65 pages • 2 hours read
M. R. CareyThe Girl with All the Gifts
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
One Friday, Dr. Caldwell enters the cellblock and chooses two children for a new test. When Parks suggests Melanie, Caldwell declines, saying that she will save their “little genius” for something special. Instead, she chooses Marcia and Liam. Parks’s staff prepares them and wheels them down the corridor toward the heavy steel door that separates the cellblock from the outside world. Melanie waits for them to come back so she can hear about what lies beyond the door, but the day passes and they never return. By the following Monday, Melanie fears she may never see them again.
Chapter 6 Summary
On the first day of spring, Justineau brings wildflowers and tree branches from outside the cellblock—things the children have never seen before. They marvel at the complexity and beauty of nature. Miss Justineau explains the significance of the vernal equinox as a balance between night and day and between life and death. After placing the flowers and branches around the room, she reads the class poems about nature. Now that she knows the date (March 21), Melanie decides to keep track of the days. The knowledge gives her a feeling of control, something she’s never had.
Chapter 7 Summary
Dr. Caroline Caldwell, head of research, removes the infected brain of a zombie test subject (Liam). Although Liam’s heart still beats and he watches her throughout the procedure, Caldwell rejects the notion that he is alive. He is simply controlled by the parasite. Caldwell is trying to understand the pathogen that has infected so many, and she resents that since the “Breakdown” she has had to conduct her research with what she considers primitive lab equipment. Her lab assistant, Selkirk, severs the spinal cord, and Caldwell orders her to “toss it.”
Chapter 8 Summary
Months have passed since Caldwell took Liam and Marcia away, and Melanie wonders what happened, although she fears the answer. Once she asks Mr. Whitaker about it. Whitaker, who drinks heavily in class until he sinks into depression, responds that when Caldwell referred to Liam and Marcia as “two little ducks” (42), it was just a code. Melanie also notices that Miss Justineau seems sadder and less engaged. Melanie vows that if she finds out who is making her sad, she will “make them very sorry” (43).
One day, Parks and his men take Melanie from the classroom and back to her cell. Melanie believes he is the one responsible for Miss Justineau’s sadness, and she tells him she wants to lock him away in Pandora’s box. He laughs off the taunt, and she grows angrier, claiming that Miss Justineau hates him. This strikes a nerve, and Parks screams in Melanie’s face, “I will fucking dismantle you, you little roach!” (44). He walks out of the cell, leaving Melanie strapped into her chair.
Chapter 9 Summary
Caldwell summons Miss Justineau to her lab. She is concerned about the teacher’s “objectivity.” She stresses the importance of her research to the survival of the human species. For unknown reasons, the pathogen progresses differently in the children than in the other 99% of victims, and Caldwell wants to isolate the cause. In the early days of the zombie apocalypse, Caldwell was one of the front-line scientists chosen to help solve the problem, only to be passed over later. “Is that what drove her crazy?” (47), Justineau wonders. After infections in the United Kingdom had apparently stabilized, mobile research stations were commissioned, roaming the countryside on a mission to understand the pathogen. The measures were too late to stop the progression, however, and the mobile researchers disappeared. Humanity’s only hope now lies with outliers like Caldwell.
Justineau’s role is to psychologically assess the children, but she abhors Caldwell’s research methods and has requested their termination. Justineau argues that the children demonstrate a level of cognitive and emotional response that differentiates them from other “hungries.” Caldwell disagrees, claiming their human-like responses only make them more dangerous. She then shows Justineau a lab sample of the pathogen, which takes control of the victim’s motor reflexes when it infects the brain. The children are not children, Caldwell asserts, but hosts with no will of their own. She then informs Justineau that if she continues to defy her authority, she could be shot. Caldwell tells her that she will be “processing” half the remaining subjects in one bulk test; she asks Justineau to prioritize the children based on who still needs assessment. Caldwell will dissect the rest.
Leaving Caldwell’s office, Justineau runs into Sergeant Parks. She’s convinced that he reported her contact with Melanie, but he denies it. Justineau refuses to abide by Parks’s and Caldwell’s warnings, which she sees as cruel and sadistic. Parks finally responds, “Then I’ll have to take this into my own hands” (59). Sensing he’s done something to Melanie, she runs off to Melanie’s cell.
Chapters 5-9 Analysis
Carey reveals the gruesome truth behind Hotel Echo in these chapters: It is a lab under military jurisdiction that tests the brains of the infected children. While Justineau cannot help but treat them with care and humanity, she is also aware that it’s just a matter of time before every child in the cohort will face dissection. Carey sets up an interesting dynamic between his major characters: Justineau has the novel’s emotional weight on her side, while Caldwell and Parks make eminently logical counterarguments. The scales tip back and forth with each encounter, Justineau’s empathy seeming at times both correct and necessary, while at other times appearing defiant and foolhardy. Caldwell’s cold, clinical demeanor is ruthless and her methods cruel, but her motives are ultimately for the collective good. Although Parks shows flashes of sadism, his practicality and instinct for survival are hard to deny. Carey asks one of the oldest and thorniest ethical questions of all time: whether the greater good justifies the abuse of a few. Thus far, the answer hangs in the air.
Melanie is a special case. Carey's use of her perspective suggests that she is more than simply an infected host obeying a parasite’s commands. She is self-aware enough to question her own identity, empathetic enough to feel protective of Miss Justineau, and intuitive enough to understand that Sergeant Parks is the cause of her teacher’s sadness. Melanie is Justineau’s strongest empirical evidence for treating the children as more than diseased neurological specimens, but Caldwell, so self-assured in her theories and methods, is not likely to heed anyone’s advice but her own.
The novel thus asks its audience to weigh the value of the scientific method against the value of human—or quasi-human—life in a way that suggests real-world parallels. Until recently, it was common practice to use animals—rabbits, dogs, guinea pigs, etc.—in cosmetic testing. In a culture that allows animal experimentation for cosmetic products, it doesn’t stretch credulity to imagine scientists more than happy to dissect a few zombie children for the sake of eradicating a horrific pandemic. Indeed, for the population living outside the protective walls of region 6, a cure cannot possibly come fast enough. However, for empathetic souls on the inside like Miss Justineau, who must confront the fears, joys, and aspirations of these children every day, theories and research methods are more than abstract, clinical terms. They are profound ethical questions that warrant more than hasty consideration.
