Georgetown University

Georgetown University is the setting for Ann's pursuit of a history master's, an academic ambition sustained by the room and board she receives in exchange for vaguely defined services in Oliver Rose and Barbara Rose's household. The university is not depicted through campus scenes; its significance lies in the scholarly work and possible future it represents for Ann amid the household's upheaval.

Ann's Studies and Circumstances

Ann's arrangement with the Roses gives her the means to pursue graduate study in history. The exchange is practical but unevenly defined: room and board provide the resources to continue her education, while her work in the household includes helping with the children. The novel places academic opportunity beside domestic labor rather than presenting the two as separate parts of her life.

One concrete focus of Ann's studies is Jefferson as Secretary of State. She is working on a bibliography for her thesis when Eve arrives in distress, overwhelmed by the news that her parents have split. Ann initially has little patience for what she regards as another teenage crisis, but Eve's tearful embrace draws her attention away from her research. The moment sets scholarly concentration against the emotional demands of the family for whom Ann also serves as a caregiver.

Education and Ann's Sense of a Future

When Oliver asks what she intends to do with her life, Ann answers that Jefferson is her life for the present. The reply identifies her studies as her immediate purpose, even as she privately longs to be included in Oliver's life. He touches her shoulder and calls her a gift to the children and to him, bringing her academic self-understanding into contact with her intimate attachment to the household.

Georgetown University therefore signifies a real but still developing avenue of independence for Ann. Her graduate work gives shape to a life beyond her vaguely defined domestic role, while the novel shows that her attention and emotional commitments remain entangled with the Roses. The university's importance is conveyed through this tension: study is her stated present, but it unfolds within a home whose crises repeatedly claim her care.