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Chapter 28
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Woman in Cabin 10, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Entrapment and Isolation
Perception vs. Reality
Trauma, Mental Illness, and Resilience
Ambition and Compassion
Wealth and Power
Summary
Analysis
Lo spends seemingly ages waiting for the girl to reappear. It must be late Friday by now, and she’s terribly sick with hunger. When Lo hears someone coming down the corridor, she stands up and promptly faints. When she comes to, she finds the girl looming over her worriedly. She apologizes for being away so long and explains that it’s late Saturday. She gives Lo some food, which Lo eventually manages to keep down.
Lo has lost track of the passage of time and is beginning to starve. The girl has deprived her of food out of anger, but seeing what bad shape Lo’s in, she’s clearly upset, suggesting she’s not a cold-hearted killer.
Themes
Lo asks the girl her name—it’s Carrie. Carrie gives Lo another pill. Because it’s the first time Carrie has lingered and watched while Lo eats her food, Lo is emboldened to ask what is going to happen to her—if Bullmer will kill her or not. The girl doesn’t answer, but Lo sees that she’s crying as she leaves. Then she notices that Carrie has left another book for her—it’s Lo’s copy of Winnie-the-Pooh. Pooh is Lo’s comfort read “from the time before [she] started getting afraid,” and she’d packed it at the last minute.
During the time the girl has been gone, she’s obviously softened toward Lo—she’s willing to tell Lo her name, she isn’t in a hurry to leave, and she shows emotion over the situation. The book she leaves also has a softer, more personal touch. Lo has succeeded in forming some sort of connection with Carrie, though a tenuous one.
Themes
That night, Lo lies awake thinking over her conversation with Carrie and the need to secure Carrie’s help if she’s to escape. Until a few hours ago, Lo was sure Carrie wouldn’t help her. Now, she suspects that Carrie has realized she isn’t a killer, and she wonders if “perhaps the hours had been as slow and torturous for her” as they were for Lo while she waited, starving.
Lo’s insight into Carrie’s mindset shows great compassion on her part, especially after all she’s been through. She senses that Carrie’s gotten in over her head, and that acting cruelly towards Lo has taken a toll on her, weakening her desire to continue being Lo’s enemy. She’s able to envision a Carrie who isn’t the angry woman she’d hated and been willing to harm earlier.
Themes
