Alias Grace Chapter 27: A Day of Whippings, Jealousies, and Hidden Meanings

⚠️ 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

The chapter opens with Grace in prison, imagining a beautiful pink sunrise but seeing only dim light through high, dirty windows. She dresses while humming a version of “Tom, the piper’s son,” deliberately misremembering the lyrics to give the story a happier ending. Before breakfast, a routine whipping of three men takes place; Grace tries not to listen. At breakfast, Annie Little pinches Grace under the table, resenting the extra attention Grace receives from Dr. Jordan. Grace decides to forgive Annie rather than retaliate.

On the walk to the Governor’s house, two keepers subject Grace to crude sexual taunts and mock McDermott’s hanging. She retorts defiantly. Once there, she mends fine lace for Miss Lydia. Dr. Jordan arrives, looking troubled, and asks what she would like him to bring. Grace requests a radish with salt—something fresh she can eat immediately. She also reports a dream of large red flowers, though she knows they were cloth flowers she saw on a previous occasion. After Jordan leaves, Miss Lydia enters, mentioning Dr. Jerome DuPont, a neuro-hypnotist who admires Grace. Lydia questions Grace about Dr. Jordan and reveals she plans to attend her mother’s Tuesday circle, where Jordan will speak. She asks Grace to help with a new dress. Grace agrees but senses romantic trouble ahead for Lydia.

Key Events

• Grace imagines a sunrise while confined in a cell with high windows.
• A morning whipping of three male prisoners occurs before breakfast.
• Annie Little pinches Grace at breakfast, showing jealousy over Jordan’s attention; Grace resolves to forgive her.
• Two keepers verbally harass Grace on the way to the Governor’s house, making lewd jokes about McDermott’s execution.
• Grace mends a torn piece of French lace for Miss Lydia.
• Dr. Jordan visits, appears fatigued and distracted, and asks Grace to choose an object for their next session; she chooses a radish with salt.
• Grace tells Jordan a dream about red flowers, but conceals that the flowers are made of cloth.
• Miss Lydia enters after Jordan leaves, mentions Dr. Jerome DuPont’s interest in Grace, and questions Grace about Dr. Jordan’s character.
• Lydia announces she will attend her mother’s Tuesday circle to hear Jordan speak, and asks Grace to help with a new dress.
• Grace privately notes that Lydia’s infatuation will lead to trouble.

Character Development

Grace Marks continues to demonstrate her resourcefulness and self-protective cunning. She alters a song to give it a better ending, reflecting her desire to control her own story. Her decision to forgive Annie Little rather than report the pinch shows strategic patience. When the keepers harass her, she talks back without losing her composure. With Dr. Jordan, she offers the dream of red flowers—knowing it is a fabrication—to satisfy his curiosity while keeping her true memories hidden. Her request for a radish emphasizes her practical nature and her appreciation of small pleasures.

Dr. Simon Jordan appears unusually vulnerable. He arrives without a prop and seems “out of sorts,” leading Grace to suspect he is in trouble. His hesitation to confide in her suggests he is struggling with his own failures, possibly in his relationship with Mrs. Humphrey or his professional imposture.

Miss Lydia reveals her romantic interest in Dr. Jordan through her questions about his sarcasm and her eagerness to attend his lecture. She also shows a touch of jealousy when she mentions Dr. DuPont’s admiration of Grace. Her description of Dr. Jordan as “sarcastic” and her wish to be invited to tea in his chambers indicate naivety and a dangerous longing for adventure.

Annie Little embodies the petty jealousies of prison life. Her pinch and whispered insults (calling Grace “Doctor’s pet”) show how any perceived privilege breeds resentment in the closed world of the penitentiary. Grace’s analysis of Annie’s mental state adds depth to this minor character.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

• Prison as a space of deprivation and control: The high windows that block the horizon, the uniform nightdress owned by no one, and the whipping ritual all reinforce the systematic stripping of identity and hope. Grace’s invented sunrise stands in stark contrast to the “lard”-like daylight.
• Memory and narrative manipulation: Grace deliberately misremembers the song and fabricates a dream about red flowers. Atwood highlights how memory is not a reliable record but a story the teller can reshape for protection or comfort.
• Sexual threat and gendered power: The keepers’ harassment reduces Grace to a sexual object, recalling the earlier violence in her life. Their mockery of McDermott’s hanging also connects sexual innuendo to capital punishment, linking male violence and female vulnerability.
• Class and consumption: Fresh radishes are reserved for the family; Grace’s request for one underscores her lowly status. The fine lace she mends belongs to Miss Lydia, a young woman whose idle curiosity about Jordan contrasts sharply with Grace’s survival-driven days.
• Science versus spiritualism: Dr. DuPont’s “Neuro-hypnotism” is presented as a more scientific version of Mesmerism, while Lydia dismisses table-rappings and séances. This tension mirrors the novel’s larger debate between rational explanation and the unexplained.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter deepens the parallel between Grace’s internal freedom and her physical captivity. Her ability to invent a sunrise and alter a folk song shows that she still controls her imagination, even when the prison controls her body. The introduction of Dr. Jerome DuPont—whose real name is actually Dr. Simon Jordan himself, as alert readers will later realize—adds an ironic layer: Lydia unknowingly describes Jordan under a pseudonym, highlighting his duplicity. The chapter also foreshadows Lydia’s eventual heartbreak and the scandal that will force Jordan to flee. Finally, Grace’s decision to tell a false dream marks a turning point in her relationship with Jordan: she begins to actively shape the narrative he receives, setting the stage for the novel’s climax.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Grace choose to tell Dr. Jordan about a dream of red flowers, even though they are not real flowers but cloth ones?

Grace uses the dream to satisfy Jordan’s request while keeping her actual memories under wraps. By offering a safe, poetic image, she gives him something to write down without revealing the truth about her past—likely the cloth flowers that feature in the Kinnear household. This act of controlled disclosure shows Grace’s growing skill at managing the doctor’s investigation.

2. What does Grace’s request for a radish with salt reveal about her imprisonment?

The request underscores the meagerness of prison diet: fresh vegetables are a luxury denied to convicts. By asking for something edible without cooking, Grace also demonstrates her practicality and her quiet subversion—she turns a therapeutic exercise into a small act of self-care. Jordan’s disappointment that she did not offer a more “meaningful” object highlights the gap between his scientific agenda and her human needs.

3. How does Miss Lydia’s conversation with Grace foreshadow later events in the novel?

Lydia’s fascination with Dr. Jordan, her resentment of his formality, and her plan to attend his Tuesday lecture without full chaperonage all point toward her eventual seduction or disappointment. Grace’s final thought—“when one loves, and the other does not”—explicitly predicts unrequited feelings. This thread will culminate in Lydia’s emotional crisis and Jordan’s abandonment of Kingston.

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