Lessons in Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry

by

Bonnie Garmus

Calvin Evans Character Analysis

Calvin Evans is a brilliant young scientist and rowing enthusiast who works alongside Elizabeth at the Hastings Institute. Calvin is a genius with multiple Nobel Prize nominations, and he’s one of the most famous scientists in the country. His intelligence is the source of much admiration and jealousy from those around him. In general, Calvin is a good-natured and well-meaning person. Although there are rumors around Hastings that Calvin likes to hold a grudge, the only person he really hates is his biological father, who he believes abandoned him. In reality, Calvin’s father died before he was born and never had a chance to care for him, though this fact only comes to light after Calvin’s death. Calvin falls in love with Elizabeth after meeting her at Hastings. Although Calvin generally agrees with Elizabeth’s socially liberal attitudes, he feels that they should marry and have kids, a position he hopes she will slowly come around to. Unfortunately, Calvin dies in a tragic and random accident before either can happen, though Elizabeth discovers that she is pregnant shortly after his death and goes on to raise their child, Madeline, as a single mother.

Calvin Evans Quotes in Lessons in Chemistry

The Lessons in Chemistry quotes below are all either spoken by Calvin Evans or refer to Calvin Evans. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Gender Inequality  Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3: Hastings Research Institute Quotes

“Look, I know it’s not your fault, but they shouldn’t send a secretary up here to do their dirty work. Now I know this might be hard for you to understand, but I’m in the middle of something important. Please. Just tell your boss to call me.”

Related Characters: Calvin Evans (speaker), Elizabeth Zott
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: The Hastings Cafeteria Quotes

Elizabeth shook her head. “Our future happiness does not depend on whether or not we’re married, Calvin—at least not to me. I’m fully committed to you; marriage will not change that. As for who thinks what, it’s not just a handful of people: it’s society—particularly the society of scientific research. Everything I do will suddenly be in your name, as if you’d done it. In fact, most people will assume you’ve done it simply because you’re a man, but especially because you’re Calvin Evans. I don’t want to be another Mileva Einstein or Esther Lederberg, Calvin; I refuse. And even if we took all the proper legal steps to ensure my name won’t change, it will still change. Everyone will call me Mrs. Calvin Evans; I will become Mrs. Calvin Evans.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7: Six-Thirty Quotes

Rowing a pair with Elizabeth. How glorious!

“No.”

“But why?”

“Because. Women don’t row.” But as soon as she’d said it, she regretted it.

“Elizabeth Zott,” he said, surprised. “Are you actually saying women can’t row?” That sealed it.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans (speaker)
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8: Overreaching Quotes

This was the other thing he hated about Zott: she was tireless. Stiff. Didn’t know when to quit. Standard rower attributes, now that he thought about it. He hadn’t rowed in years. Was there really a women’s team in town? Obviously, she couldn’t possibly be rowing with Evans. An elite rower like Evans would never deign to get in a boat with a novice, even if they were sleeping together. Scratch that; especially if they were sleeping together. Evans probably signed her up for some beginner crew, and Zott, wanting to prove that she could hold her own—per usual—went along with it.

Related Characters: Dr. Donatti (speaker), Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans
Page Number: 71
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: Calvin’s Parting Gift Quotes

Now, sitting rigidly on her stool in the lab, she could hear a policeman talking about someone who’d died and someone else insisting she take his handkerchief and still another saying something about a vet, but all she could think about was that moment long ago when her toes had touched bottom, the soft, silky mud inviting her to stay. Knowing what she knew now, she could only think one thing: I should have.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans, Harriet Sloane, Madeline Zott
Page Number: 96
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14: Grief Quotes

Crouching, he waited for the man to leave, then relaxed his body down the length of the casket buried below. Hello, Calvin.

This is how he communicated with humans on the other side. Maybe it worked; maybe it didn’t. He used the same technique with the creature growing inside Elizabeth. Hello, Creature, he transmitted as he pressed his ear into Elizabeth’s belly. It’s me, Six-Thirty. I’m the dog.

Related Characters: Six-Thirty (speaker), Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans, Madeline Zott
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17: Harriet Sloane Quotes

“Take a moment for yourself,” Harriet said. “Every day.” “A moment.”

“A moment where you are your own priority. Just you.

Not your baby, not your work, not your dead Mr. Evans, not your filthy house, not anything. Just you. Elizabeth Zott. Whatever you need, whatever you want, whatever you seek, reconnect with it in that moment.” She gave a sharp tug to her fake pearls. “Then recommit.”

Related Characters: Harriet Sloane (speaker), Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18: Legally Mad Quotes

So, sometime after it was all over, when a nurse came in with a stack of papers demanding to know something—how she felt?—she decided to tell her.

“Mad.”

“Mad?” the nurse had asked.

“Yes, mad,” Elizabeth had answered. Because she was. “Are you sure?” the nurse had asked.

“Of course I’m sure!”

And the nurse, who was tired of tending to women who were never at their best—this one had practically engraved her name on her arm during labor—wrote “Mad” on the birth certificate and stalked out.

So there it was: the baby’s legal name was Mad. Mad Zott.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans, Madeline Zott, Avery Parker
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30: 99 Percent Quotes

“No, Mad,” Elizabeth said. “The person who wants to interview me isn’t even a science reporter; he writes for the women’s page. He’s already told me he has no interest in talking about chemistry, just dinner. Clearly, he doesn’t understand you can’t separate the two. And I suspect he also wants to ask questions about our family, even though our family is none of his business.”

“Why not?” Madeline asked. “What’s wrong with our family?”

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Madeline Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans
Page Number: 263
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37: Sold Out Quotes

“As for Calvin’s death,” she said, “I’m one hundred percent responsible.” He paled as she went on to describe the accident and the leash and the sirens, and how because of it, she would never hold anyone back in any way, ever again. As she saw it, his death spawned a series of other failures: blindsided by Donatti’s theft, she’d given up her research; determined to help her daughter fit in, she’d enrolled her in a school where she did not; worse, she’d become the very person she least wanted to be, a performer like her father.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans, Dr. Donatti, Elizabeth’s Father, Franklin Roth
Page Number: 333-334
Explanation and Analysis:
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Calvin Evans Quotes in Lessons in Chemistry

The Lessons in Chemistry quotes below are all either spoken by Calvin Evans or refer to Calvin Evans. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Gender Inequality  Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3: Hastings Research Institute Quotes

“Look, I know it’s not your fault, but they shouldn’t send a secretary up here to do their dirty work. Now I know this might be hard for you to understand, but I’m in the middle of something important. Please. Just tell your boss to call me.”

Related Characters: Calvin Evans (speaker), Elizabeth Zott
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: The Hastings Cafeteria Quotes

Elizabeth shook her head. “Our future happiness does not depend on whether or not we’re married, Calvin—at least not to me. I’m fully committed to you; marriage will not change that. As for who thinks what, it’s not just a handful of people: it’s society—particularly the society of scientific research. Everything I do will suddenly be in your name, as if you’d done it. In fact, most people will assume you’ve done it simply because you’re a man, but especially because you’re Calvin Evans. I don’t want to be another Mileva Einstein or Esther Lederberg, Calvin; I refuse. And even if we took all the proper legal steps to ensure my name won’t change, it will still change. Everyone will call me Mrs. Calvin Evans; I will become Mrs. Calvin Evans.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7: Six-Thirty Quotes

Rowing a pair with Elizabeth. How glorious!

“No.”

“But why?”

“Because. Women don’t row.” But as soon as she’d said it, she regretted it.

“Elizabeth Zott,” he said, surprised. “Are you actually saying women can’t row?” That sealed it.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans (speaker)
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8: Overreaching Quotes

This was the other thing he hated about Zott: she was tireless. Stiff. Didn’t know when to quit. Standard rower attributes, now that he thought about it. He hadn’t rowed in years. Was there really a women’s team in town? Obviously, she couldn’t possibly be rowing with Evans. An elite rower like Evans would never deign to get in a boat with a novice, even if they were sleeping together. Scratch that; especially if they were sleeping together. Evans probably signed her up for some beginner crew, and Zott, wanting to prove that she could hold her own—per usual—went along with it.

Related Characters: Dr. Donatti (speaker), Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans
Page Number: 71
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: Calvin’s Parting Gift Quotes

Now, sitting rigidly on her stool in the lab, she could hear a policeman talking about someone who’d died and someone else insisting she take his handkerchief and still another saying something about a vet, but all she could think about was that moment long ago when her toes had touched bottom, the soft, silky mud inviting her to stay. Knowing what she knew now, she could only think one thing: I should have.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans, Harriet Sloane, Madeline Zott
Page Number: 96
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14: Grief Quotes

Crouching, he waited for the man to leave, then relaxed his body down the length of the casket buried below. Hello, Calvin.

This is how he communicated with humans on the other side. Maybe it worked; maybe it didn’t. He used the same technique with the creature growing inside Elizabeth. Hello, Creature, he transmitted as he pressed his ear into Elizabeth’s belly. It’s me, Six-Thirty. I’m the dog.

Related Characters: Six-Thirty (speaker), Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans, Madeline Zott
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17: Harriet Sloane Quotes

“Take a moment for yourself,” Harriet said. “Every day.” “A moment.”

“A moment where you are your own priority. Just you.

Not your baby, not your work, not your dead Mr. Evans, not your filthy house, not anything. Just you. Elizabeth Zott. Whatever you need, whatever you want, whatever you seek, reconnect with it in that moment.” She gave a sharp tug to her fake pearls. “Then recommit.”

Related Characters: Harriet Sloane (speaker), Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18: Legally Mad Quotes

So, sometime after it was all over, when a nurse came in with a stack of papers demanding to know something—how she felt?—she decided to tell her.

“Mad.”

“Mad?” the nurse had asked.

“Yes, mad,” Elizabeth had answered. Because she was. “Are you sure?” the nurse had asked.

“Of course I’m sure!”

And the nurse, who was tired of tending to women who were never at their best—this one had practically engraved her name on her arm during labor—wrote “Mad” on the birth certificate and stalked out.

So there it was: the baby’s legal name was Mad. Mad Zott.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans, Madeline Zott, Avery Parker
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30: 99 Percent Quotes

“No, Mad,” Elizabeth said. “The person who wants to interview me isn’t even a science reporter; he writes for the women’s page. He’s already told me he has no interest in talking about chemistry, just dinner. Clearly, he doesn’t understand you can’t separate the two. And I suspect he also wants to ask questions about our family, even though our family is none of his business.”

“Why not?” Madeline asked. “What’s wrong with our family?”

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Madeline Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans
Page Number: 263
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37: Sold Out Quotes

“As for Calvin’s death,” she said, “I’m one hundred percent responsible.” He paled as she went on to describe the accident and the leash and the sirens, and how because of it, she would never hold anyone back in any way, ever again. As she saw it, his death spawned a series of other failures: blindsided by Donatti’s theft, she’d given up her research; determined to help her daughter fit in, she’d enrolled her in a school where she did not; worse, she’d become the very person she least wanted to be, a performer like her father.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans, Dr. Donatti, Elizabeth’s Father, Franklin Roth
Page Number: 333-334
Explanation and Analysis: