The Windup Girl

Paolo Bacigalupi

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009

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Chapters 37-39Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 37 Summary

Kanya and Jaidee travel by boat to Mishimoto & Co., where she meets Mr. Yashimoto. The Japanese technology company is likely illegal, but Yashimoto maintains they are friends to the Thai. The exchange discomforts Kanya as a windup girl, Hiroko, translates between Japanese and Thai. Kanya gradually learns that Emiko, as well as Hiroko, could possibly kill a person, but it is unlikely. Their lack of porous skin subjects them to overheating, unlike the military windups, which are built differently. Mr. Yashimoto explains how “poor Hiroko here would die if she exerted herself like that over any significant amount of time. But all windups are potentially fast[…]” (300). Hiroko explains how “it would take an extraordinary stimulus” for a standard windup to become a killer, for “New People value discipline. Order. Obedience. We have a saying in Japan, ‘New People are more Japanese than the Japanese’” (300). Yashimoto recommends that Kanya find and destroy Emiko, and that Hiroko can help Kanya do so.

Kanya, Jaidee, and Hiroko return from the company by boat. Hiroko asks Kanya why she hates windups so much. Kanya tells her that they have no soul, no karma, and that they ape humans without being any bit human themselves. Hiroko explains that not all windups are like Emiko, and that Emiko is genetically engineered to find a new master, now that she has lost Anderson. Kanya feels a sense of foreboding as she sees military barges docked as they approach.

Chapter 38 Summary

Anderson finds himself and Carlyle in an emergency command center in an old tower constructed during more prosperous Bangkok days. His finger and ribs are broken; he has been badly beaten. Akkarat offers a lukewarm apology. Anderson’s story has checked out; the windup murdered the Somdet Chaopraya, and the people are angry at the white shirts. Now in power, Akkarat wants to take advantage of this moment and attack the Environment Ministry. Anderson says that they are not ready, for he still has forces arriving. Akkarat listens to the crowds outside and says the Revolution has started.

Chapter 39 Summary

Akkarat invades the compound of the Environment Ministry with tanks, megadonts, and military trucks filled with men shooting spring gun disks. Kanya’s cheek is slashed. Hiroko pushes her down and jumps on top of her to protect her from the disks/bullets, then tells her they must flee. Kanya, Hiroko and Pai (Hiroko’s right-hand man) run toward a religious shrine. As they stop to rest, Jaidee asks Kanya, “So. Who will you fight for now, Captain” (311), as the battle now rages between Akkarat and Pracha, two leaders Kanya has served simultaneously.

Chapters 37-39 Analysis

The revolution has begun and Akkarat and Pracha finally square off. Kanya finds herself in the middle of it. At first, as she returns from Mr. Yashimoto’s factory, she believes that the discovery of Emiko will prevent conflict. Hiroko functions as an important character; she is a windup, built to serve, not to kill (only soldier windups are built like that) but still possesses extraordinary swiftness. In a culture where spiritual work is tantamount to destiny, a windup can be viewed as making a mockery of human frailty, pain, and love.

As the revolution begins, Anderson and Carlyle experience a last-minute liberation as the story of Emiko has checked out. Despite identifying the windup responsible for the death of the Somdet Chaopraya, the people remain mad. Akkarat, clever and opportunistic, seizes this opportunity to topple Pracha and the white shirts, and to gain control, backed by palace-sponsored Black Panther guards to take the place of the Somdet and perhaps even influence the Child Queen.