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Chapter 21: Warsaw
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Reckoning, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Guilt and Legacy
Morality, Survival, and Perspective
Sexuality and Shame
Body Image and Publicity
Indifference vs. Feeling
Summary
Analysis
Magda’s return is anticlimactic; her parents are happy to see her, but her adventure fades as suburban life takes over. Jane doesn’t take Magda back and Magda’s heart slowly breaks; she dyes her hair black, raids Peter’s closet for men’s clothes. She returns to school, where she enrolls in Philosophy of Religion. Magda identifies with Nietzsche’s description of the mind as a jumble of unrelated thoughts. However, Nietzsche is blind to love; Magda prefers William James’s Varieties of Religious Experience, which inspires her with hope of healing the divide between her optimistic nature and her melancholy; she also devours Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, which is about the loss of political faith.
Although it first seems uncomfortable, it is for her own good that Magda’s life does not go back to the way it was before her trip. In lieu of her old life, she turns to look to academics for help in her personal life, identifying her difficulties and coming up with ways to solve them. Magda has taken steps to overcome the divide between her private and public selves, but she still feels divided between two opposing attitudes toward the world: is she someone who is brave in the face of suffering, or will she succumb to suffering?
Themes
When Katrina, a member of the Feminist Club, goes to Paris, Magda moves into her vacant room. Katrina’s mother, Helen-Mary (H-M), had inherited a grand eight-bedroom house that she can barely afford to maintain. Magda has a strong bond with H-M, a bohemian divorcee who takes lovers. H-M is always seeking something intangible, yet she has a powerful optimism. Her house, which has a ballroom and hot tub, is often filled with nude guests. Peter and Margaret think that H-M is a good influence. H-M, whose daughter is a lesbian, is a refuge of acceptance for Magda and her friends.
For Magda, H-M’s attitude toward life is inspiring. She has no shame when it comes to her sexuality or to the body, filling her house with lovers and naked guests. What is more, H-M manages to balance seemingly opposing attitudes toward to world: she wants the impossible but never gives up hope. All these outlooks are good influences on Magda, who has struggled with depression and shame over her sexuality and body.
Themes
Through H-M’s massage business, Body Care, Magda meets Cynthia, a producer at the Why Not Theatre. Cynthia is producing a play based on the film Freaks, and she thinks Magda would make a good “fat clown.” When Magda goes to audition, she feels immediately at home and gets the role. When she tries to write the monologue for the character, however, her demons bubble up inside her; she stops sleeping, and finally breaks down to H-M about her crazed mental state. H-M takes Magda to her salon and hypnotizes her, and Magda’s “jackhammer of anxiety” goes temporarily quiet.
Magda is starting to feel more comfortable in her own skin. Instead of being offended by or ashamed of being singled out for the role of “fat clown,” Magda embraces the semblance. Despite becoming more comfortable with her body, however, Magda’s mental health is still unstable. Whenever she is forced to sit alone with her mind, her thoughts become violent, incessant, and meaningless, like a battering jackhammer.
Themes
After H-M’s son advises Magda not to judge what she writes, Magda is able to complete her monologue. On opening night, Magda dresses in her polka-dot leotard and delivers her monologue: a poem of unrequited love addressed to philosophy, inspired by her studies.
Influenced by friends and books, Magda makes progress towards releasing herself from her hang-ups. She knows she enjoys the end result—performing—so her goal is to not get in her own way.
Themes
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After a while, Magda and Jane settle into a friendship; they and some other friends start a band called Uncle Torquemada, named after one of Stevie Smith’s comic sketches. Magda puts Jane’s poems to music. At one of their small gigs, they perform while dressed as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
Magda’s gigs with Jane are her first taste of performing her own comedy writing. Her combining of philosophy and comedy suggests that humor is becoming a bridge between her ideal and her practical experience of the world.
Themes
The buzz Magda gets from performing leads her to audition for the law department’s revue; Alan Pentland, an actor the department brings in for the play and who later plays a big role in Magda’s life, is not impressed. To Magda’s offense, he asks her to be sexier. Magda does what he asks, however, and gets the part. For the play, Magda sets one of Helen’s poems to a dark tune and affects a brooding tone; the audience applauds her performance.
This is Magda’s first taste of how performing puts a person at the mercy of the public’s wishes and expectations. Society expects Magda, as a woman, to be sexy. Although Magda is drawn to performing for herself, she is forced to listen to the public’s opinion in order to succeed.
Themes
When Magda is asked to join the University’s national touring revue, Too Cool for Sandals, she is reluctant to accept the year-long gig; then, a woman warns her not to close the door on the “big time” but to “grab it.” Magda accepts the gig and travels to Perth for stints at the Pink Galah and The Laugh. John Pinder, owner of The Laugh, considers managing Magda’s career, but he doubts her drive. Magda’s depression heals; great comedy is emerging in Australia in the 80’s, and she feels at home.
After many attempts at solutions, comedy ends up being what “heals” Magda’s depression. Comedy has such a healing power for Magda because it places her in a community, putting a final end to her longstanding feelings of social exclusion. In the comedy circle, Magda feels less “different:” she is doing what she is meant to do and with people with whom she belongs.
Themes
