Chapter 110 – Misty and Patch in Boston
Spoiler Notice
This page contains detailed spoilers for All the Colors of the Dark. Proceed only if you have read through this chapter or are prepared for major plot reveals.
Summary
Misty takes Patch on a walking tour through Boston, from the Common past Brewer Fountain into Chinatown. They sit on upturned crates and share warm sake while she talks about her Harvard course, her father’s conservative politics, and the independence she has carved by working as a bartender. Patch feels she has become more worldly, even less attainable. Later, they stop at a Bay Village busker; Misty challenges his earlier claim that he doesn’t dance. They move together and she presses her cheek to his chest, finally confronting him with the pain he caused when he chose Grace over her. Patch apologizes but insists everyone will choose her—except him. He tells her to close her eyes so he can vanish, promising she will live a wondrous life and forget him. She shakes her head, crying, and he hates watching it.
Key Events
- Misty leads Patch through Boston’s historic sites, joking about pirates hung from the Great Elm.
- In a Chinatown side street they drink sake on crates; Misty wears Patch’s flat cap and teases him about his unchanged style and new muscles.
- She discusses her Harvard studies, her father’s support for Reagan‑era economics, and her determination to earn her own money.
- They pause to listen to a busker in Bay Village; Patch puts a hand on Misty’s back and they dance despite his old reluctance.
- Misty whispers that he didn’t just break her heart—he chose Grace over her.
- Patch tells her to close her eyes, promises he’ll be gone when she opens them, and urges her to live a “fucking wondrous life” and forget him.
- She shakes her head and cries; he silently registers his hatred of seeing her hurt.
Character Development
- Patch continues to see himself as fundamentally unworthy of Misty. He acknowledges he chose Grace, accepts that he will never be good enough, and tries to erase himself from her future for her own good. His gentle physical closeness—dancing, holding her—reveals lingering tenderness he suppresses with words of self‑erasure.
- Misty has transformed into a more confident, outward‑looking young woman but remains emotionally tethered to Patch. Her Harvard education and desire to earn her own money show her breaking from her family’s sheltered expectations. Yet her heartbreak is raw: she cannot forget him and is furious at being passed over.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Unrequited love and sacrifice — Patch believes the kindest act is to remove himself from Misty’s life so she can flourish without him.
- Class and opportunity — Misty’s Harvard world and her father’s “insulation” contrast sharply with Patch’s lobster‑boat labor; the chapter repeatedly frames her future as wondrous and limitless, his as a closed road.
- Disappearing and being forgotten — Patch’s plea echoes the book’s larger motif of vanishing; he wants to become a memory that fades, letting her move on.
- Dancing as intimacy and farewell — Their dance is a physical surrender that carries the weight of years of pain, a last moment of closeness before he tries to break the bond.
Why This Chapter Matters
After chapters of separation, this scene is the emotional reckoning between Patch and Misty. It crystallizes the consequences of Patch’s earlier choice of Grace and lays bare the self‑loathing that drives him to push Misty away. The Boston setting symbolizes the life she might have without him, while his farewell frames her liberation as his final gift. The chapter deepens our understanding of both characters’ scars and anchors the novel’s central tension: loving someone enough to let them go.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Patch tell Misty she will have a “wondrous life” and that she’ll forget him?
Patch believes he is a dead end—someone who chose another woman, who “never had much to say,” and who cannot offer the bright future Harvard represents. By insisting she forget him, he tries to free her from a past he thinks will only drag her down. It is both a genuine wish for her happiness and a manifestation of his low self‑worth.
2. How does Misty’s conversation about her father and the New Right contribute to the chapter’s class theme?
Misty describes her father’s vote for Reagan as an attempt to build a thicker “layer of insulation” around her, ensuring she never struggles financially. In contrast, she tends bar to earn her own money and admires Patch’s self‑made independence. The talk underscores the gap between her elite, protected world and Patch’s working‑class reality, reinforcing why he feels they don’t belong together.
3. What role does the busker’s song play in the scene?
The busker “warmed the night” with her guitar, and later she sings “she felt the earth move in her hands”—a Carole King lyric about being shaken by love. The public music creates a suspended moment in which Patch and Misty can be vulnerable, dancing as if the city is watching. It turns their private heartbreak into something almost mythic, as strangers perceive two figures torn from a “tragic history book.”