Voyage In The Dark

“Sometimes it was as if I were back there and as if England were a dream. At other times England was the real thing and out there was the dream, but I could never fit them together.”

Anna’s inability to accept her reality, especially if harsh, leads her to escape into her fantasies or memories. Her adjustment to England from the West Indies has been difficult, as she has not realized how to wed her past with her present.

“He laughed. I laughed too, because I felt that that was what I ought to do. You can now and you can see what it’s like, and why not?”

Walter attempts to seduce Anna, who realizes after dinner that there is a bedroom next to their dining compartment and that he wants her for a rendezvous. Although she is a virgin, she has enough curiosity to want to try going on a date with him, but not expecting such a proposal, she panics.

“This is a beginning. Out of this warm room that smells of fur I’ll go to all the lovely places I’ve ever dreamt of. This is the beginning.”

With a large amount of money from a Walter, a sum meant to entice Anna into sleeping with him, she immediately uses the money to buy the lovely clothes that she’s always desired. This moment provides a high that leads her to a relationship with Walter.