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“Call the harbor!” shouted Valerian, but again there was no one to do his bidding. He had played a silly game, and everyone was out of place.

This quotation, from toward the end of Chapter Six, represents one of the most dramatic moments in the explosive Christmas dinner scene. In the specific context of this scene, Valerian’s feeling that everyone is “out of place” refers in part to the physical reality that Ondine and Sydney eat at the table with Jadine and the Streets, instead of in the kitchen. But the feeling also has a strong emotional connotation. Son and Valerian have been fighting about the fact that Valerian fired Gideon for theft, and Ondine has just slapped Margaret. Prior to this dinner, Valerian believed that he owned everything and controlled everything that happened on the island, including even violent or upsetting episodes. He might play with Margaret’s feelings, or, by inviting Son to stay at L’Arbe de la Croix as a guest, he might experiment with danger and risk irritating Sydney and Ondine. In either case, Valerian thinks he has total control over anything that occurs.

But the dinner scene reveals Valerian’s perceptions to be faulty, and this command stands as one of Valerian’s last attempts at exerting control. His “games” actually have the effect of removing him from control over what is going on and leave him without anyone to “do his bidding.” Valerian might think that his role of host or patron to Son gives him some measure of control over the young man, but by this point in the novel it is clear that Valerian does not have any real control over Son. And here readers see that Valerian does not have as much authority over Ondine and Sydney as he thought he did. Shortly after this quotation, readers—and Valerian—learn that his cruelty toward Margaret drove her to torture Michael. Valerian cannot withstand the force of all of these revelations. Particularly devastated by the revelation about Michael, after the dinner scene, Valerian stops trying to control anything, even letting the plants in his greenhouse run wild.

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