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Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Milkman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Stalking and Surveillance
The Personal vs. the Political
Gossip and Rumors
Gender Norms
Summary
Analysis
During longest friend and middle sister’s chat from the previous chapter, longest friend goes to the bathroom. While she is away, a woman known as tablets girl (because of her tendency to poison people) approaches middle sister and slips poison in her drink. Middle sister does not see the poison, though she does have a strange conversation with tablets girl. Tablets girl claims that middle sister is responsible for tablets girl’s death, as well as the deaths of many others, in a previous life. She also tells middle sister that she deserves what is coming to her.
Here, the narrative goes slightly back in time to examine a different part of middle sister’s night. Tablets girl is briefly mentioned before this point in the narrative, but she only becomes significant here during her interaction with middle sister. Her words are largely manic and incomprehensible, though she seems to imply that she has poisoned middle sister, which middle sister does not pick up on.
Themes
For quite some time, tablets girl has been a menace in the community. Everyone knows that she occasionally likes to poison people, but no one does anything about it. In retrospect, tablets girl feels like a bizarre figure in middle sister’s memory, who should have been dealt with sooner or at least banned from the local clubs. However, no one even thought to do that. They simply allowed her to go on poisoning people, as long as she did not go too far.
Like Somebody McSomebody, tablets girl is simultaneously comedic and menacing. Her behavior is absurd and, until recently, relatively harmless, but she has the potential to cause great harm. Like everyone else, middle sister dismisses tablets girl as a curiosity—a decision she later regrets.
Themes
Although tablets girl’s poisons have never been lethal, recently she almost killed her sister. Her sister did not go to the hospital because Irish Catholics generally refuse to trust or utilize any state run institutions. As a result of tablets girl’s most recent transgression, the renouncers plan to punish her, though no one knows what they are plotting.
Just as middle sister will not go to the state police about Milkman, many Irish Catholics refused other institutions that would typically be seen as vital to a stable society. Because no one else is around to police their behavior, the renouncers act as judge, jury, and executioner in such situations.
Themes
After the meeting with longest friend, middle sister goes home, still unaware that she ingested poison. In the middle of the night, she wakes up in intense pain. She thinks she is having yet another physical reaction to Milkman, though this one feels especially intense. Four days later, when middle sister has begun to recover, her mother questions her about what happened. At first, her mother thinks that Milkman’s wife might have poisoned middle sister for carrying on an affair. When middle sister insists her mother’s theory is false, her mother poses another idea: middle sister became pregnant with Milkman’s child and decided to poison herself to abort the fetus.
Perhaps because she is too sick to think straight, middle sister does not realize what has obviously happened to her—tablets girl has poisoned her. As such, she can only defend herself so much, which causes her mother’s imagination to run wild. Of course, even if middle sister knew the truth, there is no guarantee that her mother would believe her, especially given how far she is willing to take her theories. Notably, abortion was illegal in Northern Ireland during the 1970s, so illegal methods like poison were a common way to induce an abortion. Notably, middle sister’s mother automatically assumes that middle sister has brought her present suffering on herself, getting pregnant outside marriage and then attempting to illegally abort the resultant fetus. She does not recognize the possibility that middle sister has been the victim of an attack.
Themes
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Again, middle sister feels frustrated and is adamant that nothing of the sort happened. She states firmly that she is not and never has been having an affair with Milkman. As she says this, her mother stops and considers possible alternatives. It is a moment of triumph for middle sister, who feels she may finally be getting through to her mother. Middle sister thinks about how easy her mother would be to love if she would just believe her.
Again, there is a distinct lack of trust in the relationship between middle sister and her mother, which is a vicious cycle. Middle sister wants to trust her mother, but she can’t, so she withholds information. In response to middle sister withholding information, her mother grows more suspicious and more open to receiving the community’s gossip.
Themes
Suddenly, middle sister has another intense bout of pain. Her mother asks wee sisters to look after her while she goes and fetches the neighbors. When the neighbors arrive, they discuss how middle sister’s symptoms look similar to other people who tablets girl has poisoned. They also inform middle sister’s mother and wee sister that tablets girl recently poisoned her own younger sister, which is something the community does not know about yet.
Again, despite the neighbors spelling everything out for her, middle sister does not seem to realize what has happened. Although she is sick and perhaps not in her right mind, this is also an example of the behavior longest friend described. This echoes middle sister’s pattern of becoming involved in political gossip and political violence despite her efforts to be an apolitical person.
Themes
However, they decide that middle sister’s symptoms are not as extreme as what happened to other people tablets girl poisoned. As such, they decide something else must be the cause. At this point, middle sister, who is barely conscious, still has not put together that tablets girl is responsible for poisoning her. Desperate, middle sister’s mother declares that she is going to call an ambulance. Everyone else urges her not to do so because of what will happen if the renouncers find out. Eventually, middle sister’s mother decides not to call, which means middle sister is left to the care of the community.
The community almost has the right answer, but they steer themselves away from it, possibly because they find it more likely that the poisoning had something to do with Milkman. Meanwhile, although middle sister’s mother is not always her daughter’s best supporter, here she almost risks everything to call the hospital in hopes of saving middle sister’s life. However, the peer pressure of the community convinces her to risk middle sister’s life.
Themes
Middle sister spends the night violently vomiting and the next several days recovering in bed. While middle sister is recovering, some renouncers come to the house asking to question her. However, middle sister’s mother turns them away. She assures them that middle sister has been home and sick and therefore could not have anything to do with what they have come to inquire about.
The renouncers appear to be question middle sister’s mother about something that happened recently in the community. Because middle sister cannot fully hear the conversation, both she and the reader are left in the dark for the time being. However, if the renouncers are investigating, surely something bad happened.
Themes
Once middle sister has almost fully recovered, her mother informs her that tablets girl is dead because someone slit her throat. Middle sister asks if tablets girl poisoned someone else, though as the question comes out of her mouth, she realizes that she was the one who was poisoned. She feels stupid for not putting the signs together earlier and blames her illness for limiting her mental capacity. Additionally, middle sister realizes that the renouncers visited the house to question her about the murder. However, they did not press the matter because many people vouched from middle sister’s condition following the night she spent with longest friend at the club.
Finally, middle sister puts together everything that has happened over the previous few days. In this case, because other people were aware of her situation, they were able to keep the renouncers away from her. This leaves readers to wonder: would middle sister have solved her problem with Milkman a long time ago if she had been honest with her mother and neighbors in the first place? At this point, it is too late for her to know, as she has already made an active decision to shut everyone out.
Themes
No one knows who for sure who committed the murder, though everyone assumes it was not the renouncers, who would have made it clear if it was them. Middle sister thinks about how when the renouncers commit a murder, it is not noteworthy. It is only when they are not involved that people start to pay attention. Middle sister also learns that tablets girl poisoned yet another person after poisoning her. However, her last victim—who is apparently a man she mistook for Hitler—also is not a suspect in the murder case because, like middle sister, he was too sick to do anything.
Because the renouncers were already planning to punish tablets girl, they have no reason to lie about their crimes. After all, as middle sister points out, murder is only notable if it was not done for political reasons. However, just because the renouncers as a group did not kill tablets girl does not mean that a particular renouncer (i.e., Milkman) was not responsible.
Themes
After middle sister has fully recovered, she takes a trip to the local shop because she is craving snack foods. When she gets to the shop, there is a long line, though people quickly start to leave it. Before long, middle sister is the only person in line, so she quickly puts in her order. However, she notices that the shopkeeper barely acknowledges her presence, and all of the sudden, she realizes something must be wrong. When she turns around, she sees everyone still in the shop staring at her. Quickly, middle sister realizes that they believe Milkman killed tablets girl on her behalf. She has no idea whether or not that is true, but she is certain it is what everyone else thinks. For a moment, she thinks about talking to them and setting the record straight but decides against and heads home without saying a word instead.
Again, perhaps in part because she does not talk to anyone, middle sister is completely unaware of what the rest of the community might be thinking about her as she leaves her house. Until she sees everyone staring, middle sister had not thought for a moment that people would blame her for tablets girl’s death. While the community’s accusing stares may not be fair, middle sister’s inability to see them coming further shows how oblivious she is to her reputation around her community.
Themes
