The Great Divide

Ada returns to the house to find out that Marian Oswald has died. She sends the boy who brings the mail in search of John Oswald, and after much running and many different stops, he relays the message. At home, Antoinette does not want to be blamed for Marian’s death and decides to tell John that Ada neglected her charge and left the house. Newspaper reporters show up to talk to John about Marian’s obituary. The notice includes only the information that she was the wife of John Oswald and omits her degrees and professional work.

Ada gathers flowers for Marian’s funeral the next day. On her walk, she runs into Omar. He tells her the name of the flowers she has just picked, and Ada thinks how happy Marian would have been to identify the pretty plants. The two talk, and Ada shares news of Marian’s death with Omar. She also tells him that her own sister is ill with pneumonia, and she left Barbados to be able to send money back home to her mother to pay for surgery. Omar is struck by her bravery and tells her so. When he has to return to work, Ada heads back to the house. Antoinette greets her grumpily, and Ada places her flowers into a vase.

On the Thursday before Valentina’s planned demonstration in Gatún, she rides into the city alone to complete an errand that she is unwilling to entrust to her husband. She has been busy preparing for their act of resistance, and she hopes to generate enough national attention that someone from the government will be sent to the town, and they can then voice their opposition to the canal project. To that end, she is in the city to speak to a newspaper and ask them to write about their protest. At the paper’s offices, she finds only one Spanish speaker, and he seems uninterested in her plight. She leaves the office deflated, unsure of how to proceed. Unbeknownst to Valentina, however, one of the other workers at the paper did speak Spanish and was moved by her story. She plans to take her camera to Gatún to capture the protest. She’d been moved by the recent death of Marian Oswald and decided that life was too short to let opportunities pass by. She was also moved by Valentina’s plight and wanted to help.

Lucille is at home, sewing. She has struggled to pay attention to her work since Ada left. She is preoccupied with worry for both daughters: Ada is far away and Lucille does not yet know how she will finance Millicent’s surgery. She finishes her dress and heads to the market, stopping briefly to say hello to Willoughby, a man who is courting her but in whom she has little interest. At the market, she fails to sell her dress. The one woman who does pause to admire it turns it inside out and sees the shoddy stitching on the inside: Lucille used to be a fine seamstress, but the stress of her current situation has been impacting her work, and her craftmanship is no longer what it once was. She asks for help from the vestryman and is told that she should consider approaching Henry Camby. The fact that he is the girls’ father is an open secret, and Lucille is unhappy that so many people know her business.

Lucille realizes that Henry is indeed her only option. She walks to the house on the Camby estate to ask for his help. She is greeted instead by his wife Gertrude. Gertrude knows exactly who Lucille is and is aware of the nature of her relationship with Henry. She is enraged when she sees Lucille and immediately steps outside to see what she wants. Upon hearing that Lucille would like to speak to Henry, Gertrude spits in her face. Lucille leaves, but not before being seen by Henry. Henry has been told by one of his workers of Lucille’s plight, and although he does want to help his daughter Millicent, he feels that to do so would incur the wrath of Gertrude. He resolves to do nothing.

Omar puts on his finest set of clothes and leaves the house without speaking to his father. Their feud continues, but Omar feels as though he has done nothing wrong and makes no effort to make amends. Omar proceeds into town and attends the funeral of Marian Oswald. It is a solemn affair, and he is struck by the somber mood of those gathered for the event. Marian’s doctor, Antoinette, John Oswald, and others all silently remember Marian and contemplate the nature of life and death. After the funeral is over, Omar approaches Ada and the two talk. Ada remains worried about her own sister’s battle with pneumonia in Barbados and confides in Omar that she has not yet heard from her mother and fears for her sister’s life. Omar assures her that Millicent will not share Marian Oswald’s fate, but Ada is not so sure.

In his study, John wakes to the sound of a knock. In the wake of Marian’s death John has been drinking heavily, although he does not truly approve of alcohol consumption. He reflects on his inadequacy as a husband, including his lack of romantic or sexual feeling toward his wife. He realizes now that he did need Marian in his own way, and he feels lost without her. He recalls how intelligent she was, and how kind. He finally understands her worth as a human being, not merely as his wife, and regrets that he had not shown her more respect or acknowledged her intellect while she was alive. Through his hangover, he settles on a memory of being told that Ada had left their home right before his wife’s death, and although he had wanted to speak to her first before making up his mind about whether or not she had been responsible for Marian’s death, he begins to grow angry and to blame Ada.