Mexican Gothic

by

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican Gothic: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Noemí wakes the next day very glad to see daylight. They’ve left her a tray of breakfast, but she fears that it may be poisoned, so she hardly touches it. Florence comes to her room and tells Noemí that Virgil wishes to see her. She follows Florence down the hallway and down the stairs, then dashes for the front door. Surprisingly, it’s unlocked. Although the mist outside is quite thick, Noemí runs blindly from the house. She loses a shoe and hears her dress rip. It quickly becomes more difficult for her to breathe, almost like a hand is squeezing her throat. She tries to keep going, but she can hardly breathe, and she collapses on the ground.
This is Noemí’s answer to Francis’s advice: of course she’s not going to submit to her horrific fate. Quite a few characters have lamented how they aren’t able to leave High Place, and here readers see proof of those lamentations: Noemí, like a fish out of water, is unable to breathe once she runs from High Place.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
A man lifts her up like she weighs nothing at all. Noemí has her other shoe in her hand, and she swings it at the man’s face. He grunts angrily and holds her tighter in his arms, then walks her back to the house. Noemí hardly made it a few meters before collapsing. In the light of the house she sees that it’s Virgil who holds her. He brings her to her bathroom, places her in the tub, and turns the water on.  He orders her to take her clothes off, reaching forward to undo one of Noemí’s buttons. The shortness of breath is gone, so she slaps his hand away and yells at him. He repeats his order, this time with a threat: “Get out of those clothes before I make you.”
Though Noemí has been sexually assaulted by Virgil in her nightmares, this is the first time that it happens in reality. That he attacks Noemí in a moment of vulnerability (while she’s short of breath) is doubly despicable.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
Noemí undoes her buttons with shaky hands. She knows that Virgil means what he threatens, so she takes her clothes off and cleans herself while he watches. He puts his hand on her thigh, and Noemí pushes herself back, curling into a ball at the back of the tub. She tells him to leave, and Virgil smiles. He asks why Noemí is suddenly so bashful—last time that wasn’t the case. Just as Virgil grabs her head and moves to kiss her, Francis enters the room. Dr. Cummins is here, he says, and he’s waiting to see Noemí. To her immense relief Virgil leaves the room.
Noemí knows that she’s a captive here, so Virgil’s power over her has grown immensely. She forces herself to endure the shame of bathing in front of him in an attempt to avoid a physical confrontation. Luckily Francis enters the room before the scene can progress much further. 
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
Noemí is brought to the bedroom, where Dr. Cummins examines her. Noemí is fine, he says, nothing but a couple of scrapes. But if she damaged her face, Howard would have been mad. Noemí notices that Dr. Cummins looks like a Doyle, and the doctor admits that he’s distantly related. He tells Noemí that she needs to eat, but she refuses. He sighs, noting that women can be so difficult. Noemí claps back by asking if his daughter was difficult, too. Noemí accuses him of giving Howard his own daughter—Virgil said that she ran away, but that’s not true, is it? No one ever leaves this place. She’s dead, isn’t she? Did Howard kill her?
Dr. Cummins’s comment reminds the reader of Howard’s obsession with beauty: he doesn’t care if Noemí is injured, only that her pretty face is unscathed. Additionally, though it’s never confirmed, Noemí’s guess about Dr. Cummins’s daughter appears to be spot on. That Dr. Cummins was willing to sacrifice his own daughter reveals his sexism and loyalty to Howard.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
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The doctor stands up and tells Francis that he must talk some sense into Noemí. Howard will not tolerate this sort of behavior. He leaves the room. Francis grabs the tray and brings it to Noemí. He tells her in Spanish what food has been laced with fungus and what food is clean. Howard can hear through the walls, but he doesn’t speak Spanish. He tells Noemí that he wants to help her. He takes out Marta’s flask—they told him to get rid of it after Catalina’s episode, but he didn’t listen. The fungus is very sensitive to certain triggers, like this tincture, and cigarettes. Taking a little of the tincture will loosen the fungus’s hold on Noemí, but if she takes too much, she’ll have a seizure like Catalina.
Howard’s contempt for the locals kept him from learning Spanish, and here his own bigotry is being used against him. Perhaps it was Noemí’s punch that knocked some sense into Francis, or perhaps Noemí’s escape attempt demonstrated that it’s better to be courageous than meek in the face of oppression. Either way, Francis recommits himself to helping Noemí.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
Colonialism Theme Icon
Francis continues to explain his plan. Uncle Howard is going to die soon, there’s no stopping it. Once his body gives way, he’ll begin the transmigration. Then he’ll take possession of Virgil’s body. When that happens, everyone will be distracted, and the house will be weakened. That’s their chance to escape. Francis knows some tunnels that run underneath the house, so they can go that way. Noemí tells him that she won’t leave without Catalina, and Francis reluctantly agrees to take her too.
Noemí, like Ruth before her, is planning to escape from Howard. While Ruth tried to escape alone, Noemí refuses to leave without Catalina, her fellow woman in captivity. She’s also accepting help from Francis, so it’s possible that Noemí’s focus on cooperation will be what helps her to succeed where Ruth failed.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
Francis tells Noemí that she needs to go along with what the family says until it’s time for them to run. Noemí asks what he means, and he tells her that Howard wants Francis and Noemí to marry and have children. Noemí inquires what will happened if she says no; will Howard take control of her mind? Francis explains that no, that method of control is too coarse for Howard. He knows that people must obey him willingly, otherwise it’s too exhausting. That’s why Ruth was able to grab a rifle, and why the miners were able to organize a strike.
Howard is not able to directly control a person—they have to willingly submit to him. This makes Noemí’s rebelliousness all the more vital, and explains how others before Noemí were able to stand up to Howard.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
Noemí takes a sip of Marta’s tincture. She asks Francis why she should trust him. He responds that he once read a journal about a cicada fungus. It said that the infected cicadas would still sing for mates even as the fungus consumed them from within. Noemí’s right, he says: he does still have a choice, and he’s unwilling to end his life singing a tune, pretending everything is fine. Noemí has changed him; he can’t pretend anymore.
Francis’s explanation for why he wants to help Noemí contradicts the eugenics-based philosophies that the rest of the Doyles adhere to. While people like Florence and Virgil have argued that a person’s nature predicts their actions and makes them suitable only for certain environments, here Francis demonstrates that love has changed his nature—his feelings for Noemí propel him to act, despite everything he’s been led to believe by his family.
Themes
Nature vs. Love Theme Icon
Quotes
Francis leaves and Noemí falls asleep. She dreams that Ruth stands at the foot of her bed. Noemí asks if Ruth can hear her, but she responds with the same phrase that she’s said in Noemí’s last few dreams: “I’m not sorry.” Noemí reaches out and touches Ruth’s shoulder. Ruth begins to sob as she tells Noemí that she has to kill Howard. He will never let her escape. That was Ruth’s mistake, she didn’t do it right. Noemí asks how Ruth should have done it—what did she mean? But Ruth just keeps sobbing and falls on the floor. Her body turns gray and sprouts mold, and she begins to tear at her own body. Open your eyes, Noemí tells herself. And she does; she wakes up.
Ruth serves as a sort of model for feminist resistance. Noemí has to use what she’s learned from Ruth’s attempt at escape for the benefit of the women that are currently trapped. Additionally, thus far in the novel when Noemí has had to snap out of her nightmarish visions, she’s relied on Ruth’s voice telling her to “open her eyes.” That Noemí now tells herself to open her eyes signals that she’s ready to begin her own act of resistance.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
Quotes