Crossing to Safety

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-6

Part 1, Chapters 7-9

Part 1, Chapters 10-11

Part 1, Chapters 12-13

Part 2, Chapters 1-3

Part 2, Chapters 4-5

Part 3, Chapters 1-2

Part 3, Chapters 3-4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Part 3, Chapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3, Chapter 3 Summary

Charity’s condition worsens rapidly, and it becomes clear that she is nearing the end. Charity insists that the others go on the picnic without her. She believes that she is going to die soon and does not want to disrupt the plans she has made. Coincidentally, it is her birthday, which makes the conflict even more tragic and absurd. Sid and Charity begin to argue. For Sid, Charity’s last requests echo a pattern of their marriage:

I never agreed to that! That’s your plan, not mine. How would I know when it’s time, as you put it? You never tell me honestly how you feel. You keep it a secret from me, how long you...You think it’s time now, and you want to send me out of a picnic? (303).

For Charity, the issue is both habitual, and personal: “I don’t want to die where I’ve lived so much! […] All I want to do is go away quietly while the family is together and enjoying itself” (303). Charity wishes to remain in control of the situation, but Sid is determined to force her to think of what this means to him. However, as the pain renews, Charity falls silent, and Sid, moved by her suffering, relents.

Part 3, Chapter 4 Summary

Sid is overcome with grief and anxiety and walks off on his own. No one can find him. Larry goes to look for him. While walking, Larry thinks about how he has changed over the years and whether this change has left him better or worse. He thinks about Sally and has renewed sympathy for Sid. Larry realizes he could scarcely live without Sally: “It would have been an appalling fate. I am flooded with gratitude that I wasn’t asked, quite yet, to survive her, that down under the cone of pain and ether she heard the anesthetist’s exclamation, ‘She’s going, Doctor!’ and brought herself back, thinking, ‘I can’t!’” (325). It is at this moment that Larry suddenly finds Sid in the dark.

Part 3, Chapters 3-4 Analysis

The final chapters of the novel are among its most contentious. Charity is intent on preserving the order she has fought to create in her life and those around her, even in her death. Sid chafes under this but knows that he has become dependent upon Charity’s ways and does not want to refuse Charity’s last wish: to go on with the traditional family picnic for her birthday. The situation seems absurd to Larry and Sally, but in the context of Sid and Charity’s marriage, these are dynamics and habits which have persisted for decades. For Charity, the rituals and traditions she has set for her family are her legacy, and no one, even Charity, is allowed to violate these. For Sid, Charity is characteristically attempting to exert control over a situation that she ought not to. Her imminent passing is an inversion of the usual dynamic, by which she can direct and control their lives. Sid leaves the house suddenly, walking alone into the woods. Larry reflects on how Sid is trying to best preserve these last moments; Larry is torn with trying to fulfill Charity’s final wishes while trying to help his friend through this difficult time. However, Larry is beset with thoughts of himself—“You can’t be close to the mortality of friends without being brought to think of your own” (325)—but he ultimately thinks of Sally, considering how lost he would be without her—figuratively and literally.