Oil! · Chapter
VIII: The War explained
Bunny struggles with his intense and manipulative relationship with Eunice Hoyt, a wealthy and sexually forward girl, while visiting his father in Paradise and witnessing Paul Watkins's disillusionment with army life.
What happens
Bunny struggles with his intense and manipulative relationship with Eunice Hoyt, a wealthy and sexually forward girl, while visiting his father in Paradise and witnessing Paul Watkins's disillusionment with army life. The chapter contrasts the war's impact on different social classes—Paul's low army pay versus Tommy Hoyt's millions and Dad's oil profits—and explores Bunny's moral conflict between his desire for Eunice and his sense of propriety, as well as his growing awareness of the hypocrisy and chaos of the world around him.
Themes in this chapter
Class Struggle and Labor
Paul's low army pay versus Tommy Hoyt's millions and Dad's oil profits highlight class disparities during wartime.
Deception and Truth
Eunice's manipulative behavior and Bunny's self-deception about his relationship reflect themes of deception.
Family and Morality
Bunny's moral struggle with his sexual desires, his father's silent understanding, and the dysfunctional Hoyt family illustrate family and moral conflicts.
Characters to notice
- Bunny Ross
Torn between his obsession with Eunice and his moral qualms; visits Paradise to see Dad and Paul, but returns early to Eunice.
- Eunice Hoyt
Manipulative and passionate daughter of Tommy Hoyt; uses sex and threats to control Bunny, and experiments with mental telepathy.
- Paul Watkins
Stationed in the army building barracks for low pay; contrasts his situation with war profiteers; a moral force Bunny turns to but cannot confess to.
- Dad Ross
Happy with new oil gushers and development; tactfully sympathetic to Bunny's distress, but avoids direct discussion.
- Ruth Watkins
Happy that Paul is not going overseas; cooks turkey for Christmas.
- Meelie Watkins
Happy because a baby is on the way.
Key passages
“Paul was not going to get overseas, it appeared; the army had put him to work at his old job—building barracks—only now, instead of ten dollars a day he was getting thirty a month 'and beans.' That was what it meant for a workingman to be patriotic!”
Paul was assigned to construction work in the army, earning far less than his civilian wage, highlighting the unfairness of patriotism for working-class men.
Illustrates class struggle and the irony of wartime sacrifice.
“There was formula, short and snappy, 'Pet or walk!'”
The rule among wealthy high school youths was that girls must comply sexually or be abandoned far from town.
Describes the coercive sexual culture of Bunny's social circle.
“The club-ladies had decided upon their duty—they would purchase only the most expensive kinds of food, so as to leave the lard and cabbage and potatoes for the poor; Mrs. Hoyt had given away all her clothing to the Salvation army, and spent a small fortune buying a complete outfit of the most costly things she could find.”
Wealthy women rationalized buying luxury goods as a patriotic duty, believing it would reserve cheap food for the poor.
Satirizes the hypocrisy of wartime charity among the elite.