Summary

In Chapter 46, Gifty hoped her mother's visit to the lab was an indication that her condition would continue to improve. She remembers a conversation from her poetry class at Harvard in which students discussed religion and morality. She contemplates humanity's tendency toward risky, even reckless behavior, and notes that mice do not have the same tendency, that she manufactures the desire that leads to their addictive behavior in the lab.

Chapter 47 features a journal entry in which Gifty writes of swimming in a friend's pool and seeing how long she could hold her breath. She lost consciousness and her friend's mother pulled her from the water. She asks, “But you wouldn't let me die, would you, God?” (227).

In Chapter 48, Gifty recalls being a timid child, whereas Nana was outgoing. She remembers parties he had at their house that she wishes, in retrospect, she...