Chapter 38: Hand-Tinting – 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
The chapter opens with an older Iris visiting the cemetery in early October, placing snapdragons on the family tomb. She discovers a young woman kneeling at Laura’s name, placing a white carnation and crying—a reminder of how Laura touches people in ways Iris does not.
The narrative shifts to the aftermath of the button factory picnic. A photograph of Laura, Iris, and Alex Thomas appears in the local paper captioned “Miss Chase and Miss Laura Chase Entertain an Out-of-Town Visitor.” Reenie is affronted by the image, which she considers immodest. Laura then approaches Elwood Murray, the newspaper’s photographer, and asks to learn how to make photographic prints. Flattered, Elwood allows her to help in his darkroom three afternoons a week. He also offers to teach her hand-tinting, a process of adding color to black-and-white prints using bleach, sepia toner, and tiny brushes.
Laura takes the materials home without permission and begins tinting old family photographs: she colors the faces of Prime Ministers in the library in bizarre hues (mauve, green, orange) and tints a portrait of herself and Iris. When Iris confronts her, Laura explains she is “practising” and that the colors represent the “colours of their souls.” Iris asks why she is colored blue; Laura replies, “Because you’re asleep.”
Laura also steals the negative of the picnic photograph one day while Elwood is out, making two prints and keeping the negative. She then stops visiting the darkroom without explanation, leaving Elwood feeling slighted. He begins to observe Laura more closely.
Laura is now volunteering at the United Church soup kitchen, serving meals to unemployed men riding the rails. Reenie disapproves, thinking the work too rough, but Laura insists the men only want jobs. Around the same time, Iris begins accompanying her father to the button factory daily to learn the business—a duty she resents and performs poorly.
Elwood eventually comes to Reenie with news: Laura has been seen around town with Alex Thomas—on park benches, by the War Memorial, on Jubilee Bridge, and possibly near the Camp Grounds. Reenie confronts Laura, who denies any romantic involvement. She insists she is engaged in serious discussions about God, trying to help Alex Thomas regain his lost faith. Reenie and Iris are uncertain how to proceed; telling Father would cause more trouble. Laura remains defiant, seeing their suspicions as irrelevant.
Iris begins wandering alone, imagining women who threw themselves into the river for love, and studying shop windows and movie posters. She reflects on Reenie’s warnings about the dangers of movie theaters and the paralysis women experience when men assault them.
Key Events
- Iris finds a stranger crying at Laura’s grave.
- The newspaper publishes the picnic photograph; Reenie is scandalized.
- Laura apprentices with photographer Elwood Murray, learning printing and hand-tinting.
- Laura secretly tints old family photos with unnatural colors, claiming they represent the subjects’ souls.
- She steals the picnic negative, makes prints, and stops working for Elwood.
- Elwood reports to Reenie that Laura has been meeting Alex Thomas in public.
- Laura insists the meetings are about converting Alex back to Christianity.
- Iris begins working at the button factory and wanders alone, reflecting on love and danger.
Character Development
Laura emerges as both naively spiritual and secretly manipulative. Her hand-tinting reflects a desire to impose her own symbolic vision on reality. Her explanation that Iris is “blue” because she is “asleep” suggests she sees Iris as emotionally unconscious. Laura’s work at the soup kitchen shows genuine empathy for the poor, but her refusal to acknowledge social norms regarding Alex Thomas reveals a willful blindness to consequences.
Iris is passive and observant, caught between duty and envy. She resents her factory work but lacks the courage to rebel. Her wandering and fantasies about the river indicate a growing awareness of sexuality and danger, though she remains paralyzed by propriety.
Reenie acts as a pragmatic guardian, gossiping to protect the family’s reputation while secretly sympathizing with Laura. She is skeptical of Elwood’s motives but unable to control Laura.
Elwood Murray is a gossip and social climber. His hurt pride at Laura’s abandonment leads him to spy on her, and his report to Reenie is laced with malicious pleasure.
Alex Thomas remains offstage except in photographs and Laura’s reports. He is portrayed as a skeptic, possibly a political radical, and a magnet for Laura’s missionary impulses.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Hand-Tinting: The process of adding artificial color to black-and-white photos symbolizes the human desire to enhance or distort reality. Laura’s “soul colors” transform historical figures into surreal portraits, suggesting that inner truth is more important than outer accuracy. The technique also parallels the novel’s layered narrative—memories are “tinted” by time and emotion.
Photography and Control: Laura’s theft of the negative is an act of reclaiming agency. The photograph originally captured her and Iris as objects in a newspaper story; by printing and keeping the negative, Laura asserts ownership over her own image.
The Soup Kitchen and Class: Laura’s charity work exposes the gap between Avilion’s privilege and the desperation of homeless men. Reenie’s frugality and the town’s hostility reflect the Depression-era tensions.
Sleep vs. Awakening: Laura’s claim that Iris is “asleep” echoes a motif of unconsciousness. Iris later imagines women “transfixed” and “paralyzed” by male attention, suggesting a society that keeps women passive. Laura, in contrast, acts—however recklessly.
Birds and Flight: The chapter opens with wild geese flying south, “creaking like anguished hinges,” setting a tone of seasonal change and impending loss.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 38 deepens the portrait of Laura as a complex, unknowable figure and sets up the central romantic/ideological triangle among Laura, Iris, and Alex Thomas. The hand-tinting metaphor reinforces the novel’s concern with how stories are “colored” by perspective. Laura’s theft of the negative and her secret meetings plant seeds for later tragedy. Iris’s growing alienation from both her father’s business and Laura’s world foreshadows her own eventual rebellion and regret.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Laura tint the family photographs, and what does she mean by calling Iris “blue”?
Laura tints the photos to “practise” hand-tinting, but she also wants to reveal the “colours of their souls”—assigning moral or emotional qualities to each figure. When she tints Iris blue and explains “Because you’re asleep,” she implies that Iris is emotionally numb, unaware of her own desires or the danger around her. The blue tint suggests coldness, passivity, or dormancy.
2. How does the incident with the stolen negative reflect Laura’s character?
Laura steals the negative because she believes Elwood had no right to publish the photograph without permission. She considers it fair trade for the jam she gave him. This action shows her unconventional sense of justice, her willingness to break rules for what she sees as rightful ownership, and her ability to act deceptively while maintaining a “pure, rounded forehead” that makes others trust her.
3. What is the significance of the soup kitchen in this chapter?
The soup kitchen exposes the class conflict of the 1930s. Laura’s compassionate service contrasts with the town’s hostility toward the unemployed men. The death of the sixteen-year-old boy who fell under a train after receiving soup from Laura demonstrates the harsh consequences of economic desperation. For Laura, the kitchen is a place of genuine Christian charity; for Reenie and others, it is a threat to social order. This setting also connects Laura to Alex Thomas, as they meet there, blending her religious mission with political radicalism.