53 pages • 1-hour read
Mind of My Mind
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Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary
Content Warning: This section features discussion of child abuse, graphic violence, suicidal ideation, physical abuse, and racism.
Seth Dana helps his brother Clay prepare their new property in the desert. Seth buys it to help Clay, a latent son of Doro, escape the mental static from others. Clay suffers, and Seth hopes that the isolation of this ranch will save him. Clay wants to be independent, but Seth commits to staying with him until he can find a woman to watch after him. Seth takes their van to buy supplies in town, but as he drives, he feels a headache come on, followed by a mental attack that leaves him in anguish. He tries to repel it but hears an order, “Come” (73). He feels drawn to Forsyth, California. He will go and bring Clay along.
Rachel Davidson, a “faith healer,” is sick after following her latent cousin Eli’s advice to heal without draining those around her. She stays behind at the hotel as he leads his own service but soon decides to join him. She is an active telepath and forces Eli to introduce her. As Rachel takes the stage, the crowd’s adoration feeds her, and she soon shakes off the sickness. She uses the energy of others to heal the ailing under the guise of faith. She fixes birth defects, cures cancer, and regenerates damaged cells. As Rachel begins healing those who line up before her, she experiences a mental attack. She tries to fight it but soon finds herself drawn to Forsyth.
Jesse Bernarr goes into Donaldson, Pennsylvania, with the girl he is seeing, Tara. He can tell that she is excited to show him off, and when they stop for lunch, the customers wish him a happy birthday. Jesse uses his abilities to control the town, and a waitress gives them free food to go. They go to the park, and Jesse sends Tara to a nearby couple to ask for their bathing suits so they can swim. The man is an out-of-towner and uninfluenced by Jesse. Jesse walks over and goads the man, Tom, into a fight. Jesse uses his telepathy to predict Tom’s punches until a mental attack freezes him. Jesse can no longer focus on Tom and takes a beating. When the noise in his head quiets, Jesse fights Tom again, using the pain to numb himself. Afterwards, Jesse considers that whatever is in Forsyth cannot be better than what he already has.
Ada Dragan and her husband scream at each other. The argument stems from Ada’s struggles with her telepathy, which keeps her trapped inside, too afraid of the minds of others. Ada considers these abilities a curse. In the three years since her transition, Ada hopes that she will return to normal or find other actives. After her transition, Ada married Kenneth to hurl her anger and abuse at him rather than those she loves. They continue to argue, and when he hits her, she feels a powerful mental attack. The evidence of other actives changes Ada’s perception. She decides to leave Kenneth for Forsyth, answering the call.
Jan Sholto visits the Westleys, who watch the children Doro wanted her to have. She shields her mind when she encounters her daughter, Margaret, knowing how unpredictable children’s minds can be. Jan conditioned the Westleys to think of her children as their own. Jan does not like reading others’ minds, instead touching objects to gain impressions of those who touched them in the past. Nevertheless, she senses Lea waiting at the house, terrified. Lea tells Jan that her son, Vaughn, died in a car accident. Jan is terrified of what Doro will do to her and throws Lea across the room in her rage. At this moment, the mental attack hits her, and she loses consciousness. When she wakes, Jan decides to answer the call to Forsyth, even if it means meeting Doro.
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary
Mary reflects on how her relationship with Karl changes. Over the past few weeks, Karl helped her. Now, he does not seem to care if she lives or dies. She realizes that she expected to become his true partner if she survived transition. She wonders exactly how she is an experiment for Doro, knowing he wants to build an empire.
Mary remembers when Doro brought her to Disneyland as a child. Doro revealed that he was born in Africa and was Nubian before he underwent transition. During transition, he died and jumped into the body of his mother and then his father, killing them both. This began a period of 50 years that he cannot remember. At first, he believed he was cursed, but Doro eventually decided he was blessed with the ability to take anyone and anything he liked.
Doro eventually decided to breed people for desired traits. As he began encountering people with special telepathic abilities, he realized they were pleasurable and fulfilling to feed on. He began breeding them together to have a ready source. Doro told Mary that his actives would create a new race. Mary asked if this race was for him to join or own, and he could not give a confident answer.
Mary walks downstairs and finds Doro alone. She explains her transition over breakfast. She tells him the names of those she connects with and admits it is a one-way connection: She can see into their minds but they cannot see into hers. When Mary tells Doro that they are coming to Forsyth, Doro grows concerned, and Mary realizes he means to kill her. Doro tells her that others with her abilities were parasites who would connect with and drain actives. Mary argues for a chance to prove that they can coexist without killing each other. Doro agrees and advises her to take ownership of these actives and control them.
Karl drives with Vivian, seething. Though he meant to drive them away from Mary and Doro, he realizes that he is driving home, pulled by the influence of Mary’s mental call to Forsyth. He pulls over, and when Vivian asks what’s wrong, he directs his anger at her. Karl beats Vivian, seeing her as his pet before considering how he is a pet to Doro and now Mary. Afterwards, he drives her to the hospital and demands she leave while she can. Vivian tells him that she is committed, and he can’t make her leave. He lets her stay with him.
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary
Rachel is the first to arrive and is angry with Mary for pulling her here. Mary, meanwhile, deflects blames to Doro. As Rachel leaves to take a room upstairs, Doro warns her, as a healer, to do nothing to Mary. Afterwards, Doro tells Mary not to blame him and advises her to use her abilities to read the others’ minds. He wants Mary to know them as well as possible to protect herself and control them. Doro warns Mary that she can likely kill the others by consuming their minds, like he does to his victims. Doro will soon leave her alone with the actives and is excited to see if she can control them.
The other actives soon arrive and are angry at Mary but do not hurt her with Doro there. When Jesse swears at her to let him go, Mary hits him in the face with a statuette. She asks Rachel to heal him and watches how Rachel heals. Afterwards, Mary goes to the kitchen and cuts her arm to practice healing herself. She succeeds, and Rachel sees her. When Mary tries to make peace and suggests Rachel teach her, Rachel refuses. Rachel does not feel drained after healing Jesse, even though she did not draw energy from anyone around her. Mary comments on how this is likely a benefit from the Pattern, and Rachel realizes that Mary can read her mind through her shield. She tells the others, and their hatred for Mary grows.
Each of the actives slowly settles into the Pattern, becoming comfortable and reaping the benefits of having more control over their abilities. Seth partners with Ada, and Rachel and Jesse share a bed. Mary knows that they resent the setup, feeling trapped and controlled by her. Mary feels a need for change and suggests they get jobs. When she tells Doro this, he reveals that he will leave Mary to do this on her own. He suggests she tell Karl her plan to win his support. Mary lets Karl into her mind to confirm her plans. She wants his help so that she will not need to kill one of the actives to make an example. Karl sees this as the best way to survive and agrees to help.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary
Mary gathers the actives together along with Doro and tells them that their situation is permanent. The Pattern will not break, and they better begin learning to live together in Forsyth or she will kill any who fight her. Mary can read their thoughts and knows she faces the most resistance from Jesse and Rachel. She lets them into her mind to confirm to them that what she says is true but warns them not to dig too deeply. When Jesse does, she uses her developing healing abilities to give him a leg cramp.
Jesse stands up to confront Mary, pleading with the others to help him kill her and free themselves from her control. Jesse reveals that he saw in Mary’s mind that Doro is leaving her and taking his protection with him, encouraging them to act. Doro admits this is true but advises them to stay with Mary and work together, revealing that their Pattern is the goal of his millennia-old breeding program. He wants them to be the founders of a new race of telepaths. He declares his protection of Mary is over, but this means his order to her not to kill the others ends, too.
Jesse pushes for the actives to come together to kill Mary. He recruits Rachel and Jan, but Seth, Ada, and Karl refuse. Mary focuses on Rachel, knowing she can attack her mind and body. While she does, Jesse attacks her through the Pattern quickly, taking her off guard. She reacts instinctively and begins consuming him, draining his energy, reveling in the feeling it gives her. She refrains from draining him completely, leaving him alive. Rachel, thinking he is dead, prepares to burst a blood vessel in Mary’s brain. Mary senses this and preemptively attacks her, draining her as well. She relinquishes them and opens her eyes, feeling energetic and fresh. Rachel wakes and begins crying, humiliated by her defeat. Mary takes her by the arm and walks her to her room to rest. Doro grabs the unconscious Jesse and follows.
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary
After the meeting, Seth and Clay come to Mary, and Clay complains of a headache from mental noise. Mary, curious about why the mental static is back for him, looks into his mind. There, she finds a thin thread attaching him to the Pattern. He will soon become active, well past the age of transition. Karl and Mary meet with Doro, and Doro tells Mary and Karl that he is leaving. Mary explains what she discovered about Clay, but Doro does not believe her. Mary believes that all she must do is read the mind of a latent to add them to the Pattern and proves this by finding the minds of her cousins, Jaime and Christine, across town, establishing a connection.
Doro encourages Mary to build him an empire but warns her to remain obedient to him. Mary explains that she plans to bring as many latents into the Pattern as possible, wanting to help them escape their mental anguish by gaining control over their abilities. Both Doro and Karl question her motives, believing that she either wants to accrue more power or feed off the people around her. Doro suggests she is like Rachel, needing to siphon energy from others without needing to kill them. Mary opens her mind to Karl, and Karl confirms Doro’s suspicion.
With these new developments, Doro stays at Karl’s house and watches as Mary organizes the actives, now more cooperative, to help with the upcoming transitions. She convinces Seth that she will watch over Clay’s transition instead of him, saying she can be more objective. He reluctantly agrees but eagerly takes the responsibility of helping Jaime through transition. Mary asks Rachel to retrieve Jaime and Christine, and before she leaves, Rachel offers to help Mary however she can, wanting to build a community of actives.
Both Jaime and Christine go through transition and emerge as telepaths and members of the Pattern. Their inclusion allows for the other members to stray further from Mary without the uncomfortable pull to return. Clay’s transition is complicated and violent, and when he emerges from transition, his telepathy vanishes, and he instead gains the ability of psychokinesis. He is severed from the Pattern and can fly and move objects with his mind. Doro watches as Mary finds her purpose and commits to growing this community, drawing in more of her cousins. He grows worried, as the inclusion of more threatens his breeding stock if the experiment fails. He looks on with conflicted feelings, excited to watch his empire be realized but jealous that he cannot be a part of it.
Part 2 Analysis
While Doro and Mary use their abilities to control the telepaths around them, many of the active telepaths that join the Pattern use theirs to manipulate ordinary people. Their relationship to the non-telepathic people around them is often predatory and abusive. Rachel, for example, creates a symbiotic connection with people under the guise of religious faith. As a healer, she heals her followers, claiming it is a result of faith while siphoning off her worshippers’ energy and life. She basks in their religious adulation: “Their minds were full of her. Their voices, the very swaying, hand-clapping movements of their bodies were for her. When their mouths said, ‘Yes, Jesus!’ […] they really meant ‘Rachel, Rachel, Rachel!’ She drank it in and loved them for it.” (76). Rachel’s actions demonstrate how The Ethical Complications of Oppressive Power operate on different levels in Mind of My Mind. Rachel not only uses her telepathic and healing abilities to feed on the people who worship her but also uses faith as a means of trapping victims. Her actions are predatory, as she also uses these people to provide herself with a livelihood. Butler’s depiction of Rachel also critiques the commodification of belief systems and the ease with which charismatic figures can exploit collective longing for healing and hope. The scene functions as both a literal and symbolic inversion of spiritual care—Rachel heals bodies while draining souls.
Many active telepath characters struggle to find their place in society. They are outcasts with sensitive mental abilities that often cause harm. It is because of the lonely lives they lead that they embrace the Pattern so eagerly, even while they resent Mary. Doro, who also feels isolation, sees the Pattern as the culmination of his generations-long project to end his own loneliness. Though Doro is essentially immortal, he is not telepathic and feels left out of the Pattern. When Mary questions whether his goal in creating a race of telepaths is to create a community to join or control, he is unsure of the answer: “[A]ll the actives of each generation are my children. So maybe the answer is…a little of both” (99). As an immortal, Doro has no community and believes that if he can create a society of telepaths, he will have either a family or an army. Doro believes that the success of his breeding program will bring about The Development of Identity Within Community for him. However, the realization of his dream proves to be a disappointment, as his inability to mentally link to the Pattern excludes him from joining a family, and Mary’s absolute control over the community prevents his domination over them. This irony—of Doro birthing a community he cannot enter—reflects the tragic flaw of his empire-building: In seeking total control, he ensures his own alienation. His omnipotence isolates him while Mary’s restraint allows for connection. His loss of control foreshadows his eventual downfall and hints at his danger to Mary.
When the members of the newly formed Pattern arrive, Mary must contend with an unhappy group that sees her as a threat. She faces The Struggle for Domination Over Others as she confronts their complaints and threats, needing to establish control to keep the Pattern together and to prevent Doro from killing her. She must subjugate the other six telepaths to be completely obedient and faithful, but she is forced to use her power. When Jesse attacks her, Mary uses her abilities to their fullest extent and discovers that she can easily kill other telepaths for her own gain: “[I]t occurred to me that if I let him go, he would grow strong again. He was terrified now, and weak, but […] He could live, if I let him, if I wasn’t too greedy. He could live and grow strong and feed me again” (139). Mary’s struggle with domination stems from her need to be different from Doro. She does not want to take others’ lives casually and resents the idea of feeding on people. Butler complicates Mary’s resistance by allowing her to feel pleasure in dominance—her mercy is not instinctual, but chosen, and therefore more meaningful. When she stops herself from killing Jesse, she proves that she can lead in a different way. It is through her demonstration of restraint that a feeling of community among the Pattern is fostered. With her act of mercy, she convinces the others to work alongside her and for her, not out of fear, but out of a shared vision of a better life together. She separates herself from Doro, undermining his domination through fear and weakening his claim of control over all of them. In doing so, Mary becomes a new kind of sovereign—one whose power stems not from consumption but from the ability to withhold it.
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