Journey to the End of the Night

Bardamu is led to his hotel room. From inside, he can watch the Americans in their bedrooms. To him, they seem like “fat, docile animals, used to being bored” (182). He explores the dazzling lights of New York and finds a warm, comfortable spot in a cinema. Bardamu learns how to eat on a budget in America by consuming hot dogs. He feels isolated and alone, wondering whether he should search for Robinson in the massive city. The commercialization and capitalist culture feel overwhelming, as though he cannot escape from “American business enterprise” (189). If he had money, he tells himself, life in America would be much easier. Increasingly desperate for money, Bardamu looks up Lola, willing to look past her “crummily ruthless” (191) behavior in the hope that she will support him. He eventually finds her living comfortably in an apartment. Lola is hostile to Bardamu, who debates whether to share his fears and anxieties with her. Before he can say anything, they are interrupted by a group of four middle-aged women who have come to visit Lola. They sit around and gossip for a few hours; Bardamu tries to charm them for his own amusement. When they finally leave, she agrees to help Bardamu. She allows him to stay in her apartment, where he is fed sandwiches by her African American servant. Bardamu is taken aback when the servant shows him a bomb, though Lola later reassures him that the bombs are just an old hobby from when he “belonged to a dangerous secret society for black emancipation” (198). Now, the bombs do not work. Lola speaks about her family, revealing to Bardamu that her mother is dying of cancer. He bluntly tells Lola not to waste her money on treatment, as “cancer of the liver is absolutely incurable” (200).

Lola calls Bardamu a “worthless monster” (201). She gives Bardamu $100 to leave her alone. He uses the money to leave New York for Detroit, where he is hired by Ford Motor Company. When Bardamu claims to be an intelligent person, he is warned that the factory has no need for “imaginative types” (203). Bardamu observes the way in which the factory turns people into robots. Bored with his work, Bardamu becomes a regular customer at a local brothel. He meets a sex worker named Molly, who takes pity on him. They have a romantic relationship, in which she spends lavishly on him while he spends all his wages in bars and the brothel. For the first time, Bardamu says, someone is “taking an interest in [him]” (207). She wants him to find a better job, but he has no faith in himself. He does not feel as though he deserves Molly’s affection and he cannot overcome his “foolish and futile anxiety” (208). Soon, he feels his familiar urge to escape from whatever circumstance he happens to find himself in. Bardamu is certain that he will run into Robinson, and he is soon proved correct. Robinson has a custodial job, obtained with “phony” (211) papers. Bardamu confesses to Robinson that he wants to return to France. He explains this to Molly, claiming that he plans to finish medical school.

Bardamu bids farewell to both Molly and Robinson before sailing back to France. He spends weeks then months hanging around the Place Clichy, back where he started. He resumes his studies and passes his exams, setting up a small medical practice in the fictional suburb of La Garenne-Rancy. The people in this poor area treat him with suspicion, while he watches the masses cram themselves into tram cars each morning. Bardamu struggles to find patients for his practice, so he finds himself performing difficult abortions or providing medical care for people who he knows will not survive. He is rarely paid for his efforts. His patients include a young boy named Bébert who lives with his aunt. Bardamu appreciates Bébert’s “infinite little smile of pure affection” (219). Bébert’s aunt asks Bardamu to write a prescription for medicine to stop Bébert from masturbating so much.

Bardamu complains that he is “too easy with everybody” (221). He needs to find patients who can pay him. Bébert’s aunt is one of many who take advantage of his goodwill. Bardamu meets the Henrouille family, a husband and wife who have scrimped and saved for decades to own their home. Monsieur Henrouille’s elderly mother lives in a small apartment behind their house and is constantly “afraid of being murdered” (227), so she rarely ventures outside. She has little contact with the outside world, while her son collects her pension. The Henrouilles want Bardamu to examine Monsieur Henrouille’s mother, hoping that his medical ruling will have her committed to a mental health facility. Bardamu examines the “discontent and filthy woman” (230) and finds her happy enough, though angry at her son’s attempts to have her sent away. The old woman insists that she is “not going to the nuthouse” (232) or the convent.

Bébert brings a message for Bardamu: A young woman is struggling after receiving her third abortion. Bardamu visits the house, where the woman is bleeding profusely. Her family is ashamed of their daughter’s sexual proclivities, crying as a pool of blood forms below the young woman’s bed. The family does not want to send her to the hospital. Knowing that the woman may die if she does not visit the hospital, Bardamu feels awkward. He moves “slowly and quietly for the door” (236) as the family begs him for his discretion. Bardamu refuses to collect his fees from such poor people. He begins selling his possessions to pay the rent while he begins “to look tubercular” (238). From his window, he watches his neighbors abuse their young daughter. After the little girl is beaten, the man and woman have passionate sex. Bardamu feels helpless, unable to do anything.