Chapter 31: Zenia's Return and Charis's Struggle
⚠️ 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
Life on the island has brought changes for Charis and Billy. Billy remains nervous but more rooted, now part of a network of American draft dodgers. They hold meetings on the mainland, and Charis occasionally houses new arrivals on her sofa. Billy’s group uses false names and codes; Charis observes but worries about the danger. She teaches yoga in a co-op apartment, aiming to help others transcend their bodies and spirits.
During one class, a gaunt woman in sunglasses catches Charis’s attention. The woman removes her glasses to reveal a black eye. She whispers, “Aren’t you Karen?” – Charis’s former name. It is Zenia, a once-beautiful woman Charis knew at university. Over juice, Zenia explains she has cancer, had a hysterectomy, and now lives with West (formerly Stew), who drinks, denies her illness, and abuses her. Charis feels helpless but touched. On Friday, Zenia does not attend class; Charis worries. That evening, during fog and drizzle, Zenia knocks on Charis’s kitchen door, soaking wet and with a new cut on her lip. She says West threw her out. Charis opens her arms, and Zenia collapses into them.
Key Events
- Billy gains stability through a network of draft dodgers who use false names and codes; Charis accommodates them.
- Charis teaches two yoga classes in a co-op apartment, focusing on transcendence and healing.
- A new student, wearing sunglasses and extremely thin, reveals herself as Zenia.
- Zenia shows Charis a black eye and says she has cancer; she recounts living with West (formerly Stew), who denies her illness and hits her.
- Charis remembers Zenia from university and recalls her sudden disappearance years ago.
- Zenia misses the next class; Charis frets on the ferry home.
- That night, Zenia arrives at Charis’s house, bruised and wet, saying West threw her out; Charis takes her in.
Character Development
Charis reveals her dual life: outwardly nurturing Billy’s antiwar activities and her yoga students, inwardly haunted by her own past as “Karen.” She is drawn to healing others but feels inadequate face-to-face with Zenia’s suffering. Her instinct to help – despite her misgivings about Billy’s crowd – shows a deepening compassion.
Zenia appears transformed from the confident university figure to a gaunt, cowed woman. Her black eye and cancer story position her as a victim, yet her reappearance activates Charis’s protective impulses. The chapter lays groundwork for Zenia’s complex role in the novel.
Billy remains peripheral but symbolizes Charis’s domestic anchor. His involvement with the draft-dodger network creates tension between Charis’s desire to help and her anxiety.
Themes, Symbols, and Motifs
Healing versus harm: Charis’s yoga philosophy – “Honour the spine,” “Salute the sun” – contrasts with the physical damage Zenia displays. Charis believes in changing the body to free the spirit, but Zenia’s cancer and bruises resist easy spiritual remedy.
Domesticity and refuge: Charis’s home becomes a shelter for exiles – first Billy’s friends, then Zenia. The motif of the “real furniture” she never wanted signals how her life has grown rooted.
False names and hidden identities: Billy and his group adopt women’s names (Edith, Ethel); Charis was once Karen. Zenia arrives wearing sunglasses, a literal barrier to vision. The chapter explores how people cloak themselves for safety or deception.
Cycles and helplessness: Charis believes events are cyclical and change in the world is impossible; only inner change matters. Yet she is pulled into action by Zenia’s plea, suggesting that compassion can break the cycle.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter marks Zenia’s return into the lives of the central women (Charis, Tony, Roz). It establishes her as a wounded figure, reconfiguring the past campus gossip about her disappearance as a secret struggle with cancer. Charis’s decision to take her in sets up the novel’s central conflict: how far will each woman’s empathy go, and what is Zenia’s true nature?
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does Charis’s own past as “Karen” affect her reaction to Zenia?
Charis changed her name to escape her former identity. When Zenia calls her “Karen,” Charis is startled and admits she “is but isn’t” Karen. This connection makes Charis more willing to trust Zenia and empathize with her story of transformation.
2. What clues in the chapter suggest that Zenia’s account may be unreliable?
Zenia’s story is dramatic – cancer, a hysterectomy, abuse by West – but Charis recalls West as “gentle as a giraffe.” Zenia’s sunglasses, her mysterious disappearance years ago, and the fact that she tracks Charis down to a yoga class all hint that she may be manipulating facts.
3. Why does Charis feel inadequate after her first meeting with Zenia?
Charis believes she should have healed Zenia on the spot but cannot because she knows her own limits. She gives only a glass of juice, which feels insufficient. This reflects Charis’s struggle between spiritual idealism and practical helplessness.