Chapter 6 Summary

The Security Police, Cardinal Bem, and Father Prisbek gather in the kitchen to eat lunch. Talk of favorite local sausages leads to talk of favorite local authors and then to a man called Lork who won a prize for literature but was condemned by the party for running away to the west and to a life of decadence. The conversation makes all of them uncomfortable and so they finish eating and leave.

Chapter 6 Analysis

This scene offers a brief glance into the minds of the men who live in fear of their own government. They pretend to be where they are by choice; condemning those who leave as decadent or disloyal, but they reveal unspoken questions and desires in their silences.