Chapters 16–18 Summary and Analysis
Chapter 16: The Killing
Bunny finds his friends in constant trouble: Rachel’s communist brothers have been arrested, Harry Seager’s business college and Dan Irving’s labor college are struggling. He learns that the oil board has tricked union men into surrendering by promising to hire them back without discrimination.
Wracked with guilt, Bunny wonders whether he should simply try to be more like his father or Vernon, and he devotes himself to his studies. There, he discovers that university sports are a sham—because athletes are scouted and recruited, every professor is more or less obligated to let them pass. Moreover, the salaries of coaches are several times higher than those of professors.
Bunny visits the union lawyer to learn more about the political prisoners’ charges. Bunny talks to Annabelle Ames and tells her about the plight of the prisoners, and she reacts with great emotion. This angers Verne, who asks Ross to keep Bunny under control. Ross confronts Bunny, but Bunny stands his ground and argues that if he can’t get any money for the legal defense, he will sell the car his father had given him. Ross brings up the possibility of a compromise, but Bunny, knowing that Paul wouldn’t accept it, threatens to expose Vernon’s machinations, including the planted spies in Paradise. At one point, Ross offhandedly discloses some of their business troubles, including difficulties in gaining control of naval reserve lands and a rival oil company’s drilling on the Sunnyside tract under an old lease.
Bunny receives a phone call from Bertie to come to the hospital alone. When Bunny arrives, Bertie reveals that she has just had an abortion. Bertie explains that she had thought—erroneously—that the pregnancy would convince her ex-boyfriend to commit to her. Then, asked why she is not satisfied with her father’s money, she replies that she wants her own life, not just an allowance. She reveals her plans to move to Paris with her boyfriend, Eldon Burdick.
Meanwhile, the navy expels the present drilling company from the naval reserve. This unusual move attracts a lot of public attention. Dan Irving calls Bunny to discuss his suspicion that this incident is related to Vernon Roscoe, as well as his hunch that Senator Crisby’s nomination was bought.
During the court trial of the political prisoners, Ben Skutt is called as a witness to attest to conspiracies in the workers’ party. Through some digging, Bunny is able to discover some cons that Ben had previously run. By bringing these to light, Bunny is able to reduce Ben’s reliability as a witness.
Chapter 17: The Exposure
Bunny visits the political prisoners. The conditions in the jail and the decrepit state of the prisoners leave an impression on Bunny. Bunny goes to his father and threatens to speak at the trial. He also reasons that perhaps he cannot make these threats while living on his father’s money, so he threatens to separate from his father and to turn Vernon’s mistress, Annabelle, against him. The gambit works, and the prisoners are set free.
Bertie and Eldon marry, and Aunt Emma asks Bunny whether he and Vee have a similar future. Bunny ponders the question but feels that Vee does not satisfy him intellectually. In that regard, he much prefers to talk to Paul. Meanwhile, the radio is invented, and after a social disaster relating to obscenities, Eli Watkins takes redemption upon himself and establishes a radio station to be broadcast widely.
Bunny brings Rachel to meet Paul and Ruth in the hopes of having them help map out the solution to the internal conflict of the left. They disagree...
(This entire section contains 1399 words.)
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at every point, as Paul believes that it is better to try to change the structure of society and that the use of violence, when necessary, would be justified.
A few days later, Rachel decides that she will continue to work with her socialist group, even though it may prevent her from having a career. Bunny talks to his father about his resolve to try to live the life of an independent worker. After that, his father falls seriously ill and schemes to hold down Bunny by tempting him with a sizable allowance. Bunny agrees to this and plans to fund Rachel’s career as a secretary for the young socialists.
Chapter 18: The Flight
To help his father relax, Bunny takes him on little strolls, in which they regularly hear the sermons of Eli Watkins. There are rumors that the prophet is fond of beautiful women. One day, while looking for a good spot at the beach, Ross and Bunny spot Eli and a young woman leaving a hotel.
After a month, a new congress is assembled, and they call for an investigation of the oil leases. Vernon tries to stop it with his financial influence—but to no avail. The investigation uncovers the sudden appearance of a large money deposit into the fixed senator’s bank account.
After attending Annabelle’s movie premiere, Bunny finds his aunt in a panic. She says there are men looking to arrest his father. Bunny receives a message to get in a car, make sure he is not being followed, and then pick his father up at a specified location. Once this is done, his father tells them they are going to Canada. Vernon, on the other hand, has fled to Europe.
Vernon asks Ross to go to London. Bunny insists on accompanying him, much to his father’s relief. In Montreal, Bunny reads in a newspaper that Paul has been arrested again. Bunny observes that though Vernon is currently being investigated in the senate, he retains his power abroad where it concerns oil.
Bunny visits some labor activists in England with whom he has been corresponding. This visit makes the news, which elicits a scolding letter from Bertie, who says that Bunny might be jeopardizing Eldon’s career.
Bunny takes his father to Paris. There, Bertie begs Bunny not to seek out other socialists. However, Bunny says he is already planning to write an article about it. Some friends come to visit, such as Annabelle Ames, who arranges for some screenings of Vee’s new picture in Europe so that she may spend some time with Bunny.
One day, his father has an encounter with spiritualism. A medium named Alyse Olivier invites him to a seance and utters things from his past and private life. Bunny indulges his father’s newfound religion, but Bertie is irritated that her father had fallen prey to what she views as a swindle.
Back in America, Eli Watkins goes missing, having been last seen swimming by the beach. A large-scale operation is carried out to recover his theoretically drowned body, with a number of men losing their lives in the process. Over a month later, some fishermen pick up Eli—still alive—from the sea. Eli claims that he was carried out to sea and that angels sent by the Lord had held him up in the water. The tabernacle celebrates it as nothing less than a miracle.
Analysis
In chapter sixteen, Bunny reaches a tipping point. At the beginning, he is close to succumbing and intentionally tries to develop a sense of complacency. However, uncovering the corruption in sports at his university induces the opposite effect, as it makes him realize that he cannot even get a real or honest education, and the place where he is supposed to get it is merely an appendage to another corrupt institution.
Thereafter, he becomes more confident and works to free his friends even if it means undermining Vernon Roscoe—and, by extension, his father. Although he has tipped in one direction, however, he still does not turn over completely. Bunny still suffers from an aversion to conflict and a divided heart, which at one point he tries to cure by putting Ruth and Paul together in a room. Bunny understands the reasons for Paul’s stances, but he cannot devote himself to Paul’s vision because he simply finds the prospect of violent conflict intolerable. When he tells his father he wants to find his own way in the world, his father holds him back and bribes him, and Bunny yields. Mirroring the story of Siddhartha that Bunny brings up, he is still prevented from achieving his own enlightenment.
