Only the Beautiful

“Somehow I must find a way out of this place. But until then I will have to pretend, and lucky for me, I already know how to do that. I pretend every day that I don’t see the colors.”

Rosie’s synesthesia is not and never has been a problem in and of itself. The primary obstacle to Rosie’s life is the fact that nobody else can empathize with her perspective. Perceiving colors upon hearing sounds causes Rosie to remain isolated from the experiences of others, and as a result, she is enveloped in a mantle of loneliness. She has been ridiculed and made to feel rejected in the past for revealing this secret about herself, and so she has become quite capable of pretending that the colors don’t exist for the sake of fitting in.

“Despite her petite stature and being a woman, Celine had always been fully capable of running the vineyard’s business without much help from anyone, near as I could tell.”

This passage highlights Celine’s iron will, which subtly foreshadows her ability to make self-serving decisions without considering input from others: a trait that Rosie runs afoul of right from the start. While Truman is quiet, reserved, and passive, Celine’s physical stature belies her headstrong and capable personality, and the description makes it clear that she is more than a match for anything that might be thrown her way. Celine’s personality works against her in certain respects, however, since she can often be controlling, antagonistic, and emotionally distant.

“I don’t expect Vienna is a pleasant place to be at the moment with Germany having marched in there like it owns the place. She loves it there, though, and is devoted to that family she works for. She won’t leave. Not even now, when it seems like there might be a war.”

In this passage, Truman shares his thoughts on the political events in Europe and relates his expectations of Helen’s choices. While the conversation holds a rather offhand tone, the author uses this moment to provide vital exposition and insight into the character of Helen Calvert, whose perspective will drive the second half of the novel. From Truman’s description, it is clear that Helen is a devoted and caring woman who will refuse to flee in the face of hardship even when her life is in danger.

“The government here doesn’t like people who are different in any way, and there are more and more rumors about what they are doing to people seen as inferior. The new leadership here feels toward the weak and disabled the way they feel about the Jewish residents.”

In this quote, Helen gives some valuable insight into the ideology that the Nazi regime is enforcing on its conquered territories. With the goal of creating a single master race of people, Nazi officials have implemented brutal eugenic practices and are seeking out and eliminating anybody who differs from an arbitrarily assigned “norm,” as well as anybody considered weak or inferior. To the new regime, people who fall outside these rigid standards are considered undesirable threats to the human race and are therefore purged from society.

“We are not her foster parents. We are just her custodians until she can make her own way.”

The dismissive tone of Celine’s statement foreshadows the ease with which she will eventually dismiss Rosie from her house and condemn her to years of traumatic experiences. Celine’s intentions for Rosie, and her feelings toward the girl, have been mixed from the start, but in this conversation with Wilson, she reveals the closest thing to her honest truth. While she may have a basic level of goodwill toward Rosie, Celine is far more invested in treating Rosie like a hired hand who is there to serve, to learn a trade, and nothing more. Wilson and Truman react negatively to Celine’s cold attitude, but their lack of substantive response to her statement also indicates her more dominant position within the family hierarchy.

“This time I can see Ruth’s medical chart. It is facing the glass and I can see what the procedure is called. A salpingectomy. There is no mention of the appendix at all. Ruth—and presumably Charlotte—had a salpingectomy. I have no idea what that is.”

Rosie has begun to notice that some of the girls at the home are being subjected to undisclosed surgical procedures. At first, Rosie assumes that they are receiving appendectomies or something similar, but when she looks at the latest girl’s medical chart, she discovers that they have been subject to a procedure called a salpingectomy. Rosie doesn’t know what that is, and so returns the chart none the wiser. In reality, this scene serves as an ominous example of foreshadowing, for a salpingectomy is a surgical procedure that involves the removal of one or both fallopian tubes. When both tubes are removed, the patient is rendered sterile.

“‘Why must I stop seeing them?’ I answer. ‘They’re not hurting anyone.’ ‘On the contrary,’ Dr. Townsend says solemnly. ‘They’re hurting you. Why do you think you’re here?’”

The primary clash between Rosie and her psychological caregivers at the Sonoma home occurs due to their misguided belief that her synesthesia is a harmful or undesirable trait. Rosie is already aware of the negative social side-effects of the condition, as they can be distracting and often cause others to stigmatize and reject her. However, she is confused by the suggestion that the condition might actually be harmful to her. The doctor insists that they are harmful simply because they make her different, implying that Rosie is somehow a threat to society and an obstacle to her own mental health.

“I could scarcely believe the captivating thing was mine or that Helen Calvert had sent it to me. To me. It was so beautiful. And I didn’t deserve such thoughtfulness. I set it on the countertop by the sink, and I spent the rest of the day admiring its blooms and unable to feel worthy of them.”

Acting almost as a character in its own right, the amaryllis plant arrives just days before Christmas as a gift from Helen; she hopes to bring the orphaned Rosie some joy in a dark time. The sheer beauty of the flower stuns Rosie, who has dealt with so many issues of doubt and self-loathing that she doesn’t even feel worthy of receiving such a fine gift. The amaryllis will also act as a catalyst and a light in the darkness for the coming months and years ahead.

“‘Is it enough?’ I asked. ‘It’s four thousand dollars.’ I felt my mouth drop open at such an enormous sum.”

To buy Rosie’s silence regarding his sexual assault of her, Truman gives Rosie the key to a lockbox that contains almost $4,000. In the 1930s, this amount of money would have been more than Rosie could have saved up over the course of many years. In most parts of the country, this would have been enough to buy a house outright and still have plenty of money left over.

“‘I’m assuming you think it is unfair,’ he says, ‘but it is the fairest thing we can do for you and for the rest of the human race. It is selfish and cruel for people like you to bring into the world children who will suffer what you have suffered.’”

In most instances, Dr. Townsend presents himself as cool and collected, choosing to withhold important information from Rosie. There are many questions that he simply refuses to answer, but the topic of Rosie’s sterilization provokes him to respond to her questions and accusations. In this scene, Dr. Townsend reveals himself to be wholly convinced forcibly sterilizing patients is the morally right choice. In his own mind, he has decided what is right and just, and so has chosen to impose his will on those in his power even against their own express wishes or bodily autonomy. Thus, his perspective represents a clear manifestation of Atrocities Masquerading as Social Responsibility.

“‘I have failed everyone,’ I whisper. ‘I know I have, but, God in heaven, in your great mercy, I ask for this one thing. I will give up my child to be someone else’s daughter if you will promise not to give the colors to her.’”

In having to deal with the tragedy of giving up her daughter, Rosie passes quickly through the various stages of grief, and finally arrives at pleading and acceptance. She accepts that there is practically no way that she will be able to stay united with her daughter, but she offers up this sacrifice with the prayer that her daughter will be spared the condition that had caused her so much pain and suffering. Ironically, Rosie demonstrates her undeniable ability to be a good mother in the very act of trying to find a way to redeem the reality that her daughter will be forcibly taken from her.

“‘I will have to live with what was done to me here,’ I say to her. ‘But so will you, Mrs. Crockett. All of you will.’”

In preparing to leave the facility, Rosie levies her most scathing accusation against the faculty of the Sonoma home. She makes sure to highlight the fact that they are all complicit, even if their cooperation was only indirect. In the hands of the author, this becomes a much larger commentary on the moral culpability of anyone who allows evil things to happen when they have the choice to step up and raise their voice in protest.

“I know life can be unfair. I know things can happen to you that you don’t deserve. I also know there might be decisions you made in the past that you’d like to undo and can’t. But here in this house, we look to tomorrow, not yesterday.”

Taking up residence at the rehabilitation home where she will work at the hotel and prove that she can be reintegrated into society at large, Rosie encounters Mrs. Clark. By insisting that the girls’ focus remain on the present and the future, without ruminating upon the past, Mrs. Clark allows Rosie to move forward without rehashing her past traumas: a direct contrast to her various therapy sessions at the Sonoma home. Mrs. Clark gives Rosie permission to keep her eyes on the good things to come, and work toward her own future.

“As I walk aimlessly down streets I don’t know, I realize with a jolt that I don’t want anything from Celine anyway. Nor from Truman. […] I have forged my way in pain and suffering and without any favors from the Calverts. I have my new life in my grasp.”

In this moment, Rosie realizes that she has reached an inflection point in her life. For years she had been looking forward to this moment, to when her problems would finally begin to resolve themselves, but upon discovering that the lockbox doesn’t even exist anymore, Rosie finds a new relief in her complete freedom from the hold that Truman and Celine once held over her. If she had taken the money, she would always have felt indebted to the Calverts in some small way, but now she is entirely free of their influence.

“I am Rosie no longer. That girl is gone. In her place is the woman who has been shaped from that pitiful child. The woman whose second life is beginning today. I am not Rosanne, either. A new start calls for a new name, pulled from the crucible of my old one.”

Upon realizing that she has a fresh start in life, Rosie decides to honor this spiritual rebirth by adopting a new name. Drawing on her birth name of Rosanne, she simply chooses the second half of her name; in this way, she is able to claim a new name for herself without completely rejecting her past or the name she had been given by her beloved parents. The choice is therefore the perfect compromise between honoring her past and embracing a new identity.

“My father was still barely speaking to me then, he was so angry about my leaving college.”

In the second half of the book, Helen’s voice takes over, but many similarities remain between the first narrator and the second. This passage demonstrates the ways in which Helen’s experience parallels Rosie’s to a certain extent, for both characters’ parents are dead; however, while Rosie enjoyed a supportive relationship with her parents, Helen’s father clearly disapproved of Helen’s independent nature and choices. The fact that Helen persists in her chosen path illustrates the strength of her character, for she is willing to challenge the dominant perceptions of society to pursue her own idea of what is right. In this way, her initial words foreshadow her lifelong commitment to activism.

“Who defines what is weakness? I’d wondered. Isn’t it only the strong who get to decide that? Isn’t it only the strong who have the power to act on what they decide? How can that be right or fair or good?”

One of the primary conceits of the novel is the illustration of how power corrupts if it is wielded by those with immoral and inhumane ideological goals. Helen views all human beings as worthy of life, perceiving the truth that everyone possesses an innate dignity simply by the fact that they are human; this point of view is actively attacked by the eugenic policies of the Nazi regime, and Helen rebels against it in almost violent fashion.

“It took five days for Brigitta’s remains to be released. […] Martine was expecting a casket and one last look at her little girl. I assumed this, too. But Brigitta’s remains arrived in a wooden box the size of a breadbasket. She’d been cremated.”

The initial abduction of Brigitta from the school and the subsequent refusal to allow any visitors to come see her in the psychiatric hospital has given rise to many suspicions about the real reasons for such a drastic action. While the government remains steadfast in its efforts to stonewall all inquiries, the families of the abducted children are left with no recourse but to accept the official explanation. It is important to note that Brigitta’s fate reflects many historically accurate details of the Nazi regime’s implementation of the Aktion T4 program during World War II, for the families of such children were often fed the official lie that their child died of pneumonia, rather than the reality: that their son or daughter was heartlessly exterminated in support of a eugenics-based agenda.

“I had forgotten, grown careless, when it came to Brigitta. I’d given in fully to love. If I could see that other nanny now, I’d tell her that though my soul felt fractured in this moment, I had no regrets over having loved her. None.”

One of the things that Helen regrets is the opportunity to have had her own children. One of her friends warned her against getting too close to her charges, because doing so makes the eventual time of parting too difficult. Helen decides that although this advice is true, it is not worth following, and her steadfast, motherly love for Brigitta proves worth every bit of suffering that it causes her.

“For the first time since Brigitta was taken, I sensed something other than the vise of powerlessness. Out of my deep sadness, I felt a bolt of energy, crackling past all that I couldn’t do to protect Brigitta and igniting a new flame within me.”

When Brigitta is taken, Helen does everything possible—even more than Martine and Johannes—to try and get the little girl back. However, her efforts are unsuccessful, and as a result, Brigitta dies. In this passage, Helen finally finds a way to express and process her grief at losing one child, and she jumps at the chance to save another. The old adventurous spirit that initially spurred the young Helen to drop out of college and pursue her dreams is now rekindled in this daring opportunity to save a life.

“You and I may not like the reasons, but surely you can see that Europe is a sinking ship and Switzerland is just one little lifeboat. Everyone cannot climb aboard. There would be too many. The lifeboat, too, would sink.”

Helen’s optimism and idealism encounter the realistic perspective of the Swiss officer, who reveals that even his willingness to assist Helen in her mission to save as many children as possible has a limit that exists purely out of practical necessity. He reminds her that even a country that might be sympathetic to her actions isn’t capable of solving every problem, or providing a safe haven to every single individual who genuinely needs one. The use of the lifeboat metaphor is an apt one, perfectly illustrating the balance needed between the desire to save all, and the reality that all are not capable of being saved.

“I know what Amaryllis wants. She wants to keep the mother of her dreams, the one in her heart whom she has been whispering to, perhaps for as long as she can remember.”

Even in the act of adopting Amaryllis, Helen’s charitable and selfless nature is revealed. With the adoption of this girl, Helen is stepping into the role of a mother, a fact that she readily admits, but she knows just how special a place Rosie holds in the Amaryllis’s heart, even though Amaryllis has no recollection of her. In explicitly assuring the girl that she isn’t trying to replace her mother, Helen endears herself to Amaryllis and allows her to continue to hold the spark of hope in her heart that perhaps one day she will be able to find her biological mother.

“‘My God, Johannes. You objected to nothing, you challenged nothing!’ […] He smiled weakly. ‘Says the American who sheltered in Switzerland while the rest of the world burned.’”

Helen confronts Johannes and discovers the truth about what he did to Brigitta, and her anger is perfectly justified, but Johannes’s rebuttal sheds new light on the matter. Johannes is in the wrong, as he readily admits, but the question of just how much culpability should accrue to someone who could have done more, and yet didn’t, is a real one. In this light, Helen sees the need to reevaluate her own actions and motivations, and in doing so sets the stage for her eventual career as a public speaker campaigning against eugenics-based ideologies in America.