Chapter 3: The Bridge – 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
Ten days after the end of the war, Laura Chase drives her sister Iris’s car off a bridge that is under repair. Two witnesses report that the act was deliberate; Laura drove straight through a Danger sign and plunged a hundred feet into the ravine, dying on impact. A policeman informs Iris, who outwardly remains calm but feels a furious, numbing grief. Iris immediately assumes Laura had reasons, though she knows Laura’s logic was never ordinary. She recalls Laura’s white gloves—interpreting them as a Pontius Pilate gesture, washing her hands of the family. While preparing to go to the morgue, Iris opens a drawer and finds a stack of cheap school exercise books tied with kitchen string, which Laura must have hidden there that morning. The discovery triggers a memory of Reenie, the childhood housekeeper who would tend to scrapes and cuts with calm authority. The chapter ends with the reflection that some people cannot stop howling.
Key Events
- Laura drives Iris’s car off a damaged bridge, dying in the crash.
- A policeman visits Iris, reporting two witnesses who saw the deliberate turn.
- Iris recalls Laura’s appearance—navy dress, white gloves, neat chignon.
- Iris interprets the white gloves as a symbol of Laura washing her hands of the family.
- Iris goes upstairs to change and discovers the tied bundle of notebooks in her bureau drawer.
- The memory of Reenie bandaging childhood injuries surfaces.
- The chapter closes with the observation that some people cannot stop howling.
Character Development
- Iris Griffen – Her controlled exterior masks a storm of pain and anger. She is furious at Laura for the act and at the policeman for suggesting it was deliberate. The discovery of the notebooks hints at a quest for understanding. Her memory of Reenie shows a longing for the simple comfort of childhood, a contrast to her adult isolation.
- Laura Chase – Though already dead at the chapter’s opening, Laura’s character is defined by the suicide. Her stubborn, deliberate nature is emphasized; the white gloves suggest a conscious, ritualistic rejection of her family. The hidden notebooks imply she left behind a story that Iris must now uncover.
- Reenie (mentioned) – The housekeeper of the sisters’ childhood represents practical, unflinching care. Her method of calming and bandaging stands in stark opposition to Iris’s current numbness and Laura’s violent act.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- The Bridge – A physical threshold and symbol of transition, but also of rupture. Laura’s drive through the Danger sign suggests a refusal to accept the safe, repaired path; she chooses destruction instead.
- White Gloves – Laura’s white gloves are explicitly compared to Pontius Pilate washing his hands, symbolizing a deliberate disavowal of responsibility for her family’s betrayals.
- Notebooks – The exercise books hidden in Iris’s drawer are a physical artifact of Laura’s inner life. They promise a record of the “fatal, triangular bargain” and the reasons behind her suicide, making them a key to the story’s mystery.
- Memory / The Body – The memory of Reenie bandaging scrapes contrasts with the unhealable psychic wound of Laura’s death. The line “some people can’t ever stop howling” reinforces the theme of unexpressed or uncontainable pain.
- Witness and Truth – The two reliable witnesses claim Laura acted deliberately, yet Iris insists it was an accident to the police. The tension between observed truth and family loyalty drives the narrative.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 3 is the inciting incident that propels the entire novel forward. Laura’s suicide is the event Iris must reckon with, and the discovery of the notebooks promises a buried story—possibly Laura’s own account. The chapter establishes Iris’s complex grief, her role as a keeper of family secrets, and the central question: what drove Laura to such a determined act? The image of the burning car and the white gloves remains hauntingly vivid, setting the emotional stakes for the chapters to come.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Iris interpret Laura’s white gloves as a “Pontius Pilate gesture”?
Iris sees the gloves as a deliberate act of washing her hands of the family—of Iris, Richard, and everyone else. Pontius Pilate symbolically washed his hands to disclaim responsibility for Jesus’s death. Laura, by wearing white gloves while steering the car off the bridge, performs a similar ritual: she absolves herself of any further complicity in the family’s betrayals and secrets.
2. What does the discovery of the notebooks suggest about Laura’s intentions?
The notebooks are hidden in Iris’s bureau drawer the very morning of the suicide, indicating that Laura wanted Iris to find them. They likely contain Laura’s own version of events—her “fatal, triangular bargain” and the truth behind the relationships with Alex, Richard, and her father. The careful tying with kitchen string suggests a desire for the story to be read in order, a final communication from beyond the grave.
3. How does the memory of Reenie contrast with Iris’s present state?
Reenie represents a time when wounds were simple, visible, and treatable—scrapes and cuts that could be cleaned and bandaged. Iris now faces an invisible, untreatable wound: Laura’s suicide and the family trauma behind it. Reenie’s calm command (“Stop howling. Just calm down and show me where.”) highlights the futility of that approach for adult grief. Iris cannot locate the pain, and she cannot stop howling inwardly, a sharp contrast to Reenie’s practical competence.