Chapter 20 Summary and Analysis: Petra Leaves Nora Alone
⚠️ 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 20 opens with Nora and Petra now alone in the apartment; Sonja left earlier that morning for the United States. Her departure was dramatic and insincere, but she was visibly relieved to leave, as if the apartment were the epicenter of the end of the world and America offered safety—or perhaps she was simply relieved to escape Petra.
Petra, though packed and ready to return to Hamburg, refuses to leave. Instead she lingers, perched on furniture, watching Nora with a mixture of superiority, curiosity, and pity. She delivers increasingly bizarre lectures about time and reality. One morning she claims life is like a record played on repeat, with each loop forgotten. A few hours later she insists time is moving backward, explaining that déjà vu occurs because they have already lived this moment. By evening she declares that all existence is merely the present moment, and any memory of the past is fabricated.
When Petra isn't philosophizing, she proposes "field trips." Today's destination: Berghain, which Nora has never heard of but suspects is not a shopping mall. Petra describes it as Berlin's most exclusive nightclub and boasts she can get them in. Nora, exhausted from failed attempts to resolve her credit card issues and still waiting for Jacob or Derek to reach out, admits she is not a nightclub person. Petra looks down at Nora's worn leggings and smirks.
Petra then threatens to leave for Hamburg if Nora refuses to go clubbing. Nora feels a conflicted urge—she wants Petra gone, yet dreads the loneliness that will follow. She briefly considers clinging to Petra, but the door slams shut before she can react. Petra is gone.
Alone, Nora tries to convince herself this is good. She reflects on Petra's theories, particularly the idea that time is fixed and movement an illusion. She rejects it, insisting that strong feelings must come from real events. Her cat jumps onto her lap and digs its claws into her thighs, then scrapes across her tattoo—the cat's own likeness—as if disapproving. The cat stares at her with a look eerily similar to Petra's, and Nora imagines it pitying her: all alone at the end of the world, talking to her cat.
Key Events
- Sonja departs for the United States, leaving Nora and Petra alone.
- Petra delivers multiple contradictory theories about time: life as a repeating record, time moving backward, and all existence as a single frozen moment.
- Petra proposes a trip to Berghain, Berlin's exclusive nightclub.
- Nora, exhausted and defeated, declines the invitation.
- Petra abruptly leaves for Hamburg, slamming the door.
- Nora is left alone in the apartment with her cat.
- The cat scratches Nora's tattoo, prompting a moment of self-reflection.
Character Development
Nora is at a low point. Her attempts to contact her credit card company have failed, Begonia remains closed, and she hasn't called her parents. She feels she cannot reach out until she solves her problems independently, which seems impossible. Her loneliness intensifies when Petra leaves, yet she also recognizes Petra's meanness and the exhausting nature of her theories. Nora's internal conflict—wanting Petra gone yet dashing to cling to her—shows her desperation and fear of total isolation. After Petra leaves, Nora's rejection of Petra's static-time theory reveals her belief in the reality of her own past and emotions.
Petra grows more eccentric and less concerned with social norms. She seems to believe her own shifting theories, cycling through descriptions of time without self-awareness. Her condescension toward Nora is palpable, especially when she eyes Nora's clothing and mocks her lack of nightclub experience. Petra's abrupt departure shows her impatience and perhaps her own fear of staying; she would rather run than confront the end of the world with someone she considers beneath her.
Sonja, though absent, is briefly remembered as a buffer between Nora and Petra. Nora misses Sonja's obliviousness and her ability to temper Petra's obnoxiousness—a subtle reveal that Sonja served a crucial role in the group dynamic.
Themes, Symbols, and Motifs
- Time and its nature: Petra's ever-changing theories dominate the chapter. The impossibility of reaching a stable understanding of time mirrors Nora's inability to control her own circumstances. Nora's rejection of the frozen-moment theory asserts that real action and emotion matter.
- Isolation and connection: Nora is literally abandoned, first by Sonja, then by Petra. The cat becomes her only companion, but its scratch suggests even that connection is painful. The motif of the cat echoing Petra's gaze reinforces Nora's profound loneliness.
- Déjà vu: Petra uses déjà vu to support her backward-time theory, linking it to the novel's title I Think We've Been Here Before. This motif suggests cycles and repetition, possibly hinting at larger patterns in the story.
- The tattoo: Nora's tattoo of her cat is a permanent mark, but the cat scratches through it, as if denying ownership. This symbolizes the fragility of identity and permanence in a crumbling world.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter marks a turning point: the trio is now a single inhabitant. Petra's departure forces Nora to confront total solitude in the face of the apocalypse. Petra's time theories—though extreme—raise questions about reality and memory that will likely echo through the remainder of the novel. Nora's rejection of the idea that nothing moves or changes reinforces her resilience and her need to believe in cause, effect, and genuine experience. The closing image of Nora talking to her cat encapsulates the novel's blend of absurdity and raw emotional truth. This chapter clears the stage for Nora's final reckoning.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Petra leave so abruptly?
Petra leaves because Nora refuses to go to Berghain. Petra had framed the outing as a condition for staying; when Nora declines, Petra carries out her threat. Her decision may also reflect her own discomfort with staying in the apartment, as she had been packed and ready to go home before proposing the trip.
2. How does Nora react to Petra's theories about time?
Nora is exhausted by the ever-changing lectures. She explicitly rejects the idea that time is fixed and movement an illusion, arguing that strong feelings must be based on real events that have actually occurred. Her internal rebuttal shows she clings to a linear, cause-and-effect view of existence even as chaos surrounds her.
3. What does the cat's scratching of the tattoo symbolize?
The cat scratches directly through the tattoo of its own face, as if disapproving of Nora's "unauthorized use of its likeness." This symbolizes the dissolution of ownership and permanence. The tattoo was meant to be a lasting tribute, but the cat treats it as meaningless—mirroring how Nora's efforts to hold on to normal life (money, family, friends) are being undone. It also deepens Nora's sense of being judged and abandoned.