In Chap­ter Four, the nar­ra­tive fol­lows a sum­mer filled with sig­nif­i­cant events impact­ing the lives of the pro­tag­o­nist and expa­tri­ates. The chap­ter opens with a moment on bikes, where the pro­tag­o­nist’s com­pan­ion reflects on the supe­ri­or­i­ty of a fast motor­bike, spark­ing a philo­soph­i­cal dis­cus­sion that tran­si­tions to their mun­dane real­i­ty. The pro­tag­o­nist then faces an unset­tling email issue with a col­league, Quentin, and receives a sur­pris­ing call from Vice Sec­re­tary Adela, indi­cat­ing scruti­ny over com­mu­ni­ca­tion and express­ing con­cern over their project.

Lat­er, there’s a shift in the sta­tus of expa­tri­ates as trav­el restric­tions are con­di­tion­al­ly lift­ed. This change is based on their abil­i­ty to pass an exam demon­strat­ing famil­iar­i­ty with con­tem­po­rary life. The pro­tag­o­nist con­tem­plates the impli­ca­tions of this shift, espe­cial­ly regard­ing Gra­ham’s dis­dain for mod­ern soci­ety, fear­ing it might affect their accep­tance with­in the larg­er world. Graham’s sense of alien­ation and resis­tance is jux­ta­posed with the desire for assim­i­la­tion, empha­siz­ing the broad­er theme of dis­place­ment.

As the chap­ter pro­gress­es, Gra­ham empha­sizes his strug­gle with moder­ni­ty, while the pro­tag­o­nist wit­ness­es his growth through test prepa­ra­tion and engage­ment with the Min­istry. Amidst per­son­al tur­moil, the chap­ter fea­tures social gath­er­ings orga­nized by Gra­ham aimed at boost­ing morale among expa­tri­ates, reveal­ing cul­tur­al clash­es and the bur­dens of expec­ta­tions.

A notable scene occurs dur­ing a lec­ture soirée in which the Min­istry presents dry, unin­spired con­tent, in stark con­trast to the live­ly pre­sen­ta­tions by the expa­tri­ates. This con­trast ignites a sense of cama­raderie among the expa­tri­ates and high­lights their vibran­cy com­pared to the Min­istry’s stal­e­ness, accen­tu­at­ing the jux­ta­po­si­tion of past and present.

The chap­ter clos­es with a din­ner gath­er­ing that high­lights cama­raderie among Gra­ham, Arthur, and Mar­garet, show­cas­ing their friend­ships and the evolv­ing dynam­ics amidst class and cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences. Con­ver­sa­tions drift from the banal to the pro­found, embed­ding humor and ten­sion with­in per­son­al inter­ac­tions, encap­su­lat­ing the fragili­ty of their exis­tence against the back­drop of a suf­fo­cat­ing gov­ern­ment struc­ture, leav­ing the read­er pon­der­ing their fates.