Chapters 20 through 24 Summary and Analysis

After seven months, Piri returns to New York. He stops first to visit his aunt who tells him his mother is in the hospital. Piri goes to visit but she is very weak and he is not allowed to stay long. That night, he receives word she has died. At the cemetery, he recalls her, saying his father had another woman but Piri again says it cannot be true, though he knows it is. At home, he goes through his father's things, finds the woman's picture, tears it to little bits and throws it in the street. He says he can hate her more fully now he knows what she looks like. His father begins slapping him around, yelling for the picture and Piri denies he has it. He never admits to having torn it up. His sister breaks...