40 pages • 1 hour read
Bernardine EvaristoGirl, Woman, Other
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 5-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “The After-party”
Roland Quartey surveys Amma’s lively afterparty at the National Theatre in London. He speculates that Amma could have become famous years ago if she had followed his lead and embraced the establishment. Now, he is a revered author and scholar who makes frequent television appearances. Roland’s recent televised debate with a Brexit supporter went viral after Roland invoked his identity as a “state-educated son of working-class African immigrants” (412), though Roland resents having to “engage with race” to make his point, as he feels it essentializes his identity and downplays his accomplishments. Roland wanders outside by the River Thames, where he is soon joined by his daughter, Yazz. Yazz wraps her arms around his waist. Roland relishes the contact. Yazz is the reason he pursued success in his career. His life can be divided into “Before Yazz and After Yazz eras” (413). As Yazz muses that Amma has “done good,” Roland realizes how much he wishes Yazz would tell him the same. Yazz untangles herself from Roland when she recognizes a tattooed person standing alone and smoking. Yazz leaves Roland to speak to them.
Meanwhile, Carole stands awkwardly at the party, watching her husband, Freddy, make the rounds. As a corporate type, she feels that she does not fit in with the other Black women in attendance, though they give her a “black sisterhood nod” (419). Across the room, Carole spots Mrs. Shirley King, who seems nervous and flustered when they speak. Carole realizes she never thanked Mrs. King for helping her as a teenager, and she does so now. Shirley feels embarrassed and leaves with Lennox. On the way out, she spots Roland, whom she used to dislike until his mother died and he turned to her for emotional support.
Amma and Dominique head to the bathroom, giggling, to snort cocaine. The afterparty between the two of them continues at Amma’s house, where Dominique tries to convince Amma to move to the United States. As more wine and more cocaine flow, Amma becomes morose and states that The Last Amazon of Dahomey will most likely be the peak of her career. The two women argue about the state of feminism. Dominque sullenly relays that she has been attacked online for not wanting to admit trans women into her arts festival. While Dominque believes feminism is being commercialized and co-opted, Amma takes comfort in the myriad expressions of feminism available now.
Epilogue Summary
Penelope is two days away from turning 80. She finds it hard to tolerate most people except for her current partner, Jeremy, whom she met in a Tai Chi class. As she did with her first husband, Giles, Penelope molds herself into the ideal woman for Jeremy. After talking to her daughter, Sarah, about wanting to know more about her birth parents, Sarah suggests that Penelope take a DNA test at Ancestry.com. To her surprise, Penelope discovers that she is only 17% British and 13% African. Sarah reads Penelope’s chart more closely to find that Penelope still has many relatives alive, including her birth mother. Sarah emails Morgan, who is managing the account for Hattie. Hattie confesses to Morgan that she had a child at 14 and was forced by her father to give the baby up. Penelope takes a train to Greenfields to meet her mother, Hattie. Both women feel an instant connection to each other upon first sight: “[T]hey are mother and daughter and their whole sense of themselves is recalibrating” (452). Penelope realizes how meaningless her prejudices have been. She experiences a wordless bond with her mother and feels the importance of being together.
Chapter 5 and Epilogue Analysis
The structure of Girl, Woman, Other lends itself to the theme of Human Connectivity and Interdependence. At the afterparty, the links between characters outlined in individual chapters become plot points. Amma and Dominique pick up where they left off, scampering off to the toilets only to end up in a lively conversation about contemporary feminism, much like they did in their early years. Yazz gives Roland some much-desired attention only to walk off at the first sight of Morgan standing by the Thames. Shirley’s grudge at what she perceives as Carole’s ingratitude is finally resolved when the two women meet face-to-face for the first time in over a decade.
However, while some narrative arcs are resolved, others are left open. Carole’s sense of belonging remains unstable. Shirley never quite finds the validation of purpose or community recognition that she seeks. Yazz is in the middle of her journey toward self-discovery. It remains to be seen if The Last Amazon of Dahomey is the height of Amma’s career, as she suspects. This open-endedness implies continuation, mimicking life’s perpetual cycles.
Penelope and Hattie’s reunion in the Epilogue draws together the themes of interconnectivity and The Impact of Family Legacy. Penelope, one of the characters with the most fixed and prejudiced worldviews, relinquishes her class and racial biases when she is reunited with her mother, Hattie, a multiracial woman who lives in rural England. Despite their divergent life circumstances, the two women feel the pull of family history and blood bonds when they meet. Penelope feels her connection to Hattie in an instant, visceral way, noting emphatically that “this metal-headed wild creature from the bush with piercingly feral eyes is her mother. This is she. This is her” (452). Penelope’s disavowal of her racism and classism based on personal experience fortifies the book’s message that only through community building, human connection, and interdependence can people overcome their biases toward one another.
