66 pages • 2 hours read
Janet FitchWhite Oleander
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1999A 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 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Astrid Magnussen (age 12) and her mother, Ingrid, live together in Hollywood, California. The novel is narrated from Astrid’s perspective and begins by describing the Santa Ana winds that dry and heat the air. It is an environment where “only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves” (3). Astrid knows that her mother acts strangely at this time of year and finds her mother sitting on the roof in the middle of the night, dressed only in a kimono. Ingrid mentions lovers killing each other and blaming it on the wind. Astrid’s mother reminds her that she is of Norse heritage; both have pale blonde hair and light skin, and culture is one with a history rooted in strength and courage. Astrid describes her mother’s voice as hypnotic and her smile as one that hides a private joke and sketches a picture of her standing underneath a fig tree.
Ingrid meets Barry at one of her poetry readings. Ingrid brings home a younger, more attractive man that night, and Astrid remembers her mother’s many lovers. White oleanders are arranged in three clusters on the table to symbolize “heaven, man, and earth” (6). Astrid spends her summer vacation at work with her mother (who works for a magazine as a writer); she is deeply attached to Ingrid and finds it difficult to relate to people her age. She remembers when one of the publishers attempted to touch Ingrid, and Ingrid slashed his hand with an Xacto knife. Ingrid is often in her own world, and Astrid relishes whatever attention she receives from her mother. Ingrid hates her job, and Astrid feels guilty knowing that her mother works it to take care of her, comparing herself to a crippled foot.
Over the next few weeks, Barry shows up at Ingrid’s readings and work events. He tells Ingrid he thinks about her and taunts her by kissing another woman in front of her. One day, Barry appears at Ingrid’s work with two tickets to a gamelan concert: something she could never resist. Astrid is suspicious of Barry, but they attend the performance with him. Ingrid denies a dinner invitation afterward and instead goes home to write a poem “about shadow puppets and the gods of chance” (17).
Chapter 2 Summary
Ingrid leaves work early, and Barry takes her and Astrid to the racetrack. Ingrid seems carefree and happy, and Barry captivates them with stories of his travels around Asia. One evening, Barry shows up at their home, and Ingrid initially responds by taking out a knife, unsure what his intentions are. She lets him in when she sees him holding wine and food. Barry stays overnight, surprising Astrid. Ingrid and Barry become involved in a passionate love affair, and Astrid wonders if she will soon be calling him “Dad.” Astrid has always wanted a father but dares not tell her mother this, knowing she will only react with irritation and dismissal. Then, Barry starts canceling plans, and Ingrid becomes uncharacteristically desperate and anxious. She decides to go to Barry’s house and confront him; they have sex, but then he tells Ingrid he has another date. Ingrid returns to the car and cries as Astrid watches her mother act like someone she has never met.
Chapter 3 Summary
Ingrid falls into a depression, and Astrid stays home with her mother, afraid of what she might do if left alone. Ingrid does little but stare into space or swim. The air is dry, and fires burning in California ignite the sky with a deep red. Ingrid starts talking about a “cold and clean” (31) jewel forming inside her, deciding she hates Barry and going back to work while Astrid begins school. Ingrid starts stalking Barry as he stalks her, priming herself with hatred. When Ingrid appears at a party that Barry is attending, he grabs her forcefully by the arm, telling her that her manipulation does not affect him. Ingrid whispers vague threats, then returns home to proudly tell her daughter how she is getting under Barry’s skin. A few days later, Ingrid takes Astrid to Barry’s house and breaks in. She wipes his computer and backup disks and cuts up his favorite shirt, leaving a white oleander in its pocket. When Barry comes to the apartment to confront Ingrid, he becomes wild with rage, but Ingrid “just stood in the center of the room, gleaming, like a grassfire” (34). Astrid watches as Barry breaks a window; Ingrid stabs him in the hand, and Astrid concludes that this is how romances end.
Barry is scared off, but Ingrid presses on, continuing to break into Barry’s home and place oleanders in the hopes of poisoning him. Barry puts bars on his windows and installs a new security door, and when Ingrid shows up to talk, he denies letting her in. That night, Ingrid swims in the pool, talking to Astrid about how “love humiliates you, but hatred cradles you” (38). Ingrid takes Astrid to Mexico to buy DSMO, a drug that helps other drugs be absorbed through the skin. She starts cooking with the drug and the oleanders, and Astrid is certain of her mother’s plan. She calls Barry to warn him but, deciding that she cannot aid in her mother’s arrest, hangs up without saying a word.
Chapter 4 Summary
Astrid describes the next period of her life as “a season underground” (43). She is taken to an orphanage and spends most of her time in bed. It smells terrible, the food is awful, and Astrid holds her mother’s kimono, which she always used to wear. She has nightmares of her mother walking through an empty street with whitened eyes and a melted face. Ingrid was arrested in the middle of the night while Astrid watched. She was pulled out of bed naked and taken to the police station, telling Astrid she would be back in an hour. Astrid waits a week, staying at their neighbor Michael’s place, but is eventually taken to a group home. Astrid compares herself to Persephone being taken to the underworld, feeling like she has vanished into the darkness. Astrid visits her mother in jail once, but Ingrid seems vacant and unable to recognize Astrid. When the police interrogate Astrid, trying to get insight into the case, Astrid cannot speak, nor does she speak at the group home. A woman at the orphanage refers to her as disabled as a result. One night, Astrid awakes to find her roommate rifling through Ingrid’s hand-written book. Astrid becomes enraged and speaks for the first time since arriving there, telling the girl to give it back. She instead taunts Astrid, and Astrid attacks her with a knife, warning her never to touch her things again. Astrid does not recognize herself in this moment but takes the book and brings it close to her, smelling and hearing her mother as she does so. Knowing she can speak, the group home sends Astrid to school.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
At the story's start, Astrid lives with her mother, Ingrid. She is only 12 years old, and Ingrid is her entire world. She looks up to her, admires her fierceness and independence, and hopes to be as strong as her someday. Astrid is quiet and shy, living under her mother’s shadow, and has yet to find out who she is or what she wants out of life. Ingrid is a poet and extremely intelligent, and she knows how to manipulate those around her with her words. She uses this skill on Astrid, and because Astrid is so young and attached to her mother, she hangs on Ingrid’s words. Ingrid is aloof and often in her own head, and Astrid relishes what little attention she gets from her mother. Ingrid wants to mold Astrid in her image, telling her to remember her Viking heritage and inscribing rules about relationships and love. Ingrid does not believe in attachment but soon finds herself in love with Barry, an average man with a peculiar charm that seems to put Ingrid under a spell. Astrid watches as her mother falls into a pit of passion and then despair when Barry breaks up with her. Everything Astrid thought she knew about her mother as a pillar of strength begins to crumble in a moment, illustrating The Delicate Balance of Mother-Daughter Relationships.
When Astrid and her mother are still living together, Astrid describes the time of the Santa Anas winds that flow through California, drying out everything and causing raging fires to burn. During this time, nothing seems to bloom but the oleanders. Astrid regularly describes the natural surroundings, flowers, and weather around her, noticing their delicate shapes, unique smells, and how nature accents the people she knows, bringing to light their flaws and beauty all at once. These detailed descriptions are an element of Fitch’s writing style and a characterization tool of Astrid, the protagonist and narrator. She sees the world through an artist’s eyes, observing and attempting to understand things precisely as they are. This is juxtaposed with Ingrid’s artistic view, who twists the world to her own wiles and uses words to manipulate and create emotions. Oleanders are a recurring symbol throughout the novel, first representing the passion and unpredictable emotions accompanying romantic relationships. When Ingrid begins trying to poison Barry with oleanders after he leaves her, Ingrid transforms the flowers into a symbol of death and hatred instead. In her reaction to the breakup, Ingrid shows that she is more fragile than she lets on (The Capacity for Human Suffering). Astrid is exposed to all of it, feeling her mother’s anger, pain, and betrayal.
When the novel circles back to its conclusion, Astrid again thinks of the oleanders and sees them as a symbol of strength amid a chaotic and unwelcoming world. After Ingrid murders Barry, Astrid’s worldview evolves into something else entirely. At first, Astrid tries to justify Ingrid’s actions in her mind, unable to view her mother as anything other than good: “It was only natural to want to destroy something you could never have” (34). She is whisked away from the only home and family she ever knew to live in a group home and await her first placement. Astrid feels like she has been taken underground, comparing herself to Persephone:
How it was that the earth could open up under you and swallow you whole, close above you as if you never were. Like Persephone snatched by the god. The ground opened up and out he came, sweeping her into the black chariot. Then down they plunged, under the ground, into the darkness, and the earth closed over her head, and she was gone, as if she had never been (45).
Without her mother, she is completely lost, has no idea who she is, and does not know what will become of her (The Meaning of Home). Astrid is traumatized by this experience, and it takes many years before she can trust and forgive her mother.
