Chapter 9: Summary and Analysis

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

⚠️ This page contains detailed discussion of Chapter Nine, including plot developments and character revelations. If you haven't finished the chapter yet, consider reading it first before continuing.

Summary

The chapter opens with the narrator arriving at the care facility where her parents live. Her heart sinks when she spots Margot, the facility worker, because the narrator is perpetually behind on rent and her inbox is full of unopened emails from Applebaum, presumably a landlord or billing contact. Margot pulls her aside and delivers a frank warning: she can no longer quietly cover the narrator's unpaid rent. The facility is already asking questions, and Margot won't be able to hold them off much longer.

The narrator responds by telling Margot about her new job at Holistik and how well it pays. Margot softens at this news, seeming genuinely happy for her. The two ride the elevator to the third floor, where Margot opens the frayed curtain that separates the parents' beds from one another. Margot calls out a cheerful greeting to the parents, even though they rarely respond, and leaves the narrator alone with them for fifteen minutes.

Once alone, the narrator speaks to her unresponsive parents. She apologizes for not visiting as often lately, explains that she got a new job and was busy with training, and promises she'll have more time to visit now. She also tells them she can make sure they stay in the facility. Looking around at the modest accommodations—rickety cots and plastic plants instead of real beds and fresh flowers—she wants to cry, feeling they deserve so much better.

She tells her mother she wishes she could take her to see the Holistik facility, imagining how much her mother would love it. This triggers a memory: her mother used to come backstage before competitions or concerts to apply a bit of lipstick to the narrator's mouth with her finger, saying it wasn't needed but was just for fun. Now the narrator takes out a tube of Holistik's dahlia blossom lipstick and spreads a thin layer over her mother's cracked lips. The contrast between her mother's bloodless face and the vivid pink is unsettling, so she wipes it off gently.

She recalls how her mother would bring home perfume samples from stores and dab them on the same places on both their bodies. Despite having little money, her parents always managed to provide not only necessities but luxuries. The narrator feels the pain of failing them now when they need her most.

She waits for a response. Her father's mouth falls open once before closing again. Her mother's hand twitches a little as the narrator massages it the way her mother used to massage her hands after piano practice. She strokes her mother's arm where the metal crushed it, almost thankful her mother isn't conscious enough to process what happened to her hands in the accident.

She tells them she loves them, kisses each on the forehead, and leaves. She ducks into the bathroom and allows herself to cry before composing herself. In the stained mirror, she watches her own tears fall, finding some comfort in seeing her parents' features preserved in her face. She reflects that there is so much she wants to ask them, but she can only ask herself as them—and she lacks the imagination to invent their history and the particulars of their memory. Every answer she constructs takes her further from the truth of who they are.

When Margot returns, the narrator is standing outside her parents' room, pretending she has just left. She wants to complain about the pungent urine smell, about the parents not being changed often enough, about their dry skin and whether they're getting enough water. But she can hardly make demands given how much money she owes. As she leaves, relief floods her body, followed quickly by shame. Seeing them is always more difficult than she wants to admit. She had always assumed love carried itself easily through various permutations and disintegrations, but now she finds herself disassociating her parents from the people she had known them to be. She can't decide which is worse: coming up against the limitations of their souls or the limitations of her love.

Key Events

Margot warns the narrator she can no longer cover her unpaid rent at the care facility.
The narrator reveals her new, well-paying job at Holistik, which softens Margot's stance.
The narrator visits her unresponsive parents and promises more visits and continued housing.
She applies Holistik's dahlia blossom lipstick to her mother's cracked lips, then wipes it off.
She recalls her mother's past beauty rituals: applying lipstick before competitions and sharing perfume samples.
She waits for a response from her parents that never fully comes.
She cries in the bathroom, then notices the facility's neglect (urine smell, dry skin) but stays silent due to her debt.
She leaves feeling relief followed by shame, reflecting on the limits of her love.

Character Development

The Narrator: This chapter reveals the narrator's deep financial precarity and the moral compromises it forces on her. She is caught between her love for her parents and her inability to provide better care for them. Her decision to stay silent about the facility's neglect—despite noticing it clearly—shows how debt erodes her ability to advocate for the people she loves. Her reflection on disassociating her parents from who they used to be reveals a painful internal shift: her love is being tested by their decline, and she's not sure it's holding up.

Margot: Though a minor presence, Margot emerges as a sympathetic but constrained figure. She has been quietly covering the narrator's rent, putting herself at risk with the facility's administration. Her genuine happiness at the narrator's new job suggests she cares about the family, but her position limits how much she can help.

Ma and Ba: Though unresponsive, the parents are present through the narrator's memories. Ma's past actions—applying lipstick, sharing perfume samples, massaging hands after piano practice—define her as a loving, resourceful parent who provided luxuries despite poverty. Ba's single mouth movement and Ma's hand twitch offer faint signs of life, but no real communication.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Beauty Rituals as Connection: The lipstick and perfume rituals are the chapter's central motif. The narrator's act of applying dahlia blossom lipstick to her mother's lips is an attempt to recreate a past intimacy, but the unsettling contrast between the vivid pink and her mother's bloodless face shows how the ritual has lost its meaning. The beauty products that once connected mother and daughter now only highlight the distance between them.

Financial Precarity and Its Moral Costs: The narrator's debt is not just a practical problem; it actively prevents her from demanding better care for her parents. Her silence about the urine smell and dry skin is directly tied to the money she owes. The chapter shows how poverty compromises even the most basic acts of filial care.

Memory and Invented History: The narrator acknowledges she cannot invent her parents' history or recover their memories. She can only ask herself as them, and every answer takes her further from the truth. This theme speaks to the loss of shared history as parents decline.

Limitations of Love: The chapter's final reflection—whether it's worse to confront the limitations of her parents' souls or the limitations of her own love—is the emotional core. The narrator assumed love could carry through any change, but she's discovering it has limits.

Shame and Relief: The narrator's relief upon leaving is immediately followed by shame. This emotional sequence reveals her guilt about finding escape from a situation she can't fix, and her discomfort with her own feelings.

Institutional Neglect: The facility's shortcomings—the frayed curtain, rickety cots, plastic plants, urine smell, and dry skin—paint a picture of underfunded care. The narrator's inability to address these issues ties institutional neglect directly to economic inequality.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter grounds the novel's central tension in the narrator's personal life. Her work at Holistik is not just a career move; it's a desperate financial necessity driven by her parents' care needs. The chapter establishes the moral stakes of her job: the money she earns at Holistik is what keeps her parents housed, even as her work there may involve ethical compromises.

The chapter also deepens the novel's exploration of beauty and the body. The narrator's use of Holistik's lipstick on her mother is a poignant inversion of her mother's past rituals—the product that now defines the narrator's professional life is used in a failed attempt to connect with a parent who can no longer respond.

Finally, the chapter's honest portrayal of the narrator's relief and shame complicates any simple reading of her as a purely devoted daughter. Her admission that she can't decide which is worse—the limitations of her parents' souls or the limitations of her love—sets up a character who is deeply conflicted about her own capacity for care.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does the narrator's financial situation shape her interactions at the care facility?

The narrator's debt directly determines what she can and cannot do. She cannot afford better accommodations for her parents, so she must accept the rickety cots and plastic plants. More significantly, her debt silences her when she notices the facility's neglect—the urine smell and dry skin. She wants to complain to Margot but can't make demands because of what she owes. Her financial precarity thus compromises her ability to advocate for her parents' basic care.

2. What role does the lipstick ritual play in this chapter, and how does it connect to the novel's broader themes?

The lipstick ritual is an attempt to recreate a past moment of intimacy. The narrator remembers her mother applying lipstick to her mouth before competitions, and she now reverses the gesture by applying Holistik's dahlia blossom lipstick to her mother's cracked lips. But the ritual fails: the contrast between the vivid pink and her mother's bloodless face is unsettling, and she wipes it off. The scene shows how beauty products—which once connected mother and daughter—now highlight their separation. It also connects the narrator's professional life at Holistik to her personal history, suggesting that beauty is both a source of connection and a reminder of loss.

3. Why does the narrator feel relief after leaving her parents, and what does this reveal about her character?

The narrator feels relief because seeing her parents is more difficult than she wants to admit. Their decline forces her to confront the gap between who they were and who they've become, and she finds herself disassociating them from the people she once knew. The relief is followed by shame because she feels guilty for wanting to escape a situation she can't fix. This emotional sequence reveals her internal conflict: she loves her parents, but her love is being tested by their deterioration, and she's uncertain whether it can withstand the strain.