The Storyteller
Chapter 9: Sage 6
by Picoult, JodiThe chapter “Sage 6” delves into the protagonist’s emotional turmoil after a revealing encounter with Josef, a man linked to Auschwitz. Haunted by Josef’s graphic stories of death and the possibility that he may have crossed paths with her grandmother, Sage grapples with the horror of forgotten victims. She struggles with the weight of his confessions and the unsettling thought that her grandmother might have been among those Josef doesn’t remember. The emotional burden leaves her desperate for comfort, but her mother is gone, and her grandmother’s trauma makes her an unsuitable confidante.
Seeking solace, Sage impulsively drives to Adam’s house, despite their strained relationship. Through the window, she witnesses his domestic bliss with his wife and children, a stark contrast to her own isolation. Overwhelmed by jealousy and despair, she flees in the rain, leading to a car accident where she hits a deer and crashes into a guardrail. The physical injury mirrors her emotional pain, and as she kneels beside the dying animal, she is confronted by a policeman, who underscores her vulnerability. The accident forces her to relive past traumas, blurring the lines between present and past suffering.
After the accident, Sage is taken in by Mary, a former nun and friend, who insists on caring for her. Mary’s home is filled with her surreal, apocalyptic artwork, which serves as a backdrop for their conversation. Sage avoids mentioning Josef, instead attributing her distress to the breakup with Adam. Mary sees through her lies, accusing her of still being emotionally tied to Adam and lacking self-respect. Their banter reveals Sage’s tendency to forgive easily and Mary’s pragmatic, unvarnished advice, which contrasts with the idealized serenity often associated with nuns.
The chapter highlights Sage’s internal conflict as she navigates grief, guilt, and unresolved relationships. Her encounter with Josef forces her to confront generational trauma, while her failed attempt to seek comfort from Adam exposes her loneliness. Mary’s blunt yet caring intervention underscores the theme of self-preservation and the difficulty of facing painful truths. Sage’s journey reflects the struggle to reconcile personal pain with the broader horrors of history, leaving her at a crossroads between denial and accountability.
FAQs
1. How does the narrator’s visit to Josef Weber connect to her grandmother’s experiences, and what emotional conflict does this create?
Answer:
The narrator realizes that both Josef Weber and her grandmother were at Auschwitz, which raises disturbing questions about whether their paths crossed—potentially as victim and perpetrator. This connection creates intense emotional conflict, as she imagines whether Josef might have harmed her grandmother or been someone her grandmother tried to forget. The “inequity” of Josef forgetting victims while survivors carry traumatic memories sickens her, highlighting the psychological burden of Holocaust history across generations. The narrator’s inability to discuss this with her grandmother (who bottled up her memories) compounds her isolation.2. Analyze the significance of the deer accident scene. How does it reflect the narrator’s psychological state?
Answer:
The deer accident serves as both a literal crisis and a metaphor for the narrator’s unraveling mental state. Distracted by thoughts of Josef’s confessions and her grandmother’s trauma, she fails to notice the deer—just as she struggles to process overwhelming truths about history and identity. The blood on her face mirrors Josef’s imagery of “the ground welling up with blood,” linking the accident to inherited trauma. Her breakdown over the dying deer reveals her fragility, while the policeman’s simplistic question (“Are you all right?”) underscores how her pain defies easy answers.3. Why does the narrator seek out Adam despite their strained relationship, and what does this reveal about her coping mechanisms?
Answer:
After Josef’s harrowing revelations, the narrator craves comfort and instinctively drives to Adam’s house, revealing her reliance on romantic attachment to avoid confronting grief (both her mother’s death and historical trauma). Seeing Adam’s domestic happiness with his family exacerbates her loneliness, pushing her to reckless driving. This pattern shows her tendency to seek external validation rather than process pain internally. Mary later calls this out, noting she “hold[s] a grudge longer than a single breath,” highlighting her self-sabotaging cycles.4. How does Mary’s mural and her conversation with the narrator deepen the themes of truth and denial?
Answer:
Mary’s apocalyptic mural—featuring figures like Elmo and politicians “falling” to a devilish Michele Bachmann—satirizes societal hypocrisy, mirroring the chapter’s exploration of hidden evils (e.g., Josef’s past). Their conversation reveals parallel denials: Mary jokes about Elmo’s “deal with the Devil” but dismisses Sage’s claims about Josef, preferring to believe Sage crashed over Adam. This echoes Josef’s observation that people “choose not to see what we’d rather pretend doesn’t exist.” Mary’s painted “dreamscape” thus becomes ironic; she critiques others’ blindness while avoiding uncomfortable truths herself.5. Compare the narrator’s handling of trauma with her grandmother’s. What generational differences emerge?
Answer:
The grandmother coped by “bottling up” memories for decades, a common survival strategy among Holocaust survivors to protect themselves and their families. In contrast, the narrator actively seeks answers (visiting Josef, confronting Adam) but lacks tools to process what she learns, leading to self-destructive actions (the accident, obsessive relationships). Her fragmented storytelling—omitting Josef when explaining the crash to Mary—shows she’s repeating her grandmother’s silence, suggesting trauma’s cyclical nature. Yet her willingness to investigate (despite the cost) marks a generational shift toward confronting painful histories.
Quotes
1. “Even though Josef has spoken so much of death that it darkens his lips like a berry stain; even though I cannot get the images out of my head of a little girl singing and a young man pointing to himself and reciting his age, what I find myself thinking about are the others. The ones Josef hasn’t told me about. The ones who didn’t even leave a mark on his memory, which is infinitely more horrible.”
This quote powerfully captures the narrator’s haunting realization about the forgotten victims of Auschwitz, emphasizing how the absence of memory can be more devastating than the stories themselves. It sets the tone for the chapter’s exploration of trauma and selective remembrance.
2. “I have not mentioned Josef to my grandmother for good reason. She has spent over six decades keeping her memories bottled up. But as I leave Josef’s house, I cannot help but wonder if my grandmother is one of the ones he doesn’t recall. And if he is one of the ones she has worked so hard to forget. The inequity there makes me sick to my stomach.”
This passage reveals the complex intergenerational trauma and the painful irony of memory - how victims might remember their tormentors while being forgotten by them. It highlights the chapter’s theme of asymmetrical remembrance in the aftermath of trauma.
3. “As if that were an easy answer. As if I could reply with a single word.”
This simple yet profound response to the policeman’s question “are you all right?” encapsulates the narrator’s emotional turmoil and the inadequacy of language to convey complex trauma. It represents a key moment where external perception clashes with internal reality.
4. “I realize that I’ve crafted this entire story without even mentioning Josef’s name. I have more in common with my grandmother than I originally thought.”
This moment of self-awareness reveals how the narrator has unconsciously adopted her grandmother’s coping mechanism of silence, illustrating the chapter’s exploration of how trauma shapes storytelling and memory across generations.
5. “Inside the cloister, the sisters are just as petty as people…”
This blunt observation from Mary about human nature serves as a counterpoint to the chapter’s heavier themes, while also reinforcing the book’s broader examination of how even spiritual figures grapple with very human flaws and emotions.