51 pages • 1 hour read
Jeff VanderMeerAuthority: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 010-014Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Rites”
Part 2, Chapter 010 Summary: “Fourth Breach”
Control reads over a transcript from the latest conversation with Ghost Bird. She is still terse with him, but friendlier, more open. She is quippy, stubborn, and defiant, but she also calls him by his first name John. Control asks if Ghost Bird wants to hear about his dreams, and she is interested. Control tells her his recurring dream (which opened the novel) about the abyss. Afterward, she admits she thought she was in purgatory when she woke up at the abandoned lot after coming out of Area X. She gives more details about how she felt then and how the Southern Reach staff grabbed her.
After the border tour, Cheney feels more comfortable with Control since they have a shared experience. He tells Control about a rumor: People think the prior director went into Area X alone between the 11th expedition and the 12th. Whitby seems uncomfortable with the conversation, but Control wonders if it is true.
During his report to The Voice, Control tells him about the dead mouse and plant from Area X he found in the past director’s office. The Voice seems frustrated again, while Control loses his train of thought. The Voice hangs up before he can report more.
Part 2, Chapter 011 Summary: “Sixth Breach”
After feeding his cat Chorry at home, Control tries to relax, but he pulls out a file from the day. Inside, he has three cell phones—his own, the one used for The Voice communications, and the prior director’s phone. The director’s phone, which he had found, was taken away secretly. Now, it was back. Control wonders who would have put the phone in his belongings. He also thinks about how the Southern Reach, like all institutions, is built on ideas and emotions: “The Southern Reach had been set up to investigate (and contain) Area X, and yet […] some other emotion or attitude also existed within the agency. It frustrated him that he could not quite put his finger on it” (147). That night, Control does not dream at all.
Part 2, Chapter 012 Summary: “Sort of Sorting”
Control spends the next morning going through the last director’s files. Grace has given him stacks of papers, and he is found more in the plant drawer. Control puts the information into piles, as Grace wants, such as if they relate to the lighthouse, base camp, teams, etc. He has a pile for “unknown” as well. The director has so many papers that he is overwhelmed at first, but he keeps sorting. He finds notes on napkins, cardboard, a leaf, and in bookmarks. Finally, he discovers notes about the 12th expedition. Interestingly, she writes out one person’s name: Hildi, the anthropologist, stating she will “be on board,” and “understand,” though Control does not know what she would agree with or understand (156). They normally do not use names, seeing people as more like data. She called the linguist “‘useful but not essential; possibly a dangerous addition, a sympathetic but narrow character who might deflect attention.’ Sympathetic to whom? Deflect attention from what? And was this deflection desirable or…?” (156).
Control reads on, learning how the director’s mind worked as she put together her final team. Of Ghost Bird, the director writes that she felt she was not a good biologist because she became too immersed and embedded; she cared more about the environment than people, which she thought would make her understand Area X most deeply. Another note from the expedition makes Control think the biologist was exposed to “contamination” in the topographical anomaly.
Part 2, Chapter 013 Summary: “Recommendations”
Control has a confrontation with Grace because she will not let him in on the real information about Area X or help him with even the simplest questions. After reading her file, he knows Grace was married, has twin boys, and got divorced to be in a relationship with a woman instead. Control believes she may have had a romantic relationship with the past director as well, which explains her aloofness and the fact that she clings to the idea that the prior director is not dead. Still, Control does not understand Grace or her motives.
Grace is furious with him for sending Central’s personnel against her; she then accuses him of breaking into her office to look for information. Control swears he did not enter her office. Grace has a jewelry box filled with notecards of “accusations” against him. She warns him she will use his mistakes as ammunition. He tells her to keep the bugs and tracers from his office, then asks why she put the director’s cell phone in his files. Grace does not understand, indicating that she is not the culprit.
Part 2, Chapter 014 Summary: “Heroic Heroes of the Revolution”
Control wonders who ransacked Grace’s office on his way to talk to the biologist. The biologist is sick; he visits her for their interview in her quarters. She is weak and more vulnerable than usual. Control thinks it was a mistake to talk to her when she is too casual and easy to pry open, and the biologist accuses him of taking advantage of her being sick to get more information. They develop a question-for-question game where they take turns asking and answering one question. She learns he is not married or gay, his hobbies, and more. He learns she found a bunch of journals at the lighthouse and that “something bad” happened at the lighthouse’s top, though she is not sure what (172).
When she asks about his mother’s job, Control replies that that information is classified. The biologist’s old spunk returns as she scolds him for his answers. He leaves their session soon after since he is feeling too attached to the biologist, who reveals parts of her personality that she had not before. He is beginning to feel too connected to her. Control also feels like his brain is taking too long to figure out all the mysteries; time is short, and he must complete the puzzle.
Part 2, Chapters 010-014 Analysis
Control’s unanticipated connection with Ghost Bird heightens the novel’s tension and creates a layered, meaningful relationship for Control, as well as an obstacle. He is not supposed to get too attached to any job or anyone, following his standard rules, but he feels a unique magnetism to Ghost Bird. Their connection deepens when she plays the question-and-answer game. Surprisingly, Control lets her see into his inner life. The fact that Ghost Bird is sick and vulnerable makes Control realize he cares for her and is attracted to her. Because Ghost Bird is in a weakened state, she is more open, which lowers Control’s defenses too, building their rapport and characterization. At one point, Ghost Bird even states that she knows what Control means when he backtracks about an idea. Their minds and personalities are beginning to balance well together, to understand each other. Since Control does not want to take advantage of her sickness, he also shows empathy and an authentic desire to get to know her beyond his mission.
The metaphor of the “ghost bird” not being allowed to fly is also revealing of Ghost Bird’s character and primary battle for freedom. Her identity is strengthened by her choosing this name: “‘No, you should see me in my unnatural environment.’ ‘It seems nice enough,’ he said, then wished he hadn’t. ‘The Ghost Bird has a usual daily range of ten to twenty square miles, not a cramped space for pacing of, say, forty feet’” (169). Her exact language is interesting too, as it shows she is well-versed in science and biology, particularly animals like the ghost bird. She relates to the nonhuman world more than to fellow humans. Like the bird, she cannot stand to be cooped up, stating she is a prisoner multiple times and admitting she only dreams of leaving this place. She is subjected to the Southern Reach’s every whim, living in a tiny space that is draining her mentally, emotionally, and physically. Ghost Bird is not even allowed to watch certain TV shows or read certain books, since they think they will interfere with recovering her memories. For instance, she has requested books about camouflage and mimicry—clues she is not actually the biologist—but is never granted these materials. The treatment she is subjected to highlights the theme of control and bureaucracy since she is at the mercy of the Southern Reach’s decisions and thus feels like a captive. But like the rabbits, the researchers’ attempts to control or understand Ghost Bird are doomed to failure. Ghost Bird requires space to solve the mystery of herself, another unknown, and Area X. Though Control is not privy to her thoughts, her pleading in the cell foreshadows her future journey to solve her identity and return to Area X, where she was created.
The conflicts with Grace continue and intensify, and readers learn more about Grace’s backstory. Though he claims it is part of his job, Control investigates Grace to try to understand her and have the upper hand in their battles. She is in a holding pattern of stagnation at the Southern Reach, after being married, divorced, dating a woman, raising two sons, and losing out on the director position: “The story ended with the director’s disappearance and Grace landing the booby prize: getting to be the assistant director for life. Oh, yes, and as a result of all of this, and more, Grace Stevenson fostered an overwhelming sense of hostility toward him” (160). Grace’s hatred toward Control is understandable since he is a new, inexperienced employee at Southern Reach, where she has been for almost 30 years. The transgressions between them heighten tension and lead Grace to use her “accusation” cards she has gathered about Control’s past. Her threatening to use the cards shows she is a merciless woman hellbent on being the one in power for their work. As a clever, determined, and spiteful person, she won’t give up on destroying Control: “He had a vision, again, of Grace spiriting away the biologist, of multiple mutual attempted destructions, until somewhere up in the clouds, atop two vast and blood-drenched escalators, they continued to do battle years from now” (161). Her loyalty to Cynthia, the past director, is also another reason she wants Control to fail. Though she wants them to figure out Area X, she wants herself or Cynthia to be the ruler of the Southern Reach. This loyalty to Cynthia, including a few discreet clues about a possible romance between them, also pushes her to fight with Control. Since she thinks Cynthia is still alive, though she has been missing for months, Grace wants to protect and honor her legacy too. The layered, continuous fight between them is based on complex human emotions, since Grace will never be the director, wants to preserve the director’s work, and feels insulted that Control is even there. Grace’s unwillingness to surrender, either to Control or to the unknowable forces of Area X, aligns her with bureaucracy and control.
