Chapter 16 Summary

Boris and the narrator visit the Auberge de Jehan Cottard and see that there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done before the restaurant can open.

The narrator describes the schedule of a plongeur. Although he is well fed, he never gets enough sleep and feels as though he is not fully alive. He describes being wakened by a murder just outside his window and seeing the horrors just below him but being so tired that he just returns to bed and is asleep again within minutes.

He says, "Work in the hotel taught me the true value of sleep, just as being hungry had taught me the true value of food."

Chapter 16 Analysis

The narrator has discovered another deprivation of poverty: sleep. Of course, sleep deprivation is more tolerable than hunger, but he feels like something is missing from...