Landscape with Invisible Hand

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-17

Chapters 18-22

Chapters 23-26

Chapters 27-30

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 27-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 27 Summary: “A Vuvv Ship as Large as a Small Town, Up Among the Stars”

Adam rides the shuttle with the others. Leaning against the wall, he’s shaky and has a headache. They arrive at a vuvv building in the sky, and he joins the crowds of people at the gala. He has a high fever and can’t remember everything that happens at the party. Most of the other paintings in the competition are still-life renderings of foods and objects such as flowers and sneakers, and each is titled “Traditional Human Still Life” (125). Adam has four paintings in his display, including the painting of Buddy Gui and his sculptures. Several other artists created unconventional images:

[These include] shifting scenes that float in front of the faux canvas; a statue with rows of faceless human shapes sitting while a saucer, vaguely vuvv-shaped, descends upon them; abstract cries for help, with holographic swings and limbs of color that jut out of the surface or plunge into the wall (126).

The contestants in the musical contest perform for the gala, and Adam periodically runs to the bathroom and has watery diarrhea. Most of the performers play songs from the 1950s, but one girl plays an angry song on the piano. Impressed, Adam confronts the pianist. He introduces himself, notes that he has a fever, and babbles at her about the oppression they face. He mishears her name and calls her Robert Schumann. He thanks her for playing something different, and she smiles, pats his shoulder, and walks away.

A reception follows the musicians, and Adam sees Shirley. Shirley introduces her offspring, Danielle, and asks Adam how he is. Adam tells Shirley that he’s sick. He asks them to pay for his medical care. Shirley walks away, apologizing to Danielle for Adam’s begging. Adam returns to the bathroom and can’t remember whether he took medicine or accidentally drank Hunter’s Alopeesh-Sure. Leaving the bathroom, he sees the pianist and speaks with her again. She says her name is Lucy and offers to talk with him in the future when his fever has come down. The announcement of the winners starts. Adam feels that Lucy should win the musical competition, and he asks her for good luck; she wishes him “Luck.”

The vuvv make lengthy introductions, and Adam sits on the floor. They announce the winner of the musical competition, and it isn’t Lucy. Moving on to the visual arts competition, they announce the third- and second-place winners. Before announcing the first-place winner, they call Adam to the stage. He imagines himself going to the stage and giving a speech. He jokes that the US still refuses to use the metric system and then criticizes the oppression and poverty resulting from the vuvv invasion: “When you look at exchange rates, as we do, every day, since we are paid in dollars and we spend, essentially, in vuvv cash, we must ask, What does it mean?” (135). He addresses the idea that money is a figment of collective imagination and calls attention to the performance culture.

Adam realizes that no one’s listening to him because he isn’t speaking; he’s still sitting on the floor. They call for him again, and he raises his hand and announces “Here!” They thank Adam for helping them find the winner of the competition: Buddy Gui, whom they discovered through Adam’s painting. Buddy carved a sculpture of Mary holding Jesus, replacing Jesus’s head with the head of Ganesh. The vuvv recite what they think is a traditional human story about Joseph cutting off Jesus’s head and replacing it with an elephant head. Adam faints, falling unconscious, and is taken away by medical personnel.

Chapter 28 Summary: “A Small Town Under the Stars”

When Adam regains consciousness, he’s back on the ground. They’ve left him on the concrete near the launch site. He’s wearing a hospital gown, and his possessions are in a bag next to him. He starts walking home, dressing along the way, and considers tracking down Lucy. Adam wants to paint the town from a distance with a garden in the foreground where he can hide from the world: “The invisible hand that guides our deeds, our acts, our markets, will not be able to touch me there” (140).

Chapter 29 Summary: “My House in Early Spring (Final Rendering)”

Adam wakes in his room, and his fever is gone. The vuvv, he realizes, must have treated him after he collapsed, although he’s uncertain whether they’ve cured him of Merrick’s Disease or simply treated the infection. He runs to tell his mother, whom he fought with the previous night. While sleeping, Adam had an idea about how to fix their problems, and he fetches Nattie to join the conversation. He tells his family that he lost the competition and that their problem in life is that they keep trying to win, adding that they’ve lost enough.

Adam’s idea is for them to leave and start fresh somewhere else: “We need to leave this house, leave this town, leave this state, and begin with nothing—because zero is more than negative something” (143). At first, Mrs. Costello thinks the plan is ridiculous; however, she sees its merit once she recalls that the mortgage is in Mr. Costello’s name.

For the last time, Adam paints his house, including Hunter peeking out from the basement. Chloe returns home from a date with Buddy, and she’s wearing sensors, indicating that she has started a new dating series with Buddy. She goads Adam by bragging that Buddy won, but Adam responds by talking about the beautiful day. He sees her as ordinary and doesn’t include her in the painting of the house. Chloe continues to mock him by calling him a no one, but he responds that he’s less than that and “won’t be no one without a little hard work” (146).

Chapter 30 Summary: “An Undisclosed Location in the Blue Ridge Mountains”

Mrs. Costello, Adam, and Nattie take a bus to a mountain town, where they start over with nothing. Mrs. Costello secures a job as a server, and Nattie is about to start high school. Adam plans to paint landscapes of rich individuals’ houses on commission, and he reaches out to Lucy. Adam, who has changed his name, sits outside with his family, watching ships fly in the sky. They’re no longer living for the future, and Adam has achieved his goal to step away from society.

Chapters 27-30 Analysis

The plot climaxes in Chapter 27 at the gala. Adam experiences worsening symptoms from the stress his body is enduring. He evacuates all the water he drank, his memory is impacted, and he experiences delusions, including going to the stage and delivering a speech. His narration becomes unintentionally unreliable because he has an infection and isn’t in a healthy state of mind during the events. The author increases the tension by having the vuvv announce the winners of the musical contest first and then start with third place for the visual arts competition. The height of the tension takes place in the series of events after the vuvv call Adam’s name. Initially, it seems that he has won, has pulled himself together, and is delivering an impactful anti-capitalist speech. However, this is a fever-induced delusion. The stress of attending the gala and of losing is too much for Adam to handle, and he collapses, leaving uncertainty about his well-being. Because the author indicated earlier that the vuvv don’t hand out medical treatments for those without proper coverage or money, the implication here is that the vuvv likely won’t help Adam.

The remainder of the novel constitutes the falling action, or resolution. The vuvv save Adam, eliminating his most pressing concern. His nightmarish experience at the gala leads him to an epiphany, as he realizes that he needs to stop striving for attention. His society values consumerism and social performance, and he has been simultaneously scorning the culture while determined to fit into it. His underlying desire to escape from society is evident in several earlier paintings, especially the painting that Chloe criticizes as not focusing on the man shot with arrows in Chapter 10. He can’t escape the effects of a polarized society, again emphasizing the theme of Capitalism and the Wealth Gap, but he can circumvent a few of its consequences by running away to start fresh. In the final chapter, he notes: “We thought there was a great distance between the future and us, and now here we are, falling through it” (149). The Costello family was living for the future, constantly looking forward to when conditions might improve. By leaving, they stop waiting for the future to someday happen to them and instead live more intentionally. This major shift in perspective reflects the popular adage, “living in the now.” The satirical message in the story’s conclusion reflects back on Mrs. Costello’s notion that the economy will rectify itself. The author demonstrates disagreement with this statement, instead suggesting that for the poor, waiting for capitalism to become beneficial is futile—the trickle-down economy is dysfunctional.

The author resolves all three themes in the story’s final chapters. Adam is completely over Chloe. Rather than feeling hatred for her, he feels indifferent. The theme of The Ups and Downs of Young Love ends by suggesting that Chloe won’t have a lasting impact on Adam’s life, as commonly occurs with short-term, early relationships. He has moved into his next “up” phase with Lucy, whom he wants to date. The theme of Expressing Truth Through Art resolves as Adam adjusts his artistic goals, deciding that while he may continue to create truthful and expressive paintings for himself, he’ll paint landscapes on commission. He previously wanted to make a difference in the world by painting the truth, no matter how ugly that truth is; however, Shirley was right in declaring that no one would be interested in such idealistic images: Adam won’t be able to make a living as an artist unless he meets society’s demands. Although his dream isn’t to paint rich people’s houses, doing so will help pay the bills, and he’ll be able to use his artistic skills. In the novel’s society (as in the real world), a general disinterest in truth symbolizes the declining valuation of the arts as technology increasingly dominates culture. Capitalism and the widening wealth gap are too powerful for Adam to overcome. However, in his epiphany he does find a way to fit a realistic view of the world into a plan to restart and avoid some of the worst consequences of capitalism. Although the Costellos shirk their debt and Adam’s lawsuit, the author portrays their actions as ethical and thus demonstrates the idea that lives are more valuable than money.