The Plague of Doves: 16. The Reptile Garden Summary & Analysis

In 1972, Evelina’s parents drop her off at college. When they say goodbye, Evelina is struck by the ferocity of the love in her mother and father’s eyes; later, Evelina will think that her parents’ love and wisdom is the thing that allowed her to “survive” this period in her life. Though Evelina has long dreamed of going to Paris, even being a few hours from home makes her feel lonely. She doesn’t think that she fits in with either her White or her Indian classmates, and she fears that Mooshum will die while she is gone.  

Instead of making friends, Evelina becomes obsessed with books. Her favorite author is Anaïs Nin. Evelina checks out all of “Anaïs’s” books from the library. Evelina does her best to model herself off of Anaïs, writing letters and keeping diaries—though Evelina cannot help but notice the gap between Anaïs’s fancy life, filled with servants and leisure, and Evelina’s own chores, her summer job at the 4-B’s.

One day, Corwin visits Evelina and gives her a tab of acid to take. The acid throws Evelina into a tailspin:  she locks herself in her room and hallucinates snakes, lizards, and all kinds of deadly reptiles. It takes a week for Evelina to shed these hallucinations, and even after she re-enters the world, she is plagued by scary daydreams and breaks in reality. Finally, Evelina decides that she should work in a mental hospital, so she gets a job as a psychiatric aide for one semester.

When Evelina arrives at the psychiatric ward, her first task involves giving pills to an old patient named Warren, who is from Pluto and “probably related to Marn Wolde.” Warren walks in circles constantly, telling the other patients that he will “slaughter them all.” The other patients seem unconcerned by this, scoffing at Warren to “shut up.”

Evelina’s life at the ward becomes routine. Every morning, she journals before starting her rounds. Then, she gets the tasteless food from the hospital cafeteria. Eventually, Evelina realizes that all of her journal entries have started to be about food, so she tries to make them more interesting by writing in French. Evelina quickly gets to know the patients’ delusions and patterns (“the places their records had scratched”).

One day, a new patient named Nonette arrives at the ward. Nonette is blonde, with angry eyes and bright red lips, and she is about Evelina’s age. Right away, Evelina feels a "heat” coming off of this strange girl, and she wonders if Nonette is a French name. Nonette treats Evelina like a bellhop, demanding that Evelina carry her bags to her room. When Nonette calls Evelina a “bitch,” Evelina responds by calling Nonette a “bidet” (a word she has picked up from her new French dictionary).

The next day, Nonette grabs Evelina’s arm as if they are best friends. Nonette tells Evelina about how “really, truly sick” she feels she is. Nonette reveals that she was molested by her cousin, who was a Boy Scout. Nonette then declares that she wants a sex change operation, or to be free of gender entirely. When Evelina tells Nonette she is “really beautiful,” Nonette looks away. “You’re an Indian or something,” Nonette observes. “That’s pretty cool.”

In the same week, Warren escapes from the hospital, though he is quickly brought back by a policeman. As he often does, Warren tries to give Evelina money, a handful of neatly folded dollar bills from his pocket. Evelina refuses, instead asking Warren about the voices he hears in his head. “Please,” Warren begs. “I did it because they told me.” Evelina notices Warren “taking apart some invisible thing in his lap.”

A month later, Nonette has told the story about her Boy Scout cousin to every aide in the ward. One day, Nonette leans in and kisses Evelina. Evelina panics—after all, Nonette is a patient, and they are both women. Evelina hadn’t believed that “women could kiss women anywhere but in Paris,” and for such a thing to happen in North Dakota fills her with “tender surprise.”

Evelina feels that none of the stories of “deathless romance” in her family have prepared her for this. To ward off thoughts of Nonette, Evelina starts eating obsessively, hoping to keep her mind occupied. But eventually, Nonette catches Evelina in the hallway when no one else is around. Thinking that Nonette looks as “beautiful as someone in a foreign movie,” Evelina gives in, and the two of them head into the ward’s boiler room. They kiss, and Evelina thinks that “when I touch her I know what she is feeling just as she knows when touching me.”

Evelina arranges a “patient visit” with Nonette, and they bake molasses cookies together. Then Evelina brings Nonette back to her room, where they have sex. Privately, Evelina wonders what is going to happen to them. When Nonette says goodnight, Evelina notices that now, Nonette looks calmer, healthier—like “a girl in a ski commercial” or a “scary cheerleader.”

One morning, Nonette announces that she is going home; her parents think she is cured. Evelina collapses, feeling as if she were nothing but a “symptom” of Nonette’s disease. Evelina calls out of work for the next several days. She flashes back to her terrible acid trip, when all she could see were reptiles. Eventually, the head of the ward announces that they are moving Evelina into the patient dorms. “Which is how I end up in Nonette’s bed after all,” Evelina reflects.

Evelina tells her mother that she has checked herself in voluntarily, that all she needs is some rest before going back to school. Evelina stops reading Anaïs Nin (“she cannot help me here”); instead, she lies in bed and thinks about Nonette. When Warren talks about all the people he is going to slaughter, Evelina tells him to “shut up.” Joseph visits, and Evelina tells him about the reptiles in her hallucinations and asks him to help her identify them. Joseph holds Evelina’s hand, but his sympathy only makes Evelina sadder. 

Evelina’s parents come down every weekend, which makes Evelina reflect how lucky she is to be the product of such a loving marriage. “History works itself out in the living,” Evelina thinks; she pictures the Buckendorfs, the Wildstrands, and the Peace family, still impacted by the hanging all these years later. “Now that some of us have mixed in the spring of our existence both guilt and victim,” Evelina muses, “there is no unraveling the rope.” At night, when Evelina can’t sleep, she hears the fluttering of dove wings. She wonders if she should pay Sister Mary Anita a visit.

One day, Corwin comes to visit Evelina; as the person who gave her the acid, he feels partly responsible for her decline. At first, the duo sits in awkward silence. But then Corwin pulls out his fiddle and begins to play. The sound is “penetrating” and “scream”-like, and it makes Warren sink to the floor. When Corwin finishes playing, he gestures to the door. “I can’t leave here,” Evelina insists. But then she walks out.

Evelina brings only her diary, deciding that she does not want to take Anaïs in this new phase of her life. On the car ride back, Evelina tells Corwin that she is a lesbian. Telling Corwin about her feelings for Nonette makes Evelina feel better, especially when she reflects on the years she spent writing Corwin’s name on her body. Corwin drops Evelina off at her house, and Evelina sits on her porch with Mooshum, until the sun goes down and it gets cold.

A few days later, Evelina goes to visit Sister Mary Anita at the convent. At first, Evelina does not plan to tell Mary Anita about her stay in the mental hospital, but it eventually it slips out. Evelina also confesses her desire to become a nun, though Mary Anita is skeptical (“it’s just that I don’t see you in the convent”).

Evelina finally asks Mary Anita if she became a nun because of what her ancestors did in the hanging. Her voice faint, Mary Anita replies that she was perhaps motivated by the idea that “anyone” could be capable of such atrocities, even her grandfather, who always seemed kind. Cautiously, Mary Anita then reveals that Mooshum was the one who told Eugene Wildstrand that he, Cuthbert, Asiginak, and Holy Track had found the slain family. Though the knowledge of Mooshum’s betrayal fills Evelina with rage, she instinctively knows that Mary Anita is telling the truth.

Before Evelina goes, Mary Anita promises to pray for her. The nun then gives Evelina a rumpled paper bag. When Evelina opens it, she sees that Holy Track’s boots are inside, crosses nailed to the soles. That night, Mooshum asks Evelina if she wants to play cards. She refuses, instead shoving Holy Track’s boots in her grandfather’s face. Mooshum lies down on the couch, overcome with guilt. But Evelina will not let Mooshum mope. Instead, she insists that they must drive to the tree where the hanging took place.

Mooshum and Evelina park their car by the tree, which is now covered with prayer flags. When Evelina slams the car doors, it startles the surrounding birds, who fly up into the sky. Mooshum and Evelina throw the boots into the sky, and the boots catch in the tree’s branches. “This is sentiment instead of justice,” Evelina tells her uncle. Mooshum just whispers that “the doves are still up there.” Evelina looks up, hating the way Holy Track’s boots sway in the wind.