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Interlude 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Babel, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonization and Racism
Language, Translation, and Power
Race, Gender, and Intersectionality
Violence and Nonviolence
Complicity
Summary
Analysis
Victoire leads the way to the safehouse. When she and Robin arrive, they realize that Griffin had been staying there up until the moment that he rescued Robin and Victoire. They scour the room to look for any clues that might guide them to other members of the Hermes Society. They find correspondences from Griffin to people in Boston, New York, and Singapore, but they still don’t know how to contact those Hermes Society associates. Victoire also finds a letter from Griffin addressed to Robin. Robin says he can’t bring himself to read it now and asks Victoire to hold onto it for him.
This passage shows that the Hermes Society doesn’t just operate in England or even only in Europe. Instead, the Society seems to have members scattered around the world, suggesting that the group’s anti-colonialist ideals are widespread and that there are people sympathetic to those ideas throughout the world. That also suggests that if Robin and Victoire need to leave England, they may have other places they can go.
Themes
Robin and Victoire then find a lamp equipped with a silver bar. They think the lamp must operate as a kind of beacon and that it must be how members of the Hermes Society communicate. Eventually, they write a letter, which they say is a call to arms. They want to alert the Hermes Society about everything that has happened. When they throw the letter into the fire, the flame erupts and seems to speak, and the letter disappears. They hope that their message has gotten through to someone.
The mysterious nature of communication within the Hermes Society can be interpreted as a symbolic representation of communication among dissenting figures within oppressive societies. The novel suggests that within those societies, there can be a groundswell of discontent that can lead to widespread protests, news of which travels surreptitiously through word of mouth before the protests break out into the open.
Themes
In the morning, Robin and Victoire go back to the Old Library. They know that it’s risky, but they want to assess the damage. They see plenty of police officers, but no one has cleaned up the bodies of the dead. Robin sees Ramy’s body lying on the ground. Robin and Victoire then go to Babel. They’ve decided to stage their action today, and they aim to take over the tower. They’re banking on the idea that the wards only spring into action when someone tries to leave, not when they try to enter. They throw a silver bar that makes an overwhelming sound as a distraction and then slip in the front door of Babel.
This passage confirms that Ramy is in fact dead, despite Robin holding out hope at one point that Ramy may have survived the bullet wound if Letty had intentionally aimed to miss any vital organs. With that in mind, the fact that Ramy is dead suggests that Letty aimed to kill him and seemed to have wanted him to die.
Themes
When Robin and Victoire get inside Babel, Robin stands on a table. Several students and faculty members are in the vicinity. Robin says they’re taking over the tower and staging a strike. He and Victoire then begin to explain England’s plans to invade China and how those plans are related to Babel and the faculty at Babel. Victoire adds that officers killed Anthony and several other students. Professor Playfair responds that what they’re saying is madness. Professor Craft interjects and says that what they’re saying has the ring of truth to it. Robin explains that they plan to go on strike to deprive England of the silver that it needs to invade China and to continue its day-to-day activities.
While Playfair has shown that he is a partisan to Babel and the British Empire, Professor Craft seems to be different. While Craft previously rebuffed Letty when Letty approached her about speaking to women at Babel about her experiences navigating the male-dominated institution, in this passage, Craft seems to be someone who values the truth. She is willing to hear other people out and make up her mind based on that truth rather than her biases.
Themes
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Robin then says he has the silver bar that he used to kill Professor Lovell. He says that if anyone tries to stop them and call for help, he won’t hesitate to use it again. Some students—all of them White—approach Robin and accost him, but Robin easily fights them off. Professor Playfair then pulls a gun out and aims it at Robin. Victoire takes her gun out and shoots Playfair. Playfair falls backward as blood streams from his stomach. Professor Chakravarti retrieves Playfair’s gun. He says that he got Robin and Victoire’s message and congratulates them on their work.
Robin’s threat of violence against others shows how much his views have changed since the beginning of the novel. At first, Robin was reluctant to let Griffin store explosives in his room that Griffin planned to use as a distraction. Now, Robin is threatening to kill anyone who opposes him. Similarly, while Victoire has not been vocal about supporting violence before, she now picks up a gun and shoots Playfair. The novel also underlines that the only people who attempt to oppose Robin are White. This reinforces the idea that characters’ Whiteness insulates them from the worst impacts of the British Empire’s racism and affords them privileges that they are unwilling to give up, even if they may also realize that those privileges come from unjustly exploiting and oppressing others.
Themes
When someone says that England will call troops in to stop Robin and Victoire, Victoire says they won’t be able to because England needs Babel and its students to supply it with silver bars. Robin and Victoire then say that anyone who wants to can leave, and they will destroy the vials of their blood on file in Babel once they do. Several people go. The only people who stay are Professor Chakravarti, Professor Craft, and a handful of students. All of them are people of color, aside from Professor Craft. Robin and Victoire then write a pamphlet announcing their strike and their intentions. They use a silver bar to distribute it from a high window of the tower. Robin asks Victoire if she is okay after shooting Professor Playfair. Victoire says she did it for Anthony and that she never wants to talk about it again.
Though Babel requires people who are fluent in languages other than English—and other than Romance languages—to produce silver bars, the institution aims to exploit people from different cultures rather than engage in mutually beneficial exchanges. The novel suggests that those are two different approaches to translation. In Babel’s approach, they aim to raid other languages and cultures for their own needs. The novel posits that there is another approach, though. In that approach, one recognizes that countries are dependent on one another and uses that as a reason to engage in exchange that prioritizes understanding and mutual benefit for all involved. The novel suggests that utilizing the latter approach would lead to a more just and equitable world.
Themes
