The Second Coming

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1980

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-7

Part 2, Chapters 1-3

Part 2, Chapters 4-5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Part 2, Chapters 4-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary

Will is placed in the retirement community that Marion started, so that he can receive regular treatment for his Hausmann’s Syndrome. The treatments cause dizziness, which causes his golf drive to get worse, but his putting to improve. He plays golf, but cannot drive his car well anymore. Eventually, Will learns that Leslie moved many of his things into the retirement home well before he went to the hospital; Leslie confirms that she knew he was sick and was just waiting for a diagnosis. While Will remains the only beneficiary of Marion’s estate, Leslie behaves as though Will has guaranteed her the money to begin the Peabody Foundation, through which she’ll form more Christian hospitals and retirement communities.

Will observes other people in the retirement home, including a former gardener. The man continues to care for plants even though there is already another hired gardener. Will grows to enjoy watching TV and finds that it’s the only way that his roommates can get along without fighting.

Kitty visits him, but she is furious, accusing him of being sexually interested in her daughter and causing Allison to regress. Kitty is upset that Will knew where Allison was the whole time and believes Dr. Vance Battle’s theory that the pair had a romantic fling while Will was missing and in the cave. Kitty pledges to have Allison returned to Dr. Duk’s care at the psychiatric institution and to never allow her to see him again.

Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary

After a few days of watching TV in the retirement community, Will decides to leave suddenly while watching an episode of M*A*S*H. He gets dressed, goes to his car, and drives to see Allison, whom he finds with her dog in the woods near the golf course. They confess their love for each other and kiss. Both enjoy the kiss, and Will suggests that he can give her legal advice if she wants it. He has a way to ensure that she is not sent back to a psychiatric hospital, although he suggests that she come to a Holiday Inn with him for a few days so that Kitty and Dr. Duk will not find her. Allison agrees.

Will goes to a local law firm and starts the paperwork to have Allison protected from institutionalization. He also asks the lawyer if he can work there as a clerk, wanting to have a job again despite knowing that he has forgotten much of his legal knowledge during retirement.

At the Holiday Inn, Allison and Will eat dinner and then have intercourse. They discuss their future and decide to stay together, citing their love and their complementary skills (Allison hoisting Will upright, and Will understanding Allison’s words). They plan to live together, to grow vegetables in the greenhouse, and potentially to marry and have a child together. That night, Will dreams of his father’s voice once again telling him to end his own life. He refuses repeatedly. Will gets up and throws the guns still in the trunk of his Mercedes into a ravine. He returns to Allison, and they return to the Kemp property, where Allison finally begins to sing as she did before her mental health crisis.

Will visits the retirement home and recruits some of the old folks to work on restoring Allison’s property, allowing them to exercise their skills and be actively involved in the world again. He goes to Father Weatherbee, a Catholic priest and a friend of Jack Curl, and asks him to perform a wedding for himself and Allison. Father Weatherbee seems confused by Will’s theological questions regarding the potential disappearance of the Jews and whether or not that is a sign of the imminent second coming of Christ. Thinking of Allison, Will reflects that his desire for her is as urgent as his desire for God. He wonders why he needs both so much and considers if they are the same thing. Before he comes to a firm conclusion, Will resolves that he will have both God and Allison.

Part 2, Chapters 4-5 Analysis

The final chapters of The Second Coming see Will in danger of once again succumbing to passivity due to The Absurdity of Modern Life. However, this time, he is able to escape from an existence that he finds meaningless and, by way of his own actions, to find a way to live. A major theme in these chapters is The Purpose of Love, as the narrative explores how the love between Will and Allison is mutually beneficial and imparts the same level of purpose as The Search for Signs of God did for Will.

Following Will’s diagnosis with Hausmann’s Syndrome, his daughter and friends put him into a retirement home, where all his needs are met. Though this rehoming appears to be a caring gesture, Will realizes that it also robs him of any form of control he had over his life. Television serves as a major symbol of Will’s passivity and the absurdity of the world in the retirement community. Watching programs on television is the only thing that he and the other retirees can do for entertainment, but these shows are simply a way to escape from boredom and worry; there is no pathway for making truly meaningful connections. As Will sits outside of his room at the retirement home, he starts to want to watch television as an escape from worry: “[H]e felt an urge to get away from the silent white enveloping cloud and go inside to the cheerful living room with its screen of lively sparkling colors and watch the doings of Kojak” (314). After a few days, Will starts to notice his dependence on the distraction: “Strange. He had not spent a week at St. Mark’s and already he was looking forward to the Morning Movie” (322). Movies and television prevent his roommates from bickering and stave off boredom and sadness, but they are passive experiences. The viewers do not need to take any actions or make any decisions. Watching television and being retired are two states wherein a person loses agency to decide, and therefore loses a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

Rather than remain in this state, Will leaves the retirement home and goes to live with Allison in her greenhouse in the woods, where he senses his potential to find purpose. Romantic relationships have not fixed Will’s problems in the past. His marriage to Marion was based on a desire to do a good and charitable action, while his relationship with Kitty was based on sexual attraction, but neither of these relationships were able to help Will find purpose in his life. However, Percy suggests a key difference in Will’s romance with Allison: They each possess what the other lacks. Their love is not an innately moral action, nor is it entirely based on sexual passion; instead, Will and Allison find meaning in each other because they can help one another to live. Allison suggests that Will’s epilepsy means that he falls a lot, and she is skilled at hoisting heavy things back up. Will, in turn, highlights his own capacity to support her with his own unique nature:

[B]y the same token, I remember everything and you forget most things. I’ll be your memory. Then too, your language is somewhat unusual. But I understand it. In fact, it means more than other people’s. Thus, I could both remember for you and interpret for you (329).

They decide to live together essentially because they can be helpful to each other, finding in this quality The Purpose of Love.

The end of the novel hints that Will and Allison’s love, built on saving each other and providing what the other lacks, mirrors the relationship between humans and God. In the final moments of the novel, Will wonders why there is such overlap in his urgency of need for both Allison and God: “What is it I want from her and him […] not only want but must have? Is she a gift and therefore a sign of a giver? Could it be that the Lord is here, masquerading behind this simple silly holy face?” (360). By questioning if Allison is the very sign he has been seeking, one that could confirm the existence of God, Will indicates that Allison gives his life the same level of meaning as connecting to the divine did. Furthermore, Percy implies that God’s love is similar to the love that Will and Allison have—a love that gives the other person what they most need.