Leaving Time
“Leaving Time” by Jodi Picoult is a gripping novel that intertwines mystery, grief, and the bond between humans and elephants. The story follows Jenna Metcalf, a 13-year-old girl searching for her mother, Alice, a renowned elephant researcher who disappeared a decade earlier under mysterious circumstances. With the help of a skeptical psychic and a disgraced detective, Jenna uncovers buried secrets about her mother’s work and the tragic events at an elephant sanctuary. The novel explores themes of memory, loss, and maternal love, while weaving in fascinating insights into elephant behavior and emotions. Picoult blends emotional depth with suspense, culminating in a surprising twist that redefines the narrative.
Chapter 28: Alice
byPicoult, Jodi
Alice, the narrator, reflects on her fractured marriage and precarious family dynamics while sitting in the attic of the African barn. Her husband, Thomas, has returned after months away for mental health treatment, but their relationship remains strained. Though he appears stable and has resumed managing their elephant sanctuary, Alice harbors deep distrust, especially after past violent episodes. Their interactions are tense, limited to polite exchanges in front of their young daughter, Jenna, and heated arguments in private. Alice fears Thomas’s unpredictability and worries about Jenna’s safety, both around the elephants and her father.
The chapter reveals Alice’s secret affair with Gideon, another sanctuary worker, as an escape from her suffocating marriage. Their trysts are brief and risky, given the lack of privacy at the sanctuary. Alice grapples with guilt over the affair but feels powerless to end it, finding solace in Gideon’s affection. Meanwhile, Thomas’s controlling behavior escalates; he physically harms Alice and threatens her fitness as a mother, hinting at a looming custody battle. Alice contemplates fleeing with Jenna but fears legal repercussions, unsure whether her infidelity or Thomas’s mental illness would weigh more heavily in court.
Grace, another sanctuary employee, suggests enrolling Jenna in preschool, which Alice embraces as a way to protect her daughter from Thomas. The chapter highlights Alice’s fractured identity—torn between being a devoted mother, a researcher, a dutiful wife, and a woman in love. She feels like an actor in her own life, only truly herself with Gideon. The sanctuary’s busy environment forces their affair into hidden corners, including the African barn, where they are eventually discovered by Grace during a rainstorm.
The chapter ends with a cliffhanger: Grace, drenched and holding an umbrella, witnesses Alice and Gideon’s intimacy. The tension peaks as Grace arrives to deliver urgent news—Jenna is sick at school and needs to be picked up. The discovery of the affair and the emergency involving Jenna set the stage for escalating conflict, leaving Alice’s fragile world on the brink of collapse.
FAQs
1. How does Alice’s perception of Thomas change throughout the chapter, and what evidence suggests she no longer trusts him despite his apparent recovery?
Answer:
Alice’s trust in Thomas deteriorates significantly despite his return to apparent stability. While Thomas resumes his responsibilities at the sanctuary and secures financial investments, Alice harbors constant doubts—wondering if he’s secretly relapsing (e.g., questioning whether his office door is locked to hide manic writing). Their marital interactions are strained, limited to polite exchanges for Jenna’s sake or heated arguments. Physical violence resurfaces when Thomas bruises Alice’s arms, threatening her fitness as a mother. The chapter underscores her distrust through her internal monologue (“I still could not trust him”) and her contingency plans to flee with Jenna, revealing she views Thomas as a latent threat rather than a healed partner.2. Analyze the symbolism of the attic space in the African barn. How does its physical state reflect Alice’s emotional journey?
Answer:
The attic symbolizes Alice’s fractured psyche and the fragility of her constructed normalcy. Initially, it’s a site of Thomas’s breakdown, now superficially “cleaned up” with fresh paint and drop cloths—mirroring how Alice suppresses her trauma (“I could convince myself I imagined the entire episode”). Later, it becomes her clandestine refuge with Gideon, a space where she briefly sheds her roles as wife and mother. The rain streaming through the plastic sheeting during their tryst evokes emotional catharsis, yet Grace’s sudden appearance shatters this illusion, just as the attic’s history of instability foreshadows the impossibility of lasting escape. The space thus embodies concealment, temporary freedom, and inevitable exposure.3. What conflicting roles does Alice struggle to reconcile in this chapter, and how do these roles contribute to her sense of identity crisis?
Answer:
Alice grapples with four competing identities: (1) the dutiful wife performing alongside Thomas at public events, (2) the protective mother orchestrating Jenna’s safety via preschool, (3) the researcher clinging to academic purpose through her grief study, and (4) the passionate lover seeking solace with Gideon. The chapter explicitly questions, “If you had asked me who I was then, I could not have told you,” highlighting her fragmentation. Her performative compliance (“three-quarters of my life, I felt like I was playing a role”) contrasts with her private desperation, illustrating how societal expectations and personal desires撕裂 her sense of self. The tension between these roles fuels her guilt and indecision.4. How does the chapter use foreshadowing to suggest impending consequences for Alice’s affair with Gideon? Provide specific examples.
Answer:
Foreshadowing builds ominously through three key moments. First, Alice acknowledges the sanctuary’s lack of privacy, noting their risky encounters (e.g., unprotected sex in the Asian barn), which hints at exposure. Second, Grace’s unexpected arrival at the attic—holding an umbrella rendered useless by her stillness—mirrors Alice’s futile attempts to shield her secrets. Finally, Thomas’s threat about her fitness as a mother (“What judge would think of you?”) gains chilling irony when Grace discovers the affair, as this could weaponize his earlier warning in a custody battle. The unresolved phone call about Jenna’s illness further suggests that familial crises will collide with the affair’s exposure.5. Evaluate Alice’s moral dilemma regarding Jenna’s custody. Why does she stay with Thomas despite her fear and desire to leave?
Answer:
Alice is trapped by legal and ethical calculations. She fears Thomas’s instability but recognizes her affair undermines her own standing as a parent. The chapter reveals her paralysis: she weighs Thomas’s mental illness against her infidelity, doubting which flaw a court would penalize more. Her love for Jenna forces her to endure the marriage, as leaving risks losing custody entirely. Thomas’s manipulative threat (“bruises formed… ‘fit mother’”) exploits this vulnerability, implying he’d use her actions against her. Alice’s dilemma reflects societal biases—mental health stigma versus maternal “purity”—and her ultimate inaction underscores how systemic pressures can override personal safety and happiness.
Quotes
1. “Sitting in the attic of the African barn, I wondered—not for the first time—if I was the one who was crazy.”
This opening line sets the tone for Alice’s internal conflict and unreliable mental state, introducing the chapter’s central theme of questioning reality and personal sanity amidst her troubled marriage.
2. “We were circles in a Venn diagram, Jenna caught at our overlap.”
A powerful metaphor capturing the strained family dynamics, showing how Jenna becomes the only connection between Alice and Thomas while emphasizing the emotional distance between them.
3. “Three-quarters of my life, I felt like I was playing a role, like I could walk offstage and stop pretending.”
This confession reveals Alice’s profound identity crisis and the performative nature of her existence, torn between her roles as mother, researcher, wife, and lover.
4. “I was a liar. I was hurting people who did not even know they were being hurt. And I still was not strong enough to stop myself.”
A moment of raw self-awareness where Alice confronts the moral consequences of her affair, showing her internal struggle between desire and responsibility.
5. “Over his shoulder, through the sheer plastic that had never been replaced, I watched the rain stream down in sheets, a cleansing.”
This poetic description during Alice’s intimate moment with Gideon symbolizes her fleeting sense of purification and escape, while hinting at the impending revelation of their affair.