Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

Kay enters Vassar in 1934 and muddles through her freshman year, learning to survive by bumping into reality. She finds her political views departing from her parents' opposition to the New Deal. She identifies with the protagonist in Thomas Mann's Tonio Krtzger, who longs to like everyone else. Kay innocently and arrogantly battles with a hated history teacher about a paper on the position of women in the Middle Ages and avoids academic probation only when Mother raises Cain with Vassar's administration. Kay is intimidated by Mother's having read and assimilated all the books she is discovering.

Kay and new friend Connie Dimock become seriously interested in politics, and she accepts appointment as treasurer of the college political club in hopes of some fun baiting the more leftwing bears. Kay accepts a summer position on the Mount Vernon Argus and enjoys the...