72 pages • 2 hours read
The Plague Of Doves
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Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “Evelina”
Chapter 13 Summary: “The 4-B’s”
Evelina works a double-shift at the 4-B’s, consolidating ketchup bottles by precariously balancing them atop each other, even though she’s not supposed to. When it’s slow, Evelina also practices French and reads Camus in preparation for college. Marn comes in with her kids, whom Evelina has never met, although Marn used to work with Evelina. Evelina reflects, “They looked like they were walking out of a tornado” (184). Marn orders her kids a huge breakfast but won’t let Evelina take her coat. The kids eat voraciously, as does Marn, who tells them to order dessert as well, stunning them.
Evelina makes the kids the best desserts she can. Her boss, Earl, yells at her, but Uncle Whitey rudely tells Earl to leave her alone. Earl sees Evelina’s French book and makes snide remarks about the French, but again Whitey stands up for her. Earl yells at her about the dessert again, but leaves off when he realizes it’s for Marn, whom he has a crush on. Earl offers Marn her job back, which she willingly accepts. Marn talks about using Coutts to get her land back so she can start a snake ranch.
Bliss storms into the diner, screaming at Marn who takes out the hammer from her coat pocket with one hands and puts the steak knife in the other. The children dive beneath the table to hide. Bliss yells about Marn stealing money and killing Billy. Earl stands behind Marn and tries to defuse the situation while Marn practices stabbing with the knife. Whitey admires Marn from afar. Bliss comes for Marn, and Marn stabs her, but the knife gets caught in Bliss’s jacket. Earl falls into Evelina’s ketchup bottles, which fall all over the floor. Bliss starts hitting Marn over and over until Marn stabs her again, at which point Bliss collapses on the floor, although Evelina believes the knife didn’t go in very far. Bliss sobs and walks out the door to her car.
Whitey assures Evelina that Bliss is fine, surveying the scene of destruction. Earl tries to fire Evelina, saying Marn can replace her. Whitey tries to argue, but Marn refuses to work if Evelina gets fired. Evelina brings Marn and her kids more dessert as Earl sits down with Marn to work out the schedule.
Evelina reflects on how she likes the 4-B’s. Clemence drops off Mooshum and Earl leaves. Marn’s kids fall asleep, and Marn, Evelina, and Mooshum split a piece of pie. Evelina wishes she were French, but Marn says she is. Marn urges her to speak in French, but when Evelina does, Mooshum gets mad at the fact that she doesn’t speak Michif. Mooshum expounds on Evelina’s royal lineage from both sides, although Evelina says that this is a trick the Mormons are playing on him to get him to convert. Evelina offers Marn first pick of the hours since she has kids, and Mooshum asks about her plans for the snake ranch. Marn tells him she needs to see Coutts, and Evelina suggests they go to her aunt Geraldine’s tomorrow. Marn leaves, and Evelina reprimands Mooshum for scaring her away. Mooshum complains that her parents won’t give him stamps to mail his love letters to Neve, and Evelina promises she’ll get him stamps. Mooshum thanks her and promises she looks French.
Part 4 Analysis
The fourth section of the novel shifts back to Evelina’s perspective, although once again Evelina appears as a bystander within the narrative. The focus centers around Marn’s escape from her husband’s compound after she kills Billy, and the relative freedom she experiences after ridding herself of his abuse. The audience also witnesses the effect that Billy had upon his children, who seem half-starved and completely dependent upon authority figures to make decisions for them. Bliss soon breaks this relative peace when she storms in as a stand-in for Billy, seeking a final confrontation. Just like Billy, Bliss is physically larger than Marn, suggesting that if Marn had not used poison and intellectual prowess to kill her husband, the altercation would have ended quite differently. However, Marn does not crumple in the face of adversity; rather, she gains strength from her maternal instinct to protect her children, exuding a grace which Whitey identifies as ‘kamikaze.’ That is, Marn’s willingness to sacrifice herself for her freedom and that of her children gives her the power to stand up to her adult bully. Like most bullies, Bliss then crumbles in the face of resistance, and again Marn’s goodness triumphs over her husband’s evil.
Evelina also exhibits growth in this section. Although she passively observes most of the events, the author alludes to Evelina’s growing fascination with the female form as she surveys Marn, easily able to see why men find Marn attractive. The audience also witnesses Evelina’s desire to escape her home town as she studies French, hoping to one day go to Paris. The author uses Evelina’s ex-pat dreams to complicate the idea of identity, as Marn suggests that Evelina is, in fact, of French lineage. Mooshum reiterates this notion when he argues that Evelina’s command of the language is incorrect and does not adhere to her Michif roots. Portraying the close spaces within which these characters live and work, while iterating their simultaneously vast and near-incestuous genealogy, furthers the complicated nature of identity and community. The very site of the 4-B’s itself indicates this interconnectivity, as the author mentions the diner used to be the National Bank of Pluto, which was run by Neve Harp’s father. The audience begins to understand both Marn and Evelina’s desire to escape the place suffocated by familial ties and the interconnectivity of residential history.
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