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Chapter 28
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Women, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma, Healing, and the Vietnam War
Women’s Experiences and Solidarity
Heroism, Honor, and Sacrifice
Propaganda vs. Truth
Shame, Pride, and Moral Ambiguity
Summary
Analysis
Frankie dreams she’s dancing with Rye at the O Club when he whispers that he is married. She wakes in her bed, overcome with the knowledge of Rye’s betrayal. Barb and Ethel are there, waiting to support her. Yesterday, Frankie read about Rye in the newspaper, how the war hero married his high school sweetheart and never met his daughter before going to Vietnam. Frankie feels humiliated. She and her friends sit in the backyard, which is set up for the wedding. Ethel and Barb promise to support Frankie whether she decides to marry Henry or not. But Frankie feels obligated to get married for her unborn child. She will do “the right thing” and marry Henry, who will be a good father.
Rye’s betrayal adds a new layer of trauma to Frankie’s memories of Vietnam, now that she knows he was lying to her throughout their time together. His actions are especially egregious because they made Frankie unknowingly complicit in infidelity, something she always avoided because of her strict moral code. She is understandably devastated and uncertain about her future. By claiming she will still marry Henry, Frankie falls back into her old pattern of repressing her needs and emotions for the comfort and convenience of others.
Active
Themes
To cheer Frankie up, Ethel and Barb play music, recalling their first meeting in Vietnam. Frankie dances until a painful cramp stops her. There is blood between her legs. Henry arrives and, seeing Frankie, rushes her to the hospital. When Frankie wakes, she has lost the baby. A broken Henry tells her it was a boy. Mom arrives and Henry steps out. Frankie believes God is punishing her, even though she did the right thing. Mom shows her a necklace engraved with the name Celine—the daughter Mom lost before marrying Dad. Mom claims Frankie’s generation talks too much about their grief instead of just moving on. Frankie tries to talk about Rye, but Mom tells her to forget Vietnam.
Ethel and Barb try in vain to pull Frankie out of her despair. Frankie’s miscarriage piles onto her current suffering. That Frankie interprets it as God’s punishment shows how morally devastated she is by the realization that she and Rye committed infidelity. Mom shares her own out-of-wedlock miscarriage story in an attempt to show solidarity with Frankie, but she also ends up revealing how much trauma she, as a woman, has had to repress. Mom urges Frankie to do the same now, illustrating that she still believes it is better to (unsuccessfully) forget than process one’s pain.
Active
Themes
Barb and Ethel visit Frankie in the hospital. Frankie no longer intends to marry Henry. Ethel and Barb disparage Rye for lying to Frankie. Frankie tells them to go home, insisting she’s fine. Reluctantly, they leave. Henry returns, but Frankie feels unable to support him in their shared grief. Henry wants to try conceiving again, which strikes her as another version of forgetting. She tells Henry she is still in love with Rye, who is alive, but omits the truth of his marriage. Frankie breaks off their engagement. Henry says she should consider therapy—she looks terribly sad for someone supposedly in love. Later, Mom and Dad take Frankie home, where she uses some of Mom’s sleeping pills to fall asleep.
Active
Themes
