Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Voyage in the Dark, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Homesickness, Memory, and Belonging
Sexism, Love, and Power
Race and Identity
Money and Happiness
Summary
Analysis
Anna feels ill the next morning, so she stays in bed all day. She knows she should figure out a way to move out of Ethel’s flat, but all she can do is lie there, so she distracts herself by thinking about her home in the West Indies. She tries hard to reconstruct the details of her hometown, remembering how the roads wound and what it was like to ride along them on a horse. At one point, Ethel comes in and says that Carl and Joe have come to see her. Carl comes in for a manicure, but he can immediately tell that Anna isn’t very good at it—he doesn’t mind, though, because he came to see her. He apologizes for leaving early the other night at dinner, and then he kisses her.
Carl’s renewed attention in Anna is somewhat confusing. And yet, his seemingly random visit makes sense in the context of their relationship: Carl is looking for pleasure and female companionship, not love or an enduring relationship. He therefore seeks Anna out when he feels like it, though he has already demonstrated that he has no problem with suddenly abandoning her if that’s what he wants to do. Once again, then, a man tries to endear himself to Anna for purely selfish reasons.
Themes
When Carl touches her, Anna can tell he thinks she’ll have sex with him—and, she realizes, she will. But then he tells her to get dressed and promises to take her to dinner without Joe. They spend the evening together and then return to Ethel’s flat. Ethel herself isn’t there, but she has left out two bottles of champagne for them. Anna and Carl have sex, and then Anna falls asleep. She doesn’t notice when he leaves.
Carl wants one thing and one thing only: sex. Anna knows this, but she doesn’t resent it. Instead, she goes along with his desire, though it’s unclear whether or not she herself genuinely wants to have sex.
Themes
