50 pages • 1 hour read
Alice HoffmanThe Marriage Of Opposites
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “We Followed the Turtles”
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1807, Rachel Pomié
This opening chapter is told from Rachel’s point of view and highlights her young life growing up on the island of St. Thomas. Of her youth, she says, “I rarely did as I was told. According to my mother, this had been my response to life ever since my birth, for it took three days for me to arrive in the world. As a child I did not sleep through the night, and I certainly didn’t follow any rules. But I was a girl who knew what I wanted” (1). She describes her family history, narrating how they had searched all over for religious freedom before finally coming to St. Thomas in 1754, since “the King of Denmark had passed an edict proclaiming that all men could practice their religions freely on St. Thomas; he outlawed new slavery and gave Jews the civil rights of other men” (3). Her father brings with him an apple tree and Enrique, a former slave who had always loyal and had helped save his life.
From the start, it’s clear that Rachel and her mother don’t get along. Her mother is a traditional woman who believes that Rachel should help her with domestic chores, but Rachel’s passion is reading books in her father’s library. While women can’t receive a formal education, Rachel considers herself educated by her father’s books; most of the books are in French, and Rachel dreams of escaping her mother and moving to France. By the time Rachel is thirteen, she “no longer cared if my mother disliked me. I didn’t understand that when I closed myself to her, I took a part of her bitterness inside me. It was green and unforgiving, and as it grew it made me more like her. It gave me my strength, but it gave me my weakness as well” (7).
Rachel’s mother had a son who died in infancy before Rachel was born, and Rachel thinks her mother wishes Rachel had died instead. Rachel reveals that her mother often weeps in alone at night and that her father is rarely home, but she never feels sorry for her mother or understands the whole story. Later in the book, it’s revealed that her father was most likely having an affair with their servant, and Rachel’s mother knew about it but couldn’t do anything to stop it.
The island is full of stories “so fantastic people would have difficulty believing it” (8). Rachel writes down each story, making a collection of fairytales reminiscent of the stories in her father’s library. One of her favorite local stories is about a “turtle-girl,” a woman who is torn between living in the sea with the turtles and on land with humans (9). Once a year, “in a single mysterious night,” sea turtles come onto the beach to lay their eggs. On this night, Rachel and Jestine watch them and imagine they are turtle-girls. Rachel and Jestine are constantly together, exploring the island, and sometimes Rachel’s cousin Aaron Rodrigues tags along. Aaron was adopted by Rachel’s parents because, supposedly, his parents died. As they grow older, Aaron and Jestine fall in love, but keep it secret because their relationship wouldn’t be accepted by society.
Rachel continually longs to be in France, feeling in St. Thomas an “inescapable loneliness here. The bats above us, the wind from Africa, the roar of the waves. It was as if we were on the edge of the known world and could drop off into the darkness at any time” (12). Her father is a prominent member of the island’s tight-knit Jewish community, which sticks together and frowns upon mingling with outsiders. But Rachel is defiant and unwilling to obey many of the rules that are expected of her, like helping with the “Sabbath meal” (18). Rachel also feels closer to Jestine’s mother, Adelle, than to her own mother. Adelle works for Rachel’s family as a cook, and it’s clear that her mother doesn’t like Adelle.
Jestine doesn’t know her father, but it’s presumed that she’s the result of her mother’s secret affair with a white man. “Those of mixed blood who had white fathers were given their freedom, even when a man was not cited by name, and people of mixed race accounted for more than half the population of color” (19). One night, when Jestine is sleeping, Adelle takes Rachel out into the deep, dark woods. Adelle believes that Rachel has the power to contact the spirits of the dead. Rachel opens her hands and “they filled with orbs of light. That meant the souls of the dead were around me. They came like moths drawn to a lantern. I felt the sting of their spirits. They whispered things I was too innocent to know about, what they had done for love, and for hate” (20). Despite being of the Jewish faith, Rachel continues to believe in spirits into adulthood.
The family business is struggling due to ships being lost at sea, so Rachel’s father makes a deal with another businessman in town, the widowed Isaac Petit: Rachel will marry Isaac and mother his children, and their two businesses will combine. When Rachel finds out about the arranged marriage, she feels like it’s a business deal and is eager to help her father. She finds Isaac handsome enough and nice, but decides she will never be in love with him—not only is he more than twice her age but it’s clear that he will always only love his late wife. However, Rachel immediately falls in love with Isaac’s three children: two sons and an infant daughter. Isaac’s first wife died after giving birth to the girl.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Elixir of Life”
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1818, Rachel Pomié Petit
Adelle and Jestine make Rachel’s wedding dress, and Adelle explains what will happen on the wedding night. Only people of the Jewish faith are allowed at the wedding, which means Jestine can’t attend. Before the wedding, Rachel’s mother tells her to marry from logic and not from her heart, because: “Love will do nothing for you” (43). Her approval of the wedding makes Rachel doubt if it’s the right choice, since she usually disagrees with her mother.
On the day of the wedding, Rachel places “branches from the flamboyant tree” on the grave of the first Madame Petit, as a sign of respect before marrying her husband (43). That night, after the wedding, Rachel and Isaac consummate the marriage, and he is a gentle and caring lover. During sex, Rachel has the feeling of being watched and believes that Isaac’s first wife’s ghost is there with them.
Rachel grows close to Rosalie, Isaac’s servant. Rosalie confides that she’s worried Rachel loves Isaac’s children too much. She explains that she once had an infant son who died, which she believes was a punishment for loving him too much. Rachel still sees Jestine frequently, telling her that she couldn’t have married a nicer man. But Jestine knows that Rachel doesn’t love Isaac, warning her, “There are those who say that heaven and hell are not so far apart. They are not at opposite ends of the world beyond ours, only a step away from one another” (51).
Rachel’s parents decide to send Aaron to France. Aaron is hurt because it’s clear that he won’t be inheriting the family business. Rachel’s parents don’t see him as a real son, despite adopting him and raising him from birth. Isaac, Rachel’s husband, will inherit the business instead. It’s also clear that Aaron is being sent away so that he and Jestine can’t be together anymore. When Rachel asks Aaron about this, it’s evident that he loves Jestine but is not willing to stand up for their relationship in public. He admits that “I have no power, Rachel. Not even over my own life” (55).
Rachel finds out that she and Jestine are both pregnant. A horrible storm hits the island, and a baby donkey shows up in Rachel and Isaac’s yard. She feels pity towards the donkey, thinking “I had become a different person since moving into this house. Before I’d had no trouble killing chickens for Friday dinner, but now I wept over a wild donkey as I thought of him wandering alone. My dream for my life was slipping away from me, and perhaps that made me more tenderhearted toward this motherless creature” (57). She decides to keep the donkey as a family pet and names him Jean-François.
Rachel goes into labor and asks Madame Petit’s spirit to watch over her: “I told her if she helped me survive this birth, I would honor her for the rest of my life. I didn’t listen to people when they told me not to name my first son after a child Madame Esther Petit had lost. I went ahead and named him Joseph” (64).
Chapter 3 Summary: “A Cold Wind”
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1823, Rachel Pomié Petit
Rachel becomes a mother several times over, skipping over a long chunk of time: “In six years I added to Esther’s three children with three of my own, first Joseph, then Rebecca Emma, then, a year later, Abigail Delphine. After each birth I continued the tradition of visiting the first Madame Petit to show my gratitude, leaving flowering branches on her grave. In return she gave me her blessing and allowed me to live the life that should have been hers” (65). Jestine names her daughter Lydia (or Lyddie), and she’s “an extremely beautiful child, perhaps even more beautiful than her mother” (66).
After Rachel’s mother fires Adelle, she is unable to find work anywhere in town. Adelle falls into bad health and dies. Rachel mourns as if Adelle had been her own mother, and even her father grieves. It’s clear that her father had a deep connection to Adelle. There are suspicions that he had been having an affair with Adelle, and that’s why Rachel’s mother hates her so much.
Time passes quickly, and Rachel says, “I was so busy with my children I did not see my father aging” (72). When he dies unexpectedly, Rachel says of her mother, “I had never seen her look so distraught. She had wanted his love, and had failed to have it as her own” (73). Aaron misses the funeral, but he eventually comes back to the island to pay his respects. Jestine had hoped that they may be reunited, but instead he brings his French wife, Elise. Elise is beautiful and dainty with lots of family money. She’s clearly spoiled and rude, but Rachel agrees to give her a tour of the island and finds herself raptly listening to her stories about France. The two go swimming and Rachel enjoys the time with Elise despite herself.
Upset that he wasn’t left a piece of the business in the will, Aaron has a disagreement with Enrique, the former slave whom Rachel’s father left in charge of managing the family business. Rachel goes to visit Jestine, who is upset that Rachel didn’t tell her about Aaron’s wife. Later, Jestine goes to visit Aaron, wanting him to meet his daughter. She stands in the courtyard yelling for him, but instead Elise comes out. She’s surprisingly pleasant towards Jestine and tells her she’ll see what she can do about everything. Back at home, Rachel sees Aaron walking down the road at night on his way to Jestine’s. It’s clear the two are meeting each other in the dark, when no one can see what’s going on.
When Aaron and Elise are about to return to France, she tells Rachel that Aaron has agreed for them to take Lyddie along. She says, “It’s the girl I want. She looks enough like me for people to think I’m her mother. It’s the gold in the hair” (88). Elise can’t have children of her own, and despite Rachel’s protests, she says that Aaron has a legal right to the child. Rachel tries to talk sense to Aaron, but he says that Lyddie will have a better life this way and slaps her. He immediately apologizes but Rachel runs away.
When Rachel tells Jestine what Elise wants, Jestine decides to take Lyddie and hide, knowing that Elise will likely try to steal her. Jestine is right. Although she hides in the hills, Elise’s hired men find her and Lyddie. They tie Jestine to a tree and kidnap Lyddie, a trauma that breaks Jestine: “No one saw Jestine for several weeks afterward. She refused to answer her door, not to me and not to anyone else. I left baskets of food, but they went untouched” (92). Rachel’s husband hires someone to track down Lyddie in France, but legally there’s nothing they can do. Elise eventually sends Rachel a letter, but instead of reading it she gives it to Jestine, deciding she should be the one to read it.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
These first three chapters illustrate Rachel’s growth from a child to a wife and mother. But more than that, they demonstrate how the island of St. Thomas has shaped her beliefs. The island is full of ghost stories, legends, and a belief in the spirit world propagated by the original people that settled the island and the people of various faiths who were brought to the island and enslaved. Although Rachel’s family is Jewish and follows the customs and beliefs of that religion, she is heavily influenced by this Animism and Spiritualism.
The chapters also reveal the difference between the ideals St. Thomas promised to its Jewish population and the discrimination that exists there in reality. On the one hand, Rachel’s Jewish ancestors had been persecuted for as long as anyone could remember: England expelled all Jews in 1290 and sent them to Africa to become slaves; Spain expelled its Jews in 1492, and, in 1506, thousands were killed in Portugal (2-3). To escape the Inquisition, Rachel’s grandfather moved to Saint-Domingue, but slavery was still legal there and political unrest was rampant. To once again flee persecution, in 1754, Rachel’s father and mother moved to St. Thomas, where the King of Denmark proclaimed Jews would receive equal treatment (3). In this way, St. Thomas became a sanctuary island, where, in theory, people would be free.
However, as Rachel grows older, she realizes this isn’t completely true. Although the island offers human rights to its Jewish residents, it doesn’t offer them equally to all residents. The King’s proclamation specifically stated that, while no one could henceforth own slaves, people who had previously been enslaved would remain so. His words perpetuate race-based bigotry. Aaron and Jestine are in love, but they can’t publically display their affections because Jestine is of mixed race. So even though Jestine is free on the island, she isn’t free to choose whom she loves. Similarly, Jestine isn’t allowed to attend her best friend Rachel’s wedding because she isn’t Jewish. While these divisions aren’t caused by any law, they are enforced by a Jewish community that fears being viewed as unruly and once again having to flee their home.
These chapters introduce two important symbols: the apple tree and the myth of the “turtle-girl.”
When Rachel’s parents first came to the island, they brought an apple tree with them. This tree is significant not only because of the family name, Pomié (from the French word pomme or apple), but also because the tree is symbolically tied to Rachel’s character: “As it turned out, the fruit of our name did not grow well in tropical weather. It was far better suited for cooler climates” (4). Just like the tree, Rachel doesn’t feel like she can thrive on St. Thomas; she constantly longs for the chill and greyness of France, and doesn’t feel at home on the island. Throughout the novel, this apple tree produces inedible fruit. Rachel too grows bitter. She sheds that bitterness only when she finally leaves the island towards the end of the novel.
The other significant symbol comes from the island legend of a girl who was born a turtle and abandoned by her mother to be raised by turtles. In the story, she keeps herself apart by choice: “She was said to have grown to be a woman who looked like any other, with long arms and legs and moss-tinted hair. You couldn’t see the shell unless she was in the sea. She could have easily disguised herself and joined our world, eating in cafés, dancing with me who found her beautiful, but instead she’d chosen to live in the world of the turtles” (9). Rachel and Jestine consider themselves turtle-girls because they feel torn between two different worlds. Each girl longs for a life she can’t live—Rachel wants to move to Paris but is stuck on St. Thomas, and Jestine wants to be with Aaron but can’t.
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