Chapter 32 Summary & Analysis: Class, Revision, and Seances

⚠️ 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

Bodie arrives at Granby with a second hangover in five days. She deletes Twitter to avoid seeing replies to her drunken thread. In class, the students are subdued; Omar’s attorney has declined to comment, leaving Britt feeling she cannot proceed without his voice. The group listens to one another’s podcast episodes. Britt’s episode includes an interview with Priscilla Mancio, who reveals that Robbie Serenho was a scholarship student from a working-class Vermont family—information that shatters Bodie’s long‑held assumption that Robbie was wealthy. The discussion then shifts to Alyssa’s project on Arsareth Gage. The class learns that Granby now acknowledges Arsareth’s involvement in slavery and the school’s historical quotas. Bodie mentions the seances students used to hold for Arsareth, and the class decides to hold a real one at Gage House. Alyssa gets official permission, and they plan to meet late Saturday night. Bodie also reflects on the master keys that circulated among students in the 1990s—keys that could open nearly every door on campus—and wonders why she never mentioned them to investigators.

Key Events

• Britt receives a refusal from Omar’s attorney, making her doubt her podcast.
• The class listens to excerpts: Britt’s includes Priscilla Mancio’s interview.
• Priscilla reveals that Robbie Serenho was a scholarship student; his father worked as an electrician.
• Bodie realizes she had wrongly assumed Robbie came from a wealthy skiing family.
• The discussion turns to Arsareth Gage and the school’s revised historical narrative.
• Alyssa obtains formal permission to use Gage House for a seance on Saturday night.
• Bodie recalls the master keys Fran could copy, and her own silence about them in 1995.

Character Development

• Bodie Kane: Confronts her own class‑based assumptions about Robbie Serenho, a key figure in Thalia’s story. She also begins to examine her silence during the original investigation, questioning her complicity.
• Britt: Shows ethical commitment by insisting she cannot tell Omar’s story without his voice; her frustration deepens.
• Alyssa: Takes initiative to secure permission for the seance, contrasting with the 1990s students who sneaked into buildings.
• Jamila: Provides data on financial‑aid barriers, reinforcing the chapter’s class critique.
• Lola: Voices the perspective of marginalized people wary of white saviors.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

• Class and Assumption: Bodie’s erroneous belief that Robbie was wealthy highlights how class shapes perception even in a supposedly progressive community.
• Institutional Memory and Revision: Granby’s updated history—acknowledging Arsareth’s slave‑owning and the school’s quotas—shows how institutions can (or must) revise their narratives.
• Keys and Access: The master keys symbolize both privilege and secrecy. Bodie’s failure to mention them to police suggests unspoken loyalties and silenced evidence.
• The Seance as Ritual: The planned seance for Arsareth becomes a vessel for confronting the past, both literal (the dead) and metaphorical (buried truths).

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 32 deepens the novel’s critique of class privilege within elite institutions. By revealing Robbie Serenho’s working‑class background, Makkai forces Bodie—and the reader—to question the stereotypes that shaped the original investigation. The chapter also advances the podcast subplot by showing Britt’s ethical crisis. The decision to hold a seance with official permission creates a contrast between the 1990s students’ rule‑breaking and the 2018 students’ institutional engagement. Finally, Bodie’s private recollection of the master keys introduces a new piece of evidence that she never shared, hinting at how much remains unsaid.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why is Priscilla Mancio’s revelation about Robbie Serenho important for Bodie’s understanding of the past?
Bodie had always pictured Robbie as coming from a wealthy skiing family. Priscilla reveals he was a scholarship student with a working‑class father. This forces Bodie to confront how she and others at Granby assigned status based on superficial markers, and to reconsider how class biases may have influenced perceptions of Robie during the investigation.

2. How does the discussion of Arsareth Gage’s history reflect the school’s evolving relationship with its past?
Alyssa confirms that Granby now openly acknowledges Arsareth’s involvement in slavery, the displacement of Abenaki people, and historical quotas against Jews and Black students. The shift from a romanticized founding story to a more honest one shows the school attempting to reckon with its problematic history, though Bodie questions how much real change has occurred.

3. What is the significance of Bodie not mentioning the master keys to the police in 1995?
The master keys allowed students to enter almost any building on campus. Bodie knew about them but kept silent because the keys were connected to Fran. Her silence represents the unspoken loyalties and omissions that may have obstructed the investigation, and suggests she is now grappling with the ethical weight of that choice.