39 pages • 1 hour read
Irmgard KeunThe Artificial Silk Girl
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1932A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “Late Fall and the Big City”
Doris rides the train all night and arrives in Berlin at Friedrichstrasse Station with only 90 Marks to her name. She is awestruck by the size and brilliance of the vast metropolis. When she arrives, two French politicians are giving speeches, and a crowd amasses. Doris feels swept up in the excitement but doesn’t understand what’s going on. She talks to a man in a blue suit, hoping that he will inform her about politics. They go to a café. The man is married and is clearly flirting with her. Doris sees right through him. She has some coffee and three pieces of cake. The man is not interested in discussing politics, so she tells the man she’s going to the restroom, but she really goes out the back door, leaving him waiting for her in the café.
She then makes her way to Margrete Weissbach, a friend of Therese’s, with whom she will room. Margrete is pregnant and goes into labor soon after she’s there. Her husband is unemployed and angry. Doris doesn’t feel comfortable staying with them. Margrete gives her the address of an old colleague of hers: 
