Reckoning: Chapter 21: Warsaw Summary & Analysis

An hour later, Andrzej picks Magda up in his car. Anticipating the hero who had joined the resistance during the war, Magda is surprised by Andrzej’s thin stature; however, he still has some debonair flair left over from the family’s pre-war high status. As they drive through Warsaw, the nation’s “war wound,” Magda cries with horror. Andrzej scoffs when they pass the Palace of Culture and Science—the Soviet Union’s “gift” to Poland. At Andrzej’s flat, Danuta embraces Magda, exclaiming over how much she looks like Peter. Since Danuta refused to speak German after the war, Magda mimes her travel stories. Andrzej states that Magda is an actress.

Andrzej and Danuta’s tiny flat is filled with objects from Andrzej’s naval post in Shanghai. Danuta says that, for economic reasons, most Polish people live with family until marriage. Magda wonders what lesbians do if they’re unable to express their sexuality at home.

The following morning, Magda’s cousin, Magda Zawadzka, visits. Magda is in awe of her cousin’s kindness and sophistication; cousin Magda’s husband, Gustaw, is a famous Shakespearean actor. After breakfast, cousin Magda takes Magda to Pawiak, a Gestapo-run prison which is now a museum. Magda and Magda sit on a bench inside the thick walls and listen to a voice on an intercom read messages of love; Polish prisoners wrote these messages to their families and stuffed them into the walls of the prison. Cousin Magda holds Magda’s hand as Magda weeps.

Magda feels that history separates her from her cousin; after the war, four decades of a communist regime oppressed Poland; Andrzej, as a former member of the Underground Army was under heavy scrutiny. Often, Magda overhears Andrzej discuss risky communism rebellions with relatives. In a response to Magda’s letters, Jane writes that Magda seems hysterical. Magda, who believes in socialism, is shaken to see her family persecuted in the name of progress and equality—ideals she herself holds. Magda still hopes that Karl Marx’s vision is right, but her family wants nothing short of free-market capitalism.

After Pawiak, Magda cries every day; she writes to Jane that she can hear Polish people howling to avenge their lost city. In retrospect, Magda recognizes her feelings as survivor’s guilt: because of Peter’s escape, Magda and her immediate family did not suffer like the rest of the family did. Not even shopping can soothe Magda, as there is no consumer culture in Poland: stores are empty, everything is rationed, and you have to stand in line for hours to get anything.

The Iron Curtain would rise eventually, but the broken family ties could not be repaired. When Magda asks, cousin Magda says that she can’t believe Magda never met the kind Jadwiga. Magda struggles to understand love for someone one has never met. To make up for what Magda has missed, Danuta and Andrzej shower her with affection and introduce her to old friends.

One day when they are alone, Danuta shows Magda photos of her ancestors. After staring at Jadwiga, who looks just like her, Magda starts to cry. Danuta gives Magda copies of the photos, which Magda tucks into her money belt. Andrzej returns and turns on the TV; footage of Israel invading Lebanon plays. Outraged, Andrzej asks Magda what Peter says about all this anti-Jewish propaganda. Magda, who condemns Israel’s actions, reflects that Poland’s huge Jewish population was killed during World War II. Here, where the Holocaust is no abstraction, Magda is no longer sure what she believes; moral certainty slips through her fingers.

When Magda’s two-week visa expires, she says goodbye to her family and gets on a train to West Berlin. Although she aches for the beauty of the West, her heart feels like it is tearing; she understands how Peter must feel. At the East German border, a woman checks Magda’s passport, ignoring Magda when she says that she is Australian. Searching Magda’s money belt, the woman finds Polish money (which is illegal to take out of Poland) between the photos. To Magda’s relief, the woman returns the money and the photos.

In West Berlin, Magda stays at a women’s hostel decorated with vagina imagery. The next day, several feminists shave one another’s heads. Perversely, Magda prefers Germany to Poland; as victims, the people of Poland live with a sadness that saps youth.

Magda travels to Italy; she goes shopping and makes friends, but depression soon spoils her time there; having received no letters from Jane, she worries that her departure broke their relationship irreparably. In Malaysia (her layover on her way back to Australia), Magda sees a child playing with a dead rat; she rushes to her hotel where she stays for two days, recounting the horrors of the world. On the second flight, she tells a woman that she wants to be an actress; she vows that, when she gets home, she will finish her degree, start acting, and win Jane back.