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Chapter 19
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mexican Gothic, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power
Nature vs. Love
Colonialism
Life, Death, and Rebirth
Summary
Analysis
Noemí vomits. She has never felt this sick before in her life. She hears a voice telling her to breathe. A man brings her over to her bed and presses a glass of water to her lips, and suddenly it all comes back—the horror she has been subjected to. Francis stands before her. How could Noemí ever have liked this man? He tells her that Howard has sent him here to explain the situation. He’s going to tell her a story, and after he’s done, she can ask any question she wants.
Though Francis has been demonstrating his allegiance to Noemí in various ways throughout the novel, this constitutes a great betrayal. Howard’s assault of Noemí seemed premeditated, and Francis did nothing to warn her or prevent it.
Themes
A long time ago, Howard found a fungus that can extend human life. That fungus now runs all through the house, like a giant spider’s web. It can preserve memories and thoughts, like flies caught in the web. The Doyles call this repository of ancestral memories “the gloom.” Noemí chuckles. She was right—this house is haunted, and Catalina is not crazy.
In her letter Catalina had written “it’s in the walls.” She was right; the gloom is a place where fantasy and reality meet, and it allows the past to interact with the present (like a ghost). Francis calls it a “repository of ancestral memories,” but a more accurate descriptor might be a living log of colonial sin and oppression.
Themes
Noemí asks Francis what Howard did to her. He tells her that most people who come into contact with the fungus die—that’s what happened to the miners—but not everyone perishes. With some people, the fungus erodes their minds, binding them to the house. Howard did this to the servants. But the Doyles are special: the fungus bonds with them. It can even make them immortal. Howard has lived many lives; when he approaches the end of one life, he transfers his consciousness to the gloom. Then, because of the gloom, he can live again in the body of one of his children. He doesn’t possess them—they actually become him.
Howard uses the gloom to transfer his consciousness to a new body once his current one nears death, and in this way, he’s achieved immortality. Yet, he does this at the cost of his children, who are consumed when Howard takes over their body (like the ouroboros, a snake biting its own tail).
Themes
For generations the Doyle bloodline has been kept pure in order to maintain their relationship with the fungus. In this way, Howard has survived for three hundred years. Francis says that Howard is their God, and he wants Noemí to become part of the family. She protests, but Francis tells her that it’s too late. The fungus won’t let her leave. Ruth tried hard to escape—she shot Howard, but even that wasn’t enough. He survived. But his power decreased, which is why all the workers in the mine died. Noemí asks if the workers were hypnotized. Francis tells her that they weren’t, since even Howard isn’t strong enough to manipulate that many people. But working so close to the fungus was dangerous for the miners, and Howard would use his power over the gloom to keep them from getting sick.
Howard has become an immortal patriarch—something very near a god. Additionally, this passage makes it clear that Howard put all the miners at risk by exposing them to the fungus. When Howard’s power weakened, the miners perished in the two epidemics. Thus, Howard is clearly culpable for the deaths of hundreds of indigenous people, further characterizing him as a vicious colonizer concerned only with his own wealth.
Themes
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Noemí asks about Francis’s father, Richard. Francis responds that after Howard was shot, he slowly began to heal himself. It was then difficult, in recent generations, for the family to have children. When Florence came of age, Howard tried to impregnate her, but he was too old. Noemí nearly vomits—Howard forced himself on his own niece. Francis continues. The family needed children, and they needed money, too. So Howard sent Florence out to find a husband. Richard wasn’t wealthy, but he had enough for the family to get by. He came to live at High Place, and Florence became pregnant and birthed Francis.
Howard needs male children in order to survive, so he rapes his niece, Florence, in an attempt to get her pregnant. That Noemí nearly vomits at this revelation is a sign that she is a character who acutely feels the pain and suffering of other women.
Themes
The idea was that Richard and Florence would have more children—more girls. But the gloom affected him. He wanted to leave but couldn’t. So he threw himself down a ravine. Francis looks at Noemí. Fighting it will only make the pain worse, he tells her. But if you accept it, if you agree to become part of the family, you will be fine. Noemí yells at Francis. His family is a pack of monsters. Noemí trusted him, and he betrayed her. Francis’s mouth begins to quiver, and Noemí can tell that he’s about to cry. He apologizes, which only further enrages Noemí. She uses all of her strength to punch him in the face, and then she collapses on the floor.
Richard was in much the same position as Catalina, and like Catalina he attempted suicide (though he was successful, and Catalina was not). Though Francis has defended Noemí countless times throughout the novel, his advice here is a betrayal of everything Noemí’s done, and of his father’s legacy. That he’s on the verge of tears is a sign that he does not totally believe his own advice, however.
Themes
Francis lays Noemí on the bed, and she begins to have another dream. She’s in a chamber that is dark and has no windows. An altar is covered in candles. Red tapestries depicting the ouroboros hang from the ceiling. Howard Doyle stands before the altar, and next to him is the woman from the caves, who is heavily pregnant. Two blond women lie her down. Noemí realizes that she’s seen this ritual before. The woman gives birth, the child cries out, then Howard grabs him. A voice in her head whispers the words “Et Verbum caro factum est.” Noemí knows that when she saw this scene before, she had not seen the proper truth. But here it is. Howard kills the child and eats him.
The truth of Howard’s ritual is finally revealed: the Doyles practice cannibalism on infant children. The Latin phrase “Et Verbum caro factum est” means “the word made flesh” and is a Christian reference to God’s word becoming flesh in Jesus. Howard’s use of the phrase is a perversion of the Catholic Eucharist. He is consuming his own son in order to bind more closely with the fungus and gain eternal life.
Themes
The two women press a cloth against the mother’s face and swaddle her tight before burying her alive. The voice in Noemí’s head tells her that this woman’s burial is necessary. The fungus would erupt from her body and weave its way into the foundations of the building. The gloom needs a mind, and Howard is no fool who’s willing to offer himself in sacrifice. The gloom is alive, and at its core is the corpse of this woman.
At the core of Howard’s power is the body of a wounded woman. Patriarchy, it seems, relies on the oppression and violation of women. In order for the gloom to function someone needed to be sacrificed, and Howard seems very willing to sacrifice his first wife, rather than himself.
Themes
