54 pages • 1 hour read
Nathaniel RichOdds Against Tomorrow
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
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Important Quotes
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BetaPart 2, Section 1, Chapters 6-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Section 1: “Every Silver Lining Has Its Cloud”
Part 2, Section 1, Chapter 6 Summary
Mitchell wakes up the next morning to a dull glow in the sky and hopes the storm veered off. He remembers a time when he was a child and a large storm was forecasted in his hometown. His father boarded up windows with wood and duct tape, but the storm never hit, and the next day all of the preparations seemed silly.
Charnoble calls very early in the morning and tells Mitchell that the mayor issued an executive order to evacuate the city in anticipation of Hurricane Tammy. Mitchell suggests the company evacuate, but Charnoble disagrees. Charnoble insists that it is FutureWorld’s job to stay behind in an emergency and meet with clients. He tells Mitchell that Ms. Tewilliger and Jane are staying and that no clients called to cancel their appointments. Mitchell sees New Yorkers frantically fleeing in their cars, laden with possessions. He tries to reason with Charnoble, but Charnoble hangs up on him.
Part 2, Section 1, Chapter 7 Summary
After speaking with Charnoble, Mitchell resolves to flee. Then he receives a call from Jane, who asks him not to abandon her. He agrees to stay and continue working, promising that he will check in with Jane in a couple of hours.
Mitchell goes to his appointments but only finds abandoned buildings. The sky darkens and it begins to rain. In one building he finds a lone woman searching for her car keys. Mitchell tries to warn her about the storm, but she already knows about it and alarms him with her dire warnings about the “new world” humans have created. Mitchell leaves and calls Jane, who tells him no one showed up for any of her appointments either. She says Ms. Tewilliger never came into work and that Charnoble is not answering her calls. Jane tells Mitchell she is scared and that she does not want to be alone.
Part 2, Section 1, Chapter 8 Summary
Mitchell and Jane take cover in Mitchell’s apartment. The power goes out as the storm becomes more violent. Jane and Mitchell discuss their work at FutureWorld and how their job is to exploit people’s fears for profit. Jane recognizes that her advice about catastrophes she never actually believed would come to pass will now be very useful to their clients. Mitchell and Jane sit in the dark and listen to the clamor of the storm outside, and Mitchell is grateful for the silence.
Part 2, Section 1, Chapter 9 Summary
The storm worsens and Mitchell reminds Jane that disasters happen. Jane tells him that no one doubts him anymore. Jane and Mitchell work together to barricade the window using duct tape and the pieces of the wooden box from the Psycho Canoe delivery. Jane questions Mitchell about the canoe, and he tells her that it is a work of art. Mitchell produces go bags and emergency provisions, and Jane calls him “a man of action” (155). Mitchell laughs at this.
Mitchell tries to call Elsa but is unsuccessful, and Jane asks him whom he keeps trying to call. Mitchell asks Jane if she has ever made an impulsive decision. Jane reveals a tattoo on her breast that says “slut.” Mitchell says he has never acted impulsively. He tells Jane about his parents and the slums, as well as about Elsa, whom he considers his first test of how he would respond to a disaster. He feels that he failed. They continue to board up the window.
Mitchell struggles to sleep. He thinks he sees Elsa in the canoe, but it is Jane. Mitchell and Jane watch the storm from a peephole they left in the window. The storm becomes even more violent, ripping buildings to pieces. A brick flies into the barricaded window, shattering the glass and letting in mist and water. Shocked, Jane laughs hysterically. Mitchell begins to laugh too. Jane straddles Mitchell and kisses him. Mitchell and Jane have sex while the storm continues to rage outside.
Part 2, Section 1, Chapters 6-9 Analysis
The storm underscores the frailty of The Illusion of Control. Disasters and catastrophes that Mitchell predicted are still affecting him, and all he can do is cope. The disaster also lays bare the hollowness of The Business of Fear. As Mitchell earnestly tries to warn people about the impending catastrophe, he finds that the purpose he served at FutureWorld is redundant: All the buildings have already been evacuated. In reality, of course, safeguarding against disaster was never FutureWorld’s goal. Its true pursuit is profit, and this is why Charnoble asks Mitchell and the other employees to stay behind. Predicting disaster is so thoroughly a business proposition to Charnoble that it does not occur to him that anyone who actually believed a hurricane would strike would cancel their appointments with the company; unlike all of Mitchell’s clients, Charnoble took Mitchell’s assurances (and self-assurances) that the odds of a disaster were low at face value, though he simultaneously praised Mitchell’s ability to stoke clients’ fears. FutureWorld, which Mitchell once saw as a way of rationally managing disaster, proves completely irrational in the face of a crisis.
Mitchell’s attachment to Jane causes him to do something out of the ordinary: to act on an impulse. The smart thing to do would be evacuate, but he decides to stay with Jane when she asks him to. Although he later realizes his decision was influenced by his belief that she herself wasn’t scared of the storm—something that quelled his own anxieties—it is also rooted in “something physical.” What that is becomes clear when they have sex in another uncharacteristically spontaneous moment. The timing of their encounter is significant; it occurs just after the window breaks and the storm pours into the apartment, symbolizing the extent to which humans are at the mercy of uncontrollable events. Mitchell accordingly accepts Jane’s overtures, surrendering control and acting on instinct. Sex’s symbolic relationship to the creation of new life is relevant here, underscoring that Mitchell is journeying toward a new way of living—one less premised on attempts to predict and influence the future.
Embracing the limits of one’s control is not the same as leaving things entirely to chance. Indeed, as Mitchell lets go of some of his obsessive forecasting and preparing, he has more flexibility to respond to crises in the moment—e.g., duct taping the windows. Though he cannot predict exactly what is going to happen, he can take reasonable actions to protect himself in the moment. Mitchell begins to understand that while he cannot control the storm, he can control his actions.
Mitchell’s growing acceptance of the limits of his power coincides with a growing capacity for vulnerability. When Mitchell opens up to Jane about Elsa, he is still reluctant to recognize that his fascination with her stems from his own insecurities; instead, he argues that she must have begun writing to him in the subconscious hope he would talk sense into her. Eventually, however, he confides that he feels Elsa was a “test” of his preparedness, which Jane brushes off as nonsensical, pointing out that he cannot force people to behave differently: “What were you supposed to do, kidnap her?” (157). Regardless, Elsa is now unreachable, just as Mitchell’s fear of having no control becomes moot. It does not matter how afraid Mitchell is of catastrophic events; he is in the middle of one and that cannot be changed.
