Chapter summaries The Margaret Atwood 4-Book Bundle Margaret Atwood

Chapter 38 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.

Summary

Tony arrives at Charis’s Island home and listens without doubting as Charis recounts her ordeal. Tony explains that Zenia is an expert manipulator: West could not have punched Zenia because he had been living with Tony for the past year and a half, not with Zenia. Tony advises Charis to stop searching for Billy; he is either with Zenia or gone for good. She cleans up the dead chickens and blood while Charis rests. When Charis admits she needs money, Tony enlists Roz’s help. A lawyer recovers part of the inheritance that Uncle Vern stole. Charis buys her house, and Roz helps with baby supplies. Tony stays during the final weeks of pregnancy. Charis gives birth to August in a hospital, vowing never to strike her child. Tony and Roz become unofficial godmothers in a homemade ceremony. Over the years August grows strong, and Charis feels anchored but still haunted by Zenia. She decides to confront Zenia at the Arnold Garden Hotel, using her grandmother’s Bible for divination—opening to the story of Jezebel eaten by dogs.

Key Events

  • Tony visits Charis and listens without judgment.
  • Tony reveals that West lived with her, not Zenia, and that Zenia is a skilled manipulator.
  • Tony explains that Billy is likely with Zenia and advises Charis to let him go.
  • Tony cleans up the dead chickens and blood.
  • Tony asks Charis to list practical needs; Charis says money.
  • Tony and Roz arrange a lawyer who recovers some inheritance from Uncle Vern.
  • Charis buys her house and receives help from Roz with renovations and baby items.
  • Tony stays with Charis during the last two weeks of pregnancy.
  • Charis gives birth to August in a hospital; she sees a golden halo around the baby.
  • Charis performs a godmother ceremony with Tony and Roz.
  • Charis raises August alone, feeling anchored but still thinking about Zenia.
  • Charis decides to confront Zenia, using Bible divination that yields the Jezebel story.

Character Development

  • Tony: Demonstrates fierce loyalty and practicality. She offers unsentimental advice, cleans up physical messes, and takes charge of legal and financial matters. Her laugh at Zenia’s fabricated backstory reveals her recognition of Zenia’s lies.
  • Charis: Moves from grief to cautious recovery. She accepts help, secures independence, becomes a mother, and finally resolves to face Zenia directly rather than passively wait. Her inner voice warns against violence, but she summons courage to confront her tormentor.
  • Roz: Though present only briefly, she shows generosity and practical knowledge, helping with renovations and baby supplies. Her eccentricity is softened by genuine care.
  • August: Even as an infant, August gives Charis purpose. By age five she has firm opinions, symbolizing a break from Charis’s passive past.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • Friendship as rescue: Tony and Roz together provide emotional, legal, and material support. Their joint effort shows that collective action can counter manipulation.
  • Motherhood as grounding: Giving birth to August anchors Charis in her own body and present reality. The baby’s “golden halo” suggests new hope and innocence.
  • Ritual cleansing and exorcism: Charis uses sweetgrass, visualization, and Bible divination to purge Zenia’s influence. The repeated motif of cleaning—blood, chicken mess, bathwater—parallels her attempt to wash away trauma.
  • Jezebel as dark prophecy: The Bible passage about Jezebel devoured by dogs prefigures Charis’s desired destruction of Zenia. It also echoes Zenia’s earlier fabricated death stories, now turned against her.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter marks Charis’s transition from victim to active agent. After months of paralysis following Zenia’s destruction of her relationship and household, Charis regains financial stability, a home, and a child. Tony’s clear-eyed assessment of Zenia and practical help enable this recovery. The chapter ends with Charis’s decision to confront Zenia—a deliberate choice to face her nemesis rather than remain haunted. It also completes the circle of the three women’s friendship, as Tony and Roz become godmothers to August, uniting them against a shared threat.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. Why does Tony laugh when Charis tells her about Zenia's mother being stoned? Tony laughs because she recognizes yet another of Zenia’s fabrications. Tony knows the real story—that Zenia’s mother was a White Russian who died of tuberculosis in Paris—and the absurdity of the conflicting narratives underscores how completely Zenia reinvents herself to exploit sympathy.

  2. How does Charis’s attitude toward confrontation change by the end of the chapter? Throughout the chapter Charis is passive, accepting Tony’s help and letting others take charge. But after years of raising August alone, she decides she must see Zenia to “know the end.” She resolves not to be intimidated or conciliate, planning to stand her ground and fight back—a shift from the earlier self who felt unable to act.

  3. What does the Bible divination reveal about Charis’s state of mind? The random passage, describing Jezebel thrown from a tower and eaten by dogs, reveals Charis’s deep desire for Zenia’s destruction. It also suggests that Charis now sees Zenia as a monstrous, almost biblical figure who must be overcome. The “dark shape falling” behind Charis’s eyes indicates she is still entangled in the same cycle of violence she wishes to escape.

Navigation