Trust Chapter 39: Chapitre 7 – Summary, Themes, and Study Questions
⚠️ 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
Ida Partenza’s boyfriend Jack arrives at her apartment with a bouquet of roses, a first for their relationship. Her father, an aging Italian anarchist, good-naturedly mocks Jack by removing one rose to make the count odd, explaining that even numbers are for funerals. Jack also brings a sour wine from friends on Long Island.
The conversation turns to world politics. Ida’s father denounces Mussolini, Franco, Stalin, and Hitler, declaring that the only choices left are between fascist, Soviet, and capitalist imperialism. He calls for “radical action.” Ida reflects on her father’s murky past: his vague stories of violence, the silences that fall among his comrades, and the family secret that she must never repeat his political views. She notes that anarchist history has been systematically erased from American records.
Jack, visibly moved, says he is thinking of going to Europe to report from the front lines or even join the International Brigades, like Hemingway. Ida watches them both and feels embarrassed by their grandiosity. She then shudders with a second wave of embarrassment: she realizes she just measured her father and Jack against Andrew Bevel, allowing the financier to convince her of his superiority.
Her father leaves to deliver pamphlets. Jack takes Ida’s hand, and they go to her room, where the floor is covered with shorthand notes and typed pages. He picks up one typed page titled “Une destinée accomplie” (A Destiny Accomplished). Ida snatches it away, saying she cannot show it to anyone. Jack feels rebuffed; he offers a hug, but she stiffens. Frustrated, he leaves. Ida rolls the typed pages and hides them deep inside a raincoat sleeve in her closet.
Key Events
- Jack arrives with roses; Ida’s father removes one rose to make the count odd, citing funeral superstition.
- The father delivers an impassioned political speech condemning imperialism and urging radical action.
- Ida reflects on her father’s past as an anarchist and the erasure of anarchist history in the United States.
- Jack announces he may go to Europe to report on the war or join the International Brigades.
- Ida feels embarrassed by the two men’s grand talk and then ashamed for measuring them against Andrew Bevel.
- Ida’s father leaves to distribute pamphlets.
- Jack finds the typed manuscript page titled “Une destinée accomplie” in Ida’s room.
- Ida snatches the page and refuses to show Jack her writing.
- Jack leaves frustrated after Ida rejects his attempt at intimacy.
- Ida hides the typed pages in a raincoat sleeve in her closet.
Character Development
Ida Partenza – The chapter deepens Ida’s internal conflict. She has been keeping two secret lives: the daughter of a radical anarchist and the secretary to a powerful capitalist, Andrew Bevel. Her embarrassment at her father’s and Jack’s political grandiosity reveals that she has begun to internalize Bevel’s worldview, judging those around him by his standards. Yet she also feels shame for that judgment, showing her loyalty to her origins. Her frantic hiding of the manuscript indicates she is writing something that must remain hidden, perhaps her own memoir.
Ida’s Father – Remains a figure of passionate conviction but also of ambiguity. His past violence is hinted at but never confirmed. He uses performance and secrecy as tools of political survival. His clownish salute before leaving undercuts his seriousness, showing the gap between his rhetoric and actual power.
Jack – A journalist frustrated by inaction, he is drawn to the romance of wartime reporting and the International Brigades. His desire to “do something“ contrasts with Ida’s more cautious, guarded nature. His attempt at reconciliation fails when he invades her private work and then seeks physical comfort she is not ready to give.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
The Erasure of Anarchist History – Ida notes that between 1870 and 1940 some five hundred anarchist periodicals were published in the United States, yet almost no trace remains. Systematic persecution and the movement’s own anti‑institutional principles combined to write anarchists out of American history. This theme of erasure mirrors the larger question in Trust: whose stories survive and why.
Performance of Power and Masculinity – The father and Jack both perform grand gestures: the father’s political speech and Jack’s talk of joining the brigades. Ida sees them as “little boys” full of earnest seriousness, contrasting with the quiet, real power wielded by men like Andrew Bevel. The chapter critiques the gap between theatrical radicalism and actual authority.
Secrecy and Hidden Texts – The chapter is built around things that must be concealed: the father’s political opinions, Ida’s notes and typed pages, the manuscript “Une destinée accomplie.” Ida’s entire childhood was spent guarding her father’s secrets, and now she guards her own writing. The hidden manuscript prefigures the revelation that the text we are reading is itself a secret memoir.
The Symbolism of Roses – The father’s joke about even versus odd numbers transforms the roses from a romantic gesture into a marker of life versus death. An even number is for funerals; an odd number for love. By removing one rose, the father simultaneously rejects Jack’s conventional courtship and asserts his own rules, blending superstition, humor, and a threat of mortality.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 39 is a turning point in Ida’s narrative. It explicitly ties together the two poles of her life – her anarchist father and her employer Andrew Bevel – and shows her struggling to navigate between them. The introduction of the hidden manuscript “Une destinée accomplie” is a metafictional clue: the memoir we are reading may be that very manuscript, written in secret and smuggled out. The chapter also deepens the novel’s concern with historical erasure, adding a political dimension to the personal stories of wealth and power explored earlier. Finally, Ida’s moment of self‑awareness – her embarrassment at judging her family by Bevel’s standards – marks a crucial step in her character arc, one that will inform her later choices.
Study Questions and Answers
1. What does the father’s joke about the even/odd number of roses reveal about his character and his relationship with Jack?
The joke shows the father’s need to control and define the terms of every situation. By removing a rose, he corrects what he sees as a breach of folk wisdom and signals that he sets the rules in his home. The playful tone suggests he accepts Jack but not without a test. The superstition itself (even for funerals, odd for love) introduces a dark undertone, hinting at the violent world the father inhabits.
2. Why does Ida feel a “shudder of embarrassment” when watching her father and Jack, and then a second shudder when she realizes she has compared them to Andrew Bevel?
The first shudder comes from seeing the two men’s rhetoric as childish grandstanding, disconnected from real power. The second shudder is self‑awareness: Ida recognizes that she has internalized Bevel’s standard of effectiveness, valuing his quiet authority over her father’s passionate but marginal radicalism. Her embarrassment is both her critique of their performance and her shame at having betrayed her own roots by adopting Bevel’s perspective.
3. What is the significance of the manuscript titled “Une destinée accomplie”?
The title translates to “A Destiny Accomplished,” which echoes the title of the memoir within Trust that Ida is writing about Andrew Bevel. Its appearance here, hidden in her room, signals that the text we are reading is itself that secret manuscript. The secrecy surrounding it reflects the stakes: if Bevel discovers she is writing it, she could lose her job or worse. The choice of French also ties back to the novel’s earlier sections, which used French titles, and suggests a cultural distance from the English‑speaking world of finance.
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