Babel Chapters 23–25 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapters 23–25

Chapter 23

They continue their strategy session the next morning and Letty remarks that justice is exhausting. Cathy produces a newspaper clipping announcing Lovell's death along with names and drawings of Robin, Ramy, and Victoire. There is no mention of Letty.

Anthony tells them to lay low and hide at the Old Library. Plans mobilize; Letty will write to her father, others will write letters to radical leaders, and Anthony will expose Lovell's war plans and stir up commotion over things like conspiracy, corruption, and lack of transparency. He won't mention colonialism as that won't strike the right chord. The abolition of slavery had little to do with ethics; white people merely found reasons, either economic or religious, to oppose the slave trade. Likewise, Hermes needs to appeal to those in powers using profit-based arguments, not moral ones. This needs to be presented as a war of class and not race, emphasizing that silver leads to unequal wealth distribution and mass poverty. The poor and middle-class have nothing to gain from a war with China. The society's polemikós match-pair is a success and will help disperse their pamphlets. Using a combination of blackmail, lobbying, and public pressure, the group hopes to succeed.

Anthony tells the four friends to stay behind, leaving them with instructions and a sealed envelope containing contact information for Hermes members around the globe. Letty grows upset and leaves to get some air. She does not return. Instead, police suddenly raid the library. Robin, Ramy, and Victoire hide in the Reading Room while the others face the police. Letty appears in the doorway holding a revolver.

Anthony and the others have been killed, and Letty urges her friends to surrender. Victoire lunges for the envelope with the invaluable Hermes information and casts it into the fire while Robin charges for Letty, who fires her revolver, killing Ramy. An enraged Robin chases after Letty but the police catch him. He calls for Victoire, but she does not respond.

Chapter 24

In a cell in which silver-work has rigged the stones to echo past confessions of the dead, Robin is paralyzed with grief, refusing to accept Ramy's death and desperately theorizing ways his friend could still be alive.

Babel faculty member Sterling Jones enters Robin's cell, demanding to know why Robin would betray Oxford. Sterling defends it, but Robin retorts that Oxford never dealt him any true kindness; they cruelly ripped him from his home and forced him to acclimate to a place that would never fully accept him. Robin tells Sterling, "Don't ask me to love my master." Sterling puts cuffs on Robin that have been enhanced with silver to cause unspeakable, merciless pain. Robin screams in agony but manages to control himself. Sterling turns to a different kind of silver bar for psychological torture, demanding information about Hermes, saying they'll kill Victoire if Robin doesn't speak. Panicked, Robin offers up false information but Sterling says it is too late, and he hears Victoire's shriek, a gunshot, and then silence.

Overcome with grief once more, Robin contemplates death but remembers Ramy's earlier words, acknowledging that death would be the easy way out. Griffin arrives and frees Robin, having received a distress signal when the police raided. They search the place for Victoire, finding her alive and largely unharmed. Robin and Victoire embrace and she reports that she did not give up any information about Babel.

They descend the castle wall and Robin sees that Griffin has set much of the castle ablaze. Sterling appears and confronts them. As Griffin and Sterling face off, Robin understands that there is a complicated history between them. The two men aim guns at one another and shoot at the same time, both collapsing. Robin tries to save Griffin but his efforts are fruitless and Griffin tells them to run, remarking that Victoire knows what to do. Two guards arrive, shooting Griffin in the head. Robin senses that a cycle of violence that began with Evie's death has now ended with Griffin's. He understands that he will never know the full story, but a footnote explains that Griffin, Sterling, and Evie were once their own closely bonded cohort and that Griffin truly had not meant to kill Evie that night. Unlike Robin, Griffin had no one to turn to afterwards and he sharpened his violence into a weapon. Robin and Victoire flee the premises.

Chapter 25

Robin is numb with shock and grief as Victoire leads him to a safe house. Robin knows he was naive to think he could ever turn a blind eye and pretend he belonged. Robin, Ramy, and Victoire's chief mistake was in thinking that Oxford would not betray them. Robin reflects on their plan to fight injustice with pamphlets and lobbying and thinks it foolish. He thinks Griffin may have been right when he pushed for them to seize Babel. The two remaining friends look at the tower and Robin says he wants it to crumble. Victoire admits she wants it to burn.

Read an analysis of Robin finally seeing the truth of Babel.