The climax of this great novel for me comes in Chapter 12,
which is when Lily and August finally have a long-overdue conversation about Lily's
mother, Deborah, and how August knew her. Of course, looking at the novel as a whole, it
is clear that Lily has been on a journey throughout the novel, looking for a
mother-figure, escape and a confessor. In August, she has found all fo these things and
now finally Lily is ready to hear about the truth regarding her mother and what she did.
August in the conversation that she has with Lily both listens and tells her the painful
truth. The way that this is the climax of the novel is indicated by a number of
statements. First of all, when she walks up to August's room, she ignores the Daughters,
telling the reader that:
I hated to be rude, but I found I couldn't
answer, couldn't speak a word of idle talk. I wanted to know about my mother. I didn't
care about anything else.
The
climax is indicated by Lily's burning desire for knowledge about her mother. Having
spent so long in the novel avoiding the truth and knowledge concerning Deborah, the
climax is indicated by Lily's willingness to discover the
truth.
Secondly, the climax is indicated by Lily's feelings
when August enters her room. Her initial response foreshadows the way that the truth
will hurt Lily:
I had a desire to bolt past her through the door,
dive out the window. You don't have to do this, I told myself, but
the wanting rose up. I had to
know.
Again, the desire to
find out once and for all is evident, but at the same time this is coupled with the fear
of what this discovery might bring with it. These two quotes serve to signal to the
reader that the climax is about to occur.
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