The Lioness

A common thread between the three strands of action, which are taking place in different locales, is the violence and cruelty of which humans are capable. The humans’ actions are juxtaposed against the instinctive logic of the wild animals of the Serengeti, where the motives for violence are hunger or self-defense. While both human and non-human animals are motivated by survival, the Motives for Human Violence and Cruelty are more numerous. Despite this distinction, the novel also uses the animal world symbolically, mining it for imagery that meditates on the community, collaboration, and destruction that the human actors exhibit.

Bits of exposition suggest that the Russians who have kidnapped the Americans are familiar with and have a history in the area. Terrance’s chapter introduces the story of the elephant slaughter, an image of senseless destruction that speaks to the theme of human cruelty and parallels the violence being inflicted on Katie’s group. However, Benjamin’s experience with the Russians’ hunt also reveals the colonel’s connection to the rebellion taking place in the Congo. His knowledge of what happened to the ousted Lumumba, who was killed by Mobutu and his forces, suggests that the colonel and his men have been part of the Soviet effort to support the Simba faction. This puts them at odds with the agenda of the United States and the Belgians, who were supporters of Mobutu’s policies and sought to extend their own influence in the area, particularly to access its wealth and resources.

The opposition between capitalist and communist ideology is intertwined with the novel’s Cold War setting. The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union included a race for cultural, political, and technological superiority, epitomized by each superpower’s space program, which the novel alludes to. The Soviets put the first humans in space with the Vostok missions that ran from 1961 to 1963, while the United States accomplished the Mercury program, six crewed spaceflights spanning 1961 to 1963. Astronauts John Glenn, Gordon Cooper, and Alan Shepard all participated in the Mercury program. The use of these men’s names as aliases by the Russian kidnappers is ironic but alludes to other areas of competition. In the novel, this extends to the Russians’ interest in retaining David Hill, who they believe can furnish information about his father’s involvement with the CIA.

David finally acts when he sees his own well-being threatened, whereas he has not previously tried to help the others, including his wife. This speaks to the novel’s particular interest in how the human capacity for selfish cruelty drives The Fragility of Intimate Relationships. Further reflections on this surface in Billy’s and Katie’s reflections of the abuse they suffered from their parents, particularly their mother. Katie primarily experienced humiliation, as demonstrated by the pumpkin Halloween costume, and the denial of food. Billy’s torture was isolation in the closet, which he compares to the type of medieval prison called an oubliette. The medieval poem known as “The Dark Night of the Soul,” written by St. John of the Cross, is a metaphysical meditation on spiritual doubt, but Billy associates it with the fear he feels at being enclosed in the dark, a metaphor for the isolated and despairing soul. The allusion thus comments on themes of survival and suffering.

So far, the novel has depicted Katie as the more resilient of the two siblings, but this experience—her personal dark night of the soul—will impact her ability to cope. At the same time, Carmen has been undergoing her own dark night, confronting her grief over her husband’s death and fighting off predators. Her challenge is much more active and physical, and she is conscious of the threats facing her in a way that Katie, who is being lied to and manipulated, isn’t. The impact of the women’s different experiences becomes clear in the next act, when it will be revealed who the lioness is in this party.