Alice Adams · Chapter
XXV explained
Alice Adams, now dressed plainly, prepares to go downtown.
What happens
Alice Adams, now dressed plainly, prepares to go downtown. Her mother urges her to dress more cheerfully to show others she is undaunted by Walter's disappearance and her father's business failure, but Alice rejects the idea of dressing for appearances. Mrs. Adams discusses plans to take in boarders, including a young man named Will Dickson, to make ends meet. Alice's mother bitterly criticizes Virgil for accepting a low offer from J.A. Lamb, leading to a confrontation. Alice visits her father, who reflects philosophically on their situation, and then she bravely ascends the stairs to Frincke's Business College, symbolizing her acceptance of a new, practical path.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Mobility
The Adams family's decision to take in boarders and Alice's enrollment at a business college highlight their downward social mobility and the struggle to maintain respectability.
Appearance vs. Reality
Alice rejects her mother's advice to dress cheerfully to project resilience, reflecting on the futility of pretending and the gap between outward show and inner truth.
Family Dynamics and Sacrifice
The chapter reveals tension between Mrs. Adams's bitterness and Virgil's resignation, while Alice mediates and makes personal sacrifices for the family's survival.
Characters to notice
- Alice Adams
Alice dresses plainly and rejects her mother's advice to put on a brave front through appearance. She goes downtown to inquire about arrangements for herself, ultimately climbing the stairs to Frincke's Business College, a symbolic step toward independence.
- Mrs. Adams
Mrs. Adams urges Alice to dress cheerfully to show resilience, discusses taking in boarders including Will Dickson, and bitterly criticizes Virgil for accepting J.A. Lamb's offer, leading to a heated exchange.
- Virgil Adams
Virgil is in his room, now wearing a dressing-gown and smoking his pipe. He reflects philosophically on how life's unexpected turns allow one to 'squirm out' of being pushed to the wall, and he shows concern that Alice understands such hardships at her age.
- Billy Dickson
Mentioned as a prospective boarder; Mrs. Adams describes him as a pleasant-looking young man with a position at the gas works, who was christened 'Will' rather than William.
Key passages
“I suppose about the only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling ourselves that we fool somebody.”
Alice argues that the only value of pretense is the self-deceptive pleasure of believing we are deceiving others.
Alice articulates a key insight about the nature of illusion and self-deception.
“She had something important to think of. She passed the tobacconist’s, and before her was that dark entrance to the wooden stairway leading up to Frincke’s Business College—the very doorway she had always looked upon as the end of youth and the end of hope.”
Alice, focused on her purpose, approaches the stairway to Frincke's Business College, which she had once seen as a symbol of lost youth and hope.
This moment marks Alice's conscious decision to embrace a practical future, abandoning romantic illusions.