Chapter Summary Of Olive Kitteridge

The novel Olive Kitteridge written by Elizabeth Strout is not what it appears to be. It is actually thirteen short stories, most of which contain Olive as a main character. It starts out with a chapter called “Pharmacy,” Olive is a main character and this chapter sets the tone on how she will tend to behave, and even brings forth the idea that Olive was unfaithful to her husband, Henry. Later in the novel a chapter called, “Security,”  has Olive as a main character. This chapter brings back the storyline of Olive and the man she had an affair with from the first story, essentially bringing the novel full circle. However, some of these stories do not take that same approach; there are a few chapters, like “The Piano Player” and “Winter Concert”

in which Olive is not a main character, yet in each of these chapters the characters are involved with some form of unfaithfulness to their significant others. Readers catch short glimpses of Olive through mention, and though she is not a main character, the story still moves forward. And there is also a chapter called, “Basket of Trips” in which Olive is a main character, but she is not the one who is untrue to her significant other in this case. A book review written by Louisa Thomas makes the following claim,
The presence of Olive Kitteridge, a seventh-grade math teacher and the wife of a pharmacist, links these 13 stories. A big woman, she’s like a planetary body, exerting a strong gravitational pull. Several stories put Olive at the center, but in a few she makes only a fleeting appearance. It’s no coincidence that the two weakest stories are the ones in which she is merely mentioned. Without her, the book goes adrift, as if it has lost its anchor. (Thomas)
At a first glance, readers might not realize that this occurs, but that is what makes the novel so sound. It does not outright say that every character in this story struggles with a bad relationship, or adultery, it lets the readers figure out these clues one by one from reading and then thinking about each chapter and its characters. I disagree with Louisa Thomas’ claim, because although Olive is not featured in every chapter, this novel has carefully interwoven themes of infidelity throughout the chapters that link the novel together.
        The novel starts out introducing us to the main characters of this chapter, Olive and her family, but focuses more so on her husband Henry and his borderline over-the-top fascination with his new employee, Denise. Though a romantic relationship is never expressed outwardly, there is a lingering sense of desire. Henry is in the midst of becoming an older man, and Denise is thrust into being a widow, something that typically is seen in older women. Olive even understands that Henry feels something more for her than a father-daughter bond when she says, “Go. For God’s sake. GO over and comfort your girlfriend.” when Denise accidentally runs over her cat (Strout 24). In this situation, Olive is being a bit hypocritical as she once loved someone other than her spouse as well. Readers are shown this when Henry remembers when Jim O’Casey, a teacher at the middle school that Olive works at, dies after driving off the road. Olive was unusually distraught about it as Henry recalls, “Olive spent weeks going straight to bed after supper, sobbing harshly into a pillow–Henry understood then that Olive had loved Jim O’Casey, had possibly been loved by him” (Strout 29). At this time is is not clear on the extent of Olive and Jim’s relationship, that is until several chapters later. This first chapter is key in linking the whole novel together, as it sets up the recurring theme of infidelity.
        Many chapters after “Pharmacy” is the chapter “Security”.

This chapter is important as it reintroduces the affair between Olive and Jim O’Casey. In this chapter, Olive is again a main character, and readers learn about the relationship between her and Jim through a flashback, “They had never kissed, nor even touched, only passed by each other closely as they went into [Jim’s] office...But after he said that that day, she lived with a kind of terror, and a longing that felt at times unendurable” (Strout 213). Olive is reminiscing about a conversation the two had shortly prior to Jim’s death, which they briefly discussed running away together. Olive was so ready to leave everything she had, and Jim responds by saying, “Perhaps it’s a good thing I haven’t asked you [to run away]” (Strout 213). Olive and Henry’s moments of unfaithfulness are strikingly similar, the two both knew of their feelings, but did not physically act upon them. This is the third to last chapter, and it reties in the theme of infidelity, which was given in the first chapter, thus keeping the novel

anchored.
        The third chapter of Olive Kitteridge is the first chapter of the novel that does not have Olive as a main character. Instead, the main character is Angela O’Meara, who has been the piano player at a local cocktail lounge for over twenty years. Olive is vaguely mentioned when Angela notices that they come into the Warehouse (Strout 51). For roughly the same amount of time that Angela has been working at the cocktail lounge, she has been with Malcom, a married man who takes advantage of her timid personality. Angela thinks back to the time when she and Malcom were happy in this affair, “At first he had said, ‘I think about you all the time.’ He still said, ‘I love you.’ Sometimes, ‘What would I do without you Angie?’ He never bought her gifts, and she wouldn't have wanted him to.” (Strout 52). At some point in their relationship, things changed between them and Malcom appeared to stop appreciating Angela. Readers learn this when Angela decides to end things with Malcom in this chapter, “When she finished, she did something that really surprised her [broke up with Malcom]. Later she had to wonder how long she had been planning this without quite knowing. The way she didn't quite allow herself to know when Malcom stopped saying, ‘I think about you all the time.’” (Strout 53). Angela, unlike Olive and Henry, was on the flip side of the affair; Malcom was the one who was married. This affair differs from Olive and Henry’s as it is a physical and emotional relationship. Though this is not the same type of extramarital affair, this storyline still allows readers to connect Olive, Henry, Angela, and Malcom because they all experience lust for people that they should not, because either they, or the person they desire is married, or both. This chapter is the first hint at this persisting theme of infidelity, with only more stories to come and mimic its expression.
        In the middle of the novel is the chapter “Winter Concert”, which also does not contain Olive as a main character. Instead, the main characters are husband and wife, Bob and Jane Houlton, an older couple who, “had fun together these days...It was if marriage had been a long, complicated meal, and now this was their lovely dessert” (Strout 126). Again, Olive is mentioned when Jane notices her and Henry interacting in the church (Strout 129-130), but her lack of appearance does not take away from this chapter in the slightest. Readers discover later on in the chapter that at one point in their marriage Bob had an affair with a woman who now lives in Miami. This affair now demonstrates a clear pattern of characters in this novel who are unfaithful. Bob and Jane are talking with their daughter’s friend’s parents, the Lydia’s as they call them, and the Lydia’s innocently recall seeing Bob at an airport in Miami (Strout 132). This remark bothers Jane as she does not remember Bob telling her that they ran into each other, let alone that he was in Miami. From how Jane starts to interrogate Bob on their car ride home, it becomes clear that Jane knew Bob had the affair years ago, and this must be a continuation of it. She is asking Bob over and over again to “Just tell [her].” and Bob finally breaks and says,
She got breast cancer. She called me that spring before I retired, and I hadn't heard from her in years. Really years, Janie…I had to go down to Orlando to close down that account, so I told her I’d come see her, and I did. I went down to Miami and I saw her, and it was awful, it was pathetic, and the next day I flew back from Miami, where I saw [the Lydia’s]. (Strout 136-137)
From the way that Jane was pleading Bob to tell her the truth, it shows readers that Jane already knew what to expect, because she has dealt with Bob’s infidelity before. The affair that Bob had with this mystery woman in Florida is unlike any of the affairs readers have encountered in the novel, but it is an affair nonetheless, and still keeps the connection between all of the stories, regardless if Olive is in them or not.
        Nearing the end of the novel is a chapter called “Basket of Trips”. This chapter not only has Olive as a main character, but also shows infidelity happening to someone else. This chapter takes place at a funeral that Olive attends. Ed Bonney, the man who died, had a wife named Marlene. Through a conversation her and Olive have, Olive learns of the affair Ed had with a woman named Kerry Monroe, who is at the funeral. Olive and Marlene are in a bedroom talking, with Marlene passed out drunk on the bed, when Marlene says, “Mrs. Kitteridge, did you know? What Kerry told me today? She said it happened between her and Ed only once. Just one time. But I don't believe that–it had to be more. The summer after Ed Junior graduated from high school” (Strout 177). At this same moment, Marlene is holding a paring knife, just seconds before she had told Olive she was thinking about killing Kerry (Strout 177). Kerry decided to keep quiet about the affair because, “She thought I knew all along, and I was just punishing her by keeping on being nice to her. She got drunk today and started saying how good I got her, killing her and Ed with kindness that way” (Strout 178). Unfortunately for the both of them, Marlene was unaware that her husband was unfaithful to her. Now the two must live on, both grieving the man that they each got to love. This chapter helps link the novel together because it not only shows Olive, but readers as well that she is not the only one who has struggled with being unfaithful. It opens Olive up to the thought that not everyone in her town has a picturesque marriage. For the first time in this novel, it allows Olive to see adultery somewhere else besides her own life. By doing so, it shows readers that this novel has created a web of unfaithful characters surrounded by each other whether they realize it or not.
        Something else that keeps the book from going adrift are the changing personality types of each of the characters discussed. As written in Selling Today: Creating Customer Value, “The patterns of behavior that others observe can be called communication style” (Manning 74). There are four different of communication styles, emotive, directive, reflective, and supportive. What defines these styles are dominance and sociability. “Sociability reflects the amount of control we exert over our emotional expressiveness” (Manning 78), while “Dominance can be defined as the tendency to control or prevail over others” (Manning 77).
The characters who were unfaithful to their partner all had differing personality types.

Henry’s personality type is reflective because he has a low dominance and sociability, seen when he is described as a good listener (Strout 4), people with reflective personalities let others do all the talking and leading. Olive is a directive communicator, someone with high dominance and low sociability. This is seen when Olive’s son Christopher calls her out for being a bad mother, she has the nerve to act offended and cannot believe that he would say such a thing, but she does not realize that he is right (Strout 231). Malcom’s personality is emotive, a high sociability and high dominance. Malcom exhibits it the most clearly when he goes to confront Angie for calling his house, he has the power and ability to come at her cursing and yelling with no remorse (Strout 59). Bob and Kerry are both supportive communicators, people with a high sociability and a low dominance. Bob shows his communication style when he easily plays off his wife’s confusion at him being in Miami, but is not dominant enough to come out right away and tell her the truth (Strout 132-136). Kerry displayed it for many years as she did not ever tell Marlene that she had an affair with her husband, yet she was able to remain friends with her even though she thought Marlene knew about the affair. All of these character’s get the same personality type when they have their affairs. They each get a low sociability and a

high dominance, because they cheat on their spouse, but have enough backbone to come clean to their partner. Even though all of these characters experienced a different form of an affair, the fact that none of the characters left their spouse is what links all of these stories together even though Olive is not featured in all of them.
Olive Kitteridge is a collection of stories that shows all sides of infidelity. Through the use of Olive as an anchor for most of the stories, readers are able to see how different personality types deal with the issue of cheating and being cheated on in a relationship. Even when Olive is not as present in the stories, readers can relate to what is happening with the relationships of these characters based off of other chapters in which Olive is a main character. The constant infidelity allows everything to tie back to Olive and her story creating a sound narrative as a whole. It is because of this that I believe Louisa Thomas is not correct in her belief that the chapters that do not solely focus on Olive are weak and let the book go adrift.