VII: Rollercoaster explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Urban Alienation

  Stan's disorientation in the city—the 'furnace of beaded lettercut light' and the indifferent crowd—underscores the isolating, overwhelming nature of urban life.

• Identity and Self-Destruction

  Stan's drunken rampage, hallucinations, and arson reflect his fractured identity and self-destructive spiral, contrasting with Pearline's hopeful vision of his ambition.

• Illusion and Performance

  The dance hall's festive facade, Stan's mock speech, and Pearline's belief in Stan's ambition all highlight the performative and illusory nature of social roles.

Characters to notice

• Stan Emery

  Drunk, disoriented, attends a dance, gets into a fight, wakes on a ferry, and sets his apartment on fire.

• Gus McNiel

  Arrives at the dance to cheers; a husky beetfaced man with a limp, leaning on a stick.

• Pearline Anderson

  Stan's new wife; shops for groceries, speaks of Stan's ambition, and discovers their apartment on fire.

Key passages

• “The leaden twilight weighs on the dry limbs of an old man walking towards Broadway. Round the Nedick’s stand at the corner something clicks in his eyes. Broken doll in the ranks of varnished articulated dolls he plods up with drooping head into the seethe and throb into the furnace of beaded lettercut light.”

  An old man trudges toward Broadway in the heavy dusk; at a hot-dog stand, a sudden realization strikes him. He feels like a broken doll among polished, mechanical people as he shuffles into the city's chaotic, glowing energy.

  Opens the chapter with a vivid image of urban alienation and the loss of individuality.

• “Stan finds himself singing at his own face in a mirror. One of his eyebrows is joining his hair, the other’s an eyelash.”

  Stan drunkenly sings to his reflection, his face distorted and blurred.

  Highlights Stan's disoriented, intoxicated state and fractured self-perception.

• “He’s standing on a chair making a speech, banging his fist into his hand. “Friends Roooomans and countrymen, lend me five bucks. … We come to muzzle Caesar not to shaaaave him. … According to the Constitution of the City of New York, County of New York, State of New York and duly attested and subscribed before a district attorney according to the provisions of the act of July 13th 1888. … To hell with the Pope.””

  Stan climbs on a chair and delivers a drunken, nonsensical speech mixing Shakespeare, legal jargon, and anti-Catholic sentiment.

  Illustrates Stan's performative drunkenness and his mockery of civic and religious authority.

• “Steel glass, tile, concrete will be the materials of the skyscrapers. Crammed on the narrow island the millionwindowed buildings will jut, glittering pyramid on pyramid, white cloudsheads piled above a thunderstorm … Kerist I wish I was a skyscraper.”

  Stan envisions a future of towering skyscrapers made of modern materials, and in his delirium, he wishes he could become one.

  Reflects Stan's architectural ambition and his desire for transcendence amid personal chaos.

• “The lock spun round in a circle to keep out the key. Dexterously Stan bided his time and caught it. He shot headlong through the open door and down the long hall shouting Pearline into the livingroom. It smelled funny, Pearline’s smell, to hell with it. He picked up a chair; the chair wanted to fly, it swung round his head and crashed into the window, the glass shivered and tinkled.”

  Stan fumbles with the lock, bursts into his apartment, and in a rage, smashes a chair through a window.

  Shows Stan's violent, destructive turn as he trashes the apartment, leading to the fire.

• “He lay on his back on the floor of the revolving kitchen and laughed and laughed. The only man who survived the flood rode a great lady on a white horse. Up in flames, up, up. Kerosene whispered a greasyfaced can in the corner of the kitchen. Pour on water. He stood swaying on the crackling upside down chairs on the upside down table. The kerosene licked him with a white cold tongue. He pitched, grabbed the gasjet, the gasjet gave way, he lay in a puddle on his back striking matches, wet wouldn’t light. A match spluttered, lit; he held the flame carefully between his hands.”

  Stan lies laughing on the kitchen floor, then sets the room ablaze with kerosene and a match, deliberately starting a fire.

  Climax of Stan's self-destruction; he sets the apartment on fire in a drunken, nihilistic act.