Chapter 18: Tony’s Solitude and the Arrival of Zenia
⚠️ 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
Tony remembers that she was the first of her friends to befriend Zenia. She understands now that Zenia could never enter someone’s life unless invited, and she questions what made that invitation necessary. The memory takes her back to her nineteen-year-old self, living in McClung Hall in the early sixties. She felt empty and cindery before Zenia appeared, moving through her days in a protective numbness. Her father had died; her mother’s ashes were kept in a closet. Her roommate had attempted suicide and disappeared. Tony spent her time studying, replaying historical battles, and practicing backwards writing and singing. She kept to herself, avoiding the Common Room full of girls playing bridge and dissecting dates. Roz, one of the loudest girls, called Tony “Toinette” and “Tonikins,” trying to dress her up like a doll. The other girls made a pet of Tony, feeding her contraband snacks and asking her to perform her strange party trick of writing names with both hands simultaneously. They also begged her to sing backwards, and when they pestered enough, she obliged, performing a sad song about a drowned woman. Tony never smiled during these performances; she found the song genuinely mournful. Her real passion was analyzing wars and battles, trying to see if losing sides could have won with different choices of ground, weather, or religion. She kept a secret notebook with alternative solutions and counted the “lost” men. She knew she had to hide this interest to avoid being labeled pathological. Among the other isolates in McClung Hall was Charis, then called Karen—a thin, willowy girl with a tendency to sleepwalk and lose things. One evening Tony saw Charis climbing down the fire escape in her nightgown, barefoot. Tony followed, worried about moving vehicles. Charis sat under a tree, and Tony sat under a neighboring tree. After a while, Charis spoke, revealing she was not asleep but thanked Tony for following. Tony felt annoyed and led on; she found Charis’s behavior theatrical and bizarre, like soap film or tentacles. She decided Charis was contagious and better left alone.
Key Events
- Tony reflects on how she invited Zenia into her life, despite no longer understanding the motive.
- The chapter flashes back to Tony’s nineteenth year in McClung Hall, after her father’s death and her mother’s cremation.
- Tony’s original roommate attempted suicide via sleeping pills and was hospitalized, then vanished.
- Tony avoids the Common Room and its bridge-playing girls, including Roz who teases her with nicknames.
- The other girls find Tony’s backwards-writing and singing talent amusing, though Tony feels it is a minor and spurious magic.
- Tony secretly studies military history, replaying decisive battles to imagine alternative outcomes.
- Charis (then Karen) is introduced as a sleepwalking, disorganized girl in a long white nightgown.
- Tony follows Charis outside one evening, worried for her safety, but Charis reveals she is awake.
- Tony finds Charis’s behavior theatrical and decides to keep her distance.
Character Development
Tony: This chapter deepens Tony’s self-awareness. She is portrayed as a lonely, numbed young woman with defensive routines. Her intelligence is oblique: she can write backwards and sing backwards, but she also possesses a secret analytical mind focused on military strategy. She is small and treated like a pet by other girls, which she tolerates for small comforts like cookies. Her inability to connect with peers is clear, and she is already wary of people like Charis who seem “slippery” and “contagious.” The fact that she later invited Zenia in suggests a fatal curiosity or a desire for something more than her sheltered existence.
Charis (then Karen): Makes her first appearance in the narrative timeline. She is portrayed as ethereal, absent-minded, and prone to sleepwalking. Her behavior is seen through Tony’s irritated lens: theatrical, bizarre, and potentially clingy. This early portrait contrasts with the more grounded Charis in later chapters.
Roz: Introduced briefly as a loud, intrusive girl who tries to mother or dress up Tony. She is already part of the Common Room group, showing her extroverted, smothering nature that persists throughout the novel.
Zenia: Although not physically present in the chapter, she is the central focus of Tony’s reflection. The chapter establishes that Tony invited her in, and that invitation was a choice. Zenia is positioned as a force that can only enter when welcomed, setting up the theme of personal responsibility for one’s own betrayals.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
The Threshold and Invitation: Tony’s opening statement frames Zenia’s entry as contingent on invitation. This motif recurs throughout the novel—each of the three women (Tony, Charis, Roz) will have to examine their own role in letting Zenia into their lives.
Otherness and Isolation: Tony feels alienated from the other girls, yet they make a pet of her. Her interest in battles marks her as potentially “pathological,” so she hides it. Charis is also an isolate. The chapter explores the loneliness of being different.
Backwardness as a Form of Control: Tony’s ability to write and sing backwards is a minor magic that gives her a temporary social role. It also symbolizes her desire to reorder reality, much as she tries to reorder battles with alternative outcomes.
Loss and Grief: The song Tony sings backwards is about a drowned woman who is “lost and gone forever.” Tony finds it sad, not funny. This mirrors her own losses: her mother’s ashes in a canister, her father’s pistol in a box, her absent roommate.
Sleepwalking and Agency: Charis’s sleepwalking raises questions about conscious versus unconscious actions, foreshadowing later themes of self-deception and denial.
Historical Awareness of Violence: Tony thinks about “lost” men and pillage in historical terms, but notes that in the 1960s she did not yet categorize rape as a modern street danger. This draws attention to changing social consciousness.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is foundational for understanding Tony’s character arc. It explains her initial vulnerability to Zenia: a lonely, curious girl who craves something beyond her regimented life. It also introduces Charis and Roz in their younger, more recognizable forms, so readers can see how they have changed by the present-day story. The chapter establishes the novel’s central question: why do we invite dangerous people into our lives? By anchoring the answer in Tony’s psychology, Atwood sets the stage for the entire plot. Additionally, the chapter contrasts Tony’s dry, analytical voice with the more emotional voices of other narrators, enriching the novel’s polyphonic structure.
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Tony feel that her backwards-writing talent is “minor and spurious magic”? Because she sees it as a purely mechanical skill, like being double-jointed, rather than a creative or meaningful achievement. The other girls treat it as a party trick, but Tony derives no pride from it.
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What does Tony’s secret battle notebook reveal about her personality in the early sixties? It shows her preference for intellectual control, her fascination with loss and alternative outcomes, and her need to hide her real interests from others for fear of being judged “pathological.” It also indicates her emotional numbness—she thinks about “lost” men as problems to solve rather than people to mourn.
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Why does Tony find Charis’s behavior “theatrical and bizarre” rather than mysterious or intriguing? Tony values solidity and predictability; she prefers the straightforward crudeness of Roz and the bridge players. Charis’s vague, unfocused way of moving through life frustrates Tony because it feels like a performance without clear purpose. Tony is annoyed that she was “led on” to worry about a sleepwalker, and she decides Charis is “contagious”—someone whose instability might rub off.