The Thorn Birds

Justine, now 17 years old, announces to Meggie that she wants to become an actress. Thanks to funding from Ralph, she will be able to move to Sydney to take classes and audition. Justine’s attitude towards her father, whom she has never met, is sardonic, and she insists that she will never marry. Upon relocating to Sydney, Justine, with a characteristic lack of emotion, decides that she must lose her virginity; she chooses to allow a 40-year-old man to do the deed. The sex is mechanical, and the act leaves Justine overwhelmed with laughter. Justine tells Dane about this sexual encounter, and after discussing sexuality and love, Dane makes an excuse to leave. Without explaining himself to Justine, he goes to the local Catholic Church, where he experiences a sense of calm: “Nowhere else did he feel so right, so much at peace with himself, so removed from pain” (546). In his prayers, he asks God to end soon the inevitable suffering of life. Eventually, Dane tells his mother that he has no plans to marry and that he will become a priest. Meggie’s first reaction is to curse God because she cannot bear to lose her son to the priesthood.