodman Brown sees his wife participating in the witches' meeting in the woods, he simultaneously loses his Faith (his wife) and his faith (his religion). Whereas Faith once represented perfection and the path to salvation, now Goodman Brown looks toward her, with the witches' fire reflecting in her eyes, and sees only a "polluted wretch." He looks up into the black sky and cries, "My Faith is gone!" The blissful newlywed bounding out from his happy home in the first scene has become an "unhappy husband," tragically stripped of Faith and his faith. - Theme: Nature and the Supernatural. Description: Hawthorne uses the forest to represent the wild fearful world of nature, which contrasts starkly with the pious orderly town of Salem. The threshold Goodman Brown finds himself perched upon in the opening lines of the story is not just between himself and his wife, Faith, but between the safety of the town and the haunted realm of the forest into which he ventures. Home is a safe harbor of faith, but the forest represents the home of evil and the devil himself, a place where "no church had ever been gathered or solitary Christian prayed." When the devil tries to lure Goodman Brown deeper into the forest, Goodman Brown equates the forest with a break from his faithful legacy. Going into the woods means descending into the arms of the devil. He cries out "Too far! Too far!...My father never went into the woods on such an errand." Trees are symbols of sin, hiding spots for the devil and Indian "savages": "[t]here may be a devilish Indian behind every tree," he worries aloud. The devil might leap out "from behind a tree" at any moment, he fears. When Goodman Brown meets the man, who we later learn is the devil, the devil himself is seated on an "old tree." Once he relents and journeys far in the "deep dusk" of the forest, Goodman Brown finds that nature and the supernatural begin to blend. The woods take on a life of their own: when he first sees the devil's snake-shaped staff, it's not just a piece of carved wood, but a terrifying serpent that "might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself." A bit later, when the devil explodes in laughter mocking Goodman Brown, the "snake-like staff actually seemed to wriggle in sympathy." In the encounter with Goody Cloyse, a catechism teacher turned witch, Goodman Brown watches in horror as the devil throws her his serpent-shaped staff, causing it to "assume life" and vanish with her instantly into the darkness of the forest. When Goodman Brown cries out in desperation for Faith after hearing her voice in the witches' congregation, her pink ribbon magically falls from the sky. At this point, the woods are no longer just a gathering of scary trees, but a haunted sanctuary of sin. When Goodman Brown sees his church leaders in the forest en route to the witches' meeting, he asks in horror, "Whither, then, could these holy men be journeying so deep into the heathen wilderness?" Like the sinners within it, the wilderness itself has become a heathen. After the witches' ceremony, as Goodman Brown reels in terror at his loss of faith, the personification of the forest and nature deepens. Now entirety of nature mocks Goodman Brown: "The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds--the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians...as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn." Natural phenomena also bookend the story: it starts with the sun setting, and ends with the sun rising. Goodman Brown's experience is one of darkness literally--nearly the entire story takes place at night--and darkness figuratively, with Goodman Brown moving from the angelic light of his blissful newlywed life with Faith and her pink ribbons, to the dark hell of the forest and a rendezvous with the "prince of darkness" himself. - Theme: Saints vs. Sinners. Description: The Puritan religion dictated that everyone on earth was either an evil sinner doomed to burn in hell or a pure earthly saint destined for heaven. To avoid being perceived as anything but wholly good, Goodman Brown (who, like his wife, Faith, is also "aptly named") is obsessed with the idea of veiling his own sinfulness. Goodman Brown's paranoia as he navigates the forest, dodging behind trees in terror of being outed as a sinner, is a reflection of the police state-like environment of Puritan New England, in which merely being perceived as a sinner could mean banishment or death. After the devil meets up with Goodman Brown in the forest and shares his tale of having befriended Goodman Brown's pious family members in the past, Goodman Brown responds that "the least rumor of the sort would have driven them from New England." When Goodman Brown and the devil come upon Goody Cloyse, the woman who taught Goodman Brown his catechism, he worries that "she might ask whom I was consorting with and whither I was going." Goodman Brown soon learns that Goody Cloyse herself is a witch, making a sinner out of someone he had considered a perfectly pious saint. Goodman Brown's insight into the hollowness of religion happens when we realizes that people are not either purely good or purely evil. He sees in the witches' conversion ceremony a mix of the "pious and ungodly...saints and sinners" standing side-by-side with the devil. The devil himself delivers the clearest condemnation of the fallacy that everyone is either a saint or a sinner. He shows Goodman Brown that everyone has something to hide, and that sin is just a common consequence of being human: "Ye deemed them holier than yourselves, and shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenward. Yet here are they all in my worshipping assembly. This night it shall be granted you to know their secret deeds…"The trees and the snake-like staff evoke the story of Adam and Eve and the universality of sin. Goodman Brown initially believes the Puritans to be the elect, an exception in the world of sinners, but he becomes suspicious of even the most respected members of his community. Though his name is literally good man, and his wife's is faith, he eventually admits to his own moral imperfection and his wife's wavering faith. When he exclaims that "sin is but a name," he accepts that the world can't be divided into sinners vs. the good and faithful; sin is human and universal. Goodman Brown loses his faith, but he still can't escape the idea that everyone is either a sinner or a saint; either he dreamed everything, and he is a sinner, or his experience was real, and everyone else he knows is a sinner. Because of this, after returning to Salem, Goodman Brown can't confront Faith about the night in the woods. To do so would be to admit that he went to the devil's conversion ceremony, or that he dreamed about it. Instead, he just "looks sternly and sadly into her face" when he reunites with her, and when he sees her praying each night, he "scowls and mutters to himself, and gazes sternly at his wife, and turns away." He stays in Salem, remains married to Faith, and goes to church every Sabbath day, even though he has lost his faith, because he can't risk the possibility that he is the sinner. - Theme: Family and Individual Choice. Description: Young Goodman Brown makes reference to many generations of the Brown family, both Goodman Brown's ancestors and his descendants. Goodman Brown must choose whether to follow his ancestors' example, for better or for worse, or whether to make his own decisions and break away from family tradition. The tragedy of the story is that he is unable to choose: he loses faith in following family tradition, but he can't reject his family and start new traditions, either. The story begins very soon after Goodman Brown has begun a family of his own by marrying Faith. She tries to dissuade him from going into the woods by calling him "dear husband" and "dearest heart" and referring to his duty as a husband to stay at home. At first, his curiosity draws him to the devil, but the thought of his Puritan ancestors makes him want to turn back: "We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs; and I shall be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path." Because his family legacy (as he understands it) and his individual desire are opposed, he stops and starts on the path, unable to move forward or to turn back. The devil takes on the guise of Goodman Brown's grandfather in order to influence Goodman Brown to become one of his followers. He tries to resist family tradition by thinking of his new family. He thinks of Faith and sits on the path, refusing to go on, but when he hears her voice among those of the devil-worshippers in the sky and sees her pink ribbon fall, he can no longer resist the devil. Without family to guide him, he can't choose for himself. He "loses faith" in his family, and so he loses all sense of himself. At the devil's ceremony, Goodman looks at Faith and again remembers their family bond: "The husband cast one look at his pale wife, and she at him." He opposes the devil by telling her to resist: "'Faith!' cried the husband, 'look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one." Part of the story's tragedy comes from the family's failure to communicate their legacy. When the devil tells Goodman that his family members were friends with the devil, Goodman says, "I marvel they never spoke of these matters; or, verily, I marvel not, seeing that the least rumor of the sort would have driven them from New England"; though knowledge of his family history would have helped Goodman make his individual choices, he realizes that such honesty, even between family members, would have been dangerous. When Goodman arrives at the devil's conversion ceremony, he thinks he sees his mother telling him to resist and his father telling him to advance in the smoke, but because their messages are contradictory and unclear, he can't make a choice of his own: "Was it his mother? But he had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought." When Goodman returns to Salem, he can't tell his wife, his children, or his grandchildren what he experienced, and so he dooms his descendants to the same trapped existence. He can't break away from his family, even though he no longer believes in following his family's legacy. - Climax: When Goodman Brown calls on Faith to resist the devil - Summary: At sunset in Salem, Massachusetts, recently married Goodman Brown steps from his house and kisses his wife, Faith, goodbye. Faith, wearing a cap adorned with pink ribbons, begs Goodman Brown not to leave her alone all night. She's afraid of the bad dreams she'll have if he makes her spend the night alone. Goodman Brown replies that his journey must happen that night, and Faith gives Goodman Brown her blessing as he heads out in the street. As he departs, he looks back one last time and sees Faith watching him, and has the feeling as if, through some dream, she might have figured out his plans for the night. But he dismisses the thought, certain that Faith could never tolerate even thinking about such a thing. Goodman Brown also resolves, after this night, to stand by his saintly Faith and "follow her to heaven." Fear overwhelms him as he walks into the forest. He imagines "devilish" Indians or even the devil himself hiding behind every tree. Even so, he walks on until he encounters a mysterious man at a bend in the road. When the man asks why Goodman Brown arrived late, Goodman Brown replies, his voice trembling, that "Faith kept me back awhile." The man is ordinary and simply dressed, and might be mistaken for Goodman Brown's father, though the man seems as if he could sit comfortably at the dinner table of a governor or in the court of a King. The man also carries a large snake-shaped staff, which in the shadows of the forest seems to be alive. The man offers the staff to Goodman Brown, who refuses and begins to make his case for turning back toward home. Goodman Brown points out that nobody in his family had ever met with a mysterious man in the woods at night. But the man replies that he was good friends with Goodman Brown's father, grandfather, and other Puritan leaders, and helped them all in acts of cruelty and sacrilege. When Goodman Brown argues that he wouldn't be able to face his minister at church if he continues on, the man laughs aloud. Finally, Goodman Brown argues that he can't go with the man because it would break Faith's heart. Someone appears on the path ahead: Goody Cloyse, a pious old woman who taught Goodman Brown his catechism. Goodman Brown is shocked to see her in the woods and hides in the woods to make sure she doesn't see him. To Goodman Brown's horror, Goody Cloyse greets the man as the devil and calls him "my worship." The devil gives her his staff, and she disappears. Goodman Brown and the devil walk on together, but soon Goodman Brown refuses to continue, saying that Goody Cloyse's hypocritical example can't make him abandon his Faith. Unworried, the devil continues on, leaving Goodman Brown behind. Just then, Goodman Brown hears horsemen approaching and once again hides. He recognizes the riders as the minister and Deacon Gookin. The two men discuss the night's meeting, excitedly noting that there will be some Indians who know a lot about devilry and a young woman who will be inducted. Goodman Brown lifts his hands to pray, but hears voices murmuring from above, including a voice he thinks is Faith's. Goodman Brown calls out to Faith, but hears only laughter. Faith's pink ribbon drifts down from the sky and catches on a tree branch. Losing all hope that there is good on earth, Goodman Brown exclaims, "My Faith is gone!" He calls for the devil and runs through the forest, laughing and swearing and shouting. Soon he finds himself near a clearing, with a rock for a pulpit. It is filled with a vast congregation of townspeople, criminals, and Indian priests. But he doesn't see Faith and so feels hope. A figure appears at the pulpit and a voice calls for the converts to come forward. Goodman Brown steps out of the forest and is led forward to the rock alongside a veiled woman. The figure promises to tell them all the dark secrets of their town, of seductions and murders, and describes the whole world as "one stain of guilt," full of sinners. Goodman Brown looks at the woman and realizes that it is Faith. As the figure prepares to baptize them in a pool of something red in a hollow at the top of the stone, Goodman Brown cries out, warning Faith to resist. Goodman Brown is suddenly alone in the forest, with no sign of the events of the night. He staggers into Salem that morning, but shies away from the minister's blessing and snatches a child away from Goody Cloyse as she teaches the girl the catechism. Faith, wearing her pink ribbons, runs up to him joyfully and almost kisses him on the street, but he only stares at her sternly and walks past without saying anything. The narrator wonders whether Goodman Brown's night in the forest could have all been a dream, but relates that, regardless, Goodman Brown became distrustful of everyone around him. When he went to church he feared that the sinful minister and his listening parish would all be destroyed. He often woke in the night and shrank from Faith beside him in bed, and when his family prayed he scowled and muttered to himself. Though he lived a long life and died a grandfather, he died unhappy and desperate, with no inscription on his tombstone.

- Genre: Philosophical novel; semi-autobiographical - Title: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Point of view: First-person narrator - Setting: Various parts of the United States, roughly 1943-1974 - Character: The Narrator. Description: The entire novel is told from the perspective of the narrator, a forty-year-old man who writes technical manuals for a living. He is undeniably based on Robert Pirsig, the book's author, as the two's biographies overlap quite similarly. However, this similarity is never stated explicitly in the book. The narrator's identity began after a man he refers to as Phaedrus was given electroshock therapy to treat mental illness. Following that therapy, the narrator's consciousness replaced Phaedrus's, though they occupy the same body. As the book progresses, the narrator recounts what he has pieced together of Phaedrus's history, in parallel with his narrative of the trip he and his son Chris take across the United States. Through a series of directed talks he calls Chautauquas, the narrator explains the philosophy of Quality that Phaedrus developed, and uses motorcycle maintenance as a metaphor to illustrate how this philosophy can be practiced. - Character: Phaedrus. Description: Phaedrus, named after an Ancient Greek Sophist who appears in Plato's Socratic dialogue Phaedrus, is the name by which the narrator refers to the consciousness that once occupied his body. Phaedrus was a highly analytical academic prodigy who grew disenchanted with the western intellectual tradition's limited notion of reason. While teaching English at Montana State University in Bozeman, he begins to develop a philosophy that revolves around a concept he calls Quality. Quality is a single concept that encapsulates the subject/object duality that dominates western thought. Phaedrus pursues further study at the University of Chicago, where he reads the Ancient Greek philosophers that engendered the problematic subject/object distinction in contemporary academia. During his time in Chicago, Phaedrus suffers a mental breakdown, and he is hospitalized and subjected to electroshock therapy. Following this therapy, Phaedrus's consciousness changes to that of the narrator. - Character: Chris Pirsig. Description: Chris is the oldest son of the narrator/Phaedrus. He is eleven years old when he accompanies the narrator on the transcontinental motorcycle trip that forms the bulk of the storyline. Chris frequently complains of psychosomatic stomachaches, and the narrator fears that his son may inherit his mental illness. The narrator's fractured relationship with Chris is a primary impetus in the narrator's quest to reconcile his identity with Phaedrus's. The novel's afterword reveals that Chris was murdered by muggers just before his 23rd birthday. - Character: John Sutherland. Description: John is a friend of the narrator's from Minneapolis. With his wife, Sylvia, John accompanies the narrator and Chris to Bozeman, Montana. John rides a BMW motorcycle that he has no interest in maintaining, and the narrator uses John's emotion-based "romantic" perspective to contrast with the narrator's own "classic" perspective. - Character: Aristotle. Description: Aristotle was an Ancient Greek philosopher from the fourth century B.C.E., and a successor to Plato and Socrates. His rigid taxonomies of philosophical concepts have provided much of the groundwork for the western intellectual tradition, and are especially influential to the Chairman of the Committee who oversees Phaedrus's studies at the University of Chicago. Phaedrus seeks to repudiate Aristotle's devaluation of the art of rhetoric, and to remedy the inattentiveness to Quality in the modern world that he views as a consequence of Aristotelian thought. - Character: Plato. Description: Plato was an Ancient Greek philosopher who lived during the fourth and fifth centuries B.C.E. He is famous for his Socratic dialogues, which depicted the philosopher Socrates in conversation with other thinkers; his work Phaedrus is one of these dialogues. Phaedrus studies Plato at the University of Chicago and realizes that Plato turned the Sophist thinkers' Quality-like notion of "the Good" into a rational concept, thus allowing other philosophers like Aristotle to diminish the role of Quality in western thought for millennia to come. - Character: The Chairman of the Committee. Description: The Chairman of the Committee, a thinly veiled reference to the American academic Richard McKeon, oversees the interdisciplinary study program at the University of Chicago, in which Phaedrus enrolls. The Chairman is a staunch Aristotelian, which puts him in opposition to Phaedrus's ideas on Quality. He is therefore a chief antagonist to Phaedrus, and the two clash in the classroom on several occasions. - Theme: Quality. Description: At the heart of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is Phaedrus's quest to understand something that he refers to as "Quality." He has found that the rational division of the world into "subjective" and "objective" spheres does not appropriately encompass human experience. A pivot point for this division is the phenomenon that allows us to discern the good from the bad, which seems to be neither subjective nor objective, and a great deal of the text chronicles Phaedrus's personal and professional attempts to understand and categorize this phenomenon. After years of study, Phaedrus derives a new philosophy to solve his dissatisfaction. He places the subjective and objective realms in subordination to a new concept, which he terms Quality. In this configuration, Quality is the overarching entity that allows thinkers to perceive in terms of the subjective and the objective in the first place. Quality allows individuals to transcend the impulse to divide the world into separate categories of science, art, and religion; Phaedrus later realizes that his Quality is the same as Lao Tzu's "Tao." Ultimately, however, Quality is less a monistic, religious entity than it is a more robust means of understanding the world. The text's discrete lectures and lessons, called Chautauquas, are largely discourses on Quality, and they aim to teach what Quality is and encourage the reader to pursue it. - Theme: Identity. Description: Early in the text, the narrator reveals that he underwent electro-convulsive therapy to treat mental illness. This treatment altered the narrator so deeply that he regards his post-therapy self as an entirely different person. The narrator strictly separates his present-day self from his past identity and refers to the latter in the third person, using the name Phaedrus. His is "a mind divided against itself."The narrator's conflicted identity complicates his relationship to his son. Chris is too young to fully grasp his father's mental turmoil, but he does notice a personality change once the narrator returns from treatment. When Chris laments his father's altered persona, the narrator observes, "I can imitate the father he's supposed to have, but subconsciously, at the Quality level, he sees through it and knows his real father isn't here." The narrator feels obligated to replicate a role he fulfilled when he was a completely different person, even though such a replication is impossible. He sees this paternal discontinuity as one of the root causes of his son's anxieties.This divided identity is especially discordant when considered in the book's larger context. Through his Chautauquas, the narrator strives to resolve the problems that arise when the world is intellectualized in terms of opposing dualities. However, all the while, the narrator maintains such a strict division between his past self and his present persona that he refuses to consider them the same person. Finally, at the end of the book, the narrator acknowledges this dilemma: "the biggest duality of all, the duality between me and [Phaedrus], remains unfaced." Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance details Phaedrus's attempts to provide a unifying philosophical framework that explains the universe in all of its physical, scientific, and subjective manifestations. While this new system is a fascinating one, the narrator's psychological disunity is a constant reminder that Phaedrus's philosophical system has not yet been perfectly actualized and put into practice. - Theme: Rationality and Irrationality. Description: Throughout the book, Pirsig's narrator juxtaposes rational, objective thought with more mystical, subjective ways of thinking. This contrast is evident in the difference between John's and the narrator's views on motorcycle maintenance. The narrator calls his own methodical, almost scientific approach the "classical" mindset, while the idealistic, repair-averse outlook John and Silvia share is the "romantic" mindset. The romantic view is a reaction to the classical view's inability to encompass some aspects of human experience. However, as the book illustrates, neither approach suffices on its own.The inadequacy of classical reason stymies Phaedrus's pursuit of knowledge. Phaedrus reasons that there is not yet an explanation for the phenomenon that allows the infinitude of equally rational hypotheses and facts to be sorted and evaluated in terms of their merit. This rational process forces him to abandon the traditional rationality of the scientific method and embark on a new series of philosophical investigations, which culminate in the discovery of Quality. Instead of supplanting reason, however, Quality simply expands it: the narrator writes that Phaedrus "showed a way by which reason may be expanded to include elements that have previously been unassimilable and thus have been considered irrational."As the book progresses, calcified forms of academic, scientific, and institutionalized reasoning frequently stand in opposition to Phaedrus's philosophical goals. Quality is meant to bolster reason by remedying the persistent disharmony between objective "classical" and subjective "romantic" perspectives. However, this disharmony is so entrenched that Phaedrus's frameshift comes across as irrational. In this way, Pirsig illustrates the tenuous division between the rational and the irrational, and emphasizes the status of "reason" as an arbitrary apparatus that remains in a state of flux. - Theme: Duality. Description: Many of the patterns of thought that Pirsig challenges in the novel are informed by dualist principles. Phaedrus's breakthrough, for example, comes when he chooses not to subscribe to the duality of the subjective versus the objective that has governed western thought for millenia. The narrator, too, surprises his friends by delivering a long speech condemning the arbitrary dichotomy between art and technology. Later on, he uses the example of the Japanese "mu"—a word that means "no thing"—to expose "the process of dualistic discrimination" that has become ingrained in much of contemporary American thought. The narrator encourages readers to value moments of "mu," moments when a yes/no answer cannot be furnished. It is these moments that catalyze the most meaningful breaks from habituated thought and expose the most valuable insights—and accordingly, help foment Zen.However, it is important to note that even as the narrator deconstructs duality after duality, the novel leaves a core duality almost completely ignored. Even as Phaedrus and the narrator both use logic to dismantle dualistic misconceptions, the narrator is never reconciled with his previous identity. The characters' troubling dual identity offers an ironically self-aware reminder that harmful and intractable dualist beliefs may persist in spite of reason. - Theme: Zen. Description: In his Afterword, Pirsig suggests that his book was so successful because it offered, at a pivotal time in American culture, "a positive goal to work toward that does not confine." In the years leading up to the book's 1974 publication, romantic and classical ideologies were at odds in the United States. The narrator observes rejection of the capitalist American Dream and mounting popular disgust with the effects of technology as hallmarks of a burgeoning form of anti-classical thought. Ultimately, however, the narrator believes that these sorts of negative ideologies cannot erect anything meaningful in place of the thought they oppose. In response, the narrator weaves into his text a subtle set of prescriptions that can be pieced together to form an approach that transcends both classicism and romanticism. Though this approach is never given an explicit name, it can be understood as Zen.The narrator uses motorcycle repair as an allegory to describe his concept of Zen—when done right, the craft offers precisely the "positive goal" Pirsig recognized was needed. Devoted motorcycle maintenance fosters an attunement, a sense of presence, and most of all a commitment to Quality work that allow the mechanic to pursue the process out of an intrinsic sense of reward. Importantly, the Zen process is divorced from egotistical concerns. Throughout the book, characters driven by ego are met with failure: for instance, Chris is unsatisfied by his adventures, and Phaedrus's egotistical attempts to argue his thesis antagonize the academe and ultimately destroy his sanity. - Climax: Phaedrus's psychotic break - Summary: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance interweaves two parallel plots: the first is the chronicling of a transcontinental motorcycle journey taken by the narrator and his eleven-year-old son, Chris. The second plot details the life and thought of a man named Phaedrus, a solitary intellectual obsessed with a philosophical concept called Quality. At the beginning of the story, the narrator and Chris leave Minneapolis on a motorcycle trip with their friends, John and Sylvia Sutherland. As the group travels, the narrator intersperses accounts of the trip with philosophical discourses that he calls Chautauquas. The narrator's first Chautauqua discusses John and Sylvia's aversion to technology, which he aligns with a "romantic" approach to life—one that values surface impressions over rational analysis. The narrator's own outlook is a more analytical one that he terms "classic." As the party travels along, the narrator has uncanny recognitions of the terrain they pass, and repeatedly refers to "ghosts" in his thoughts. Shortly thereafter, the narrator explains these strange mental episodes by revealing that Phaedrus suffered a nervous breakdown and was subjected to electroshock therapy, and the new consciousness that appeared in his brain is that of the narrator. In other words, Phaedrus and the narrator are the past and present identities of the same individual, and the uncanny recollections the narrator has are "fragments" of memory left over from Phaedrus's life. As the travelers move through Montana, the narrator gives a history of Phaedrus's life. Phaedrus was a scientific prodigy, but dropped out of school after he lost faith in scientific reason's ability to explain the world. Phaedrus explored other kinds of truth for several years, and eventually got a job teaching English at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, which is the travelers' destination. In Bozeman, the travelers stay with Robert and Gennie DeWeese, friends of Phaedrus's. The narrator and Chris leave to hike a mountain. On this trip, the narrator describes Phaedrus's attempts to pin down the concept of Quality: that which makes something good. Torn between whether Quality is a subjective or objective phenomenon, Phaedrus eventually comes to the epiphany that it is in fact neither. Quality precedes subjectivity and objectivity—in fact, it is what allows for the separation of the world into subjective and objective realms in the first place. During the hike, Chris complains and misbehaves. When he and his son are camped out on the mountain, the narrator has a disturbing nightmare about a glass door that separates him from his family. Worried that something bad will happen if they reach the summit of the mountain, the narrator cuts the hike short and the two head back to Bozeman. Back on the road and heading west, the narrator begins a series of Chautauquas that illustrate how Quality can manifest itself in the proper practice of motorcycle maintenance. He elaborates several phenomena, such as the "stuckness" that can foster innovative insights, the "gumption" that fuels sustained work of Quality, and the "gumption traps" that can prevent an individual from developing an awareness of and sensitivity to Quality. Rigid, dualistic thinking is a chief obstacle to an attunement with Quality. The narrator's glass door dream recurs, and the narrator realizes that it signifies his divided identity and struggle with Phaedrus. The narrator recalls spending time with Chris as Phaedrus and concludes that he will have to explain his mental state to his son. The narrator describes Phaedrus's enrollment in an interdisciplinary program at the University of Chicago and his obsessive study of Ancient Greek philosophy. There, Phaedrus has an intellectual faceoff against the Chairman of his interdisciplinary committee, whose Aristotelian ideas run counter to Phaedrus's philosophy of Quality. Following this confrontation, Phaedrus becomes completely insane, and is hospitalized and administered electroshock therapy. As the narrator and Chris travel towards San Francisco, their relationship wears thin. The narrator plans to send Chris home and then to check himself into a hospital. He explains his mental instability to Chris and warns his son that he may suffer the same illness. This distresses Chris profoundly. Chris asks why the narrator did not open the glass door that separated them at the hospital, and the narrator explains that he was not permitted to. This spurs the mutual realization that Phaedrus was not, in fact, insane. The narrator begins to reconcile his once-divided identity, and he and his son ride towards San Francisco in high spirits.

- Genre: Science fiction; short story - Title: Zero Hour - Point of view: Third person - Setting: The suburbs of New York - Character: Mrs. Mary Morris. Description: Mrs. Morris is seven-year-old Mink's mother and Henry Morris' wife. She is somewhat exhausted by her excitable, imaginative daughter, though she often plays along with Mink's happy rambling. Like all of the adults in the story, Mrs. Morris is extremely logical and thus believes—until it's too late—that the Invasion is just a harmless, fictitious game for kids. On a subconscious level, though, it seems that Mrs. Morris does understand the gravity of the game. When "zero hour" strikes and the aliens successfully invade, Mrs. Morris' mind is flooded with all of the little realizations and suspicions that she carefully concealed from herself all day. Mrs. Morris's inner conflict over the Invasion illustrates how blinding it is to see the world through a purely logical lens. She also fails to take her daughter seriously for most of the story, highlighting the story's criticism of the way adults are flippant about things children say and do, assuming their words and ideas are of little value. - Character: Mink Morris. Description: Mrs. Morris and Henry Morris's daughter Mink is a spunky, spirited seven-year-old girl who, like many of the other neighborhood children, is obsessed with the Invasion game. She is extremely loyal to Drill, the leader of the aliens, as he promises that she will be queen after the Invasion. He also wins her loyalty by promising her (and the other children) that kids will rule the post-Invasion world, and there will be no more baths. Mink loves the excitement of the game and allows herself to be swept away in it, never pausing to think logically about if helping an alien Invasion is a good thing and if it's perhaps more than just a game. She is a leader among the local neighborhood kids and doesn't hesitate to boss them around—or call them "scarebabies" if they get too scared to play the invasion game, like Peggy Ann. Mink seems to love her mother but is annoyed by the way that Mrs. Morris doesn't take her seriously and often laughs at the things she says. - Character: Drill. Description: Drill is the apparent leader of an alien force, who successfully convinces Mink—and the rest of the children in America (or perhaps the world) under ten years old—to help the aliens invade Earth. He never appears in person in the story, and is only revealed by what Mink says about him. Drill seems to have a keen understanding of what children want, promising the children more privileges and fewer rules. In claiming that the post-Invasion world will be run by kids, and that there will be later bedtimes, more television, and no baths, Drill wins the children's loyalty. Drill is somehow able to communicate with Mink through a rosebush, and Mink later tells her mother that, according to Drill, parents "are so busy they never look under rosebushes or on lawns." Drill has managed to capitalize on parents' indifference to what their children do or say, consequently allowing an Invasion to unfold right under the adults' noses. - Character: Mr. Henry Morris. Description: Mr. Morris is Mrs. Morris's husband and Mink's father. He appears to be the typical middle-class white-collar business man living in a cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood. As a logical adult, Mr. Morris thinks his wife has gone crazy when she starts babbling about an alien Invasion. It's not until Mr. Morris has tangible signs of the invasion—the sound of heavy footsteps belonging to at least fifty people crowded in his house, a strange blue light behind the attic door, an odd smell, and a foreign sound in his daughter's voice—that Mr. Morris finally accepts the Invasion as reality. - Character: Helen. Description: Helen is Mrs. Morris's friend who lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Her son, Tim, is also crazy about the Invasion game, which is the story's first indication that something serious and widespread is going on. Like Mrs. Morris, Helen doesn't take her child seriously and even goes so far as to say that "Parents learn to shut their ears" to their children's rambling. - Character: Joseph Connors. Description: Joseph Connors is a twelve-year-old boy in the neighborhood who wants to play the Invasion game with Mink and the younger children. Mink prevents him from participating, claiming he is too old to play and would just laugh at them. Although Joseph's desire to play is genuine (he asks Mink several times if he can play and is dejected when he finally gives up), he illustrates the younger children's fear of not being taken seriously by someone older than them—even if that someone is just twelve years old. - Character: Peggy Ann. Description: Peggy Ann is one of the younger children in Mink's neighborhood. She initially participates in the Invasion game, but eventually leaves the yard in tears. Mink tells Mrs. Morris that Peggy Ann "grew up all of a sudden" and is a "scarebaby." This suggests that Peggy Ann had a sudden realization of the negative repercussions of aiding an alien invasion, and thus was overcome by anxiety. Her implied ability to think logically about the Invasion (that is, realize that the Invasion is real and a potentially dangerous, destructive thing) sets her apart from the other children, who are easily swept away by Drill's promises and their own excitement and imaginations. - Theme: Impressionability and Manipulation. Description: In "Zero Hour," a short story written by Ray Bradbury, a group of aliens manipulates young children into helping the aliens invade the earth. Drill, the apparent leader of the aliens, convinces the impressionable children that Invasion is a game, and that the children can win if they successfully follow instructions and aid the aliens in coming to Earth. According to Drill, the rewards for winning the game are manifold: later bedtimes, two television shows on Saturday nights instead of one, and no more baths. The aliens specifically target children under ten years old—that is, children who are most naïve and trusting. By taking advantage of the children's impressionability, the aliens successfully manipulate the children into helping bring about the Invasion and the end of humankind (or at least, as the story implies, the destruction of all adults). In the story, Bradbury reveals how impressionability is an essential part of childhood, as it allows children to learn and grow. However, through the character of Mink Morris, Bradbury cautions that such naivety means children are easily manipulated and taken advantage of. The story shows how all children are impressionable when they're young, and that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. When Mrs. Morris forces her daughter, Mink, to pause her game to eat all of her soup at lunchtime, Mink protests, "Hurry, Mom! This is a matter of life and death!" Amused, Mrs. Morris replies, "I was the same way at your age. Always life and death. I know." Gesturing back to her own childhood, Mrs. Morris illustrates how children have a distorted sense of urgency about things, but that this is common and even charming. It seems that Drill may have told Mink that he and his fellow aliens would die if they couldn't invade the Earth, which tugged at her heart strings and convinced her to help with the Invasion. Of course, the Invasion really is a "matter of life and death," because the story's ending implies that all adults (and possibly all humans) will be destroyed. At lunch, Mink even asks her mother what "im-pres-sion-able" means, implying that Drill openly called her and the other children impressionable, but they didn't know what the word meant. "Laughing gently," Mrs. Morris answers, "It means—to be a child, dear." Instead of painting impressionability in a negative light (as a lack of critical thinking skills and a proclivity to be taken advantage of or be easily influenced), Mrs. Morris simply points to the way that impressionability is inextricably linked to childhood. However, the story emphasizes that is easy—and of course, morally abhorrent—to take advantage of an impressionable child. Mink describes Drill's plan to Mrs. Morris, who fails to take it seriously: "'they couldn't figure a way to surprise Earth or get help. […] Until one day,' whispered Mink melodramatically, 'they thought of children!'" It appears that Drill straightforwardly told Mink about his plan to manipulate the children, but because of her wide-eyed innocence, Mink didn't process the fact that she was being used. Later, Mink asks her mom what "lodge-ick" is. Mrs. Morris answers that "logic is knowing what things are true and not true." Mink excitedly replies, "He mentioned that." From this conversation, it again seems that Drill directly told Mink that he was targeting children because they are impressionable and not logical—however, since she didn't know what the words meant (and still doesn't fully understand), Mink didn't comprehend that she and the other children were being taken advantage of. Furthermore, Mink is convinced that Drill will let her be queen if she helps with the Invasion. Of course, it's doubtful that the leader of the aliens would allow Mink—a random seven-year-old girl—to be queen. The aliens are likely to want all of the power for themselves and are merely stringing the children along to get them to help with the Invasion as a "fifth column." Drill also convinces the children in the neighborhood that they—along with "the kids over in the next block"—will "run the world" after the Invasion. Considering the fact that the Invasion game has swept the entire nation (and perhaps the world), it seems odd that Drill would specifically choose Mink and her friends (and the kids from the next block) to rule the world. It's more likely that he made this same promise to every group of children helping with the Invasion. By making the disclaimer that "the kids over in the next block" will rule, too, Drill keeps kids from different neighborhoods from being suspicious that perhaps more than one group of kids has been told they can rule the world, and then suspecting that perhaps the aliens shouldn't be trusted. Drill and the other aliens capitalize on the children's impressionability, ultimately manipulating them into bringing about an alien Invasion. Although Bradbury highlights the negative repercussions of children's impressionability, he doesn't blame the children. Instead, he emphasizes the adults' failure to tap into that impressionability to help their children learn and grown. The children in "Zero Hour" are left to their own devices, and are thus vulnerable for Drill to take advantage of them. - Theme: Adults vs. Children. Description: In "Zero Hour," Ray Bradbury depicts a perfect, cookie-cutter neighborhood in the suburbs of New York. However, amidst the meticulously manicured lawns and streets "lined with good green and peaceful trees," a dangerous game called "Invasion" has cropped up, and every child in America under ten years old is in on it. According to Drill, the leader of the aliens, the goal of the game is for the children to help the aliens successfully invade the earth. If the Invasion goes as planned and the children "win" the game, they will be rewarded with more television, later bedtimes, no more baths, and the chance to "run the world." Even though the game is real—the children really are aiding an alien Invasion—parents across the nation casually write it off as imaginative play. Through the story's portrayal of seven-year-old Mink Morris and her interactions with her mother, Mrs. Morris, it's clear that this flippant attitude is what bothers children the most. Essentially, the story suggests that children long to be taken seriously by their parents. Mrs. Morris and the other adults in the town assume the children's activities are a silly game of pretend, so they don't pay attention to the things their children say or do. Unbeknownst to the adults, the children are in the midst of a dangerous, life-threatening game that could destroy humankind and the earth. However, the parents largely ignore the game and the children altogether: "Meanwhile, parents came and went in chromium beetles. […] The adult civilization passed and repassed the busy youngsters, jealous of the fierce energy of the wild tots, tolerantly amused at their flourishings, longing to join in themselves." The parents wish to take part in what they see as the frivolous "flourishings" of childhood, emphasizing what little weight they give to the things children say or do. While Mink is out playing, Mrs. Morris' friend Helen calls. The two women laugh about the silly Invasion game, and Helen says, "Parents learn to shut their ears." Helen's comment implies that the things children talk about and are interested in are unimportant and distracting for adults, so adults learn to tune out their children's meaningless chatter. Even the slightly older neighborhood children—those over the age of ten—fail to take the young children or the Invasion seriously. The older children in the neighborhood, meaning "those ten years and more, disdained the affair and marched scornfully off on hikes or played a more dignified version of hide-and-seek on their own." The older children are "scornful" and "dignified," illustrating a sharp divide between the younger children, who aren't taken seriously, and the older children, who think they are too serious and mature for such childish games. When twelve-year-old Joseph Connors wants to play the Invasion game, Mink shoos him away, claiming, "You'd just make fun of us." Joseph's friend tells the boy to give up and "Let them sissies play […] Them and their fairies! Nuts!" Joseph's friend considers the children's game to be make believe (like "fairies") and thus immature and foolish. Later, Mink admits to her mother, "We're having trouble with guys like Pete Britz and Dale Jerrick. They're growing up. They make fun. They're worse than parents. They just won't believe in Drill. They're so snooty, 'cause they're growing up. You'd think they'd know better. They were little only a coupla years ago. I hate them worst. We'll kill them first." The feeling of not being taken seriously runs so deep in Mink that she threatens to kill all those who are "snooty" and "growing up." Mink Morris is clearly bothered by the flippant attitude that the adults and older children display and wishes to be taken seriously—an attitude, the story implies, almost all young children share. When Mrs. Morris asks her daughter who Drill is, Mink replies, "You'll make fun. Everybody pokes fun. Gee, darn." Mink's comment is defensive, underscoring her deep discontent at being treated as insignificant and foolish by seemingly "everybody." Mink eventually explains to Mrs. Morris that the aliens are "not exactly Martians. They're—I don't know. From up." Her mom replies that the aliens are also from "inside," and she touches Mink's forehead. Realizing that her mother is insinuating that the aliens are just inside of her head (that is, just a product of her imagination), Mink is frustrated that her mom fails to take her words and beliefs seriously: "You're laughing! You'll kill Drill and everybody! […] Drill says you're dangerous! Know why? 'Cause you don't believe in Martians! They're going to let us run the world. Well, not just us, but the kids over in the next block, too. I might be queen." By claiming that she may get to "run the world" and "be queen," Mink illustrates how the aliens have successfully strung the children along with the promise of power and influence—two things they crave but don't have in the world run by adults. Throughout the story, Bradbury illustrates a sharp division between adults and children, as children long to be taken seriously and listened to, while adults casually disregard the things their children say and do as being silly and rooted in imagination. The aliens manage to capitalize on this conflict, to devastating effect. Through "Zero Hour," then, Bradbury spins a cautionary tale, urging parents to pay closer attention to their children and value what they have to say. - Theme: Peace, War, and Alien Invasions. Description: In "Zero Hour," a group of aliens (lead by an alien named Drill) convinces all children under ten years old to take part in an exciting game called Invasion. The goal of the game is for the children to successfully build specific apparatuses and other contraptions that will allow the aliens to teleport through the fourth dimension and invade the Earth. If the kids "win" the game, they will be rewarded lavishly with more television, later bedtimes, and the chance to run the world. The adults, however, are oblivious to the seriousness of the game and fail to intervene. It's a time of extraordinary world peace, and the adults are confident nothing can change that. Through the course of the story, Bradbury cautions readers that peace is not forever. War and conflict often come as a complete surprise, so growing complacent in times of peace is dangerous. The narrator's descriptions of the peaceful state of the world ironically emphasize how peace is temporary. The story depicts the adults as having foolish, false confidence in their current situation. The narrator notes, "There was the universal, quiet conceit and easiness of men accustomed to peace, quite certain there would never be trouble again." The narrator considers humankind to have a "quiet conceit," meaning that they are prideful and excessively confident about this peaceful time. Furthermore, it's impossible to be "quite certain" that there will "never be trouble again." Such bold confidence in the future feels unreasonable and even irresponsible, as it leads people to become complacent and too comfortable. As it becomes clear to the reader that the children really are helping with an alien invasion, the narrator abruptly transitions into an indulgent description of the streets "lined with good and peaceful trees" that "drowsed in a tide of warm air." This builds a sense of tension and highlights the rest of the world's ignorance to the brewing conflict. In addition, the narrator claims that "Only the wind made a conflict across the city, across the country, across the continent." Of course, the Invasion game is clearly sweeping the nation (as protagonist Mrs. Morris later learns from her friend Helen), so there is much more ruffling the city, country, and continent than just the breeze. The most dangerous conflicts come as a surprise, implying that it's dangerous to feel too comfortable and confident in times of peace. The narrator notes, "Arm in arm, men all over earth were a united front. The perfect weapons were held in equal trust by all nations. A situation of incredibly beautiful balance had been brought about. There were no traitors among men, no unhappy ones, no disgruntled ones; therefore the world was based upon a stable ground." Initially, such deep-seated peace seems impossible to shake. Seven-year-old Mink, one of the players of the Invasion game, explains to her mother that the aliens have had a difficult time attacking Earth. Mrs. Morris is unsurprised, confidently declaring, "We're impregnable. […] We're pretty darn strong." Although Mrs. Morris is speaking about the Invasion in "mock seriousness" to play along with what she thinks is Mink's vibrant imagination, her response reveals her utmost confidence that the current peaceful state of the world is too strong to break. This is why Drill's method of surprise is so effective—he uses humankind's feelings of comfort and stability to his own advantage, shattering their peace when they least expect it. Mink explains this strategy to her mother: "They couldn't figure a way to attack, Mom. Drill says—he says in order to make a good fight you got to have a new way of surprising people. That way you win. And he says also you got to have help from your enemy." Mink explains excitedly that Drill and the other aliens felt hopeless about invading the earth—"'Until one day,' whispered Mink melodramatically, 'they thought of children! […] And they thought of how grownups are so busy they never look under rosebushes or on lawns.'" Drill uses children as his element of surprise, because adults are unlikely to take children seriously, and children are easily manipulated and are thus an easy "fifth column." The adults in "Zero Hour" aren't total strangers to times of war and conflict—Mrs. Morris and Helen talk about when they were children in 1948 and played a game called "Japs and Nazis," an obvious gesture to World War II. Having enjoyed peace for so long, however, adults have grown complacent and negligent, ultimately allowing a deadly alien Invasion to unfold right before their eyes. Through the adults' rude awakening, Bradbury reminds his readers to be on guard, recognizing that peace is temporary, and that bad things can happen at any time. - Theme: Imagination and Logic. Description: Ray Bradbury's "Zero Hour" depicts a picture-perfect suburban neighborhood in New York teeming with children, all playing game called "Invasion." The game revolves around helping a group of aliens invade the earth. Parents across the nation—including seven-year-old Mink's mother, Mrs. Morris—are unable to step out of their logic-driven mindsets and consider that the game is actually terrifyingly real, and that earth is on the brink of an alien invasion. Meanwhile, the children are swept away by the novelty and excitement of their so-called game and are unable to think logically about whether or not aiding an alien invasion of earth is really a good idea. The kids are too excited imagining the future world that the aliens promise: later bedtimes, more television, and no baths. Through the parents' and children's inability to balance imagination with logic, Bradbury highlights how relying on exclusively one or the other can be dangerous and blinding. Instead, both imagination and logic are necessary for a healthy, balanced view of the world. The kids' excitement for the Invasion shows the dangers of being swept away in imagination. Mink is mesmerized by the aliens' promise of a world in which children rule. She tells her mother, "They're going to let us run the world. Well, not just us but the kids over in the next block, too. I might be queen." It's unlikely that Drill, the leader of the aliens, would allow a random seven-year-old girl to be queen of the world, especially since children all over the nation are involved in the Invasion game. Instead, it seems that Drill gains Mink's loyalty by catering to her imaginary dream world in which she is not just a princess (a common dream for many seven-year-olds), but a queen. Mink also tells her mother that in this beautiful new world, children are free from parents' stifling rules: "Drill says I won't have to take baths […] He told all the kids that. No more baths. And we can stay up till ten o'clock and go to two televisor shows on Saturday 'stead of one!" Mink is so captivated imagining such a perfect existence that she doesn't consider if Drill's promises are genuine or if the Invasion could have serious negative implications. Meanwhile, the parents' reactions highlight how a staunchly logical worldview is just as dangerous. Excitedly explaining the Invasion game to her mom, Mink declares, "Martians [are] invading Earth. Well, not exactly Martians. They're—I don't know. From up." "Touching Mink's feverish brow," Mrs. Morris answers, "And inside." Mrs. Morris implies that the Invasion is all inside Mink's head. This reaction irritates Mink, who cries, "You're laughing! You'll kill Drill and everybody." Mink is likely repeating the propaganda that Drill has instilled in her and the other children to turn them against their parents, but Mrs. Morris's sensible, logical adult mind fails to grasp the significance of Mink's words. Thus, Mrs. Morris remains ignorant of what's going on just outside her doorstep. Mink also tells her mother, "Drill says you're dangerous! Know why? 'Cause you don't believe in Martians!" Drill and the other aliens know that the adults' logical minds will keep them from taking the Invasion game seriously, thus stepping aside to let the Invasion take its course. Ultimstely, the story suggests that thinking both logically and imaginatively is necessary for a balanced view of the world. At 5:00 P.M., "zero hour," a low humming noise engulfs the neighborhood. Henry, Mrs. Morris' husband, asks what the sound is, and Mrs. Morris "[gets] up suddenly, her eyes widening. She was going to say something. She stopped it. Ridiculous. Her nerves jumped. […] 'Tell them to put off their Invasion until tomorrow.' She laughed, nervously." In this moment, it seems that Mrs. Morris' logical nature is fighting to keep her from believing in the game, even though her reaction indicates that she knows something unusual is going on. Mrs. Morris realizes that her husband will think she's crazy for believing in the Invasion: "There was no time to argue with Henry to convince him. Let him think her insane." Once in the attic, Mrs. Morris begins to come to terms with how her logical, adult mind blinded her to the terrifying reality at hand: "She was babbling wild stuff now. It came out of her. All the subconscious suspicion and fear that had gathered secretly all afternoon and fermented like a wine in her. All the little revelations and knowledges and sense that had bothered her all day and which she had logically and carefully and sensibly rejected and censored. Now it exploded in her and shook her to bits." Mrs. Morris finally sees beyond her carefully constructed logical view of the word, but it's too late. In "Zero Hour," Bradbury highlights the shortcomings of clinging desperately to logic or being swept away in imagination. While the children fail to think rationally about the Invasion, the adults fail to suspend their sensible, logical ways of thinking and consider the Invasion as something other than a silly game. Both perspectives have serious repercussions. - Climax: When Mr. and Mrs. Morris hide in the attic from the aliens, who have successfully invaded the Earth - Summary: Covered in dirt and sweat from playing an exciting game with the other neighborhood kids, seven-year-old Mink Morris runs into her house in search of supplies. As she crams pots and pans into a sack, her mother, Mrs. Morris, asks what's going on. Mink explains that she needs the kitchen supplies for a new game called "Invasion." Mink runs back outside, slamming the door behind her. Mrs. Morris peers out the window and watches Mink playing below. Mink is talking animatedly to a rosebush, but no one is there, which Mrs. Morris thinks is odd. When Mink comes in for lunch, she gulps her milk down quickly and tries to run back out to play, but Mrs. Morris forces her to sit and wait for the soup to be done. While she waits impatiently, Mink talks to her mother about a boy named Drill. Mrs. Morris asks if he's a new boy in the neighborhood, but Mink is evasive and fends off her mother's questions by claiming that she'll "make fun" of Drill just like "everybody" does. Mrs. Morris asks about the Invasion game, and Mink explains that Martians—who are "not exactly Martians," as she's not sure what planet they're from—are invading the Earth. Mrs. Morris tries not to laugh, and Mink continues, explaining that the aliens had a hard time figuring out how to attack Earth, and it wasn't until recently that they came up with a plan. She says that, according to Drill, the aliens needed the element of surprise and help from the enemy but couldn't figure out how to do so. Recently, however, the aliens realized they could use children to help them from within. Mink says the plan is a good one because "grownups are so busy they never look under rosebushes or lawns." Bored of Mink's chatter, Mrs. Morris sends her daughter back outside but reminds her to be back in time for her bath. Mink declares that after the Invasion, kids won't have to take baths anymore. According to Drill, kids will get to watch more television, go to bed later, and even rule the world—and even better, Drill promised that Mink will be queen. Mink tells her mother that she hates the older kids in the neighborhood, like Pete Britz and Dale Jerrick, because they refuse to believe in Drill and just make fun of the younger kids. She also tells her mother that parents don't believe in Martians, which means parents are dangerous. Mink pauses and asks her mother about two words Drill used earlier that day, which she didn't understand: "lodge-ick" and "im-pres-sion-able." Mrs. Morris explains that logic is knowing what's true and false, while impressionable means "be[ing] a child." Mink thanks her mother and tells her that she "won't be hurt much" in the Invasion. She runs back outside to play. Mrs. Morris talks on the video phone with her friend Helen, and the two women are surprised to realize that their kids are playing the same Invasion game, even though they live in different parts of the United States. The women reminisce on the games they used to play as children back in 1948 (including one called "Japs and Nazis") and affirm that "parents learn to shut their ears" to children's distracting chatter and silly games. Mink runs in for a glass of water but runs right back outside, yelling that "zero hour" is at 5:00 P.M., so she needs to hurry. When Mr. Morris gets home from work at 5:00 P.M., he greets his wife warmly. Suddenly, a strange buzzing noise engulfs the neighborhood and gets increasingly louder. Mrs. Morris nervously asks her husband to tell the kids to put off their Invasion game until the following day. Before he can do so, an explosion shakes the house. Mrs. Morris screams and drags her husband upstairs to the attic. She locks the door behind them and tosses the key across the room, "babbling wild stuff" as she does so. Mr. Morris thinks his wife has gone crazy, but she is overcome by all the little realizations and suspicions about the Invasion being real that she had logically ignored all day. Below them, Mr. and Mrs. Morris hear their house fill with the sound of footsteps, belonging to at least fifty people. Mr. Morris shouts about trespassers in his house, but Mrs. Morris begs him to be quiet. The footsteps get louder, accompanied by Mink's voice, calling out for her parents. Suddenly, the lock melts, and the attic door swings open. Surrounded by "tall blue shadows," Mink says, "Peekaboo."