Part 2: Chapter 3 Summary

It is 1975; Inez has left Honolulu and has met Jack Lovett in Hong Kong. She is in Kuala Lampur working with refugees. She talks to Joan Didion about the breakdown of The Alliance for Democratic Institutions, which had been founded to serve a particular ideology. There has been an ideological rift among members, which is threatening the survival of the alliance. Inez refuses to talk about anything else, particularly Jack Lovett.

Part 2: Chapter 3 Analysis

The Alliance for Democratic Institutions is never defined in the story, and its purpose remains ambiguous. What we know is that it exists to preserve a particular ideology-that is, a political party's agenda-which is just one more aspect of the current political milieu. Didion points out that institutions and ideologies are often created without regard to what is good for the country or what is ethically right...