Fefu and Her Friends: Part 2: In the Study Summary & Analysis

Sitting in the study, Christina reads a French textbook and practices her French while Cindy flips through a magazine and tells bad jokes (“A lady in Africa divorced her husband because he was a cheetah,” she says). The two women start talking about Fefu, since Cindy wants to know what Christina thinks of her. Speaking honestly, Christina says that Fefu confuses her. She isn’t sure whether or not Fefu is authentic. It’s clear that she likes to be adventurous, but Christina can’t tell if this is just an act. At the same time, Christina recognizes that she herself is somewhat conventional and conformist, so encountering an unconventional person like Fefu is inherently fraught, since she feels as if people like Fefu challenge her conformist worldview, though she also recognizes that such people are probably good for society.

Cindy narrates a dream she had. She was at a dance and saw a doctor she’d recently visited. The doctor approached her and said he had spoken to her husband and that everything was fine, but she didn’t understand why he’d felt the need to talk to her husband. Then two policemen tried to force a singing teacher to fix somebody’s voice, but he couldn’t do it, so one of the policemen grabbed him and threw him out. The policeman then took hold of Cindy from behind and felt her nipples before pushing her away, at which point the doctor started swearing at her, but she said, “Stop and listen to me.” It worked, but what she really wanted to tell him was to respect her.

In Cindy’s dream, a man told her to run or else risk getting killed by a young man in attendance. She jumped into a taxi and sped away, but the young man who wanted to kill her somehow caught up. He was just about to open the door when she woke up.