49 pages • 1-hour read
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz
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Chapters 9-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, physical abuse, emotional abuse, death, and death by suicide.
Chapter 9 Summary
Late at night, John wakes abruptly. A shadowy figure stands by his door and tells him to press the button that drops him into the cold adjoining bath. Shocked awake, he escapes into the corridor just as three unfamiliar people—whom he assumes to be executioners—burst from his sitting room. Before they can reach him, Braddock Washington appears in the nearby lift, wearing a fur coat and boots over rose-colored pajamas. He commands the three men into the lift and disappears with them, leaving John unharmed and confused.
Sensing that some larger crisis has diverted Washington’s attention and offered him a brief reprieve, John returns to his room, dresses, and hurries through the chateau to the wing where Kismine sleeps. He finds her awake, listening at the window. She explains that a fleet of airplanes has arrived in the valley. The escaped Italian aviator is leading an organized attack. Rifle shots roused her father, and the estate’s anti-aircraft guns are preparing to respond.
As the first bombs explode, Kismine blows out a fuse to darken the chateau and leads John to the roof garden. From the high platform, they watch the battle. The attackers concentrate their aim on the Washingtons’ gun emplacements, and within moments, one installation is destroyed. John tries to warn Kismine that the bombardment threatens the chateau itself, but she is captivated by the spectacle. A direct hit obliterates the homes of the enslaved people, prompting her to remark ruefully on the destruction of valuable property.
Recognizing that the defenses will soon collapse, John urges Kismine to escape with him. She agrees and insists they wake Jasmine as well. Excited by the thought of becoming “poor and free” (129), Kismine kisses him and begins gathering her jewels. Ten minutes later, the sisters join John, and the three descend through the darkened mansion. They pause on the terrace to watch the assault. Only one anti-aircraft gun remains firing, and the attackers hover at a cautious distance while continuing to shell the valley.
John, Kismine, and Jasmine leave the chateau, climb a narrow path along the diamond mountain, and head toward a wooded hiding place halfway up the slope. From there, they plan to observe the night’s events and eventually escape through a secret rocky gully once the attack subsides.
Chapter 10 Summary
John, Kismine, and Jasmine reach their hiding place on the mountain at 3 am. Jasmine falls asleep immediately, and John and Kismine watch the final exchanges of the battle in the valley below. Shortly after four, the last anti-aircraft gun is destroyed, and the planes begin circling lower, preparing to land once they are certain the Washingtons can no longer resist. When John notices that Kismine has fallen asleep as well, he keeps watch alone.
Near dawn, he hears footsteps ascending the mountain and waits in silence until the figures pass. When they are out of earshot, he follows the path upward. He sees Braddock Washington standing motionless against the brightening sky, accompanied by two men who lift an immense diamond. John watches as Washington raises his arms and begins speaking aloud, addressing God, offering the largest diamond in existence, along with a vast future temple and sacrifices, in exchange for turning back the events of the night and restoring his destroyed power. He cites ancient rituals and historic offerings, asking only that the world be as it was “yesterday at this hour” (133). As he speaks, his hair gradually turns white.
A brief atmospheric disturbance follows—a darkening of sky, a murmuring wind, a distant rumble—but then the natural world brightens again. Nothing has changed. John understands that the plea has failed.
The planes land in the valley. John descends to find the girls, who have awakened. Without explanation, he takes their hands and leads them toward escape. At the summit, they turn back toward the diamond mountain. They witness Braddock Washington, Mrs. Washington, Percy, and two men appearing on a ledge, carrying the great diamond. The men lift a concealed trap door in the mountainside, and all five descend into the opening. As the door closes, Kismine cries out in alarm, suddenly realizing “The mountain is wired!” (136).
The surface of the mountain erupts in a blinding yellow glow that burns through the turf. In a moment, the entire mass detonates, consuming the aviators on the slopes and the hidden family inside. The chateau explodes simultaneously. When the smoke clears, silence returns. The Washington estate has been obliterated, leaving John, Kismine, and Jasmine alone in the valley.
Chapter 11 Summary
John, Kismine, and Jasmine reach the high cliff marking the boundary of the Washington estate. They stop to eat the food Jasmine has carried with her. As they look back, the valley appears calm and beautiful despite the destruction.
When the meal is finished, John asks the girls to empty their pockets so he can assess the jewels they escaped with. Kismine pours out two handfuls of sparkling stones, but John quickly realizes that none are diamonds. She has mistakenly taken the rhinestones of a former guest, having opened the wrong drawer. John resigns himself to the loss, pointing out that without her father’s financial records, they will have no claim to wealth and will have to live modestly in his hometown of Hades.
Kismine accepts this prospect with mild curiosity, while Jasmine volunteers to support them by taking in laundry, explaining that she has always enjoyed washing her own handkerchiefs. Kismine asks naïve questions about life in Hades, including whether the heat prevents people from wearing clothes, which makes John laugh. When she wonders whether her father will also be there, John somberly explains that Braddock Washington is dead, and she is confusing Hades with a different place, “abolished long ago” (136).
After supper, they spread blankets for the night. Kismine reflects that their former life now seems dreamlike, and the stars, which she once imagined as enormous diamonds, now unsettle her. John tells her that youth itself is a dream, “a form of chemical madness” (138), and suggests they take what comfort they can in loving each other. Though disillusioned by everything that has happened, he offers her warmth and reassurance, urging her to raise her coat collar against the night air. Wrapped in their blankets beneath the stars, John falls asleep.
Chapters 9-11 Analysis
The closing chapters mark the climax and falling action of The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, bringing the narrative into full-fledged crisis and destruction. This is marked by a decisive tonal shift, transforming the dreamlike quality of earlier chapters into tension, chaos, and eventual disillusionment. The opening of Chapter 9 signals the break from illusion, using sensory intensity to disrupt the soft enchantment that has characterized John’s stay. The moment when he hears “the click of a turned knob, a footstep, a whisper” introduces suspense and vulnerability into a previously frictionless world (125). The narrative’s imagery of physical panic—“a hard lump gathered in the pit of his stomach” (125)—marks a tonal reversal, illustrating that the façade of comfort has masked real danger all along. This shift from languid luxury to mortal fear parallels John’s psychological awakening as he realizes that he is no longer a guest; he is a prisoner, and the enchanted setting no longer protects him.
As planes descend on the Washington estate, the narrative marries spectacle with this destruction. Kismine’s initial delight at the explosions—followed only belatedly by fear—exposes the emotional distortion produced by extreme privilege. The valley becomes “a panorama […] of lurid light” (128), turning violence into aesthetic performance that she watches as if unaffected. This ironic juxtaposition reinforces Wealth as a Destructive Force, portraying a world where even catastrophe is filtered through the lens of entertainment. The satire sharpens further when Kismine laments the monetary loss of “fifty thousand dollars’ worth of slaves” (129), revealing a moral calculus in which human life ranks far below property.
Destruction intensifies in Chapter 10, where the novella balances violent imagery with serene, lyrical narration. The chateau is “beautiful without light” (130), even as it falls under attack—a reminder that the estate’s allure persists even as its moral rot becomes undeniable. This aestheticization of ruin emphasizes how deeply illusion permeates the Washington world. Yet the estate’s beauty cannot shield it; once the airplanes determine that the family has no remaining defenses, “the dark and glittering reign of the Washingtons” draws to an end (130). The phrase captures the oxymoronic nature of their empire and signals the inevitable collapse of a dynasty built on exploitation, secrecy, and violence.
Braddock Washington’s final act—attempting to bribe God—stands as one of the novella’s most pointed satirical moments. By assuming that “God had His price” (133), Braddock reveals his belief that all power is transactional and all authority negotiable. His elaborate plan to build a monumental diamond chapel, complete with sacrificial space and radium altar, constitutes an absurd parody of religious offerings. This episode highlights The Role of Exploitation in Building and Maintaining Wealth, demonstrating how wealth fosters a worldview in which spiritual, ethical, and political boundaries dissolve under the force of self-interest. The novella reinforces the surreal quality of this climax through personification. The refusal of his bribe—subtly communicated through nature’s momentary stillness and the “laughter” of leaves—signals that the universe remains indifferent to his wealth. The chateau “literally threw itself into the air” (136), rendering destruction as an internal collapse, and even nature seems animate, participating in the downfall of the Washington empire. These stylistic choices heighten the sense that the estate’s splendor and the family’s downfall share a theatrical, dreamlike quality consistent with the novella’s larger critique of The Illusion of the American Dream.
In the aftermath, the Washingtons’ destruction is quiet and understated. The once-opulent chateau becomes a “featureless pile,” dissolving into marble dust that drifts harmlessly into sunshine. This muted imagery underscores the fragility and ephemerality of even the grandest material displays. The collapse of the Washingtons’ world is not fiery or spectacular; it simply disappears, revealing that wealth built on secrecy cannot endure.
Chapters 10 and 11 also provide emotional resolution through John and Kismine’s shifting dynamic. Kismine’s gleeful anticipation of poverty—“Free and poor! What fun!” (129)—satirizes romanticized conceptions of hardship found in sentimental literature. Her excitement reveals her sheltered misunderstanding of ordinary life, exposing the naïve belief that freedom and hardship naturally coexist as narrative pleasures. John’s more realistic reply—“It’s impossible to be both together […] People have found that out” (129)—demonstrates his growing clarity and maturity. Disillusionment emerges not only as the thematic end of the narrative but as John’s personal transformation, bringing his coming-of-age journey to an end.
The final line encapsulates the novella’s overarching critique: “There are only diamonds in the whole world, diamonds and perhaps the shabby gift of disillusion” (138). Diamonds—symbols of wealth, beauty, hardness, and illusion—contrast with “disillusion,” or confronting the hard truth of reality. Through this juxtaposition, the novella suggests that the only reliable outcome of engaging with fantastical visions of wealth is the collapse of illusion itself.
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