Anxious People: Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

The narrator asks the reader to consider the bank robber robbing the bank. This obviously has nothing to do with the reader, since the reader is “normal” and “decent” and agrees that people shouldn’t lie, steal, or kill. There are a few exceptions: you can lie to your kids about the chocolate you ate and if you get the opportunity, you should kill Hitler. Stealing, though, gets a little trickier. Is it okay to steal if it’s something small, and you have to? Is it okay to rob a bank if you think you have to, and nobody will get hurt? Probably not, so readers have nothing in common with the bank robber—except fear. Anyone who has small kids, like the bank robber, knows being a parent is terrifying all the time.

The bank robber left home this morning, not realizing their youngest daughter put the drawing of a monkey, the frog, and the elk in the robber’s pocket. The little girl and her sister never fight, and their parents used to whisper that they didn’t deserve such good kids. Now, since the divorce, the girls live with each parent on alternating weeks. They’re with their non-robber parent this week, and though they don’t know it, they’re listening to news reports about the bank robber parent in the car.

On weeks they live with their robber parent, the daughters take the bus places and giggle about their robber parent being an elk when they run for the bus, since that parent has absurdly long legs. Kids notice stuff like that; it makes them good bullies. But the strangest thing about being a parent is that your kids love you, no matter what. And the bank robber, who only calls their kids by their nicknames—monkey and frog—would do anything for the girls.

Readers, of course, still wouldn’t ever rob a bank, but has the reader ever been in love? Love makes people do ridiculous things, like get married and have kids. The marriage seems to be going well and then, one day, like the bank robber, perhaps you uncover infidelity, and everything goes south. The robber’s spouse had been cheating with the robber’s boss, so the robber went from being married and employed on a Friday to divorced and unemployed by Monday. But the robber’s spouse asked the robber to not make a scene, for the children’s sake. So the robber didn’t call a lawyer. They just left the apartment, since the apartment was only in their spouse’s name, and they didn’t want to make a fuss.

The robber didn’t ask for government assistance. They tried to buy an apartment, but banks won’t lend to people who don’t have money. They had to rent, which requires four months’ rent as a deposit. Then, the robber got a letter saying the other parent applied for sole custody of their daughters, given that the robber didn’t have housing or a job. The robber then went to go pick up their things from the storeroom at their spouse’s apartment and realized they had no place to take said things. They dug out some blankets from a neighbor’s storeroom and found a toy pistol, which made them feel safer. They slept in the storeroom for a week, until an apartment near the bridge came up for 6,500 kroner per month. The robber figured they could sell everything and get a job to pay the next month’s rent.

The robber was unsuccessful. The narrator notes that in situations like these, you’re supposed to go to the authorities. But the robber remembers sitting at the welfare office with the robber’s mother, and the robber remembers how good addicts’ kids get to be at lying to cover up their parent’s faults. And the robber is afraid the welfare office will take their daughters away, and all the robber needs is a chance. The robber found a job—but the job doesn’t pay until they’ve worked two months. They went to ask for another loan to get by, but the bank again refused. It makes no sense.

The robber struggled on, hoping to keep their daughters from seeing how stressed they are. The girls could see anyway. The robber has spent their whole life promising not to be a chaotic parent, and here they are. On the day before New Year’s Day, the robber puts the latest letter from the lawyer in their pocket next to the eviction notice from the landlord. They cut holes in a black hat and try to rob a cashless bank, believing they can just return the money once they get paid. They just need one month to get on their feet. But now, the pistol is real, a drawing of an elk and a frog and a monkey is in a stairwell, and an apartment rug is bloody.