Berkeley becomes the setting for an outing that changes how Steve Maryk sees his shipmate Thomas Keefer. Invited to a literary tea, the two officers enter a social world where Keefer’s public standing as a writer is on display and Maryk feels conspicuously out of his depth.

The Berkeley outing

After rain spoiled the prospect of walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, Keefer proposed going to Berkeley. He had arranged the visit with an English professor who invited them to a literary tea; Keefer also noted that the literary club was mostly women. Maryk agreed to go, even though the plan required him to listen to Keefer speak on the novel in World War II.

The literary gathering

Professor Curran led the officers into a reception room filled mainly with female students. Their arrival in uniform drew immediate attention. Curran introduced Keefer at length as a promising young American writer, citing his published stories and poems, a play held under option by the Theatre Guild, and stories sold to both literary periodicals and popular magazines. Maryk, sitting apart on a worn green couch, had not known these details: Keefer had kept his writing largely out of their shipboard conversations.

Keefer then spoke for half an hour about the novel in World War II, drawing on a range of writers that left Maryk unable to follow the discussion. The contrast between Keefer’s ease before the audience and Maryk’s bafflement made the gathering more than a social excursion. Maryk felt humiliated by his ignorance and regretted having joined the wardroom jokes about Keefer’s novel; afterward, he wondered whether he would ever again be able to speak naturally with his shipmate.

From reception to recall

The students gathered around Keefer after his talk, while Maryk was left to converse with a couple of attendees whose interest centered on what he could tell them about Keefer. Later, Keefer went to dinner with two of the women at a French restaurant overlooking the bay. Maryk separately called the ship’s office for the routine eight o’clock check. Returning to the table visibly troubled, he told Keefer that they were wanted back aboard, abruptly ending the Berkeley excursion.

Narrative significance

Berkeley exposes a difference between the officers’ shipboard identities and their standing beyond the ship. There, Keefer’s literary reputation becomes visible through Curran’s introduction and the students’ attention, while Maryk confronts the limits of his own literary knowledge. The episode deepens Maryk’s awareness of Keefer’s private life and talent, but also leaves him feeling socially and intellectually distanced from a companion he had thought he knew.