# Chapter XVIII explained — The Turmoil

> Chapter companion for The Turmoil by Booth Tarkington.

## What happens

Sheridan finds and reads Bibbs's philosophical scribblings comparing the lives of wealthy businessmen to roosters, dismisses them as foolish, and later discovers Roscoe drunk in his office. He helps Roscoe home and hears Bibbs singing cheerfully, which deepens his sense of loss and frustration.

## Themes in this chapter

### Class and Social Mobility

Bibbs's manuscript contrasts the lives of wealthy businessmen (Midas) with a rooster, questioning the value of accumulation and class status.

### Family and Legacy

Sheridan grieves for Jim and worries about the future of his business empire, now dependent on Roscoe, who is revealed to be drinking heavily.

## Character check-ins

### James Sheridan

Finds Bibbs's manuscript, reads it, dismisses it as foolish, then discovers Roscoe drunk and helps him home.

### Bibbs Sheridan

His scribbled notes are found and read by his father; later heard singing cheerfully.

### Roscoe Sheridan

Found drunk in his office by his father, who helps him home.

## Key lines

> What does the rooster lack? He has food and shelter; he is warm in winter; his wives raise not one fine family for him, but dozens. He has a clear sky over him; he breathes sweet air; he walks in his April orchard under a roof of flowers. He must die, violently perhaps, but quickly. Is Midas's cancer a better way?

Bibbs argues that a rooster enjoys all the essentials of life—food, shelter, family, and nature—and questions whether a wealthy man's painful death is any better.

_Bibbs's philosophical comparison between the life of a rooster and that of a wealthy businessman, critiquing materialism._

> Midas has had the excitement of accumulating what he has grubbed, and that has been his life and his love and his god. He cannot take that god with him when he dies.

The only thing a wealthy man has that a rooster lacks is the thrill of accumulation, but it is a false god that cannot be taken beyond death.

_Bibbs's critique of materialism and the futility of wealth as an ultimate goal._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_turmoil_se/chapters/xviii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_turmoil_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_turmoil_se/chapters