House of Sand and Fog

Chapter 35 describes Kathy’s second suicide attempt, which ends with her lying in the bathtub, counting from one to 36, her age, while imagining Nadi attending to her body: “she’d wrap me in lamb’s wool, and try to make me as beautiful as her daughter” (249). This scene is staged like a symbolic birth—Kathy lies in a tub of warm water, which represents the womb, and imagines herself becoming someone else’s daughter. This image is reinforced by Dubus’s decision to place this sequence on the cusp of Chapter 35 and 36, with 36 being the number where Kathy imagines her life ending. This chapter is the last time Kathy takes any action of her own accord. After this, she helps Lester, at his behest, to imprison the Behranis before she herself is imprisoned in the final chapters. By staging this narrative crossroads as a mock birth, Dubus emphasizes that Kathy’s second suicide attempt marks an irrevocable transformation, both within the narrative and in the character.

Kathy’s decision in this moment prevents the last possible chance for her and Behrani to deescalate their conflict. In Chapter 37 Lester comes across the scene of Kathy’s attempted suicide and decides to break into the house. This is the final allusion toward Kathy’s symbolic rebirth, which is completed when Lester takes the burden of narrative action upon himself—acting in the way that he imagines Kathy would want him to act.