Chapter 15

It is time again for Singer to go and visit Antonapoulos. It is a long journey and he waits anxiously during each hour of the train ride. When he is first leaving, his thoughts are one the four people who have been in his life. He wonders what the quarrel could be about between Doctor Copeland and Jake Blount. Often when he is with the men, they each in turn go into long tirades against the other. Singer doesnÂ’t understand what they are talking about, but agrees with each in turn. He wonders also about the strangers who follow him around. A Turkish man speaks to him animatedly in Turkish, a mill foreman and an old black woman follow him around as well as a business man and a very poor street child. As he gets further along on his journey, however, his thoughts go to Antonapolous whom he has not seen in six months. He always thinks of Antonapoulos with "awe and self-abasement, sometimes with pride--always with love unchecked by criticism, freed of will." It is the eighteenth of July. He arrives in the town and checks into a nice hotel and has a luxurious breakfast. Then he gathers his presents and goes out the asylum. When he arrives, he cannot find his friend and after a frustrated search, is told that Antonapoulos has died.

He returns to the hotel and puts the packages in his room. He goes down to the lobby and tries a slot machine. His coin gets stuck and he makes a big scene about the loss of the coin. He packs his things and steals towns, soap, a pen, some ink, a roll of toilet paper, and a Bible from the hotel. He has to wait a few hours before the train leaves, so he wanders the streets. As he passes a bar, he sees three mutes sitting inside signing to each other. He goes in and tries his own hands awkwardly. They include him in their group enthusiastically, but his listless disinterest confuses them and finally they leave and donÂ’t ask him to join them. Finally, his train comes and he almost misses it. He falls asleep on the train and has to be shaken away by the train conductor when he arrives back in his town. He leaves all his packages and luggage on the train station floor and goes to his place of work to get something. Then he goes up to his room and shoots himself in the chest.

The shocking event of SingerÂ’s suicide turns the tide of the novel. All that follows will be repercussions from this event. Singer has been a sort of unifying figure in the town, the one everyone saw themselves in and who affirmed and validated their existence. Singer kills himself because he lost the one who affirmed his existence for him, Antonapoulos.

Table of Contents | Printable Version