Short Fiction · Chapter
XIV explained
Inside a beanery, various characters experience personal crises and revelations.
What happens
Inside a beanery, various characters experience personal crises and revelations. Yogi Johnson recounts a traumatic Parisian encounter that led to his sexual and emotional numbness, but a squaw's sudden appearance unexpectedly cures him. Meanwhile, Scripps O'Neil's marriage dissolves as his wife Diana realizes she cannot hold him, and two Indians observe the scene impassively.
Themes in this chapter
Post-War Trauma and Alienation
Yogi Johnson's narrative of a traumatic sexual encounter in Paris and his subsequent numbness reflects the psychological scars of war.
Masculinity and Sexual Anxiety
Yogi's loss and recovery of desire, and Scripps's marital breakdown, highlight anxieties around male sexuality and identity.
The Search for Authenticity
Yogi's quest for the 'beautiful thing' and his eventual cure by the 'primitive' squaw suggest a longing for genuine experience.
Characters to notice
- Yogi Johnson
Reveals his traumatic Paris experience and subsequent cure upon seeing the squaw.
- Scripps O'Neil
Sits with his wife as their marriage ends, listening to Mandy's literary gossip.
- Diana Scripps
In misery, realizes she cannot hold her husband Scripps.
- Indians
Two Indians observe the beanery events; the little Indian claims the squaw as his wife.
- The girl
The squaw who enters the beanery naked except for moccasins, carrying a papoose, and is ejected.
Key passages
“Since then, I have never wanted a woman. How I have suffered I cannot tell. But I’ve suffered, boys, I’ve suffered. I blamed it on the war. I blamed it on France. I blamed it on the decay of morality in general. I blamed it on the younger generation. I blamed it here. I blamed it there. Now I am cured.”
Yogi Johnson declares that after a traumatic event in Paris, he lost all sexual desire and blamed it on various causes, but now feels healed.
Yogi's confession of his post-war sexual trauma and sudden recovery.
“Something had broken inside of him. Something had snapped as the squaw came into the room. He had a new feeling. A feeling he thought had been lost forever.”
The sight of the squaw triggers an emotional and physical breakthrough in Yogi, restoring a feeling he thought was permanently gone.
The squaw's entrance catalyzes Yogi's psychological restoration.
“Mrs. Scripps knew now. She couldn’t hold him. She had tried and failed. She had lost. She knew it was a losing game. There was no holding him now.”
Diana Scripps realizes she can no longer keep her husband's attention or love, and accepts the end of their marriage.
The dissolution of the Scripps marriage is depicted through Diana's despair.