Chapter 3 Summary

Minke returns to the routine of school, but cannot get Annelies out of his mind. He wonders if Nyai has bewitched him. He is also confused about ideas of concubines and their family as low-class and immoral. All races and classes of people in the Indies judged Nyai's, so Minke is unsure that he has any right to think of them in a different light after just one encounter. He consults his friend and neighbor Jean Marais for advice. Jean Marais suggests that Minke hold off judgment until he makes two or three more visits to the house. He reminds Minke that Minke is educated and can decide for himself if a situation is right or wrong, without depending on society's decisions in the matter.

The conversation then turns to Marais' newest painting, which depicts a woman about to be killed by a...