Short Fiction · Chapter
XI explained
Gordon Sterrett awakens in a cheap hotel room, hungover and in despair, and realizes he has married Jewel Hudson.
What happens
Gordon Sterrett awakens in a cheap hotel room, hungover and in despair, and realizes he has married Jewel Hudson. He buys a revolver, returns to his room, and commits suicide.
Themes in this chapter
Ambition and Disillusionment
Gordon Sterrett's despair and suicide reflect the collapse of his ambitions and the disillusionment of his life.
Characters to notice
- Gordon Sterrett
Awakens in a hotel room, realizes he is married to Jewel Hudson, and commits suicide.
Key passages
“In a bedroom of a small hotel just off Sixth Avenue Gordon Sterrett awoke with a pain in the back of his head and a sick throbbing in all his veins.”
Gordon Sterrett woke up in a small hotel room near Sixth Avenue, suffering from a headache and a pounding pulse.
Describes Gordon's physical state upon waking.
“He went out half an hour later and bought a revolver at a sporting goods store. Then he took a taxi to the room where he had been living on East Twenty-seventh Street, and, leaning across the table that held his drawing materials, fired a cartridge into his head just behind the temple.”
Thirty minutes later, he purchased a revolver from a sporting goods store, took a taxi to his former residence on East 27th Street, and shot himself in the head over his drawing table.
Details Gordon's suicide.