44 pages • 1 hour read
Swimming in the Dark
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Chapter 4, Page 96-Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4, Pages 96-120 Summary
As the weeks go by, Ludwik and Janusz go swimming at the university pool. Ludwik finds it freeing but also finds that it stirs up memories. After his father leaves, Ludwik’s mother brings him to the local pool to teach him to swim. Eventually, doctors find something in her lungs, and Ludwik comes home one day from school to find her gone. He never returns to the pool, not seeing a reason to swim without her. One night, after a swim, Ludwik and Janusz walk home and Janusz tells Ludwik that his boss likes him. Ludwik says nothing, and when Janusz questions why he is not happy for him, Ludwik tells Janusz that he will never truly approve of his job or the system and criticizes both harshly. Janusz assures Ludwik that he will find a way for them to live a good life and asks for Ludwik’s trust.
Hania, a friend of Janusz’s from their summer trip, runs into them on her way to see their mutual friend Rafał. She invites Janusz to join her, but he declines. After she leaves, Janusz is tense, worried that she saw him and Ludwik arguing too closely, and he suggests that they part for the night. When Ludwik asks if this is because of Hania, Janusz tells him not to assign any meaning to it. Three days go by, and Ludwik hears nothing from Janusz. He goes to Janusz’s apartment and finds him getting ready for a night out. Janusz tells Ludwik that his boss invited him to his home for a drink and asks if Ludwik wants to swim the next day. Relieved, Ludwik prepares for his PhD interview at a nearby café. As he walks home that night, he hears jazz and looks into a building to see Janusz with Hania, clearly on a date. The revelation that Janusz is with her drains Ludwik.
A year later, Ludwik, now in New York, is unsure if Janusz knows he saw them together. Ludwik leaves work early that day, cold weather creeping in, reminding him of Warszawa. At home, he turns the TV on and finds that despite expelling journalists, there is news that tensions are escalating in Poland. He sees a picture with an Apocalypse Now poster behind a tank and sees a connection between Western media and the uprising. He thinks of the courage of whoever worked to sneak that picture out of Poland.
The morning after seeing Janusz with Hania, Ludwik wakes to find Pani Kolecka coughing up blood. He goes to the doctor’s office but despite insisting that it is an emergency, is sent to the hospital. The hospital brings up memories of waiting with Granny and hearing bad news about his mother, and he is once again disappointed when the hospital tells him they cannot give him medicine and that he must bring Pani Kolecka. Hopeless, Ludwik wanders the city and runs into Janusz, who tries to help, though Ludwik dismisses him, telling him to go back to “her.” Janusz leaves and Ludwik calls Granny to hear her voice in an attempt to calm down. Ludwik keeps walking and witnesses flyers thrown from a high window, featuring red hands gripping wheat that read, “Our Land, Our Food. OUT with the Soviets, IN with Our Rights!...Brothers and Sisters, Rise Up Tonight” (110). As sirens near, and people scatter, Ludwik shoves flyers into his bag and hops on a tram.
At home, Ludwik helps Pani Kolecka to bed and then listens to Radio Free Europe to calm himself after remembering his mother’s funeral and the lonely years after. He believes that his mother died of despair, never acting on her beliefs, and inspired, Ludwik grabs his bag and heads to Party Headquarters, where he expects the protest to be. As he nears, the police stop his tram, and Ludwik finds a building with a view of the square from the top floor. He watches the protesters fill in and drops the flyers from his bag out the window. As police storm the building, a lawyer and his assistant signal to him and hide him in a closet in their office. They lie for him until the police leave. When they let him out, he asks about the protest, now dispersed, and they tell him that it looks like a few injuries but no deaths. They all leave through the back of the building to avoid any lingering police.
Chapter 5 Summary
At work in Manhattan, Ludwik feels uneasy and calls a connection he has on break, who tells him that ZOMO, paramilitary police, killed nine miners and that tensions are even more severe. He tries calling Granny, but once again it does not go through. Thinking of the miners, Ludwik feels like a coward for the papers he dropped, running away after, and wonders now if Janusz plays a role in stoking these tensions.
The morning after dropping the flyers, Janusz shows up at the apartment with a chicken and a doctor’s appointment for Pani Kolecka the next day. He was worried about Ludwik, who never showed up to swim when they agreed to. When Ludwik questions how Janusz managed to secure the appointment, Janusz merely says that he has a connection. The doctor gives Pani Kolecka antibiotics, and as Ludwik cares for her, he cannot bring himself to turn the radio on, no longer as committed after the events of the other night. As she recovers, Pani Kolecka tells Ludwik about her late husband and warns him to hold on to what he has. Ludwik goes to Janusz’s apartment, and they have sex, though it feels as if he is paying a debt. As they relax afterward, Ludwik admits that he needs to stay calm and have faith in finding other ways to live a good life in Poland.
That Saturday, they meet at Łazienki Gardens and go to a party, though Ludwik is uneasy, seeing that Janusz is dressed the way he was the night he saw him with Hania. The party is in a nice building and hosted by one of Janusz’s summer friends, Maksio. Ludwik finds Karolina at the party and is shocked to hear that she had a fling with Maksio after the program. Janusz, Ludwik, and Karolina dance to “Heart of Glass” and other songs, enjoying the feeling of freedom and movement before taking a break. As they rest, Hania spots Janusz and pulls him back onto the dance floor. As they watch, Karolina explains to Ludwik that Hania and Maksio are siblings from a well-connected family in the Party. Seeing Maksio kiss another girl and Hania all over Janusz, she also suggests that they are both selfish.
Ludwik struggles to watch Janusz and Hania together. Karolina explains that when you’re rich, everyone loves you. Janusz and Maksio soon bring out a birthday cake for Hania, and when Janusz brings Ludwik a piece, he is very upset. Ludwik realizes that Hania is Janusz’s connection and tells Janusz that it is wrong for him to lead her on. Janusz justifies his actions, saying that the system is mismanaged and that they have to take matters into their own hands. He insists that everyone uses everyone. Ludwik mentions leaving again, but Janusz dismisses him, saying that even though Pani Kolecka is better, they’ll need something else soon. Janusz tells Ludwik that he will get to know Maksio and Hania better soon at an upcoming dinner.
Chapter 4, Page 96-Chapter 5 Analysis
Throughout Swimming in the Dark, Ludwik struggles to live freely and confidently in a repressive society. He often witnesses others facing the same struggles as he does and rages against the burden of living under a system that fails to provide for its people. When he goes out to find medicine for Pani Kolecka, he feels the desperation of so many as he cannot obtain the necessary means of life for someone he cares for. As he walks away from the doctor’s office, he sees the effect of communism on the people around him: “I stood in the cold morning, on the large Freedom Avenue, the sun far away, not warming, only blinding, throwing its wide light across the pavement onto the throngs of people hurrying to work with downcast faces” (107). All around him are people hurrying, all with faces turned to the ground, looking despondent. Their appearances not only represent the hard living that the people of Poland must face but also the uniformity that protects them. The greatest result of The Impact of Repressive Society on Personal Identity is how it creates a uniform experience and reaction to such an experience. All of these people are struggling like Ludwik and Pani Kolecka to survive and find food. Instead of voicing their discontent, with protests or collective action, they go about their days, doing their best, until struggles become so severe they do eventually rise up.
As Janusz and Ludwik grow closer, they share their histories and lives with each other. They discuss their hopes for the future as well as their burgeoning careers. This sharing, however, introduces them to the difficulties of maintaining a romantic and supportive relationship when its participants possess opposing beliefs. Janusz often talks about his job and the work that he does, of which Ludwik disapproves. Ludwik is set in his beliefs and will not compromise for convenience, making it known to Janusz that he disagrees: “‘You should know by now that you will never impress me with your work,’ I heard myself say. ‘That it will never bring us closer’” (98). Ludwik recognizes that Janusz’s career is an issue for them, as it will not impress him and only cause them to argue. The Antagonism of Cold War Politics continues to be an issue in their relationship and demonstrates how their different views drive them apart because of their larger implications. Ludwik’s opposition to the Party makes him more open to leaving Poland, seeking an alternate life in which he can shed his double life, hiding his sexuality and opinions. Janusz, on the other hand, believes in his work and communism and wants to stay and build a life within the system he believes in. Therefore, as their arguments grow more severe, so too do their outlooks for the future and their hopes for a life together.
Despite their differences, Janusz and Ludwik continue to see each other and enjoy their relationship. They often swim together, and Ludwik visits Janusz’s apartment. However, they cannot recapture the freedom and joy of their time at the lake. Much of this is the result of Janusz’s capitulation to the anti-gay attitudes of the people in power. Janusz shies away from Ludwik and ensures that their appearances together will not cause speculation among others. His concern is for his career, believing their relationship can damage his reputation within the Party. Even in relative privacy, like outside of Ludwik’s apartment, Janusz exercises caution: “You kissed me quickly, for no one to see or hear, and slipped out, your footsteps echoing in the stairwell” (125). Janusz kisses Ludwik in a way that leaves no risk of discovery. It is quick, not passionate, and even his retreat, quick and stealthy, signifies that he does not want to be seen too close to Ludwik. This approach to their relationship represents Janusz’s own struggles with The Friction of Desire and Shame. He desires Ludwik, even loves him, but is hesitant to fully engage with it in any way that is not completely secret. He does not experience the same kind of internalized shame that Ludwik feels, but the anti-gay bias of his society shapes his behavior, causing him to conceal and repress his desire to avoid facing social and professional stigma. He values his job above Ludwik and as a result, lets the shame of their engaging in a subversive relationship dictate his commitment to Ludwik.
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