Old School

The narrator tries to read Rand’s other famous novel, Atlas Shrugged, but can’t get past the first chapter. He then tries to again read The Fountainhead but is no longer interested in it either. He becomes unable to read her work without hearing her voice, which he found repelling. He is bothered by her disdain for human frailty and he now considers Rand’s characters to be unrealistic and unsympathetic; it’s clear to him that Rand and her characters would not have cared for him while he was ill. Grandjohn and Patty did care for him, which gives him a new appreciation for them.

The narrator considers what Rand would say about his childhood domestic life and thinks she would consider it “a perfect instance of the drab little life she’d condemned” (92). He thinks about how his mother, during her short life, was consumed by standard domestic concerns, and how grief has consumed his father.

He takes issue with Rand’s disparaging of Hemingway, noting that she compelled him to “feel the difference between a writer who despised woundedness and one for whom it was a bedrock fact of life” (94). This inspires the narrator to go back and read many of Hemingway’s works. Reading Rand has given the narrator a new appreciation of Hemingway and his realistic, fallible characters. The narrator begins transcribing Hemingway’s works to get a feel for what it’s like to type a great story.

The headmaster announces that Hemingway will be the next visiting writer. The students go wild. The narrator feels confident that he will write the winning story.

It is spring and the narrator feels invigorated. With the change in seasons, students are acting more brashly. The masters let slide most of the minor transgressions. However, that spring there are two expulsions, and nearly a third. One boy is sent packing for being drunk on campus. Another is jettisoned for an encounter with a girl from a neighboring school. Little Jeff Purcell is threatened with expulsion because he has started skipping daily chapel. He does not believe in Christianity and refuses to conform. His demerits are adding up and approach the number that prompts expulsion. While the narrator respects Purcell’s conviction, he also sees his actions as a reflection of class privilege: Purcell comes from a wealthy family and will have a bright future regardless of whether he graduates. The narrator sees this as a kind of snub. Purcell’s future is secure, but he is willing to sacrifice spending time with his friends during their last few weeks on campus.

The narrator has received a full scholarship to Columbia University. In the way he dresses and carries himself, he has created a persona that stereotypically aligns with his bookish pursuits. He’s ready to break free of this persona, which is why he’s chosen Columbia, a school which none of his classmates will attend.

He compares his stories to Hemingway’s. It becomes clear to him that his own stories are “designed to make me appear as I was not,” while “Hemingway’s willingness to let himself be seen as he was, in uncertainty or meanness or fear, even empty of feeling, somehow gave the charge of truth to everything else” (110). He continues to type out Hemingway’s stories, hoping that this exercise will provoke him to write something true and worthy, but his writer’s block remains.

The narrator considers the competition from Bill, Purcell, and George. He deems George a particular threat and goes to visit him. George has been ignoring his editorial duties and seems fully focused on his story for the Hemingway contest. The narrator picks up Bill’s slack to help ensure their magazine issue is published on time. A dance with a nearby girls’ school is scheduled for Friday, but the narrator plans instead to use that time to finish editorial duties so he can spend the weekend drafting his contest entry, which is due on Monday.

In an act of attempted solidarity, Big Jeff declares that if Little Jeff Purcell is expelled because of his chapel protest, he too will leave the school. This infuriates Purcell, who tells Big Jeff that the protest has nothing to do with him.

The narrator sets out his clothes, hoping to go to the dance, but only if he first manages to draft a good story beginning. By the time Bill returns to their room at midnight, he still hasn’t written anything. They both seem to be struggling with their work and, in a broader sense, with their positions in life. They have always been emotionally distant with each other, but the narrator considers initiating a deep conversation with Bill. However, they maintain the façade, claiming that their stories for the contest are going well.

On Saturday, Purcell attends chapel, a decision that prevents his expulsion at the last minute. Many students assume he attends chapel so Big Jeff will remain enrolled. The narrator believes it less an altruistic gesture, and more that Purcell doesn’t want the “humiliating spectacle of Big Jeff throwing himself on Purcell’s very own funeral pyre” (119).

They have their final editorial meeting and decide to run a story, “The Forked Tongue,” by a student who has long desired to be in the magazine. They debate its merits, but George says to print it, noting, “It’s not like the rest of this crap’s about to set the world on fire” (120).

The narrator sits alone in the editorial office, tasked with typing out rejection letters. He gazes over the collection of student lit mags published by other schools. He starts flipping through them and picks up a five-year-old copy of the magazine from the nearby girls’ school. To his surprise, he’s captivated by a story called “Summer Dance.” It’s about a Jewish high school girl, Ruth, who comes from a struggling household, where she must help care for her mother. She is a scholarship student at a boarding school. Ruth’s wealthy friend, Caroline, invites her to a dance at the country club, and Caroline requests that Ruth use a non-Jewish last name for the club’s guest list, though she claims to find it disgusting to need to do so. Ruth agrees.

At the dance, Ruth takes an interest in a boy named Colson. However, Caroline has her eyes set on the same boy. Ruth can tell that Colson is interested in her, but she instead latches on to his friend because she doesn’t want Caroline to become upset with her, as Caroline has the power to end her access to this social circle.

The narrator again reads the story, noting, “From the very first sentence I was looking myself right in the face” (125). The story feels as though it is his own. As he’d done with Hemingway’s work, he begins to type out “Summer Dance.” While transcribing it, he feels “an intuition of gracious release” (126). To personalize it, he starts changing some aspects of the story. He notes that the story didn’t require much adjusting and that it truthfully depicts his own thoughts and life. He submits it for the contest.

Mr. Ramsey takes the narrator aside and extensively praises his story, the title of which he has not changed from “Summer Dance.” Mr. Ramsey tells the narrator that Hemingway has chosen his story as the winner. On the following day, the news will be shared with the rest of campus, and the story will run in the school’s newspaper. The narrator walks alone to a hilltop and feels nostalgic about the school as he gazes down at the campus. He then naps.

The next day, the narrator is in the foyer of the dining hall and notices classmates looking up from their newspapers to catch glances of him. His story runs next to an interview with Hemingway. The questions have been edited out of the interview, in which Hemingway provides brief praise of the story and long, rambling advice about what it takes to be a writer.

In a week, Hemingway will arrive on campus, at which point the narrator is scheduled to have a personal audience with him. The narrator is somewhat disappointed with Hemingway’s interview, wishing it expressed greater adoration of his story rather than disjointed advice on how to become a successful author. The narrator feels slighted by the lack of praise and comes to resent the editing of the interview, which was done by Mr. Ramsey. However, the narrator does receive compliments from faculty and students, including George.

In their dorm room, Bill becomes upset with the narrator. Bill, who is Jewish, lashes out because he doesn’t believe the narrator, as a Catholic, can truthfully tell a story that deals with anti-Semitism. He says to the narrator, “That was my story, you fucking leech. That was my story and you know it” (140). Bill also reveals that he didn’t submit his story for the Hemingway contest.

After dinner, the narrator returns to their dorm room, hoping to have a calm, productive discussion with Bill about the morality of writing the story. However, Bill doesn’t show up at the dorm. The narrator goes to the library, where Bill has earned a small office. Bill isn’t there either. Though the narrator knows he shouldn’t, he enters the office and reads through Bill’s notebook. There are more than a hundred handwritten pages that reveal “nakedness and misery” and show why Bill “could never have shown a page of it to anyone” (141).

The narrator is summoned to the dean’s office, though he isn’t concerned, figuring that Dean Makepeace simply wants to give him some pointers for his upcoming meeting with Hemingway. In the office, he is met by the headmaster, Mr. Ramsey, Mr. Lambert, and Goss, who is the president of the Student Honor Council. Dean Makepeace isn’t present. The narrator doesn’t understand what the meeting is about.

Mr. Lambert tells the narrator to explain himself; the narrator is confused by this order. The headmaster hands the narrator a copy of the paper that originally published “Summer Dance,” written by Susan Friedman. The narrator logically understands that someone else wrote the story, but he still sees it as his own. He states, “I couldn’t reconcile what I knew to be true with what I felt to be true” (143).

The narrator says he now understands why he’s in the office. The headmaster explains that someone from Friedman’s alma mater recognized the story. He explains to the narrator how this has brought great shame to his school. All but Mr. Ramsey take turns in expressing their great disappointment with the narrator. They emphasize how greatly this will damage the school’s reputation. Mr. Ramsey periodically chimes in and suggests the others go easier on the narrator.

The narrator is expelled. He is to get on the five o’clock train to go home. The headmaster tells him that his offer to Columbia will be rescinded.

The narrator is left alone in the office. Eventually, Mr. Ramsey returns with the narrator’s bags. Without letting any students know, they head for the train station. On the way, the narrator criticizes Mr. Ramsey for censoring the Hemingway interview. Mr. Ramsey says the alumni office has the final call on such matters, though he did do some censoring on his own, but only because he was looking out for Hemingway, who, in his old age, sometimes says things that make him look bad. The narrator wonders if Hemingway said anything else about his story. Mr. Ramsey corrects him, stating, “Susan Friedman’s story, I believe you mean” (149).

Mr. Ramsey explains that, over the phone, the narrator’s father didn’t believe the headmaster’s accusations. They arrive at the station, long before the train is scheduled to arrive. Mr. Ramsey sits next to the narrator on a bench and offers him a cigarette. The narrator wants one but declines.

The narrator asks why Dean Makepeace wasn’t at the meeting and Mr. Ramsey explains it was apparently because of personal matters. They then fall into a silence. The narrator thinks about how, in his notebook, Bill described in detail his romance with Mr. Ramsey’s wife. Bill was heartbroken because she’d ended it. The narrator suspects that Mr. Ramsey is aware of this. The train arrives and Mr. Ramsey stuffs the pack of cigarettes into the narrator’s shirt pocket.