The Lover

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Sections 1-3

Sections 4-6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Sections 4-6 Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Section 4, Pages 49-64 Summary

The narrator and her lover begin an affair that will last for a year and a half, until the narrator moves from Saigon to France. Their relationship is physical; neither discuss their emotions or get to know the other’s personality. The narrator introduces her lover to her mother and two brothers one evening; they go to an expensive Chinese restaurant in Saigon and her lover pays. This becomes a pattern; the narrator’s lover frequently takes her family to dinners or the club for drinks.

The narrator’s lover fears her brothers and the expectation that he must marry the narrator. He is terrified that the narrator will meet another man and replace him. During the dinners, her brothers never speak to her lover because of his race. The narrator follows her eldest brother’s lead, not speaking to her lover or acknowledging his generosity. When in the company of both her lover and elder brother, the narrator feels shame and anger toward her lover. Although the narrator doesn’t act independently of her elder brother's influence, she suspects that she is “the only person my elder brother’s afraid of” (54). The siblings’ strongest uniting force is their love for their mother and the need to protect her when she experiences depression.

As the affair progresses, the narrator’s mother is suspicious of the lover and accuses her daughter of having sex with him: “Her daughter’s in the direst danger, the danger of never getting married” which leads the narrator’s mother to undress and beat the narrator while her elder brother listens through the door (58). The narrator maintains the lie that she and her lover are not having an affair, that he is only interested in buying things for her. The narrator notes how she and her family have had an unspoken rule not to talk about their poverty with people outside the family, which the narrator breaks with her lover.

The narrator compares her childhood to her later experiences during the World Wars, long after she has left Saigon. Her elder brother’s abusive and controlling personality are to her a tyranny that feels as violent, imminent, and destructive as war.

Section 5, Pages 65-81 Summary

The narrator describes the women that she was friendly with during the war, the society ladies Marie-Claude Carpenter and Betty Fernandez, both of whom have a reputation for beauty, intelligence, and grace.

The narrator returns to describing her time in Saigon with her lover, and how her friend Hélène Lagonelle at the boarding school was often concerned about the narrator’s reputation. Though the principals running the boarding and high school that the narrator attends report the narrator’s behavior to her mother, no one reprimands or tries to stop the narrator. The narrator believes it is “because I am white” and the school is keen appease her needs (71). Of Hélène, the narrator expresses an intense longing for her friend: “I am worn out with desire for Hélène Lagonelle” (74). Hélène is beautiful and sincere; her family intends to marry her to a suitable match at a young age, and Hélène is soon brought back to her family’s estate for this purpose. The narrator never speaks with her again.

After describing Hélène, the narrator returns to discussing her elder brother and his abusive behavior. As someone who uses opium, her elder brother frequently steals from others and cannot maintain a job. It isn’t until he is over fifty that he is able to maintain a steady job as a messenger for an insurance company. Their mother supported and protected the elder brother throughout her life. He is found dead in April of an undisclosed year, when the narrator is living in France and their mother has already died. Their mother requested that he be buried in the same grave as her.

Section 6, Pages 82-117 Summary

One day after school, the narrator’s lover is not in his limousine. The driver takes her to his house, where the lover explains that his wealthy father has forbidden him to marry her. She replies that she “agreed with his father. That I refused to stay with him. I didn’t give any reasons” (83). While walking home one evening, the local “madwoman” chases the narrator.

Saigon society begins to gossip about the narrator and the lover; her reputation is soon challenged and the other women in the city ostracize her because she is unmarried, young, and has a Chinese lover. Her mother warns that the narrator will “never be able, now, to get married here in the colony” (93). The narrator’s relationship with the lover begins to deteriorate; they barely speak to each other and the lover’s father orders him to “give her back to the whites” (98). The narrator leaves for France on a boat. On the day of her departure, she notices the lover in his limousine watching the boat leave; she cries privately.

The narrator learns that the lover eventually marries a young Chinese heiress that his father introduced him to. She questions whether she ever loved him or not, but she knows with certainty that the only person she has truly loved was her younger brother, who died during the war. Since his death, the narrator has been anxious to die herself, believing the two of them to be spiritually linked. Some years after the war, the lover visits Paris with his wife and calls the narrator. He confesses that he still loves her and always will.

Sections 4-6 Analysis

Racial differences and wealth disparity prevent the lover from being able to interact with the narrator’s family. The narrator’s family accepts the lover’s financial generosity without speaking to him, revealing their pride, racism, and the expectations their society has for marriage. To receive a suitable marriage offer, the narrator’s reputation must remain innocent and meet society’s standards; this is disrupted by her affair with the lover. For both the narrator and her family, the lover merely represents a means to escape poverty. They are willing to take advantage of him to rescue themselves from their social condition.

Though the narrator’s family acts together when it comes to money, their dynamics revolve around the eldest brother’s abusive personality and manipulation. He controls the mother in particular, listening in when she beats the narrator. He wants to punish those around him and continue using drugs, furthering the family’s poverty and poor social reputation. The narrator’s affair challenges her brother’s behavior; it allows her to act outside of his control while giving her family access to the lover’s money. Of everyone in their lives, the eldest brother is scared most of the narrator for her independence and femininity.

Her mother beats her within their home, but when confronted about the narrator’s behavior by the vice-principal of the boarding school, she pretends that the situation is not inappropriate and to leave the narrator to her own business. In doing so, the narrator’s mother tries to preserve the narrator and the family’s social reputation. Because she is young and there is no intent to marry, the narrator’s eligibility as a potential wife has been ruined by the rumors of her affair. She endures social isolation, but due to white privilege and her mother’s laxness, is allowed to continue her behavior.

In Section 5, the narrator describes several women with whom the narrator has had close emotional connections with, both from her time in Vietnam and during her time in France as an adult. The narrator’s description—the war, then Marie-Claude Carpenter and Betty Fernandez, then Saigon and her friend Hélène Lagonelle—is an example of free association. This narrative technique involves the mental associations one makes between people, places, or objects as they are reminded of them. Maire-Claude Carpenter and Betty Fernandez represent the narrator’s mysterious life after leaving Saigon. Their high-society status and social refinement suggest that the narrator has succeeded in becoming a wealthy and influential woman.

The narrator’s relationship with these women is immediately contrasted with that of the madwoman she describes on the streets of Saigon. The madwoman is a symbol of her mother’s mental instability. These two groups of women are bridged by the narrator’s affair with the lover: she has escaped the possible mental health conditions that include depression she associates with Saigon through her affair, and she has reached a place of wealth in which she can reflect upon her time in Saigon without remorse