Summary
The characters from Chapters 1, 2, and 3 have all been linked in the fifth chapter, except for Penelope. The epilogue brings the story to a close by detailing how Penelope's tale is intricately tied to the characters of Chapter 4. By her eightieth birthday, Penelope has found a new partner, Jeremy, and though Jeremy and she have different interests and tastes, Penelope determines that they are ultimately compatible. Perhaps more importantly, he provides her with necessary companionship in a lonely old age. They move in together, she in her sixties, and Jeremy in his seventies. After a cancer scare, Penelope becomes anxious to understand her place in the world—including who her birth parents were. Her daughter suggests that she take a DNA test, which reveals, shockingly, that she is 13% African. The DNA test also connects Penelope to her birth mother—Hattie. Penelope takes the train to visit Hattie, and the two finally meet in a heartwarming moment.
Analysis
For the majority of her adult life (and in the various vignettes of Girl, Woman, Other that she appears in), Penelope holds racially insensitive opinions. For example, she reduces an Asian student to stereotypes of docility and subservience while ascribing aggression to a black cab driver she encounters. Throughout the novel, she identifies as a white woman and is a product of the Silent or Traditionalist generation. Ironically, however, when she is in her 70s, she discovers that she is actually 1/8th African from a DNA test. In the moment that the mother-daughter pair meet, Penelope's deep-set prejudices seem to melt away, and she questions why the race of her mother mattered to her at all.
