60 pages • 2 hours read
Ann PatchettState of Wonder
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: Marina’s Life at the Station and Discovering the Lakashi Secret
Chapter 8 Summary
In the weeks that follow her arrival, Marina settles into the routine of the station. She meets and becomes familiar with the other scientists who work with Dr. Swenson. Among these are a married American couple, the botanists Alan and Nancy Saturn, and an Indonesian researcher, Dr. Budi, who is in charge of clinical research organization. Marina too, is given a job at the station, running various tests in the lab. Because her luggage has not been found, she is forced to borrow another shift dress from the Lakashi, and scrounge together basic toiletries from her new colleagues.
Given that the deep jungle that surrounds them is so dangerous, the researchers are limited to the confines of the research station. Other than the weekly lab work, there is little to break the monotony, other than bathing in the river on the hot afternoons when the electricity goes out. Even the river has its perils; it is filled with dangerous Candiru fish, poisonous snakes, and various other hidden dangers. In spite of this, everyone, including Marina risks the swim, seeking relief from the heat and boredom in the waters.
As for the Lakashi, their cycle of work is routinely interrupted by what Dr. Swenson refers to as “vision quests.” In these so called quests, the Lakashi all gather together and head into the jungle where they imbibe a hallucinogenic mushroom as part of a tribal ritual, disappearing for long stretches of the night.
While no member of the research team ever accompanies them on these quests, Dr. Swenson reveals that Dr. Rapp, her mentor, used to, and even she made the trip herself in her youth. She recalls a ceremonial sharing of the mushrooms, much like a communion; however, she stopped participating in the ritual herself, not enjoying the inevitable vomiting that accompanied the ingestion of what was essentially a poison. At the remembrance of this experience, Dr. Swenson gets up suddenly, heads out the door, and vomits next to the front steps.
Later, Marina writes Mr. Fox a letter, detailing her experiences and observations of station life, including her discovery of pregnant Lakashi women in their seventies. Other than the report, there is very little expressed in the letter. Marina considers closing it with the word “love,” a word she hesitates to write because they seldom use language like that in their relationship. She ultimately decides to end the letter with “Love, Marina” (219).
On the subject of mail, Easter begins leaving Marina letters originally written by Anders to his wife, Karen. In these letters, Anders is obviously suffering from the effects of fever, revealing to his wife that the hallucinations brought on by the fever bring Karen closer to him. He thus finds the bouts of waking consciousness to be much worse than his bouts of fever.
Mail travels by boat from the research station to a trading post further up the river run by the Jinta, a friendly neighboring tribe. Typically, Dr. Alan Saturn makes the mail run to the trading post, both picking up and dropping off station correspondence. Helping him with these mail runs is either Easter or a Jinta tribesmen named Benoit, who works at the research station. Benoit was educated at a mission school and he speaks fluent Portuguese. He also has ambitions to be a tour guide on the river.
One day, Marina accompanies both of the Saturns, Dr. Budi, Benoit, and Easter on a boat trip to the trading post. On the way there, the conversation is both revealing and fraught with unresolved tension between the Saturns over Alan’s idolization of his former mentor and professor at Harvard, Dr. Rapp. Alan reveals that he wanted to be exactly like Dr. Rapp, admiring his poise, charisma, and effortless brilliance. Even when the rest of them were tired on their long canoe paddles up the Amazon, Dr. Rapp would keep going, seemingly oblivious to pain or fatigue, going into the jungle and then coming out with some undiscovered species of mushroom.
However, Alan Saturn’s idealized account of Dr. Rapp is challenged by his wife’s very different recollections. She has two lingering problems with Dr. Rapp. First of all, she recalls that Dr. Rapp was completely oblivious and unconcerned when Alan came down with a nearly lethal bout of malaria. In fact, it was only through the insistence of Alan’s father that he returned home from the expedition. Why, Nancy wonders, didn’t Dr. Rapp show more concern over the health and safety of one of his young researchers? Why did he leave him with a tribe of Peruvians with a fever of 105? Secondly, she points to his ongoing, extramarital affair with Dr. Swenson, who it turns out, was not only his co-researcher on the expeditions, but his mistress. While Nancy admires Dr. Rapp’s work, she has trouble separating the brilliance of his work with the questionable morality of his personal life.
Alan, seeking to change the subject, points to a small tributary opening in the river. He tells Marina that two or three hours down this river will take you to the Hummocca tribe. Remembering that Easter was originally from this tribe, Marina probes for more information about Easter’s origins and the Hummocca. The Saturns can offer very little detail, since no one has ever really seen the Hummocca. Alan compares the various Amazon tribes to independent nations with their own national character. While the Jinta tribe is like “Canada” (234), the Hummocca are “like North Korea” (234). They are not only reclusive, but what the researchers do know about them keeps them away. Even the fearless Dr. Swenson was frightened of them, and they have been known to practice cannibalism and to shoot poisoned arrows at traders who stumble too close to their territory.
Arriving at the Jinta trading post, Marina is stunned to find it crowded with a dozen tourists snapping photos. The Jinta children dance for the tourists, following the rhythm of drums played by middle-aged tribesmen, while the Jinta women sell carved craftwork to the eager white tourists. Because Marina is dark-skinned and wears a Lakashi shift, the tourists confuse her for a native, insisting that she stand with them for photos. Later, two of the elder tribesmen pull Marina towards the line of dancing children, insisting that she join the dance that is clearly meant to play to the tourists.
On their way back from the trading post, Benoit plays the tour guide, pointing out every bird and monkey along the route. At one point, Benoit motions for Easter to stop the boat over a thick mass of green floating river plants that resemble lettuce. Benoit, lying flat on his stomach and looking down into this vegetation, suddenly jabs his hand into the water, pulling a gigantic snake into the boat. The rest of the crew watch in shock and horror, as he pulls and pulls and the seemingly endless snake unravels into the boat. Nancy screams for him to put the snake back, but Benoit seems to be too caught up in his triumph to notice. Having wrestled an anaconda, the world’s largest snake, onto the boat; however, his triumph soon turns to horror as Easter, who moves to help him subdue the anaconda, is caught in its deadly coils.
As Marina watches in terror, Easter’s face turns purple and he begins to suffocate as the snake tightens its massive coils around his midsection. Demanding a knife, Marina acts quickly, cutting into the snake’s coils and cracking its vertebra until it releases Easter and dies. Easter barely survives the incident, and the crew members, many of them covered in the snake’s blood, return to the station traumatized by the event. When Marina asks Dr. Swenson why Benoit would bring a snake like that onto the boat, she reveals that he wants to be a tour guide, and single handedly picking up an anaconda would have very likely earned him fame and professional respect.
Although Dr. Swenson commends Marina for saving Easter’s life, she is aware of her growing closeness to him, a closeness that reminds her too much of Anders’s interest in the boy and his conspiracy to take Easter back to America with him. She reminds Marina that Easter is not a souvenir and he does not belong to her.
On the subject of Easter and children, Dr. Swenson reveals that she herself is pregnant. She has intentionally impregnated herself as the test-case for the Lakashi fertility treatments. Marina is shocked with this revelation. Adding to the shock, Dr. Swenson makes a bold request of her. She would like Marina to deliver her baby, a request that is problematic for Marina on many levels, especially considering the outcome of her last delivery, the “accident” that ended her obstetrics residency at Hopkins.
Later, Marina attempts to scrub away the anaconda blood that still covers her dress. She then asks the Lakashi women to boil some water, which she uses to clean and attend to Easter. Finding him in a deep sleep and covered with a blossoming array of purple and green bruises, she cleans him up with a cloth rag, and the chapter ends with the image of Marina tending to Easter.
Chapter 9 Summary
Four days after the trip to the Jinta trading post, Easter is bruised but recovering from the anaconda attack. Marina spies Dr. Nancy Saturn and Dr. Budi walking through the jungle in the early morning. They are about to check on “the trees” (254), the mysterious source of the Lakashi’s fertility, and they invite Marina to come along. She has waited patiently for several weeks for just this occasion.
Marina and the two doctors follow a long line of Lakashi women on a winding trail through the jungle until they arrive at what appears to be a clearing, but is actually a collection of thinner trees. The sight is incredibly beautiful; the reduced density of trees and vegetation allows sunlight to penetrate the grove of buttery-yellow barked trees.
Marina observes the Lakashi women, from elderly women to girls of thirteen, approach the mature trees slowly, open their mouths, and then scrape their teeth down the soft trunks of the trees, before chewing the bark.
Dr. Budi explains that Lakashi women do not chew the bark until they have reached their first menstrual cycle, and the young women she sees are eating the bark for the first time. It is thus an important rite of passage, marking the transition from childhood to early adulthood. The bark has the power to boost estrogen levels, prolonging female fertility.
The trees, called Martins, are actually one interconnected living organism; like Aspens, they share a single root system. This interconnected root system ensures that no other plant life will deprive the trees of vital nutrients. Other than the trees, the only other notable plant life in the grove is a species of mushroom called Rapps, named after their discoverer, Dr. Rapp. These mushrooms have long, lean stems and golf ball shaped spores colored a nearly phosphorescent light blue and grow nowhere else in the world (. The mushrooms, which grow in clusters at the base of the Martin Trees, are the same hallucinogenic mushrooms used in the Lakashi “vision quest” rituals.
These mushrooms, Nancy divulges, are the reason for all the secrecy about their work and location: “it is to protect the Rapps” (260). They are one of the great botanical discoveries of the age and if their location were discovered, the place would be overrun by tourists, drug dealers, the Brazilian government and both the delicate ecosystem and the Lakashi people who depend on it, would be destroyed.
Marina is invited to try the bark, and after some hesitation, she too scrapes her teeth down the soft trunk, which tastes vaguely pleasant, and chews, mimicking the Lakashi.
While the trees and the mushrooms are named after the megalomaniacal Dr. Martin Rapp, Marina learns that it was actually Dr. Swenson who discovered the connection between the trees and extended fertility. Beyond this, she made an even more important discovery: the bark not only extends fertility cycles indefinitely, but also inoculates against malaria. As a result, the Lakashi women do not contract malaria.
Nancy Saturn then points out a tiny purple moth resting on the inner bark of the tree. This month, called the purple martinet, is, along with the tree, an integral part of creating the fertility compound. To lay its eggs in the bark, the martinet ingests and excretes the Martin wood proteins, releasing their medicinal benefit. Like the Martins and the Rapps, this purple martinet is only found in this ecosystem.
Marina asks if Anders ever came to this grove, and they reveal that he did. With the matter of his final burial place still a mystery, Marina asks them to take her to his grave. Unfortunately, they tell her that no one knows where he is buried. They were unable to bury Anders themselves, and so they gave his body to the Lakashi, who took him and buried them according to their custom. This revelation stuns Marina, who realizes she has been lied to.
Returning to the station, Marina is eager to confront Dr. Swenson; however, before she can do so, Dr. Swenson seeks her help in a medical emergency. A young Lakashi woman is in labor and needs an emergency C-Section. Dr. Swenson needs Marina to perform the surgery. Marina is reluctant to do so because she has not delivered a baby or performed a C-Section for two decades and the last C-Section she performed ended tragically. This situation is made more difficult by the fact that she will have to perform the C-Section without modern equipment, using rudimentary gear and without the assistance of a trained nurse.
In spite of all the challenges, Marina manages to deliver the baby safely, earning her the gratitude and respect of the Lakashi villagers, who begin to idolize her for killing the anaconda and saving the lives of this baby and its mother.
Marina also gains the respect of Dr. Swenson, who asks Marina to stay on at the station, and to help deliver her own baby when the time comes. Dr. Swenson admits that this pregnancy has led to her realization that it is not healthy for women of her age to have children. Ultimately, she cares nothing for the fertility benefit of the bark, but much more for its ability to eradicate malaria—a mosquito borne disease that kills 800,000 children each year—in the third world. The problem, Dr. Swenson explains, is that pharmaceutical companies will only be interested in the fertility benefits, because this will generate an “obscene fortune”. Malaria, on the other hand, is mostly a third-world affliction, and most of the people at risk are poor and unable to pay for treatments. As a result, this side of the treatment provides very little profit motive to big companies. Dr. Swenson asks Marina to help keep Mr. Fox and Vogel at bay until they can ensure the protection of the ecosystem. She intends to give the company a fertility drug while demanding that they privately fund malaria vaccinations for the third world poor.
Dr. Swenson invites Marina to see the mosquitos they keep for research, but Marina insists on cleaning up first. When she returns to her sleeping porch, she finds that her bed has been made and there is a letter written by Anders waiting for her, presumably left there by Easter.
Chapters 8-9 Analysis
Chapter 8 brings to light not only Dr. Swenson’s controversial relationship with Dr. Rapp, but the ongoing threat that tourism and modern medicine pose to the jungle and the fragile tribal cultures that exist in the Amazon Basin. There are three scenes in particular—the tense argument between the Saturns, their time at the Jinta Trading Post, and the anaconda attack—that are fundamental to the chapter.
Dr. Alan and Nancy Saturn’s argument not only exposes the romantic relationship between Dr. Swenson and her mentor, Dr. Martin Rapp, but raises difficult and ambiguous moral questions about Dr. Rapp. While he was undoubtedly a groundbreaking botanist, Nancy suggests he was also a self-absorbed fame-hunter and philanderer. Nancy’s revelations raise the question of whether one should be judged on the merit of their work and achievement, or on their moral choices. Can we separate the personal achievement from the personal life? Alan Saturn fiercely defends his mentor, Dr. Rapp, insisting that his achievements and brilliance as a scientist advanced the field and inspired subsequent generations of scientists. This, according to Alan Saturn, cannot be diminished by the fact that he carried on a secret, extra-marital affair with Dr. Swenson. That was a private matter, and not for anyone to judge. On the other side of the argument, Nancy Saturn asserts that she can’t separate the achievement from the man, especially since she knew Dr. Rapp’s wife personally. Furthermore, she reveals that Dr. Rapp, prioritizing his work over the health and safety of his team, once abandoned a fever-wracked Alan Saturn because he was unwilling to delay the progress of his research. The Saturns’ argument remains unresolved but provides insight into the conflict between individual achievement and moral responsibility.
Marina’s relationship with Mr. Fox has much in common with Dr. Swenson’s relationship with Dr. Rapp. Both were much older men who had power and influence over their lovers. Both relationships were conducted in secrecy, largely to maintain the integrity and prestige of the men involved, forcing the women to conceal the truth.
The scenes at the Jinta Trading Post and on the return boat trip Suggest that while the expansion of modern civilization and culture can bring economic, technological, and social advancement to the tribes of the Amazon Basin, it can also have a destabilizing and corrupting effect on their cultures. This corruption, epitomized by the white tourists at the Jinta Trading Post, turns sacred Jinta dances and ceremonies into a quaint and disturbing show for tourists, who treat the Indians and their culture like a Disney World attraction. Marina, mistaken for a native because of her dress, dark-skin, and the ignorance of the white tourists, is forced to participate in this unsavory performance. The whole scene represents the ugly commodification of Indian culture, exchanging cultural integrity for economic prosperity, while tourists unwittingly profane the sacred in their pursuit of exotic fun and spectacle.
This corruption also infects the stations employee, Benoit. On the return trip, he literally snatches an anaconda, the largest and perhaps most powerful snake in the world, and pulls it onto the boat, an act that nearly results in Easter’s death. While Benoit’s behavior is, on the surface, an act of lunacy, it is really an act of desperation. Benoit yearns to be an official tourist guide and to cash in on the lucrative Amazon River tourist market; the pressure to distinguish himself and earn a reputation as a good guide motivates his capture of the snake. While the Lakashi and Jinta live deep in the Amazon wilderness, the scene at the trading station and Benoit’s daring act suggest that the corruption of money and civilization already infect the periphery of their culture.
If Chapter 8 demonstrates the dangers posed by modern civilization to the Amazon interior, Chapter 9 unveils the mystery behind Lakashi fertility: the Martin tree. The scene in the Martin grove is not only dazzling in its imagery and description of this unique ecosystem, but underscores its fragility, shedding light on Dr. Swenson’s obsessive secrecy. By taking her to the Martins, Dr. Nancy Saturn and Dr. Budi introduce Marina to a complex, interconnected, and delicate ecosystem that exists nowhere else in the world. The Martin bark is the vehicle or delivery system for the compound that enables prolonged fertility, but its potency lies in a symbiotic relationship between three rare species—the Martins, the Rapp mushrooms, and the purple martinet moths—that only exist in this tiny pocket of the Amazon. Though the relationship between these three organisms is not yet completely understood, the rarity of these species and their potential to both cure malaria and prolong female fertility makes this grove priceless and exceedingly vulnerable. The extreme care and secrecy of the researchers is maintained out of necessity, for if governments, corporations, tourists, and criminal elements became aware of this ecosystem and its biomedical potential, they would likely destroy it, and the Lakashi along with it.
The Martin bark’s ability to inoculate against malaria has even more tangible medicinal benefits than its effect on fertility. Malaria ravages the third world and current drugs, like Lariam, have devastating side effects, which Marina has experience first-hand. The Martin ecosystem not only offers to extend the fertility cycle, but also offers the world a cure for malaria without damaging side effects.
“The State of Wonder” provoked by this ecosystem signals a shift in Marina’s perception of Dr. Swenson and the nature of her research. First of all, she must confront both the otherworldly beauty of this unique landscape and the reality that it would be destroyed if its existence became widely known. While the opening chapters seemed to characterize Dr. Swenson as a monomaniacal scientist gone rogue, prioritizing her research over human life, and participating in a systematic abuse of power and covering up the truth of Anders Eckman’s death, these final chapters offer a much more complex and sympathetic perspective on her motives. As the leader of the research station, Dr. Swenson has the difficult task of balancing the needs of science and research with the needs of the Lakashi and their delicate ecosystem. While this is a microcosm of our modern crisis—balancing progress with sustainability—Dr. Swenson is working on the front lines of this conflict.
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By Ann Patchett
