Mexican Gothic

by

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican Gothic: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Noemí wakes up the next morning and breakfast is brought to her on a tray. Thank goodness—now she doesn’t have to sit and eat with the whole family again. After a shower she applies her lipstick and eyeliner and then picks a fine, colorful dress to wear, hoping to defy the gloom around her. And High Place is quite gloomy: walking around the house, Noemí finds the ghostly sight of furniture covered in white sheets and draperies shut tight. Where sunlight does get in, it simply reveals how dusty everything is. She tries to find a piano, but there isn’t one. Nor is there a radio or even an old gramophone.
Though her surroundings are decrepit, Noemí continues to dress as she would if she were still attending parties in Mexico City. She knows that her beauty and fine clothes are assets. Men hold the power here—charming them with her elegance is one of the few forms of power available to Noemí.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
Noemí wanders into a large library lined with tall bookcases stuffed with leather-bound volumes. She looks around, but most of the books have been ravaged by mold. In the middle of the room lies a circular rug showing the image of a black serpent eating its own tail, with tiny flowers and vines all around it. Noemí finds a desk with an open eugenics research journal on top of it. The journal argues against the idea that the “half-breed mestizo” inherits the worst traits of their progenitors. Rather, the journal claims, the “mestizo” possess many inherently splendid attributes.
This is the first time Noemí notices a symbol that will appear again and again throughout High Place: the ouroboros. She doesn’t yet know what the symbol means, however. The word “mestizo” refers to someone of mixed ancestry, which Noemí is. Finding this eugenics journal, then, explains Howard’s fascination with Noemí’s skin color.
Themes
Colonialism Theme Icon
Noemí leaves the library and heads to the kitchen. She finds the room ill lit, with narrow windows and peeling paint on the walls. Two servants, an old woman and a slightly younger man, sit on a long bench cleaning mushrooms. Noemí introduces herself to them, but they stare at her mutely. A third servant walks in and nods to Noemí but does not speak to her. Noemí wonders if someone has told the servants not to speak with her, then she steps outside through the backdoor.
The rule of silence seems to be enforced on the servants, who are expected to mutely accept the whims of their masters.
Themes
Colonialism Theme Icon
It’s chilly outside the house, and Noemí regrets not wearing something warmer. Francis finds her and asks if she would like to take a tour of the grounds. He takes her towards the cemetery, through an iron gate decorated with the motif of the serpent eating its tail, the same as in the library. They find the graveyard in the middle of a dense thicket of trees; it is unkempt, a realm of weeds and tall grasses threatening to swallow the place. Noemí finds the cemetery quite melancholy, and she feels sorry for the people buried here. She begins looking at the tombstones and sees that many of the people buried here died in 1888. 
The graveyard is uncared for, suggesting that the Doyles lack reverence for the dead. The ouroboros, a symbol of rebirth, further suggests that, in and of themselves, the dead have little value to the Doyles.
Themes
Life, Death, and Rebirth Theme Icon
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Francis explains that after purchasing the mine, his great uncle Howard brought English workers here to manage it. They were successful for a few years, but then an epidemic killed most of the English workers. Those are the people buried in this cemetery. Noemí asks if his great uncle then sent for more workers from England to replace the ones who died. Francis stutters while explaining that no, after the English workers died the mine began employing Mexican workers. The pair continue walking through the cemetery, and Noemí notices a large mausoleum with the name “Doyle” carved above the doorway along with the Latin phrase “Et Verbum caro factum est.” Francis explains that a statue in front of the mausoleum is in the likeness of his great aunt, who died during the epidemic.  
Though the mine employed both English and Mexican workers, only the English are buried in the Doyles’ cemetery. This is a form of segregation and further reveals the family’s prejudice. The Latin phrase inscribed on the statue translates to “the word made flesh,” seemingly referring to God becoming man through the birth of Jesus Christ.
Themes
Colonialism Theme Icon
The silence of the cemetery unnerves Noemí, so she starts chatting with Francis. He asks her what kind of car she drives, and she tells him: a pretty Buick convertible. Driving with the hood down makes your hair look movie-star perfect, she jokes. Noemí’s father has always said that she cares too much about her looks to take school seriously, as if a woman can’t do two things at once. Francis lowers his eyes, then tells Noemí that she’s very different from her cousin—she’s charming. Noemí knows that Catalina used to be charming, it’s only when she came to High Place that the charm seems to have left her.
Noemí embodies both traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine forms of power (and does so in different ways throughout the novel). Higher education has historically been reserved for men, but Noemí’s deal with her father has given her access to that form of power. Yet, she also embraces typically feminine forms of power, like dressing up and charming or flattering men as a way to manipulate them. In sum, Noemí’s utilization of both typically masculine and feminine forms of power demonstrates that assigning gender to modes of power is illogical and repressive.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon
Quotes
The conversation turns to the Doyles. Noemí asks Francis if he envies Virgil, the heir of the family. She compares the two men: Francis is very thin and has bruises under his eyes that make her suspect a hidden ailment, while Virgil exudes strength and has bolder, more attractive features. Francis responds, saying that he doesn’t envy Virgil’s looks or position, he only envies the freedom that Virgil enjoys. Francis has never been further from High Place than El Triunfo, whereas Virgil has been allowed to travel.
Virgil embodies many of the qualities that society at this time values in a man. He is handsome, muscled, and the heir to a large estate. Francis is none of these things, and the fact that he isn’t envious of Virgil for his money or looks reveals Francis’s personality as modest. What he cares most about is freedom.
Themes
Nature vs. Love Theme Icon
Noemí shivers, so Francis gives her his sweater. They start walking towards the house. Francis tells her more about the history of High Place. After the Revolution in 1915 the mines were flooded, and operations permanently ceased; that was the same year Virgil was born. Francis is ten years younger than Virgil, but they grew up together. There were no other children in High Place, and they were both homeschooled, so they were each other’s only friends. Noemí asks why they insist on silence in High Place, and Francis tells her that Howard is very old and very sensitive to noise, and noise travels very easily in the house, despite its size.
In some ways Francis seems just as trapped at High Place as Catalina. He’s never left El Triunfo, and he grew up in near isolation with Virgil. 
Themes
Nature vs. Love Theme Icon
Francis and Noemí return to the house and have lunch with Florence. The meal ends quickly—Virgil and Howard do not join them. That night while lying in bed, Noemí spots a bit of mold growing on the wallpaper. She's reminded of something she read in a book once—how microscopic fungi can act upon the dyes in paper and form arsenic gas. The most civilized Victorians killed themselves in this way. Noemí’s grandfather was a chemist, and her father’s business is the production of pigments and dyes, so she knows quite a bit about this. The wallpaper in her room is pink with yellow medallions running across it, though, not the green that killed Victorians.
Noemí’s observations and musings echo Catalina’s letter. Catalina wrote that the house was “sick with rot,” and she’d drawn circles in the margins of her letter. Though Noemí dismisses this early observation about possible poisonous gas coming from the wallpaper, by the end of the novel this turns out to be more relevant than she now knows. Furthermore, she’s able to make this observation only because she’s been educated (she’d read about the Victorians in a book, and she’d learned about dyes from her father), showing how important education truly is.
Themes
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power Theme Icon