Chapter summaries The Margaret Atwood 4-Book Bundle Margaret Atwood

Chapter 35 Summary and Analysis – The Emergence of Charis

⚠️ 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

Karen’s mother fails to collect her on Labour Day, so Karen stays with her grandmother. They read the Bible by pin-dropping; the grandmother receives a death omen, and Karen gets a reference to Jezebel. Aunt Vi eventually fetches Karen, explaining that Karen’s mother is “not well.” Karen visits her mother in a mental hospital, finding her catatonic, with a face like a dead fish. Overhearing a phone call, Karen learns her mother attempted suicide three times and may receive shock treatments or an operation.

At school Karen becomes invisible, earning gold stars for neatness. On her eighth birthday, given a red bicycle, she collapses in tears because she foresees her mother’s death. Her mother dies three weeks later. Karen moves permanently with Aunt Vi and Uncle Vern, who build a rec room.

One afternoon, Uncle Vern sexually assaults Karen, digitally penetrating her while watching TV. The abuse escalates over years – he uses fingers, then something hard from behind, and finally rapes her while sleepwalking. During the worst assault, Karen’s psyche splits: a new self she later names Charis floats to the curtain and watches. Aunt Vi, when told, accuses Karen of lying and being like her crazy mother.

Karen withdraws, banging her head, and sometimes sees her grandmother’s ghost. As she reaches puberty, Uncle Vern stops out of fear. Charis (the split self) seals Karen in a mental suitcase. She changes her name legally at twenty-six, dumping the old wounds into Lake Ontario in her mind.

Key Events

  • Labour Day passes without Karen’s mother arriving; Karen cries under her pillow.
  • Grandmother and Karen perform Bible divination; a passage about Jezebel is selected.
  • Aunt Vi takes Karen from the farm; Karen visits her catatonic mother in hospital.
  • Karen overhears Aunt Vi’s phone call detailing the mother’s suicide attempts.
  • On Karen’s eighth birthday, given a red bicycle, she foresees her mother’s death and collapses.
  • Uncle Vern assaults Karen while Aunt Vi is present upstairs; Karen dissociates.
  • Karen tells Aunt Vi about the abuse; Aunt Vi calls her a liar and compares her to her mother.
  • Uncle Vern rapes Karen while sleepwalking; Charis’s “new body” flies out.
  • After puberty, Uncle Vern becomes afraid of Karen’s “stone eyes” and stops.
  • Charis secretly renames herself, later leaves university, travels, and at 26 symbolically drowns the name “Karen.”