Chapters 24 & 25 Summary and Analysis

Kaysen's molar becomes infected, and Valerie takes her to see the hospital dentist. He recommends removal of the tooth and lancing of the abscess, but Kaysen declines. Instead he places her on antibiotics. A few days later Kaysen has an allergic reaction to the antibiotics and is returned to the dentist, who extracts the infected tooth under anesthesia. When Kaysen wakes up, she is very distraught over losing time and repetitively demands to know how long she was unconscious. Rather than answering her, the dentist hands her over to Valerie, who hands her the extracted tooth.

In Chapter 25, a new patient, Alice Calais, is introduced into the ward; she pronounces her surname as "callous." Georgina makes fun of Alice because she thinks she pronounces her last name incorrectly because she is ignorant. Alice quickly demonstrates a lack of routine knowledge...