50 pages • 1 hour read
Julia FoxDown the Drain
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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BetaChapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Mastermind”
Julia responds to a Craigslist ad for a dominatrix position at the Dungeon. She’s running out of money, can no longer use Tom’s credit card, and cannot violate her probation. A man named Ronald responds to her application, arranges a meeting with her, and hires her immediately. She reports to the Dungeon’s building in Chelsea the next day, checking in with the front desk manager, Greta. Julia uses the dominatrix name Valentina and receives her first job with a client named Stewart.
Julia spends two hours with Stewart. She realizes that he’s gay toward the end of the session and discovers how to satisfy him. She learns the job is about reading between the lines. She starts accepting as many clients as possible. She adapts easily to the roles. One day, she has a submissive session with a client Joe and asks Greta for more submissive jobs after that. The other clients aren’t as nice as Joe. Over time, she grows increasingly popular, and the other girls become jealous. One day, she discovers that her coworker, Mistress Violet, used her Jimmy Choo pumps as an ashtray and urinated in her leotard. She plots her revenge, determined to prove herself to her coworkers. She funnels urine into Mistress Violet’s locker as payback. The other girls respect her after this. Meanwhile, she prays every day that she’ll meet a “sugar daddy” who will enable her to quit working at the Dungeon.
Julia uses her savings to rent a studio in the Meatpacking District with Liana. She continues attending school and partying on weekends. One morning, her probation officer appears at her apartment at the end of a party where substances are present. The probation officer gets called away and doesn’t report Julia.
Tom calls Julia to tell her that Mia’s moving back to New York and needs somewhere to stay. Julia agrees to let her move in. Beforehand, Julia gathers the money she has stashed around the apartment and gives it to Tom to put in his safe. She soon discovers he’s spent almost all her money.
Julia grows disillusioned with her life and work at the Dungeon. Stressed one night, she calls a drug dealer to get acid. The dealer, Luke, comes over in the middle of a blizzard. She invites him in. They talk all night and kiss. Luke finally leaves for his methadone program. Desperate to see him again afterward, she contacts Romeo about buying heroin to lure Luke to her apartment. He comes over and they use drugs together. Julia wakes up in the hallway with neighbors and paramedics standing over her. Luke dragged her outside when he saw her overdosing. He stole the rest of the heroin and her prized bracelet from her grandmother. Julia remembers the black pit she saw when she overdosed and called Liana for help. Liana contacts Julia’s mom, but she doesn’t do anything.
Julia has dinner with Tom, Marissa, and Mia one night. Julia remembers how much she loved Marissa and wanted her to be her mom. She thinks she looks old and tired now. Meanwhile, Tom gets drunk and embarrasses himself. Mia tells Marissa she’s moving out shortly after that.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Billion-Dollar Baby”
Julia goes into the Dungeon, planning to quit. Greta tells her she has an outcall at The Union Club with a wealthy client named Rohan. She and Rohan enjoy themselves, and he takes her back to his apartment. Julia’s personality and looks delight him. They start seeing each other regularly. Rohan treats her well, buying expensive things and giving her thousands of dollars. Liana is thrilled on her behalf.
Shortly after, Liana decides to get sober after a “particularly tumultuous drug-fueled night” (195). She tries convincing Julia to get sober, too, but Julia refuses.
Julia overdoses on heroin again on her 20th birthday. Liana is beside herself. Julia starts attending AA and finds the meetings helpful. Rohan is surprised and disappointed when she informs him that she’s no longer drinking. She doesn’t tell him about the other substances but secretly fears that he won’t like the sober version of her. However, he soon falls in love with her.
Over time, Rohan’s behavior changes. He becomes demanding, possessive, and upset when Julia doesn’t show affection. Meanwhile, he continues supporting her and paying for her and Liana’s new, expensive apartment. Then he offers to help her and Liana start their fashion line. Julia agrees, planning to get the line started before breaking up with Rohan.
Julia hosts a party one night and doesn’t tell Rohan. She meets Shane and falls for him instantly. After the two have sex, Shane asks her about Rohan. She explains the situation, and he agrees not to get in the way. Julia lies, telling Rohan she’s sick to spend the week with Shane. In the weeks following, Rohan becomes suspicious of Julia, and Shane gets upset that she hasn’t ended things with Rohan.
One weekend, Julia and Shane sneak up to Rohan’s house in the Hamptons. Rohan shows up unexpectedly. Julia lies and tells him Shane is her hairdresser. She stops seeing Shane for the next few weeks so Rohan won’t suspect she is cheating. However, Rohan notices odd charges on his accounts and stops talking to Julia. She panics because she and Liana need his money. Meanwhile, she tries to distance herself from Shane. One day, Rohan arranges a meeting with Julia and her mom, who he has befriended. They confront Julia about Shane. She makes a scene in the restaurant and storms out.
Julia and Liana worry that Rohan will stop supporting their business, but Julia can’t contact him. Shane shows up, and Julia lets him in. In the following days, Julia discovers Rohan is having her and Shane followed. Meanwhile, Shane grows more distant, partying constantly. Julia gives him money so he can open his nightclub, but she starts to feel jealous that he’s spending time around actors, models, and celebrities when the club takes off. She continues seeing him anyway.
Julia’s friends confront her about her behavior, worried she’s unwell. She sees a psychiatrist and gets a prescription for a new mood stabilizer. Over the next weeks, she stops seeing Shane, starts feeling better, spends time with friends, and pursues her photography and craft hobbies. Then one day, she discovers that Rohan is seeing someone new. She goes to his house and confronts him, demanding that he continue financing her apartment, car, school, and business and paying her and Liana’s allowances and salaries. Rohan agrees.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Heartburn”
Julia and Shane start seeing each other again. On Valentine’s Day, Julia discovers she’s pregnant. She goes to the club to tell Shane the news, but he gets upset and punches her in the face. Furious, she yells at him. That night, she waits for him to call and apologize. Instead, she receives a gift and card from Rohan.
Julia blocks Shane’s number, but her friends keep her updated on his happenings and relationships. Shortly after, Julia crashes the car Rohan gave her.
Julia meets an A-list actor at Shane’s club one night. They immediately hit it off, and Julia is happy when Shane catches them kissing. Outside later, Shane verbally attacks her for embarrassing him.
Julia goes back to the club with her friends a few weeks later. She confronts Shane to attempt to make peace. However, Shane physically attacks her. The bouncer forces her out, telling her to call the police instead of making a scene.
The next night, she returns to the club, calls the police, and reports Shane for assault. The police officers apprehend him, and the managers promise to fire him. However, rumors spread about Julia, and everyone takes Shane’s side. Then one day, someone makes an Instagram account impersonating Julia as Valentina. The page has photos of Julia from her time at the Dungeon. Her friends encourage her to write a story about her dominatrix experience for the magazine i-D.
Julia learns that Shane still frequents the club, although he was allegedly kicked out. She goes one night, but the manager throws her out.
After Julia’s i-D article, she makes an art book about her experience, including narrative passages and artifacts from her past. Her friend prints it, and the book does well. Dazed magazine does a feature on it, too. Shortly after, Playboy asks Julia to pose for them. Julia agrees and contacts her friend Harmony about driving cross-country for an adventure with her.
Chapters 6-8 Analysis
Chapters 6-8 develop the memoir’s explorations of personal and social challenges, Resilience and Recovery From Addiction, and Self-Discovery and Empowerment. Julia begins to make significant life changes throughout these sequences of the memoir. In particular, her probation conditions compel Julia “to get a job” to support herself (163). Her work as a dominatrix at the Dungeon affords her a sense of independence and autonomy for the first time in her adult life. She no longer must shoplift, rob other women at clubs, or steal her dad’s credit card numbers to afford her living expenses. The job empowers Julia because it allows her to secure her apartment, help her friend Liana, and pay for the lifestyle that she wants. At the same time, the job develops Julia’s budding sense of self. The more clients she secures, the more her popularity at the Dungeon grows, and in turn, the more confident Julia feels. She becomes “a jack of all trades, adapting quickly” to each client and his demands and “revel[ing] in the fact that [she] can be anyone at any given moment” (172). Julia feels she is in control for the first time in her life.
The dominatrix job symbolizes the power and self-assurance that Julia has craved since childhood. Furthermore, “the nature of the job” requires Julia to use her “strong intuition and excellent improvisation skills” to both “keep the job interesting and the money rolling in” (172). In these ways, Julia’s time at the Dungeon marks a turning point in Julia’s journey. The job reinforces innate facets of her character, propelling her toward a more independent lifestyle. However, the job’s drawbacks simultaneously compromise Julia’s freedom and leave her wanting more, highlighting the ongoing Impact of Personal and Social Challenges. The Dungeon job therefore has dichotomous implications for Julia’s future and ultimately complicates how she sees herself in the present and envisions her future.
The less control Julia feels over her life and personhood, the more reliant she becomes on alcohol and drugs. Julia finally secures her exit from the Dungeon when she and Rohan, the proverbial “sugar daddy” of her prayers, become involved (179). However, Julia remains unhappy, lonely, and disillusioned, even after Rohan begins to finance her apartment, car, school, friends, and new business. In turn, Julia’s dissatisfaction redoubles her reliance on substances. She overdoses three times in quick succession, experiences that ultimately fail to awaken her to the gravity of her addiction. Her repetitive behaviors throughout these chapters reflect the cyclical nature of addiction itself. At times, Julia expresses remorse or fear regarding her substance use. Most often, however, Julia tells herself that she’s different from her friends and other people with addiction because she “can stop whenever [she] want[s]” (195).
This delusion keeps Julia entrapped within her addiction for months and years to come and thus impedes her from seeking help and finding healing. At the same time, when Julia does seek help, her bouts of recovery are abbreviated and often interrupted by other emotional turmoil, including her complex relationship with Rohan and her addictive relationship with Shane. In the same way that Julia’s drug dependency and abusive romantic relationships gave her escapes from her tumultuous home life, her drug use and partying habits give her illusive escapes from chaotic interpersonal dynamics. This continues to highlight the Impact of Personal and Social Challenges.
Julia’s encounters with loss, disappointment, pain, and abuse inspire her to take control of her life. When she’s at the Dungeon, for example, and Mistress Violet sabotages her, Julia decides that this job cannot be her entire life and that she “won’t get trapped in this lifestyle, will ‘make something of [her]self,’ and will prove herself to everyone around her” (177). When things start to sour with Rohan, she realizes that she needs to make a change because being with him is causing her “to forget who [she is]” (212). When Shane physically attacks her at the club and his followers slander her online, Julia reports Shane for assault and decides to own her history by “tak[ing] control of the narrative” (229). These decisions convey Julia’s desire to exercise her agency and to assert her power over her story and life, further developing her sense of Self-Discovery and Empowerment. Her efforts sometimes go awry, and she is neither believed nor supported. However, her i-D article, Dazed feature, and art book publication are all evidence of her resilience and Self-Discovery and Empowerment in the face of her ongoing personal and social challenges.
