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“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.”
In SECOND SECTION: VII. Rollercoaster, Stan‘s drinking has gotten completely out of control, and no one has stepped in to help him. The chapter is a slow buildup to his ultimate demise that results not only from his own poor choices but those of the characters around him. Stan’s new wife Pearline has taken the same passive attitude as Ellen and Jimmy, even when Stan disappears for days on end. Stan is unhappy in his haphazard marriage, and the last bender described here includes a tragic reminder of Stan’s wasted potential as an architect. Before his death, Stan stumbles around his kitchen, and the furniture is described as throwing itself around instead of Stan throwing it. This has the effect of taking some of the responsibility from him. An argument can be made that Stan is not in his right mind when he takes his own life, but it is difficult to imagine another fate where he controls his impulses and begins making good choices.
“Why I’ve got a job as a reporter on the Times… a hellish rotten job and I’m sick of it," said Jimmy, drawling out his words.
"Don’t talk like that Jimmy, you’re too young…. You’ll never get anywhere with that attitude.""Well suppose I don’t want to get anywhere."
"Poor dear Lily was so proud of you…. She wanted you to be a great man, she was so ambitious for you…. You don’t want to forget your mother Jimmy."
Jimmy runs into his cousin Joe Harland on the waterfront in SECOND SECTION: VI. Five Statutory Questions, and he shares that he is miserable. Jimmy’s initial choice as an adult to reject the position offered to him by his uncle is not a bad decision on its own. His self-destructive pattern begins when he finds himself completely aimless and unhappy. Instead of trying to make a change, he becomes stagnant. He complains about his job and wants to leave New York throughout most of the novel. Joe Harland offers a reminder of his mother’s hopes for Jimmy and how her death has stunted him. With no guidance, or rather no guidance he was willing to take, he flounders as an adult and seems incapable of making good choices, whether personal or career-related. He knows that he’s miserable in the city, but he seems paralyzed and does not take steps to permanently leave until the end of the book when he is almost thirty years old.
“Ellen felt herself sitting with her ankles crossed, rigid as a porcelain figure under her clothes, everything about her seemed to be growing hard and enameled, the air bluestreaked with cigarettesmoke, was turning to glass. His wooden face of a marionette waggled senselessly in front of her. She shuddered and hunched up her shoulders.”
In the last chapter of the book, Ellen can feel herself hardening in preparation to accept George’s proposal. George pursues Ellen throughout the entire book, and she has always found an excuse not to marry him. Now with her marriage to Jimmy ended, Ellen thinks about her future. She is too old to return to Broadway and cannot live the way she wants to on her editorial salary. George is poised to become an elected official before long. Although he is already established as a successful lawyer, he will continue climbing the social ladder. Ellen experiences physical discomfort at the thought of accepting the proposal and by the very sight of George across the table, but she feels marrying George is her only option. Although she has always been the object of jealousy among her peers, Ellen is tragic in that she has never actually been happy and is about to seal a fate for herself that will ensure she remains unhappy.
