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Chapter 9: A Fairy Tale
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Glass Hotel, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Complicity and Interconnectedness
Guilt and Responsibility
Fraud and Constructed Identity
Greed, Delusion, and Self Interest
Alienation and Self-Knowledge
Regret and Disillusionment
Summary
Analysis
The narrative picks up earlier that same day, from the collective first-person perspective of Jonathan Alkaitis’s employees. The morning of the holiday party, Enrico fetches everyone at their desks, announcing that Alkaitis wants to see them on the 17th floor later that day, which is unusual, since “the Arrangement was something [the 17th floor employees] did, not something [they] talked about.”
“The Arrangement” seems to refer to 17th floor employees’ agreement with Alkaitis to cover up any illegal activities they were conducting. It’s interesting to note that both Alkaitis’s illegal operation and his relationship with Vincent are referred to as “the arrangement,” which draws a parallel between the fraudulent behaviors he exhibits in his business and in his personal life.
Themes
During the meeting that afternoon, Alkaitis announces that the company has “liquidity problems,” and that he’s arranged to receive a loan for some temporary relief. Simone enters the room with coffee and senses that something is gravely wrong. Ron smiles at her, but Joelle, Oskar, Enrico, and Harvey can only stare blankly ahead. Alkaitis states that everyone in the room “know[s] what we do here.” Later, some of the employees will act as though they hadn’t heard this, but Simone’s future testimony will speak to the contrary. Some people, like Joelle, will claim that they are “as much a victim as [the] investors,” while others, like Harvey, will “confess to things he hadn’t even been accused of.”
When Alkaitis claims that everyone “know[s] what we do here,” he confirms his staffers’ complicity in the Ponzi scheme. Though everyone is united in their complicity, they will have vastly different responses to dealing with the crisis of the scheme’s collapse: Joelle will try to minimize her involvement, insinuating that she, too, is “a victim” of Alkaitis, and Harvey will try to come clean in an effort to absolve himself of his crimes though, of course, doing so occurs too late to be anything other than his self-serving attempt to avoid prison time (rather than an attempt to take the moral high ground, for example).
Themes
But for those who did hear Alkaitis’s fateful words, it will be “the moment when it was no longer possible to ignore the topography and pretend that the border hadn’t already been crossed.” Everyone at the company knows what the company does, except for maybe Ron, though it seems crazy that Ron wouldn’t know that the company was running a Ponzi scheme. Ron comments about the company doing so much trading with the London office, which is followed by an awkward silence: the “London office” is only a sham company, comprised of a single man with multiple email addresses to transfer funds to New York to make it seem as though Alkaitis’s company is conducting European trades.
Alkaitis’s employees deluded themselves into not seeing the reality of Alkaitis’s scheme because, as the proverb says, they wanted to have their cake and eat it, too: they wanted to reap the financial benefits of perpetuating Alkaitis’s scheme, but they didn’t want to feel accountable for the immorality and illegality of conducting this kind of business. The exception to this theory is Ron, who, somehow, seems to have remained ignorant of the reality of Alkaitis’s fraud, though it remains unclear whether Ron is clueless or merely a convincing actor.
Themes
The meeting ends shortly after this, and Alkaitis returns to the office on the 18th floor, which the narrative describes as “a different world.” The people who work on the 18th floor are doing legitimate business: trading stocks, investing. In contrast, the 17th floor is “running a criminal enterprise in lieu of investing [] clients’ money.” When Alkaitis arrives on the 18th floor, Olivia Collins is there, and Alkaitis seems to wince before he sees her. Simone brings them coffee in Alkaitis’s office. While she’s there, Alkaitis asks Simone if she can stay late tonight to assist with “a project.” Simone agrees, though rather reluctantly.
That Alkaitis winces when he sees Olivia suggests that he feels guilty about betraying someone who has become a friend to him. Whatever “project” Alkaitis has in mind for Simone, it’s likely going to be ethically dubious—perhaps he wants her to destroy pertinent documents in case of an investigation. Simone is new at the office and unaware of the fraud, which renders Alkaitis’s decision to involve her in the destruction of documents manipulative and dishonest, as he’s essentially taking advantage of her ignorance to benefit himself.
Themes
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After the meeting with Alkaitis, the 17th floor gets busy: Harvey begins to write a confession, Joelle steps out for a walk to stop herself from panicking, Enrico buys a ticket to Mexico, and Ron distracts himself by watching inane internet videos. Oskar looks up real estate prices in foreign countries. He leaves the office, walks to the subway, and imagines how he will describe this predicament to future employers, crafting a fake scenario in which he walks off the job that day, the day he realizes the company has been committing fraud. In reality, though, Oskar has known about the fraud for more than a decade. Later, he will claim that you can “both know and not know something.”
Harvey is the only employee to directly confront the reality of the situation and resolves to make himself as useful as possible to prosecutors, possibly throwing himself and his coworkers under the bus in the process. The other employees are too shocked to begin to process the crisis they’re in. Oskar engages in the escapist strategy of imagining an alternate universe that Alkaitis will later employ when he’s in prison. Oskar’s later claim, that a person can “both know and not know something,” suggests that people will lie to themselves (“not know something”) in order to justify their immoral or illegal behaviors. In Oskar’s case, he constructed a narrative in which he engaged in illegal business practices but pretended not to realize such practices were illegal.
Themes
The narrative delves into a monologue about the difference between the employees’ “secret lives,” in which they would “all die for the truth,” or “at least make a couple of confidential phone calls and try to feign surprise when the authorities arrived,” and their “actual lives,” in which they “were being paid an exorbitant amount of money to keep [their] mouths shut.” The narrative concludes that people don’t have to be completely “terrible […] to turn a blind eye to certain things.” After all, the money they were paid to do so put food in their mouths and roofs over their heads. Then, of course, is the fact of loyalty: if anyone at the company would have called the authorities, it would mean betraying their colleagues.
The employees’ “secret lives” are the identities they construct to make themselves feel like good people: in these “secret lives,” they possess clear moral compasses and will “die for the truth” in order to uphold their values—or, at least, they’ll act as though these things are true. In contrast to these “secret lives” are the employees’ “actual lives,” in which they tossed their morals aside to accept the wealth and success that Alkaitis’s fraud gave them. The narrative a paints a complicated, ambiguous rendering of morality, though, in which people can do bad things for good reasons, such as accepting dirty money in order to provide for their families. The narrative also complicates Harvey’s outwardly moral action of writing a confession: Harvey’s actions might be perceived as morally good in the sense that he’s cooperating with authorities, but it’s ultimately a self-serving act that will result in the betrayal and likely imprisonment of his friends and coworkers.
Themes
The narrative switches to a scene between Alkaitis and Simone, when Alkaitis asks Simone to go to the office supply store and purchase some paper shredders. Alkaitis accompanies her, wanting to get some air, which makes Simone uncomfortable, since he’s her boss, and they’re on totally different levels. On the way to the store, Alkaitis calls Joelle and orders her to bring the “Xavier box files” to the 18th floor conference room. Simone and Alkaitis reach the store and Simone selects a shredder that looks good. Alkaitis pays with cash.
Alkaitis’s phone call with Joelle and his trip to the office supply store with Simone confirms that he’s likely recruited Simone to help destroy incriminating documents. The “Xavier box files” refers to Lenny Xavier. If Alkaitis has reason to shred Lenny’s files, it likely means Lenny is complicit in the scheme in some way, which explains why he’s Alkaitis’s most important investor. It also explains the odd comment at dinner years back, about knowing the truth of how Alkaitis’s business operated.
Themes
When Simone and Alkaitis return to the 18th floor conference room, the Xavier boxes are there. Shortly after, Claire appears in the doorway looking for her father. She is alarmed to see Simone shredding the files. Claire leaves. In the midst of the shredding, Simone reads a piece of paper in her hands. It’s a memo from Alkaitis to Joelle that reads: “Re: L Xavier account: I need a long-term capital gain of $561,000 on an investment of $241,000 for a sale proceed of $802,000.” She pockets the paper.
Simone’s instinct to pocket the critical document suggests that she’s not as naive as she seems. She recognizes that destroying these documents makes her complicit in Alkaitis’s scheme and wants to possess leverage to present to authorities in the event that she suffers consequences for her involvement.
Themes
Claire approaches her father in his office. Harvey is on the sofa, looking strange and almost “giddy.” Investors have been pulling out, and the withdrawals amount to more than the company has in its accounts. Claire demands to know why Simone is shredding papers. Alkaitis lies, insisting that he just wants to clear space. Claire asks Alkaitis about a transfer from yesterday, “the loans from the brokerage company to the asset management side.” With these loans, the company would have taken out 11 loans this quarter, which, Claire reluctantly suggests, portrays “the appearance of impropriety.” Claire and Alkaitis go back and forth, with Claire expressing concern for “the optics of the thing,” and “the timing,” and Alkaitis trying to brush it off, though he eventually admits that he can no longer keep up the charade of not having suffered such losses.
Claire’s shocked reaction to seeing Simone shredding documents suggests that she’s legitimately unaware of the scheme unfolding on Floor 17 of her father’s business (Claire works on Floor 18, the legitimate side of the business). Her decision to voice her concerns about the large number of loans the company has taken out this quarter shows that too much evidence has surfaced for her to keep quiet any longer. Alkaitis’s confession illustrates the direness of his financial situation: he’s had no qualms about hiding the truth about his business or marriage from his daughter, so things must be pretty bad for him to feel that he has no choice but to confess to the fraud.
Themes
The narrative flashes forward to the interrogations that occur the next year. When questioned about ordering Simone to shred the documents, Alkaitis will pretend not to understand the question. In his own testimony, Harvey will suggest that Alkaitis might have been trying to protect Lenny Xavier, an important investor who had understood the business to be a Ponzi scheme from the beginning and had occasionally given Alkaitis extra cash. Or, perhaps Alkaitis had figured that Simone, being only a receptionist, might not understand the documents. The narrative returns to the present. After some time, Alkaitis returns to the conference room and instructs Simone to call for Vincent.
Everyone who prosecutors interrogate responds with half-truths and willful ignorance, in an effort to avoid implicating themselves. The strategy is reminiscent of Oskar’s earlier claim about knowing and not knowing things and operates on the premise that a person can’t be judged for what they don’t explicitly admit to, consciously or unconsciously.
Themes
At 7:30, Harvey arrives with pizza. He offers some to Simone and tells her he’s going to take over the task of shredding: she can head over to the party whenever she wants. Simone asks Harvey why they’re shredding all the files, and he refuses to answer. Harvey leaves the room to bring pizza to the others. Simone can sense that something bad is about to happen and wants to be in the office when it happens.
Harvey’s decision to take over the task of shredding can be seen as altruistic or self-serving depending on how one looks at it. On the one hand, Harvey might be attempting to spare Simone the burden of being complicit in the destruction of key documents. On the other hand, Harvey might want to get rid of Simone so that he can steal important documents that he’ll later use as leverage to aid in his own defense.
Themes
The narrative returns to a first-person perspective. Everyone on the 18th floor has left for the party, but everyone on the 17th floor stays behind, except for Enrico, who has fled, and Oskar, who is at a bar. Harvey is looking through the Xavier boxes. Sometime later, everyone in the asset management unit heads to the party. Later on, they will remember the event differently, either because of drinking too much or because of everyone’s decision to change their memory of the party “to fit personal narratives.” Ron’s wife, Sheila, joins them, as does Joelle’s husband, Gareth, and Harvey’s wife, Elaine. Finally, Alkaitis and Vincent arrive.
That Harvey is looking through the Xavier boxes suggests that he had self-serving motivations for taking over shredding the documents for Simone. That Alkaitis’s employees remember the party differently “to fit personal narratives” suggest that they remember or forget selective pieces of information in order to absolve themselves legally or morally. For example, an employee not wishing to implicate themselves in Alkaitis’s fraud might claim that they didn’t sense an odd vibe at the party in order to feign ignorance about the unfolding crisis they had on their hands that evening.
Themes
In the future, the employees will have different takes on Alkaitis’s demeanor that night: Ron will remember him as seeming normal, and Oskar will remember him appearing off. When Alkaitis and Vincent left that night, Oskar recalls seeing her flinch as Alkaitis touched her back. Later, he will see Vincent refuse to get into the car with him. After Alkaitis gets into the car, Oskar will pause a moment before following Vincent.
Employees’ differing recollections of Alkaitis’s demeanor at the party that night suggests that there’s often no absolute, objective version of the truth: that people will project onto reality a version of the truth that they want to believe. Vincent and Oskar seemed to share an intimate moment at the museum earlier that day, so it’s possible Oskar is following her for romantic reasons.
Themes
Back in the office, Harvey continues to shred papers, moving all the supplies to Alkaitis’s office to work there. Joelle joins him later on. Harvey asks her what she told her husband about staying late, and she says she told him it was an emergency. Joelle doesn’t notice that Harvey is saving the most incriminating pages, sparing them from the shredder. Harvey finds some scotch in a cabinet and pours some for Joelle and himself, though he takes less, wanting to stay sober as he gathers more evidence of the company’s crimes.
Joelle’s explanation to her husband about needing to return to the office that night is technically correct, but it conveniently spares her from having to confess to her complicity in Alkaitis’s Ponzi scheme. Harvey’s decision to pour Joelle more scotch is self-serving and manipulative; it compromises Joelle’s ability to think clearly and puts himself in a better position to gather evidence he can later use to negotiate with investigators.
Themes
Meanwhile, Oskar is following Vincent home to Alkaitis’s apartment. Oskar wills himself to be in the moment: there is no prison, there is nothing else. As they approach the building, Vincent pauses: she thinks she’s just seen her mother, though she comes to her senses shortly after. They make their way to the 37th floor of the nearly empty building; Vincent explains that rich people usually buy units here for investments and rarely show up.
Oskar’s efforts to be in the moment parallel the strategy he employed while working for Alkaitis: take advantage of the opportunities the situation affords him and conveniently forget that there’s anything wrong or morally ambiguous about his actions. While working for Alkaitis, Oskar accepted a hefty paycheck and turned a blind eye to the fraud he and others committed; tonight, Oskar accepts Vincent’s company and the possibility of a sexual encounter and fails to consider that she’s in a relationship and that her husband’s collapsing business might render her emotionally vulnerable.
Themes
The windows of Alkaitis’s modern apartment overlook Central Park. Oskar and Vincent have wine and toast to their bad days. Vincent explains that Alkaitis just admitted to her that he’s a criminal. Oskar stutters, unable to articulate his fears of going to prison. He suggests that they change the subject.
Oskar doesn’t want to talk about the collapsing scheme because the only way he can enjoy himself tonight is if he denies the existence of his troubles, the looming consequences he’ll surely face, and the reality that he’s not as morally uncompromised as he’d like to think he is.
Themes
Back in the office, Harvey and Joelle continue to shred papers and discuss their options moving forward. Harvey is optimistic about their futures, thinking it’s possible they could still get off with probation. Joelle compares their experience to an “out-of-body experience,” and Harvey inwardly agrees that their situation “[doesn’t] seem quite real.”
The situation doesn’t seem real to Harvey and Joelle because, if they wanted to continue doing the illegitimate work Jonathan Alkaitis’s business demanded of them, they had to deny the possibility of facing consequences. Now that consequences are imminent, they’re totally caught off guard.
Themes
Joelle finishes shredding papers at 11:30 and leaves for her office, where she promptly falls asleep under her desk. Harvey finds her there later, covers her with her coat, and leaves to contemplate which incriminating documents to keep. At midnight, he’s alone in his office, surrounded by boxes of incriminating evidence. He’ll go through it later, perhaps find ways to incorporate it into his confession. He leaves the building and takes a cab home.
The kind gesture of covering Joelle with her coat complicates Harvey’s character. Of course, he immediately returns to his efforts to find ways to get himself off the hook. The series of events illustrates how people can be capable of both moral and immoral actions.
Themes
At 2:00 a.m., Harvey is pacing around his house, trying to commit all its details to his memory. Meanwhile, Simone is in her Brooklyn apartment drinking wine with her roommates. Simone tells them about her work predicament, which the roommates agree sounds sketchy. Back in the Gradia Building, Joelle remains asleep. In Alkaitis’s apartment, Oskar sleeps naked next to Vincent. Jonathan is at his home office trying and failing to write a letter to Claire.
Harvey tries to commit his house to memory because, despite the efforts he’s made to make himself a valuable resource to the prosecution, he’s still worried that he’ll face prison time for his role in Alkaitis’s scheme. Oskar and Vincent appear to have slept together; it seems as though Oskar is using sex and the charm of Vincent’s company to avoid thinking about his more pressing issues.
Themes
Oskar wakes up at 3:00 a.m. in Alkaitis’s apartment. Vincent is still asleep. Oskar wants to flee, as he’s heard that the FBI often arrests people in the early morning, when they’re still groggy and disoriented; he fears they’ll come for him soon. He walks out to the living room, blinded by the lights that he and Vincent left on last night. He’s confronted by a huge portrait of a young, too-pale man sitting in a chair, his left arm covered in bruises. He sees the signature, Olivia Collins, which he recognizes as the name of one of Alkaitis’s investors. While some of Alkaitis’s investors are institutions, funds, and schools, others are normal people like Olivia, who invested a modest sum of money, and who is an old friend of Jonathan’s. Oskar leaves the apartment in tears.
Oskar puts his own interests above Vincent’s by abandoning her without saying goodbye in the morning. The painting Oskar sees in Alkaitis’s living room is the portrait of Lucas that Olivia painted in the 1950s. Seeing Olivia’s work up close humanizes her and makes Oskar realize that his complicity in the Alkaitis scheme will result in catastrophic financial ruin for people like Olivia, who invested everything they had in Alkaitis’s fund.
Themes
Joelle wakes up under her desk at 4:00 a.m., still drunk. She notices that she’s been tucked into her coat and feels overcome by gratitude at the small gesture. Shortly after this, Alkaitis wakes up in his home to the sound of the doorbell ringing. Around the same time, Oskar is in bed, at home. He’s thinking about the moment Harvey first asked him to backdate a trade on Lenny Xavier’s account. Though Oscar was initially unwilling to do it, Harvey gave him a Christmas bonus, telling him he’d “entered into a higher degree of trust.” He promised that the bonuses would keep coming, so Oskar gave in to the demands. “In a ghost version of his life,” Oskar refuses to backdate the trade and calls the authorities. But in reality, he does not. Oskar knows he’s complicit.
The insinuation behind Harvey’s comment about Oskar having “entered into a higher degree of trust” is that Oskar can expect to receive more bonuses if he continues to backdate trades and undertake Alkaitis’s other illegitimate business affairs. Unlike the counterlives Alkaitis will imagine while he’s in prison, which fail to imagine an alternate reality in which Alkaitis doesn’t commit fraud, Oskar’s “ghost version of his life” entertains a reality in which Oskar does the right thing and refuses to backdate the trade. What both Alkaitis’s and Oskar’s alternate realities have in common, though, is that imagining them does little to absolve either man of their real, unchangeable complicity in a major case of securities fraud.
Themes
