The Submission

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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Chapter 24Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 24 Summary

Paul brings Claire and Khan together by placing them in a tiny, dank, windowless room to “sort things out.” Claire asks the questions, but Khan controls the answers. They go back and forth for a long time. Khan refuses to argue from the viewpoint of a Muslim. Rather, he talks about the nature of art and the history of architecture. At one point he draws some lines on a piece of paper and asks her what they are. First she sees an “X,” then a cross, then a window, then a grid. Khan explains that the lines represent all these things—or perhaps none of them, depending on the associations they evoke in your mind. Claire continues asking mundane questions: Is it a martyr’s garden? Is it the garden spoken of in the Quran? What exactly does Khan believe? Has he been to the Middle East? Has he studied Middle Eastern gardens? Finally, Khan asks how she would feel if he justified her husband’s death by saying he got what he deserved for paying taxes to the US government. He questions why he deserves this interrogation just because he shares a religion with some extremists. Hearing Khan’s words but misunderstanding their meaning, Claire takes offense and storms from the room.

Edith calls Paul while he is relaxing in Central Park and thinking about how Khan’s garden will add greenery to the cityscape. A momentous event is about to take place. When he arrives home he finds, to his amazement, that Claire has called a giant press conference to denounce Khan and his design. Flanking her are important Muslims from the community and MACC, undersigning her statement. Paul takes offense at the arrogance of Claire’s action, that she bypassed all the other committee members. He also feels guilty for the part he played by putting Claire and Khan together in the small room to hash it out. Claire blames the withdrawal on Khan’s unwillingness to compromise by explaining the garden or clarifying his beliefs.

Chapter 24 Analysis

Paul contrives a method of settling the issue of whose design will be chosen. He intentionally puts Claire and Mo into a tiny, uncomfortable, stuffy room with no windows. Here Claire will interview Mo and finally set her feelings straight. Paul has unintentionally created a situation that exacerbates Claire’s growing paranoia. She pounds Mo with mundane questions, the same ones others have asked but that Mo considers unreasonable. Again, he speaks like a scholar or a teacher, even taking time to demonstrate to Claire that a single visual can mean different things to different individuals, depending on their perspectives and experiences. Claire struggles to understand that people see things according to their customs and according to what they want or expect. People tend to hear what they want to hear, too, as the end of their exchange proves. Mo is trying to get Claire to see the situation through his perspective, but with her beliefs shaken, she is primed to misunderstand him, to hear what she expects to hear and not what Mo is truly saying. Consequently, the conversation breaks down.

That Claire takes it upon herself to wrest the memorial decision from the jury demonstrates a her continued downward spiral. Getting the established Muslim community to back her is a stroke of genius, or one of madness. Her maniacal action goes against the jury’s intended decision, the position she once defended so strongly. While her heart has changed, her belief that her role as representative of the victims’ families gives her voice extra weight has not changed at all. She felt her support of the Garden mattered more than anyone else’s opinion, and when she turns against it, she again believes she has the perfect right to sabotage it. Her behavior here is similar to what we saw in Chapter 1, yet it is more selfish, even brutal.