Summary: Chapter 61

After Sarah’s birth, Elaine settles into domestic life with Jon. Jon sometimes refers to Elaine as “Mummy” when speaking to Sarah, which Elaine hates.

Elaine goes to a meeting of women artists. The women at the meeting accuse men of holding women back through violence and discrimination. While Elaine finds the anger in these meetings inspiring, they also make her anxious that she is too conventional. She imagines the other women are judging her for being married with a child. 

Elaine paints at night. One painting depicts the Virgin Mary as a lioness. Another shows Mary descending to earth with overturning grocery bags. Jon tells Elaine not to paint at night, and Elaine knows he’d prefer she didn’t paint at all. He sees her paintings as irrelevant. 

Their fights turn violent, and they throw objects at each other. 

Summary: Chapter 62

One of the women from the art group, Jody, organizes a group exhibition and chooses to display some of Elaine’s art. They rent an exhibition space in an abandoned supermarket. Jon doesn’t come to the exhibition. As Elaine looks at the exhibition, she believes her work makes less of a statement than the other artists. 

Suddenly, she sees Mrs. Smeath at the exhibition, but then she realizes it must be Grace. Grace asks why Elaine wants to hurt people. Elaine stares ruefully at her paintings of Mrs. Smeath in various stages of undress. However, when Grace’s eyes tear up, Elaine feels powerful. 

Previous section Chapters 56–60 Next page Chapters 61–65 page 2

Popular pages: Cat’s Eye

Take a Study Break