51 pages • 1 hour read
Paul HardingThis Other Eden
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2 Summary
Bridget Carney is an Irish maid at Thomas Hale’s estate. Hale instructs Bridget to prepare the barn on his property for Ethan, where he will stay until he attends art college in the fall. Bridget enjoys being alone with Hale and does not like when Hale’s son and his family come and stay at the house; she is wary of Ethan.
Bridget shows Ethan to his quarters, where he promptly falls asleep. She is intrigued by him and asks if she can watch him paint. He nearly faints in the heat while he paints in front her. She leads him to the shade and goes to fetch them water. While she is away, he falls asleep and dreams of home.
When she returns, Bridget offers him lemonade. Ethan, who has never seen a lemon, reflects on his own disorientation in a new world. He recognizes that he can pass as white in his new setting, unlike in Foxden, where his lineage was known. Later, Ethan hears Bridget singing the same Irish lullaby he grew up hearing Esther sing and joins in. They bond over their island identities and separation from their families.
One night, Bridget brings Ethan into the house. He is intimidated by its enormity. She shows him her favorite painting, leaving Ethan in awe. Afterward, they lie under the stars, talking and falling in love. Bridget later joins him in his room.
Ethan paints a portrait of Bridget. She realizes the immense attention he pays to her. Ethan pricks her finger and then his own, mixing droplets of their blood into his red paint and using it to paint a strawberry so that wherever the painting goes, they will both be a part of it, together.
Bridget now spends most nights with him in the barn, sneaking back into the house. One morning, she sees his bag open and takes a photograph and some drawings from it, both of which reveal his diverse racial identity.
That same morning, Hale sees Bridget leaving the barn. Hale finds Ethan, tells him to leave the paints, and to follow him into the house.
Part 2 Analysis
Part 2 captures Ethan’s entire time at the estate and his romance with Bridget Carney; this period explores the themes of Art as Personal Expression and Family Legacy Across Generations, as Ethan has kept valuable items from home, including drawings. Ethan begins a startling transition, as he not only sees an awe-inspiring new world but also experiences passing as white for the first time. Ethan experiences a newfound acceptance and sense of exceptionalism as a patroned artist on a large estate, surrounded by material wealth. Here, Ethan enjoys a brief life of plenty, finding supplies, quarters of his own, and even romance. Further, his art takes on another form of personal expression, as he mixes his blood with Bridget’s before painting a red strawberry, symbolizing both the young couple itself and Ethan’s personal relationship to art. Ethan’s art was previously used to process memories of the island and his family—he painted the shore, his siblings, and moments that he wanted to remember forever. The stages of Ethan’s life exist within his art, as he expresses them in real time with the romantic hope of preserving them. This idea of holding onto the present by capturing it through art creates a tone of nostalgia and signals to the fact that these moments are indeed fleeting.
Bridget and Ethan are similar in their separation from their families and their island identities, and through their memories, the theme of Family Legacy Across Generations is explored. Both characters feel disconnected and almost orphaned, struggling with loneliness in a new environment without the support of their families. However, both Ethan and Bridget feel their families’ presences, and they use memories to propel themselves forward. Family Legacy Across Generations manifests in different ways in This Other Eden, through stories, experiences, and even trauma. In the case of Bridget, her relationship with her mother is so strong that even though she is across the ocean, in her mind, her mother still scolds her for neglecting her tasks. This connection demonstrates that Bridget is, in essence, her mother’s legacy, carrying her to a new land in her mind and memory.
Contrastingly, Ethan faces separation from his island community for the first time; Apple Island was insulated, existing autonomously as a unique, diverse community. When he left the island and stopped in Foxden, his family legacy meant that he was treated with coldness and hostility, as they knew that he was not white. Now, in Massachusetts, Ethan enjoys anonymity and a non-othered existence; no one is aware of his family history, and he is given the chance to start anew. His experience contrasts sharply with those of his family back on Apple Island, as they are automatically judged for their diverse racial appearances, and further condemned for their lack of outstanding talent. In this sense, Ethan is an outlier both at home and in Massachusetts, though his otherness is not yet known there. However, while his talents are a blessing that promise freedom, they also mean isolation. Ethan is experiencing life away from the legacy of the Honeys, and though he feels less prejudice, he is faced with the task of building a legacy of his own rather than inheriting the legacy of the Honeys.
At the Hale estate, Ethan prepares for art school, using the grounds as inspiration for both still life and landscape paintings. His paintings continue to reflect his personal identity and, after observing him for some time, Bridget sees this. She later notices the detail in his work, capturing her imperfections rather than romanticizing her. Interestingly, Ethan’s desire to capture moments is, in itself, romantic, but his style is decidedly realistic, emphasizing a potential for balance within him, and perhaps even the potential to push his family’s legacy further.
Ethan’s time on the Hale estate is likely to be brief, as the section closes with him being told to leave his supplies and follow Hale after he sees Bridget leave his quarters in the early morning. This represents another dream cut short, like life on Apple Island. With Bridget, Ethan tastes a lemon for the first time, biting into its sourness; the lemon perhaps symbolizes outside life itself—surprising, changing, sour and then sweet. Indeed, with Bridget, Ethan glimpses a life of seemingly endless possibility, with acres around him, supplies he could once only dream, and the affection of a white woman. However, Hale’s arrival in Ethan’s quarters is not unlike the Maine government’s arrival on Apple Island, as both hold news of eviction and symbolize a societal punishment for unconventional lifestyles.
