37 pages • 1 hour read
Francine RiversRedeeming Love
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1991A 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 15-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Fear”
Part 2, Chapters 15-18 Summary
Sarah discovers that the Palace burned down, and two prostitutes died in the fire, one of whom was Lucky. The Duchess moved to Sacramento, and Magowan was blamed for the fire and hanged. The town is dying because the gold is drying up. Sarah negotiates in the nearby saloon for a room to begin selling herself again. The barman agrees to a fifty-fifty split, “providing you give me whatever I want for free” (164). Sarah agrees, her mind raging with regret. She sees clients for a few days until Michael bursts into her room. He furiously drags her out, fighting anyone in his way. His anger reminds her of Duke. Miles out of town, she jumps from the coach and runs through the woods. Michael drags her back to the coach, admitting that he is so angry he could kill Sarah but because he loves her, he will not. They travel home.
Sarah and Michael ride in silence and arrive home as the sun rises. Doubts gnaw at Sarah’s mind. She makes a fire and wonders: “Why did I throw it all away?” (172). When Michael is away for hours, Sarah finds him weeping in the barn. She washes herself in the creek. Michael finds that his breakfast ready and Sarah is gone. Angrily, he goes to find her, and he stops her from rubbing gravel over her skin. Michael takes Sarah to the house and feels, once again, as though he could kill her. When he confesses this to God, he hears the words “seventy times seven” (176). He and Sarah talk; she admits that she “heard my own father say I was supposed to be aborted” (177). She tells him about her childhood and how she will never be able to “pretend [these things] didn’t happen” (178). Michael places the wedding ring on Sarah’s finger again to “keep it official” (179) and offers to baptize her to start again. They kiss.
Sarah works “to make it up to Michael” (182), who tells her that she is doing too much. God tells him to “tend my lamb” (183). Michael struggles to reconcile the woman he wants with the mental image of the young Sarah who was raped, wondering how God could have allowed that to happen. He grows more distant from Paul. Michael and Sarah go to Sacramento. That night, they talk about sex and love. Sarah believes that “women aren’t supposed to really enjoy sex […] it’s all an act” (187) but Michael disagrees. He shows her the constellations. They arrive in the “booming metropolis” (188) of Sacramento. Upon seeing Sarah, the men are stunned. Michael sells his produce and tells Sarah to select cloth enough for three dresses. He also buys a stove and items for the house. They stay with Joseph the storekeeper that night. Sarah grows sleepy as the two men talk politics and religion. After she goes to bed, the men discuss how Sarah has changed.
The next day, Michael takes Sarah to a church. Inside, she feels nervous. Though Michael seems to be at home, she feels the need to get out. She waits outside alone while the service finishes. They discuss religion on the ride home. They stop by the road, and Michael talks about his father. His family had owned “the biggest plantation in the district” (198) and had slaves, who taught Michael about Christianity. The treatment of the slaves compelled him to run away. He took his sister Tessie and her husband Paul with him. The story endears Michael to Sarah.
As they travel, they come across a broken-down wagon. In the rain, they stop and help the family. Sarah looks after the children while Michael helps fix the wagon and invites the family to spend winter in his house. Michael says he and Sarah will sleep in the barn. They camp together that night and the family ask Sarah questions. She decides to tell the truth, that she “met Michael in a brothel in Pair-a-Dice” (204). Miriam, one of the daughters, apologizes to Sarah for prying, and the two bond. They spend the night camped beside the family, but Sarah cannot sleep. The happy Altman family perplexes her. The youngest girl reminds Sarah of when Duke told her that he would “make sure you never get pregnant again” (208). She is haunted by the memory of being sterilized. When Michael mentions maybe one day having a child, she stares into the fire “in despair” (208).
Part 2, Chapters 19-21 Summary
Michael settles the Altmans in his house, and he and Sarah live in the barn. Sarah is perplexed by Miriam Altman’s desire to be friends. The entire family is unlike anything she has ever experienced. When the family talks about religion, Sarah tries to keep quiet. John Altman, the father, plays the fiddle at his children’s request. He dedicates the song to David, their dead son. Sarah worries about growing too close to Michael. Elizabeth, the mother, makes clothes for Sarah, and Sarah thinks Elizabeth will want something in return because no one could be that nice naturally. She tries to refuse the gift and argues with Miriam. As they talk, Miriam asks about Paul; “thinking about this sweet girl with Paul disturbed [Sarah] greatly” (219). Sarah accepts the gifts, which “fit her perfectly” (221), and resolves to try and be happy.
Michael worries that Sarah is growing too close to the Altman family, who still plan to travel to Oregon in the spring. After talking with Sarah, he sells them the west end of his land. They begin building a house two miles away. Miriam is attracted to Paul, and Sarah worries that soon he will have “poisoned their affection” (225) against her. The Altman family packs up and moves to the new house. Sarah, Paul, and Michael wait in the house for the Altmans to arrive, and Sarah worries that she is about to lose her adopted family. Sarah talks with Miriam about Paul and feels that, inside her, “the dark inner silence grew, familiar and heavy” (229). They eat a picnic together, and Michael notes both his wife’s distance and the affection between Miriam and Paul, who dance together while John plays the fiddle. Michael and Sarah return home and talk. Sarah admits that she does not want to fall in love with Michael because he will “just end up using it against me” (236). He accuses her of being scared of freedom.
Spring arrives, and there is an emotional distance between Sarah and Michael. He gently pushes her to open up more, but Sarah remains scared. She remembers her mother and the hopeless love she held for Sarah’s father, Alex. A voice inside tells her to reveal to Michael “the worst of what [she has] done. Tell him about [her] father]” (238). Sarah talks to Michael and reveals that she had sex with her own father. Enraged, he demands to know everything. Alex was one of Duke’s friends, but he did not know that Duke’s prostitute was his daughter. Sarah recognized her father but did not reveal her identity until after they had sex. She also told him what happened to her mother. Alex said nothing and then cried. He asked for forgiveness, which Sarah refused, and three days later he shot himself. Sarah then reveals how the doctor sterilized her on Duke’s orders. Michael walks out of the house and goes to the hilltop. Sarah joins him and they watch the sunrise. They talk and return home. Michael goes to the barn and makes a set of windchimes. They have sex, and it is a new sensation for Sarah. She cries after and Michael kisses her. When he wakes up in the morning, however, she is gone again.
Part 2 Analysis
In the second part of the book, several storylines reach their conclusion. The audience learns what happened to both Sarah’s father and Magowan. While the former packs the punch of a shocking reveal, the latter event is far subtler and quieter. Throughout Sarah’s time in the Palace, Magowan is the most terrifying person she knows. The Duchess is in control of the brothel, but it is Magowan’s predilection for violence that keeps the girls in line. Many have scars from previous encounters with Magowan and do not want to repeat the violence. Sarah tries to use his violent nature to commit suicide, and her near-death is further proof that Magowan is a villain. Magowan is eventually hanged, but this punishment is only related to both Sarah and the reader through snatches of overhead dialogue. Whereas Alex Stafford’s suicide carries a huge emotional punch because the person who relates the story was narratively entwined with the death, the bartender relating Magowan’s death does not have this effect. The death of one of the most vicious and hurtful characters in the text is related like a piece of gossip and the narrative quickly moves along. While Alex’s death is devastating, Magowan’s is a throwaway story that undermines the terror induced by the characters.
In comparison, however, the slow way in which Duke’s various crimes are revealed to the reader continually reaffirms his villainous qualities. Throughout the story, Sarah is tormented by the memory of the man who raped her as a child and sold her body to his friends. She admits that “Duke still haunted her. He still owned her soul” (221). When she begins to reflect on his crimes, it becomes clear why. After Sarah is twice impregnated, Duke has her forcibly sterilized. He also tricked her father into having sex with her as an act of emotional manipulation. The slow build-up of Duke’s true character becomes all the more effective because, like Sarah, the reader becomes haunted by his memory and empathizes even more with Sarah.
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