Buckeye Chapter Twenty Summary: Margaret's Quiet Desperation

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter Twenty takes full focus on Margaret Salt after she has left Bonhomie and her husband Felix, settling alone in Columbus. Rumors swirl in the neighborhood about her sudden departure; some speculate about scandal, mental breakdown, or abandonment of her child. The truth slowly emerges: Margaret moved to a third-floor apartment in a large building, living quietly and working low-level retail jobs. She maintains a careful distance from her past, sending only holiday cards to her son Tom and never calling or writing. She secures a divorce based on abandonment at Felix’s insistence. She meets and works for Lars Delmonico at his shoe store, where she remains almost two years until his newly pregnant wife demands Margaret be replaced by someone old and ugly. The chapter ends with Margaret lying awake, thinking about how her own mother abandoned her in a basket, and wondering if Tom feels the same pain.

Key Events

The neighborhood’s speculation about Margaret’s disappearance settles when her husband Felix confirms she left for Columbus alone.
Margaret moves into an apartment where she interacts briefly with strange neighbors, including a man who dies in his sleep.
She sells her jewelry and her Packard, trading for a cheap Ford Victoria, and furnishes her apartment with thrifted items.
She hangs the painting called the Dolice above her fireplace, and when her landlord cannot tell if it is dawn or dusk she thanks him without further explanation.
Over six and a half years she works at ten different stores, quitting whenever a boss makes an advance.
She avoids any contact with Tom apart from holiday cards, terrified of his potential questions.
Felix divorces her on grounds of abandonment, a label that stings but she accepts.
She gets a job at Delmonico’s shoe store; Lars becomes a friendly boss who respects her boundaries.
Lars shows up with a black eye and later a swollen face, claiming traffic accidents, but his story does not hold; later he marries Daisy, who becomes pregnant.
After Kennedy’s funeral, Lars tells Margaret that Daisy wants him to hire someone else, so he fires her.
Lying awake that night, Margaret reflects on her mother abandoning her and wonders if Tom feels the same.

Character Development

Margaret Salt enters a period of deliberate self-containment. She creates a life defined by routine, small apartment, low-expectations work, and emotional isolation. She develops a protective opacity in her eyes, a wall against the world. Yet she remains vulnerable to glimpses of mothers with children or teenage boys, which pierce her composure. She admits she does not know how to live with herself after leaving her child, and she parallels her own abandonment by her mother. She is not static; she feels the weight of her choices and questions them, but she does not act to reconnect.

Lars Delmonico appears friendly but harbors secrets. He has unexplained bruises, a possibly invented fiancée, and ultimately yields to his wife’s jealousy by firing Margaret. He shows a mix of kindness (giving her advice, watching the inauguration) and cowardice.

Tom is present only through Margaret’s memory and her fear of his questions. He remains a silent figure representing the child she abandoned.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Abandonment and Its Echoes — Margaret’s abandonment of Tom mirrors her own mother’s abandonment of her. This parallel haunts her; she cannot stop asking how her mother managed to move on. The chapter suggests that the abandonment cycle continues unless broken.

Anonymity vs. Connection — Margaret chooses the vast anonymity of Columbus. She likes that neighbors know nothing about her. Yet this anonymity also isolates her from any real support. The man who dies alone in his sleep and the neighbor who mistakes her for someone else underscore the loneliness.

Walls and Opacity — Margaret’s eyes become “opaque,” done receiving and projecting. This physical change symbolizes her emotional shutdown. She also puts an extra lock and dowels on her windows, reinforcing her fortress.

The Dolice Painting — The blurry painting that cannot be identified as dawn or dusk mirrors Margaret’s own ambiguous situation. She is stuck between past and future, light and dark.

Shoes and Selling — Margaret sells beautiful shoes she cannot afford to buy. Lars’s comment about capitalism captures her position: she facilitates what others have but cannot possess herself.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter provides the deepest exploration of Margaret’s interior life and her reasons for leaving. It reframes the earlier mystery of her disappearance by showing the painful aftermath. It also deepens the parallel between Margaret and her mother, and between Margaret and Tom, setting up future emotional reckoning. The chapter humanizes a character who could be seen only as a villain or deserter; it shows the cost of her actions without excusing them. By the end, Margaret’s own question—how did her mother live with herself—becomes the novel’s central moral and emotional riddle.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Margaret avoid contacting her son Tom after leaving Bonhomie?

Margaret avoids contact because she is terrified of the questions Tom might ask: when she will come home, if she will ever return, or why she left. With each passing month the silence grows harder to break, and she fears his written response. She also cannot offer him any explanation regarding Felix, her affair, or Cal. She sends only holiday cards, a minimal gesture that stops short of real connection.

2. What does Margaret’s reaction to seeing mothers with children reveal about her character?

The sight of a mother with a child “pierces” Margaret’s emotional armor. She wants to run from it, gets off a streetcar early to avoid it. This reveals deep unresolved grief and guilt over leaving Tom. It also connects to her ongoing obsession with how her own mother could abandon her. The reaction shows that despite her attempts at self-protection, she cannot completely numb her maternal feelings.

3. How does Margaret’s work history reflect her state of mind during her years in Columbus?

She works ten different stores in six and a half years, quitting whenever a boss makes a pass at her. This pattern shows her refusal to be vulnerable or exploited again, but also her inability to build lasting connections. The jobs are low-status and temporary, mirroring her rootless existence. She keeps overhead low and life simple, avoiding any commitment that might require her to look back or explain her past.