59 pages • 1 hour read
Within Arm's Reach
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Part 1, Chapters 6-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary: “Catharine”
Catharine remains sure that the accident was caused by her seeing the ghosts. She then reveals her belief that she gained the ability to see ghosts and visions from her late husband, Patrick. She explains that he saw visions, such as of an Irish band when he sang Irish songs to the children. She accepted Patrick’s visions because he was a good husband and father who provided for her and the children. The day Patrick died, she knew he was going to go, and she believes he gave her his visions the moment before he died. In the present day, Catharine notices the apparitions of nine small children outside her window. She initially thinks they are her own, but then she sees that they are the Ballen children, who lived in Patrick’s old hometown. Catharine and her children brought Mrs. Ballen a pie one day, and they learned that Mrs. Ballen tied her children to the large tree to keep track of them.
Catharine then goes to see her youngest child, Ryan, who lives in a dirty, run-down home with birds, whom he lets roam freely through the house. Struggling with mental illness, he distrusts doctors and public schools. She tells him what has been going on with the family, except for her accident and Gracie’s pregnancy. After she leaves, she hears Ryan praying the Lord’s Prayer. She then goes back to her room, where Kelly is waiting. Kelly confronts her about the accident and, as Catharine tries to apologize for being preoccupied with the past, Kelly tells her she thinks Catharine should quit driving. Catharine realizes that she might need to address the family’s problems when they are together at Easter.
Catharine finally drives to Gracie’s house, where she learns that Lila is getting a new apartment before she leaves for work. Gracie then wakes, and Catharine tells her a story about an Irish dreamer who is thrown about by life due to indecision. Gracie soon realizes Catharine knows about the pregnancy. After learning about her breakup with Joel, Catharine gives an apologetic Gracie money to support herself and the baby, telling her that she will do what she can to help her but Gracie must make better decisions in life. As Catharine leaves, she is disappointed with Gracie but also happy that she will get to meet her first great-grandchild. She decides she will live by her own rules at this stage of life.
Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary: “Gracie”
Gracie comes into Grayson’s office, where he expresses concern about some of the advice she is giving to some of the girls to whom she writes, noting that she had encouraged a depressed orphan girl to stay in the darkness for a little while, which Grayson and the editors worried could have encouraged the girl to die by suicide and omitted that part. Gracie had intended for what she said to encourage self-growth but understands that Grayson is approaching it from a logical, observational standpoint. She also reveals that she broke up with Grayson because she was pregnant with his baby and got an abortion, never having told him. After seeing that she had also been writing to pregnant women, Grayson realizes that Gracie is pregnant. He offers to marry Gracie so she will not have to raise a child alone and asks her why she wants to be a mother, but she angrily tells him not to ask her all these questions and that she and her baby will be fine. However, as she leaves, Grayson tells her she will not be able to do it on her own.
Gracie then goes to look for Joel but does not find him. During her drive, she sees a redheaded woman whom she thinks is Margaret and does not wish to confront her. She then sees an apparition of a toddler girl who she believes is her unborn child. These things upset her, and she goes to Sarachi Pond. She remembers her parents holding a picnic to help bring the family together when she was younger, but it did not work well and she realized they were not going to be a harmonious family. She also remembers going to Sarachi Pond during her high school and college years for sex and being extremely careful to not get pregnant. However, over the years, she became more careless, eventually leading to her current predicament. She is not sure why she wants the baby as she remembers telling the girls in her columns not to have a baby until they are ready because it will not fix their problems or fill the void in their lives.
Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary: “Kelly”
Kelly reveals that her first memory is of the day of her sister’s death when she was 18 months old. Though children do not usually begin building memories until around three years old, Kelly says she can remember that day and has a strong memory. She recalls her sister being severely sick and seeing her mother become panicked and frantic for the first time. She remembers her sister’s deteriorating health from dehydration and being left by her mother to see Dr. O Malley. After the family’s live-in housekeeper Willie and her parents returned home, Kelly was left mostly on her own as her sister died. Kelly then states that Lila inherited her photographic memory from her and that Lila’s memory allowed her to excel in school. However, Kelly’s memories often overwhelm her as the stimuli around her connect her to those memories. Following her mother’s accident, Kelly decided to leave work early, being the boss, to check in on her daughters, whom she feels are becoming distant from her. She drives to Gracie’s house, where she talks to Gracie in the driveway and offers to take her and Lila to dinner. Gracie then says she does not feel well and wants to be alone.
Kelly then leaves and returns home, where her housekeeper Julia questions her on where to put Louis’s clothes. This angers her, and she realizes that to save their marriage, Louis needs a male friendship. She decides to visit Mayor Carrelli’s barbershop and asks for a haircut. As he cuts her hair, Mayor Carrelli reveals he had been drinking following his wife Cynthia’s death from breast cancer the year before and that Louis had been a good friend to him. Kelly then reveals that Louis had been depressed following Eddie’s death and says Mayor Carrelli should try to give him advice and console him but not tell him it was her idea. She then goes to a hotel room, where she lies down, thinks about her life, and allows herself to be fully herself. She started doing this a few months ago, realizing that she had been trying to be the ideal daughter, sister, wife, and mother for years and did not think about what she wanted and needed.
Kelly returns home, where she calls her siblings about the Easter party. When Louis tells her she does not need to keep trying to please her family, she says he does not understand. He then expresses anger at Mayor Carrelli’s advice, which he says is unwarranted because he has so often needed Louis’s help in life. Kelly says she is concerned about him, and he assures her that he will be fine eventually and to trust him as he has trusted her. She decides that though she is unsure of whether he will get through it alone, she will continue to support her family.
Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary: “Lila”
Lila helps Gracie, Catharine, and Ryan bake the Easter cookies in the kitchen before the party. She dislikes being there because she is tired from a long night of work and little sleep and continues to have trouble being patient. Her and Gracie’s parents soon arrive, and Louis informs Ryan that he bought his apartment and Ryan will be able to stay there. This pleases Catharine and Ryan. Once the family is there, they awkwardly try to make conversation.
Lila reveals that before Patrick died 10 years ago, the family’s parties were full and vibrant, but after his death, the family’s clashing personalities and lives divided them. Lila is uncomfortable having to engage with her relatives, who think that she is an expert and seek medical advice from her even though she is only a medical student. She also dislikes taking her delinquent cousin Dina’s snide remarks. The family wants Lila to give Dina grace due to her and her parents Meggy and Travis’s lower socioeconomic status.
The second oldest living child, Pat, who was abused by Patrick, had been loved by Lila’s generation due to his calm, easygoing nature. After he notices some undecorated cookies, Kelly has the third-generation McLaughlins go inside the kitchen and finish decorating the cookies. While the older McLaughlins are outside talking about their childhoods, Lila, Gracie, Dina, and their cousins John and Mary talk briefly about Ryan’s increasingly extreme beliefs and the unease his church gives them. They then quietly continue their work until Louis, Travis, Pat, Catharine, and the rest of the family go back inside the house. They eat dinner, and Pat says a prayer after Ryan complains that they did not do so. Then, Catharine says she wishes for the family to reconnect, especially because there will be a new baby in the family. She continues talking but the family soon uncomfortably stares at each other trying to find out who is pregnant. When Meggy asks Catharine who is having a baby, she replies that Gracie is.
Part 1, Chapters 6-9 Analysis
The second half of Part 1 follows the pattern of many family dramas, showing a buildup to the reveal of one or more of the family’s secrets. The chapters show tensions rising in the McLaughlin family, as their difficulty staying connected amid their differences shows. The section establishes new conflicts to accompany the existing ones that complicate the web of family relationships. For example, Kelly gets a haircut from Mayor Carrelli in an attempt to get Louis to open up to Vince about his grief over Eddie. This is unsuccessful and later leads to Kelly and Mayor Carrelli developing feelings for each other, culminating in a secret extramarital affair that threatens her marriage to Louis and the stability of the Leary family. The section is also the first to introduce Kelly’s long-term conflict with her younger sister Meggy.
Catharine also grows as a character and reveals more about her visions. She believes her husband could see ghosts and apparitions and gave this ability to her at his death. Her growing acceptance of her family’s flaws also shows in her acceptance of her son Ryan’s delusions. Her decision to support him no matter what forces her to confront the effect that her mother’s delusions had on her as a child. Catherine struggled to respect this side of her mother, and she has an opportunity to make different choices with Ryan.
The section introduces Kelly as another point-of-view character. She wants Louis to talk to her more and is determined to salvage her marriage at almost any cost. This leads her to visit Mayor Carrelli, but his failure to get Louis to talk about Eddie and their bonding at the barbershop later leads them to have an affair. Kelly’s work to make things right for her family is something she values, but also something she resents, feeling overwhelmed by the load she was given as Catharine’s oldest living child. Her strong memory is shown to be a key character element, as she recalls her sister’s death despite only being a baby at the time.
Other characters who show development include Gracie, who reveals that her sexual adventurousness goes back to her adolescence, and Lila, who continues to struggle with her resentment of the demands of her patients and family members.
Shifting Family and Generational Dynamics grows in importance in this section. The Easter party shows that the McLaughlin siblings’ relationship is strained and often vitriolic, with Kelly and Meggy arguing with each other frequently, but also close-knit, especially when they begin remembering their childhood adventures. The third McLaughlin generation, however, is quite distant from each other. Gracie and Lila have a better relationship than they did as children but are still quite different. Gracie and Lila are not close to John Mary or Dina. John’s perceived lack of intelligence and Mary’s seemingly put-on religious fervor are amusing to Gracie and Lila. Dina’s mean-spiritedness makes Lila angry, especially because the family will not let Lila stand up to Dina because of the latter’s lower socioeconomic status. Catharine sets up the Easter party to bring the family together, and while it does bring the McLaughlin siblings together temporarily, Catharine’s reveal of Gracie’s pregnancy will soon create more tension between the family in Part 2.
Emotional Expression and Communication Within Families is also important. Despite Louis’s being unable to communicate to Kelly about his grief over Eddie’s death, Kelly also cannot bring herself to communicate directly with Louis, leading her to seek help from Vince Carrelli to get Louis to open up to her. This plan fails, and despite Louis’s assurance that he will be okay eventually, Kelly continues to drift from Louis. This later leads her to start an affair with Vince. Catharine, regretful for not being more emotionally in tune with her children, desires to reconnect with her family in preparation for the birth of her great-grandchild. She plans the Easter party and tries to tell her family how important the coming baby is to bringing the family together, but the shock of Gracie’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy ends up worsening the communication problems and creating tension.
The second section also explores The Role of Tradition and Change in Personal Development. Gracie reveals that she was careful most of the years she has been sexually active, her fear of her family judging her for an unwed pregnancy being one of the main reasons. However, she grew less concerned about her family’s fears, though they linger. She knows they will be displeased with her pregnancy, but she has already decided to keep her baby. Kelly also grapples with tradition and change. Her use of the motel room to focus on her needs shows her deep resentment for the weight of her responsibilities as an oldest child and wife, and this foreshadows her affair with Vince Carrelli later in the novel. While Kelly is shifting away from the family, Catherine is facing difficult issues from her past and trying to grow closer. Catharine’s desire to improve her children’s and grandchildren’s lives leads her to grow in her understanding of Gracie’s pregnancy and attempt to come to terms with her losses.
The second section shifts the novel’s genre toward magical or supernatural realism, establishing Catherine and Patrick’s visions. Soon, other members of the McLaughlin family are shown to possess supernatural insights and special traits. Gracie sees an apparition of her unborn child, who appears as a toddler girl. Then, Kelly reveals that her first memory was the day her older sister died despite Kelly only being a baby at the time. This suggests the memory was actually a vision.
The section uses flashbacks to fill in details about the McLaughlins’ past without resorting to exposition. For instance, Catharine remembers moments from when she was younger, and Gracie remembers Grayson rehiring her after she quit following their breakup. These are key elements in the characters’ lives that impact their present actions and relationships.
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