Rebecca

Rebecca is a new arrival at Moorehead, where she is hired to develop an educational program for the boys, and she quickly becomes central to Eileen’s account of the institution and its aftermath. Her conviction that the boys deserve serious intellectual instruction sets her apart from the prison’s custodial outlook; her close attention to Leonard “Lee” Polk draws Eileen’s notice; and her involvement in the confrontation with Rita Polk turns an apparent alliance into a test neither woman resolves in the same way.

Identity and Arrival

Rebecca enters Eileen’s narrative as someone who has only recently arrived at Moorehead, yet seems able to establish a connection that Eileen cannot explain. After a visit from Rita Polk, Eileen watches Rebecca take the mother’s empty chair and move it close to Leonard “Lee” Polk. Rebecca leans toward him, listens with an attentive expression, and speaks to him until his grin fades and his head bows. The exchange looks intimate to Eileen, who wonders how such rapport could have formed so quickly. The scene offers no account of what Rebecca and Leonard say to one another; its significance lies instead in Eileen’s close observation of their attention and proximity.

Rebecca’s work at Moorehead is educational rather than custodial. She describes being hired to devise a common daily curriculum for boys who differ in age and level, a task she considers ill-conceived if treated as repetitive instruction for a uniform group. She argues that the boys are capable learners, many already literate, and that teaching will require testing and adjustment to discover what works. Her proposed subjects include literature, history, philosophy, and the hard sciences, not merely practical training. The scale of the work, in her view, calls for more than one teacher. Her complaint that the boys are treated as though they lack minds gives her position a clear ethical dimension: education means recognizing their intellectual lives rather than managing them as a mass.

Eileen’s View of Rebecca

Rebecca is presented through Eileen’s retrospective narration, which makes the account of their connection both vivid and partial. In one exchange, Eileen explains that she does not drink coffee and attributes her bad teeth to a tendency toward sweets. She is conscious of having chosen a word that sounds more educated than her usual speech and worries that Rebecca will see through the effort. Rebecca’s next response is not included in the passage, but Eileen says it fills her with near-ecstasy. The detail reveals less about Rebecca’s exact words than about the force her response has for Eileen: being received by her matters intensely.

That intensity sits beside the uncertainty of what Rebecca herself feels. Eileen sees her attending closely to Leonard, and she registers Rebecca’s response to her own awkward attempt at self-presentation, but the available account does not establish a reciprocal intimacy between the women. Eileen’s narrative nevertheless gives Rebecca unusual emotional weight. The reader encounters her through the details Eileen selects, including attention, expression, and gesture, while Rebecca’s inner motives remain out of reach. This gap becomes important when their practical cooperation later demands a decision with serious consequences.

The Confrontation at the Polk House

At the Polk house, Rebecca tells Eileen that Rita Polk is tied up downstairs. She and Eileen confront Rita over what she has done, with a gun present as leverage. During the questioning, Rebecca takes the gun from Eileen and asks Rita to repeat what she told her. Rebecca holds it awkwardly. As she adjusts her grip, the gun falls and fires accidentally. Eileen freezes; Rebecca turns away and covers her face; Rita draws back. The discharge abruptly interrupts the interrogation and changes the danger facing all three women.

The confrontation does not produce a heartfelt surrender. Rita rejects the demand that she give in, and Rebecca and Eileen wait while the pills Rita has taken begin to affect her. When Rita falls asleep, Eileen whispers her escape proposal to Rebecca: her father’s drinking, Eileen argues, could make him a plausible suspect if the police investigated, and the authorities might fail to pursue the matter. Rebecca listens, and Eileen says it takes less than ten minutes to persuade her that the plan is workable. The moment binds them through a shared course of action, but it also shows how quickly a plan built around danger and deception replaces any possibility of a clear resolution with Rita.

Rebecca’s agreement leads to a demanding practical effort. The women untie Rita and carry her up the stairs, Rebecca holding her feet while Eileen takes her under the shoulders and bears much of the load. Eileen’s knees shake and her arms burn by the time they reach the top, but Rebecca urges them to move quickly. The scene gives their alliance a physical task and an immediate objective: they must get Rita out of the house. Yet their cooperation does not settle what either woman will do next.

Departure and Narrative Significance

After the women have brought Rita upstairs, Rebecca suddenly says she will see Eileen and dashes back into the house. Eileen later describes waiting for her and knowing she will not return. The account does not explain Rebecca’s decision or show her subsequent movements; it establishes the consequence for Eileen, who is left without the companion she had expected. In retrospect, Eileen calls Rebecca a coward and criticizes idealism that carries no consequences, but she also says she holds no grudge. She remembers Rebecca as a strange woman who entered her life at a moment when she most needed to escape.

Rebecca therefore remains deliberately difficult to settle into a single judgment. At Moorehead, she insists that the boys be treated as minds capable of learning; at the Polk house, she joins Eileen in a perilous plan, then leaves Eileen to face its aftermath without her. Eileen’s final assessment acknowledges both abandonment and the importance Rebecca had acquired. Because this is Eileen’s story, Rebecca’s exit is rendered through Eileen’s waiting and later interpretation, not through an explanation from Rebecca herself. The contrast between Rebecca’s educational idealism and her departure gives their alliance its unresolved shape: she helps Eileen move toward escape, but does not escape with her.