72 pages • 2 hours read
The Plague Of Doves
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Part 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 6: “Evelina”
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Reptile Garden”
Evelina packs up everything she owns in a single trunk and goes to college, astounded to see her classmate’s possessions. “In spite of my determination to go to Paris, I had actually dreaded leaving home even to go as far as Grand Forks, and in the end my parents did not want me to go either” (221). The love that Evelina sees on her parents’ faces scares her, although it later helps her survive. Evelina unpacks her pictures of Mooshum in traditional clothes and Shamengwa holding his violin. Evelina feels like she doesn’t fit in with the white girls or the studious Native American girls, and she fears that Mooshum might die while she’s in college.
Evelina is inspired by dark poetry and falls in love with the diaries of Anaïs Nin, of which she purchases the entire box set to bring home with her at summer break. Even though their socio-economic backgrounds are completely different, Evelina tries to model her own life off Anaïs, writing her own set of diaries. Evelina writes long letters to Joseph and reads Anaïs to Corwin, who deals to her friends. Evelina lives in a commune with other students and artists, although she becomes furious with how dirty they are. She often goes on a cleaning spree, after which she deeply resents her housemates. However, cleaning helps her think of poems, which she writes in the diary she always carried with her. Evelina drinks to celebrate a fellow poet’s return, and Corwin gives her acid, though Evelina doesn’t understand what she’s taken. Evelina locks herself in her room for days in terror of amphibious hallucinations, but no one notices she’s gone. She sees a salamander and slowly comes back to reality. “But I was not the same. I had found out what a slim rail I walked” (225). Evelina starts having panic attacks and momentary breaks from reality, so she gets a job at a state mental hospital through her psychology professor for one term.
Warren
Evelina arrives at her room in the staff dormitory of the mental hospital and puts her things away. She tries to find something to do, but the nurse tells her not to worry, introducing her to Warren, a patient who never sleeps. Evelina makes sure Warren takes his medication: “He was from Pluto and probably related to Marn Wolde, but she’d never mentioned him” (228). The other patients tell him to shut up when he says, by way of greeting, “I’ll slaughter them all” (228).
Evelina finds a routine, writing in her diary every day. Evelina eats everything they give her and describes the food in English and French in her diary. Evelina watches the open ward where patients can check themselves out. Warren talks of the war and tries to give Evelina folded up dollar bills. Evelina takes a box of cornstarch from a patient who eats it by the spoonful and claims she was artificially inseminated nine times. Evelina argues against the patient’s delusions of people blowing spiders under her door. She has a normal conversation with Warren that eventually devolves into crazed assertions about the war.
Nonette
The ward admits a new patient and Evelina immediately feels an angry heat coming off of the girl who is named Nonette. Nonette is dismissive of Evelina, treating her like a servant. They trade insults and Evelina leaves her alone. The next day, Nonette grabs Evelina to talk privately. Evelina smokes while Nonette admonishes her for the disgusting habit. Nonette tells her about how her cousin sexually abused her when she was younger, and then admits she wants to be a man so she doesn’t have to deal with sexual exploitation anymore. She mocks Evelina for being a college girl. Evelina calls her beautiful. Evelina plays gin rummy with Warren, whom she suspects is not taking his medications. A policeman brings Warren back after he escapes. Warren tries to give Evelina money, crying, and then goes silent and still.
The Kiss
Nonette and Evelina smoke on the porch and Nonette acts typically belligerent. Evelina reflects on Nonette’s masculine dress and how she has told the story of her cousin’s sexual abuse to everyone she has met. “It was not supposed to matter whether or not the story was true because the important thing was her need to tell it” (234). Nonette suddenly kisses her, and Evelina feels embarrassed after and leaves. Evelina does not know that women can kiss other women anywhere besides Paris. She checks in on Nonette later to find her in bed, fully dressed. Evelina doesn’t know what to do because she has no story to guide her life, and so instead she eats.
Nonette stops Evelina when they are alone in the tunnels. Nonette leads Evelina into a nest of pipes. They touch and kiss, Evelina shaking “because our bodies are the same, and when I touch her I know what she is feeling just as she knows when touching me, so it seems both normal and unbearable” (236). They go back into the ward separately so they don’t raise suspicion. Evelina thinks about Nonette leaving in three weeks with her.
Evelina and Nonette get the nurse to sign off on Nonette visiting Evelina in her room, even though it worries the nurse, who explains that Nonette is on drugs for depression and mania. Evelina reassures the nurse that they’re just baking cookies. They go to Evelina’s room and bake molasses cookies, then have sex, with Nonette teaching Evelina. They bring cookies back, and Evelina tries to ask about them as a couple, but Nonette’s eyes turn scary and big.
Nonette informs Evelina that she’s going home next week, which makes Evelina freak out, wondering if their time together meant nothing to Nonette. Evelina makes Nonette promise to come see her, but Evelina knows she won’t because Nonette thinks Evelina is “part of what she thinks is her illness, a symptom of which she thinks she has been cured. She, on the other hand, is what I was looking for” (239-240).
Nonette’s Bed
Evelina lapses into a depression and refuses to get out of bed. She keeps having acid flashbacks and can’t speak when people ask her questions. The nurse decides to move her into the psych ward after calling her mother. Evelina becomes a patient, deciding to use this voluntary commitment to rest. Evelina tells Warren to shut up, just like the other patients when he repeats his mantra to her.
Evelina stays in bed doing nothing besides trying to unravel the confusion in her mind. Joseph comes to visit her, and they confide in each other, talking about drugs and reptiles. Evelina gets annoyed and charges him with coming up with a cure for depression, half-joking. Joseph takes her hand, promises that she’s not crazy, and tells her that he will go into drug research. She hits him and he smiles. Evelina’s parents also visit every weekend, and Evelina realizes she only conceptualizes her mother in terms of other people. Evelina thinks about her parents’ love for her and the tangled history surrounding the hangings and everything else, especially considering Billy Peace’s cult, which had kindred from all sides. Evelina thinks about Mooshum, Shamengwa, and Corwin, resolving to visit Sister Mary Anita when she leaves.
The Concert
Corwin surprises Evelina with a visit because he feels bad about giving her acid. Evelina reflects on Corwin’s Peace magnetism. Corwin takes out his new violin and begins playing. Everyone stands shocked except Warren, who starts pacing around the room. Warren backs up against a wall, has a heart attack, and dies. Corwin and Evelina walk out of the psych ward.
Evelina leaves Anaïs’s diaries and most of her belongings at the hospital. The walk to Corwin’s car makes Evelina dizzy from lack of exercise and food. Corwin explains how he’s living with Geraldine and Antone, but that it was Evelina going to the hospital which made him quit drugs and dealing. Evelina confides that she’s a lesbian. Corwin apologizes for giving her acid, asking if the acid turned her into a lesbian. Evelina refutes this, and Corwin’s acceptance makes her feel better. Corwin takes Evelina to her house where Evelina sits with Mooshum and watches the sun go down, the calm slowly returning to her.
Walking on Air
Evelina visits Mary Anita, who now wears regular clothes and whose hair has become streaked with gray. Mary Anita is pleased to see her, and even happier when Evelina says she’s thinking about becoming a nun. Then Mary Anita says the convent isn’t right for her, and asks what happened. Evelina admits she was in a mental hospital and that she’s lost her faith in God. Mary Anita admits she also struggles with her faith. Evelina asks if she became a nun because she’s a Buckendorf. Mary Anita denies atoning for another person’s sins with her life and talks about the human capacity to kill. Mary Anita then hesitatingly explains to Evelina that Mooshum drunkenly told the Wildstrands how the group had found the Lochren farm, which is why he wasn’t killed. Evelina believes her, although she tries to argue, but Mary Anita assures her they only meant to scare him. Mary Anita stares at a basket that she tells Evelina Holy Track made. She gives Evelina a paper bag. Mary Anita ushers Evelina to the door and says she will pray for her.
Evelina goes home and opens the bag to find Holy Track’s boots. Evelina confronts Mooshum with them, and he falls into his couch. He talks about waking up after they cut him down to see Holy Track’s boots walking on air. Evelina confronts him about betraying the others, and Mooshum admits he sobered up for a while after. Mooshum and Evelina drive to the tree and knot the laces of the boots that they must throw up three times to get them to stay in the branches. Evelina “hated the gentle swaying of those boots” (254).
Chapter 17 Summary: “All Soul’s Day”
Mooshum sees a blanket of doves cover the sky. Evelina makes popcorn balls for the trick-or-treaters. Mooshum laments not being able to eat the popcorn balls and speaks of missing Shamengwa. Mooshum explains that Shamengwa shot him when they were younger because Mooshum dressed up like a bear to scare his brother. Mooshum remembers Shamengwa peeing himself from fright, but Clemence argues it was Mooshum who peed himself.
Clemence kneads dough before going to church, and Mooshum mourns not being able to mail his letter to Neve because Clemence won’t give him a stamp. Evelina agrees to help. Evelina’s father decides to sell his stamp collection. Mooshum and Evelina hand out the treats to kids, and Mooshum laments that it isn’t any fun. He tries a variety of things to scare the kids, but nothing works until he bites into a popcorn ball and his dentures stick. Mooshum has a great time until he is yelled at by a mother for being unsanitary. Mooshum puts bread dough all over himself and ketchup in his mouth, hiding in the bushes to scare the kids. He scares them so much one throws a rock and hits Mooshum in the forehead as Evelina’s parents drive up. Mooshum passes out, and Evelina’s father gives him mouth-to-mouth to resuscitate him.
They drive him to the hospital, and the nurses gawk at him while the doctors stifle laughter. Mooshum says he’s going to die, but Clemence argues with him. Father Cassidy shows up, preparing to give Mooshum Last Rites. Mooshum spitefully refuses to die, refereeing the embarrassing eulogy. Mooshum “seemed getting stronger by the minute […] A year later [Father Cassidy] quit the priesthood, went home, grew a beard, and became an entrepreneur. He sold Montana beef” (261).
Before Evelina goes back to school, Corwin drives with her. They kiss in the backseat but abruptly stop. Corwin says that they’re supposed to marry, suggesting they go to Paris. Evelina asks questions about what they’ll do in Paris, before reminding Corwin that she’s a lesbian. Corwin asks if it’s permanent. They drive home, finding Mooshum wandering the road on the way back. They pick him up and he demands they take him to Neve. Corwin assents, and Evelina calls her mother, knowing Clemence must be frantic with worry. Clemence is furious, and Evelina’s father asks Evelina to look at Neve’s mail because Mooshum has taken some of his precious stamps to use to mail letters. Evelina refrains from explaining that she took the stamps. She gets the letters from the postman and finds the Benjamin Franklin stamp on one; her father promises to send her to Paris if she brings it back. Evelina notices how uncharacteristically well-groomed Mooshum is. She grabs Corwin and leaves. In the car ride back, Corwin and Evelina try ineffectively to talk. Corwin suggests they start saving now for Paris. Evelina kisses him and gets out of the car. He waits for ten minutes before leaving. The next day, Neve drops Mooshum off at the house, who crows that he finally has something to confess to Father Cassidy, if only he were still around. Evelina reflects on how she was named after Louis Riel’s first lost love.
All winter, Evelina’s father holds a grudge against Mooshum for stealing his stamps, which her father describes as the family’s future. However, he is able to retrieve and salvage the stamps Mooshum used. In March, Evelina’s father takes the stamps to Fargo to sell but hits black ice and gets into an accident. He is taken to the hospital, where he recovers, but the stamps are forgotten until Joseph and Evelina go looking for them. The ones that they are able to recover end up disintegrating when her father tries to reconstruct them, like the Ben Franklin stamp. “He asked me to come with him to the back door and watch half a million dollars vanish […] And we stood together in the sun as he blew across the palm of his hand” (266).
Chapter 18 Summary: “Road in the Sky”
Aunt Geraldine marries Antone Coutts, but not in the church because Antone refuses to ask for absolution from Father Cassidy for having premarital sex with Geraldine. Antone looks at the sky, happy he doesn’t have to walk the dusty road alone. Antone’s old mother tells him not to be soft but smiles. Corwin plays and Evelina leaves.
Part 6 Analysis
The sixth section is comprised of three chapters, the first of which describes Evelina’s descent into depression corresponding with her finding her identity as a lesbian. The second chapter concerns the fate of her father’s stamps, and the third very short chapter describes Antone and Geraldine’s wedding, as well as Evelina’s choice to leave in order to find herself. More than anything, the first chapter involves an interrogation of the nature of truth, especially as truth corresponds to one’s own identity. In order to uncover her own truth, Evelina must descend into a kind of madness which alienates her from those around her. The reason behind this is clear, as Evelina knows no stories of family relationships like her own. That is, she must be alone when she comes to terms with her own identity because her relationships are unlike any of the other stories in her family; she essentially has no roadmap for what her life should look like and must walk the path alone for a while.
In this chapter, the author plays with the idea of truth, especially regarding Nonette, who helps Evelina find her own truth. However, Nonette cannot be described as a truthful character; rather, even Evelina acknowledges that there might not be absolute truth to Nonette’s repeated story of her cousin’s sexual abuse. However, Evelina argues that the absolute nature of truth is not important, instead suggesting that truth is relative. This relativity of truth then reflects Seraph’s ever-changing stories, which Evelina never seems to mind but rather accepts as the way things are. However, Evelina does learn the darker truth within her Mooshum’s stories; that is, that he is responsible for the lynching of Holy Track and the others. Much like Evelina confronts her own truth, she also forces Mooshum to confront this truth, which culminates in Holy Track’s boots being hung in the tree as a memento the historical trauma of the lynching.
The tree itself is very important, primarily because it weaves together discrete aspects of Seraph’s history. It becomes the final hanging place of Holy Track’s boots, but also references the plague of doves as there are always birds that sit in the tree. Similarly, the author mentions that its limbs resemble a candelabra, further linking the tree to Seraph by associating it with the candelabra he carried to ward off the plague of doves when he met Junesse. Lastly, the audience learns that the tree resides on the edge of Marn’s land, indicating the tie between Warren and the Lochren murders. The audience understands the irony in that the Native Americans who were unjustly killed for the Lochren massacre were lynched on the property of the man who actually committed these murders, perpetuating the cycle of traumatic atrocities. The author uses this irony in order to suggest how interlinked the lives of these characters truly are.
The first chapter in the section also delves deeper into Warren’s psyche, as the author leaves further clues that he committed the Lochren massacre. Warren becomes a sinister presence within Evelina’s environment, forever lurking about. The audience notices that his mantra involves killing and understands he is psychologically disturbed. At the same time, the audience also witnesses Evelina’s decline into madness. The reader finds sympathy in this decline, as she represents one of the major characters and describes the thin line between sanity and madness. The reader cannot help but agree with her, making it difficult for the reader to fault Warren when the reader begins to suspect him of the Lochren murders. The author forces the reader to feel sorry for Warren even while the reader becomes certain that he is responsible for the killings, creating a cognitive dissonance between knowledge and emotions that resembles both Evelina’s and Warren’s inner turmoil.
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By Louise Erdrich
