Look Homeward, Angel

Gant, now 64 years old, is distressed by the reality of his aging. Elizabeth, the owner of a local brothel he frequented in his drunken tirades of the past, enters his shop on behalf of a young prostitute who died at her brothel. Elizabeth requests the angel at the front of Gant’s shop. Gant, hesitant to sell the angel, “knew that he had nothing to cover or obliterate that place—it left a barren crater in his heart” (218). He finally agrees to sell it for $420 and reflects on the passage of time.

While Helen and Luke travel away from home, a lonely Gant seeks comfort at Dixieland, where he entertains the winter boarders. He takes Eugene to the movies several times a week, and Eugene imagines himself as the fictional hero, “the victor, in beauty, nobility, and sterling worth, over those whom he despised because they always triumphed and were forever good and pretty and beloved of women” (223). During this time Gant grows older and sicker from an enlarged prostate gland, for which he refuses surgery. Eliza, stronger than ever in her mid-50s, is unsympathetic to Gant’s plight.

As the debate over purity laws rages in Altamont, Gant casts his vote in favor of the restrictive laws. This pious period lasts only two months, as Gant soon resumes his cycles of drunken lewdness. He turns his unwanted attention onto young widows and Mrs. Selborne’s black cook.

Ben engages in multiple affairs with older women; “the hands of women were hungry for his crisp hair” (237). One of these affairs is with an older Dixieland boarder named Mrs. Pert, whose absent husband travels for work.

Eugene, now 15, works for Ben’s newspaper as a paper carrier. Given the least profitable paper route through the all-black section of Altamont, Eugene struggles through the first weeks of his new position, which “were like a warring nightmare: day after day he fought his way up to liberation” (243). He soon adapts and thrives in his new environment. After hearing from his fellow paper carriers about the prospects of exchanging sex with one of his customers, Eugene seeks out this customer, Ella Corpening, in his burgeoning desire and curiosity. Ella undresses and dances in front of Eugene, who becomes overwhelmed and flees. Filled with shame, Eugene runs off and hears “lost twangling notes, the measured thump of distant feet; beyond, above, more thin, more far than all, the rapid wail of sinners in a church” (248).

Eugene hides his job from the Leonards as he continues his studies at the Altamont Fitting School, where Margaret Leonard lectures passionately about poetry and Shakespeare. Eugene finds a connection to the bastard character of Edmund in Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Eliza leaves Eugene with the Leonards as she travels to Florida on her own, and Helen continues her travels as an entertainer. Gant writes to Helen faithfully, and Eliza searches for new investment properties throughout Florida.

During Eliza’s absence Eugene rooms with a senior Northern boy at the Leonards’, who are struggling to maintain the Altamont Fitting School. One April day Eugene ventures into Altamont after being dismissed from school early. He catches a ride into town and explores with his classmate George Graves; as the boys walk, they talk. As they roam through town, their commentary shifts from success of various local men, such as Mr. Leonard, the local dentist, the undertaker, and the clergyman, to religion and its impact on such success. They observe a funeral and contemplate death, ushering in Eugene “the ghost of old fear, that had been laid for years, walked forth to haunt him” (269). The boys ponder the future of Altamont and overhear a debate regarding the impending war, which prompts Eugene to consider his own desire for glory. Eugene and George reach Wood’s Pharmacy and order chocolate milk at the counter.

World War I has officially started, and Eugene is mesmerized by the prospect of glory in war. Ben, now 21 and interested in traveling to Canada and enlisting in the war, seeks guidance and a physical examination from his physician, Dr. Coker. While Ben questions the purpose of life, Coker examines him, noting that Ben seems to be in good physical shape until he examines Ben’s chest, which is distended. Nevertheless, Coker states that Ben is “one of the most all right people I know” (289) and advises him to gain weight.

Eugene is in his last year at the Altamont Fitting School. He convinces Eliza to allow him to travel to Charleston with a group of peers; this is his first trip alone and without his family. Shortly after arriving in Charleston, Eugene finds himself entwined with a young girl named Louise, who appears to be 18 years old. As Eugene and Louise kiss, he becomes too nervous to follow through and fixates on the possibility that this could be Louise’s first sexual experience, though Louise says she has had sex before. Eugene eventually discovers from his peers that Louise is not 18 but 21 years old, and has a child who is being raised by her parents.

After Eugene’s return home, Gant, Ben, and Helen head to Baltimore for Gant’s operation. Shortly into the operation, the doctor discovers that “Gant was dying of cancer” (300). As Gant reflects on his time in Baltimore as a younger man, Helen lies, opting not to inform him of his fatal diagnosis.

Eugene deeply appreciates the works and life of William Shakespeare and blazons a wall in his room with the words “My Shakespeare, rise!” (301). This detail delights Helen and Ben, who tease Eugene for his ardent appreciation. Eugene plays the part of Prince Hal in a pageant of Shakespeare’s works directed by Mr. Leonard.

Helen marries a cash register salesman from Henderson who is 10 years her senior. Before the wedding Helen comes to be at odds with her future mother-in-law due to Helen’s dominant personality, which demands that “she would own, she would possess completely. She would be generous, but she would be mistress. She would give. It was the law of her nature” (311). The newlyweds move to the capital city of Sydney, near Eugene, who will be studying at State University at his father’s behest.

Despite their plans to honeymoon in Niagara, the newlyweds remain in Altamont due to the illness of Helen’s mother-in-law, whom Helen cares for in her studied role as caretaker. Then a flood isolates Altamont from the outside world for three weeks, after which the newlyweds finally “achieve their wilted anticlimactic honeymoon” (314).

Although Eugene and the Leonards have loftier plans for Eugene’s post-secondary academic career, Gant insists that Eugene attend State University. The Leonards believe Eugene too young to venture into university right away, but Gant “refused stubbornly to consider any postponement” (315).