55 pages • 1 hour read
Bonnie Jo CampbellThe Waters
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 16-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “Rose Thorn Always Goes Away”
Though no one yet knows it, Rose Thorn has not left. She remains in hiding on the island, but she is not yet ready to allow Molly to take her to the hospital to receive treatment. She is certain that even if the tumor is removed, its roots will remain and it will regrow. She wanders to a small cave near Rose Cottage that is called the Fox Den; she has come here before. Now, she sees that Wild Will is living there. The two talk, as Wild Will has learned about Rose Thorn’s cancer from Donkey. Rose Thorn realizes he is the “ghost” that Donkey saw in Boneset House. Rose Thorn suspects that Hermine most likely knows that Wild Will has been in the Fox Den all along.
Rose Thorn sleeps in the Fox Den that night, and her sleep is peaceful. The next day, Wild Will brings her cranberry juice and a roasted rabbit. Rose Thorn drinks the juice and voices her disapproval of Wild Will’s relationship with Prim. Wild Will feels no shame for it and emphasizes that Prim is not his natural daughter. No one knows who Prim’s biological parents are. Rose Thorn thinks about her hatred for Titus Clay Senior and the rape, but she knows that without this event, Donkey would not exist, and she is certain that Donkey exists for a purpose. Rose Thorn asks Wild Will if she might stay for a while in the Fox Den. The two fall into a routine.
Rose Thorn begins to eat again and gains weight. She slowly realizes that she is pregnant. She thinks over the matter and decides that she owes it to Titus to have the baby, just as she owes it to Donkey to marry Titus. She sneaks out of the Fox Den one night with a jar of Wild Will’s honey. Rose Thorn heads to Titus’s home, only to recognize Lorena’s car. Peeking into the windows, Rose Thorn learns that Titus and Lorena are expecting a baby, so she goes to Boneset Table instead and places her amber stone and a cowry shell inside the honey jar. She then places the jar inside of the baby basket. She hopes that Hermine will understand the message and will give her the means to end her pregnancy.
Chapter 17 Summary: “We Love Best Those for Whom We Suffer Most”
Donkey retrieves the jar. When she eats it with a spoon, she is surprised to find it unfiltered and dirty. When Donkey discovers the cowry shell, Hermine senses its presence and asks Donkey about the jar’s contents. Donkey hides the shell in her mouth, then swallows it. When she discovers the amber stone, she knows that Rose Thorn is present on the island and that she is asking for the medicine to terminate a baby. Instead, Donkey makes a tea that she believes will cause the baby to become a boy. She leaves the remedy at Boneset Table for Rose Thorn.
Donkey goes to Titus’s house and finds him converting the cranberry bog to a garden. He explains that he and Lorena were married the day before, are having a baby, and plan to plant celery. Donkey pleads with him, saying that he is meant to marry Rose Thorn, but Titus laments that he must live with the decision that Rose Thorn has made. Donkey then goes to Boneset House, wondering if it might be possible for her to simultaneously live there and at Rose Cottage. Three months pass, and the cow delivers her calf early. After Donkey retrieves the stillborn calf from its mother, the cow dies, too.
Chapter 18 Summary: “We’re All Dying”
Men gather at Boneset Table for the first time in a long while. As they talk, a figure appears in the distance. They soon realize that it is a pregnant Rose Thorn. Overjoyed by her return, each man offers to help her in any way she needs. She insists that she is on her way to Rose Cottage to give birth. Suddenly, her water breaks. Though some of the men insist that she should be taken to the hospital, Rose Thorn only wants to go to the island. The men contemplate building a ramp with plywood, but Rose Thorn attempts to cross through the muck on her own. Standish, the man who shot Hermine, begins to carry her. When he cannot keep from being sucked down into the muck, the other men jump in and carry Rose Thorn as a group.
On the shore, they try to coax Rose Thorn to go into the house, but she refuses. The men take turns knocking on the door and calling out for Hermine and Donkey, but neither appears. Rose Thorn gives birth to the baby on the grass with the help of several men. Afterward, Donkey appears; she was watching from a distance. She lowers the bridge and runs to Titus, telling him that Rose Thorn is asking for him. He refuses to come, insisting Lorena and their twin boys need him. Back on the island, Donkey helps to wash the blood from Rose Thorn. Standish admits that he shot Hermine. Then Molly arrives, having been notified by Titus that something is happening on the island.
Chapter 19 Summary: “It’s Hard to Be a Person”
Molly pushes the men aside and tends to Rose Thorn, handing the baby to Donkey and telling her to care for her sister. Donkey is angry to see that the baby is not a boy. Molly cuts the umbilical cord, and Donkey asks Rose Thorn why she did not consume the medicine that she had supplied for her. Rose Thorn explains that she merely needed the knowledge that the remedy was available.
As Donkey holds the baby, she begins to accept her, knowing that the baby will now inherit the island. Donkey is certain that the baby’s name is Rose Moon and tells her of the things she will teach her. Molly and Rose Thorn argue as to whether they should wake Hermine. Titus arrives and is overjoyed to discover that he has fathered a child by Rose Thorn. Titus carries the baby, and as Molly helps Rose Thorn across the bridge to take her to the hospital, Donkey spots the Massasauga; its pencil scar is evidence of its identity. She briefly hopes that the Massasauga will bite Titus, but she knows that this would deprive Rose Moon of a father or make him drop Rose Moon into the swamp. Instead, Donkey seizes the snake and allows it to bite her wrist, certain that this will mean she has antivenom inside of her as Wild Will does. When Titus sees what has happened, he urges Donkey to come with them to the hospital so the wound can be treated. Donkey wants to use Hermine’s antivenom cure, but she knows that if she does, Rose Thorn will refuse hospital care. Donkey chooses the hospital. As they cross the bridge, Donkey destroys its three final boards to prevent anyone from going to the island in her absence. Donkey’s arm swells as Molly drives to the Muck Rattler and phones the hospital to request that antivenom be ready when they arrive.
Meanwhile, the men see that Hermine has left the cottage and has fallen into the muck. They help her up and load her into the back of Standish’s truck, then drive her to the hospital. When they arrive, Donkey sees Hermine in the truck bed. She leaps over to retrieve Hermine’s cowry shell necklace. She receives the antivenom treatment, but a scar that resembles a river forms on her arm. In time, she is allowed to share Rose Thorn’s hospital room. Donkey remains in the hospital for four days. Hermine is there, too, and she remains unresponsive. Doctors discover that she is not comatose but has suffered a heart attack. Her daughters grant permission for an angioplasty. A surgeon convinces Rose Thorn to have the tumor removed, and Rose Thorn insists on having a mastectomy.
Donkey and Rose Moon are sent to stay with Titus and Lorena. There, Donkey eats peach pie and helps Lorena to care for the three babies. One night, Donkey has a dream in which she swallows the Massasauga. Each night, Donkey sleeps with Hermine’s cowry shell necklace around her neck. She visits Hermine in the hospital, promising to return her to the island.
Epilogue Summary: “Fathers Keep Showing Up”
Two years pass. Wild Will has made his presence known and continues to live in Fox Den. The Zook women have moved into his house in Boneset. Rose Thorn, now free of cancer after her mastectomy but refusing reconstructive surgery, continues to nurse Rose Moon with her left breast. Hermine is supposedly alive and is also living in the house, though no one ever sees her. The six men who delivered Rose Moon and saved Hermine still talk proudly of the event.
One night, Titus sits in his truck, watching Boneset House. Just last night, he finally learned that his father raped Rose Thorn, but he is unsure whether Whitby is telling the truth. The previous day, his tractor, which he inherited from his father, sank completely into the muck, and the Whiteheart men gathered to shoot their guns at it, as if killing it. Titus goes to Rose Cottage, where he has set a trap for the Massasauga. He finds the snake in the trap and removes it with his hands. However, the snake does not bite him. Titus allows the snake to crawl across his arms and chest, daring it to bite him and considering whether his father is indeed Donkey’s father. He thinks of Lorena and Rose Thorn and his love for both women, knowing that it is best for him to be with Lorena. He releases the snake and it crawls away. Then Titus sets the trap again before leaving the island.
Chapter 16-Epilogue Analysis
Much of the final section focuses on Rose Thorn and the evolution she undergoes, highlighting The Interconnectedness of Illness and Healing. While she is in hiding near the island, intentionally delaying her treatment, it is clear that her decision is not a result of procrastination or avoidance; instead, Rose Thorn prefers to address her illness when the time is right and of her own volition. This desire reflects her broader need for agency and control over her own body. Given the fact that her body has been controlled and violated by Titus Senior, exerting agency and resisting her family’s entreaties to go to the hospital is in fact therapeutic despite the inherent risk in delay, for she sets boundaries as she sees fit. During this contemplative interim, she also accomplishes a measure of spiritual healing by coming to terms with the circumstances of her birth. Although she finds the taboo of quasi-incest troubling and problematic, she ultimately accepts the fact that she cannot change this truth. Her request for the medication to induce abortion also demonstrates her desire for agency. Although she decides not to use the medicine and instead brings the baby to term, she is comforted by the knowledge that the medicine is available to her should she choose it. The power of choice therefore empowers Rose Thorn and eventually enables her to return to her family on her own terms.
Just as Rose Thorn has acted as a bridge between the island and the local community in past seasons, her return—and the crisis of her baby’s birth—once again forges a powerful link between the Zook family and the people of Whiteheart. As the six men of Whiteheart aid Rose Thorn in delivering the baby, her arrival at Boneset Table echoes her arrival nearly 12 years ago, when she returned from California with the infant Donkey hidden in a backpack. Campbell therefore creates a deliberate symmetry as Rose Thorn stumbles upon the men in the same way, this time pregnant with a child conceived during consensual sex rather than through rape. Once again, the men are overjoyed to see her and are eager to bask in her presence. Their willingness to carry Rose Thorn through the muck of the swamp is evidence of their great love for her and their acceptance of the consequences of going where men are forbidden to be. Likewise, their assistance with the birth becomes an event in which they take pride for years to come. Symbolically, this moment provides them with an opportunity to participate in a process from which men have traditionally been excluded, thus granting them a window into the world of women. A parallel to this dynamic occurs when Wild Will later returns to the island, for it is said that he too has become more like a woman. The implication is that these men have been transformed in a positive way by their visit to the island, participating in an act of creation rather than one of destruction, as when they cut down the tree.
This moment holds great significance for Donkey as well, and she is surprised, happy, and relieved when the six men appear on the island. She believes that the number six is imbued with balance and logic, and because she has longed to have men in her life, she perceives that the men’s assistance reinstates the balance between the men and women of Whiteheart. Furthermore, Donkey’s final engagement with the Massasauga brings closure to the battle that they have waged with one another for a year. Donkey selflessly offers herself for the snake to bite so that the snake will spare Titus and Rose Moon. In doing this, Donkey demonstrates her love for them and for Rose Thorn. Her hope that the venom in her blood will not cause her death but will instead imbue her blood with antivenom indicates her desire to commune with the natural world. It also displays her desire to exert certain masculine traits, as Wild Will has been bitten by a Massasauga as well.
The novel’s ending suggests that a new version of harmony and equilibrium has been established. Although Hermine is never seen, the Zook women assure the town that she is alive and well. The three sisters occupy Boneset House, and Rose Thorn, who was once at risk of death, is now healthy and content in her role as a mother, no longer feeling the need to flee. However, the island is now uninhabited, and the epilogue suggests that the Massasaugas, for which the island was named, will reclaim the island as its rightful owners.
