# XXXIX explained — Look Homeward, Angel

> Chapter companion for Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe.

## What happens

Eugene graduates from university, with Gant and Eliza attending. The family's disintegration accelerates as Gant declines, Eliza becomes obsessed with real estate, and sibling conflicts over inheritance erupt. Eugene feels both love and alienation from his family, sensing the end of an era.

## Themes in this chapter

### The American Dream and Materialism

Eliza's obsessive real estate trading and the family's greed over inheritance highlight the corrosive pursuit of wealth.

### Family Conflict and Dysfunction

Violent sibling fights over money, Gant's decline, and Helen's hysteria show the family's disintegration.

### Loss, Innocence, and the Passage of Time

Eugene's graduation marks the end of youth and the beginning of a harsh adult reality, with the family's 'great wild pattern' broken.

## Character check-ins

### Eugene Gant

Graduates from university, reads his Class Poem, feels a mix of pride and alienation from his family's values.

### Eliza Gant

Obsessed with real estate, sells Gant's properties, becomes niggardly, and engages in secretive trading.

### Oliver Gant

In declining health, a spectre in waxen yellow, relapses into whining dotage after graduation.

### Helen Gant

Cares for Gant, moves between houses, suffers from hysteria and brooding morbidity, no children.

### Luke Gant

Appointed executor of Gant's will, engages in bitter conflict with Steve over inheritance.

### Steve Gant

Returns from Indiana, becomes insane from whiskey and veronal, confronts Eugene and Luke over money.

## Key lines

> It was the end, the end. It was the beginning of the voyage, the quest of new lands.

Eugene feels that his graduation is both an ending and the start of a new journey.

_Reflects Eugene's ambivalence about leaving home and family._

> The great wild pattern of the family had been broken forever.

The family's chaotic but familiar structure has been destroyed by Ben's death.

_Highlights the irreversible change in family dynamics._

> She was obsessed. She talked real estate unendingly.

Eliza's mind is consumed by property dealings.

_Shows Eliza's monomania and its impact on the family._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/look_homeward_angel_se/chapters/part-iii-xxxix
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/look_homeward_angel_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/look_homeward_angel_se/chapters