It is revealed to the reader that, unlike the other people in the bardo, Reverend Thomas actually knows that he is dead. While Vollman and Bevins are away from the mausoleum, Willie converses with the Reverend Everly Thomas, another occupant of the bardo. Lincoln returns to the mausoleum because he realizes he forgot to lock it. Vollman and Bevins follow Lincoln, merge with him, and try to get him to return to Willie’s mausoleum so that Willie can either be saved by his father or be convinced to pass on to the next stage of the afterlife. However, Willie is soon grabbed by a malevolent tendril, as had happened to Elise Traynor when the bardo began to consume her. The people of the bardo tell Willie their stories so that he may help them once he has returned to his life. This gives Willie and the other people in the bardo hope that Willie may be able to return to his former state with the help of his father.
Lincoln hugs the body and speaks to it before leaving. However, before Willie decides to pass on, his father arrives in the cemetery and looks at Willie’s body in the mausoleum where it lies. They knew a young person in the bardo-a young woman named Elise Traynor-who stayed in the bardo for too long and became trapped there forever. However, Vollman and Bevins encourage Willie to pass on to the next stage of the afterlife, as they know that the bardo is a dangerous place for young people. They also believe that they are not dead but merely sick. In the bardo, everyone that Willie meets is a person has died and been buried in the same cemetery as Willie, and even though they are in the bardo, they are able to view the cemetery around them. Willie died not long after this night, as it turned out that he was sick with typhoid fever. In the White House, they entertained many important diplomats, politicians, and military officers while Willie lay sick in his bed. Thus, Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln proceeded with the state dinner they had planned.
The doctor believed that Willie was merely sick with a cold and would soon recover. Through the use of real and invented historical sources, the novel relates the story of Willie’s death. Willie Lincoln materializes in the bardo and is greeted by Hans Vollman-a deceased printer who was killed at the age of 46 by a falling support beam-and Roger Bevins III-a young man who took his life after being rebuffed by a young man named Gilbert with whom Bevins was in love. The novel opens in the bardo, which is an intermediary state between life and the afterlife. In 1862, Willie Lincoln died of typhoid fever at the age of 11. Lincoln in the Bardo is a novel based on the true story of the death of William Wallace “Willie” Lincoln, a son of United States President Abraham Lincoln. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Saunders, George.
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