Saturday

While preparing dinner for his family, Henry turns on the news once more. Despite the anxiety that the news gives him, he feels that it has become a habitual need. When the pilots turn out to be Russians, Henry does not feel any relief at the way the news story has unfolded but is disturbed at how it has influenced his mental and emotional state throughout his day.

Daisy arrives, and Henry feels emotional in greeting her, recalling the child she used to be, but acknowledging the woman that she has become—which he has reckoned with after reading her poems about her lovers. He notices that she seems a bit preoccupied but supposes that it must be someone new. They begin to discuss the march and Daisy gives Henry a speech to persuade him that the anti-war efforts matter, that the war will set off a series of disastrous invasions and create refugees while American troops “take the oil and build their military bases and run the place like a colony” (191). Daisy criticizes Henry for hating Saddam when Americans aided his rise to power and accuses him of having pro-war views. Henry argues that Saddam and his reign of terror must be dealt with eventually, and that if left unbothered he would wish death on every freedom Daisy’s generation enjoys.