Augie March begins the story of his "adventures" with these famous lines: "I am an American, Chicago born-Chicago, that somber city-and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent. But a man's character is his fate..." (3). Next, he dives into a description of his family life: "Mama", or Rebecca, is a "simple-minded" woman with three sons who has been abandoned by the father of her children; "Georgie", the youngest, is the "idiot" brother; Simon, the eldest, is honest, and intelligent; and Grandma Lausch, who is not really their grandmother, but rather a boarder in the household, takes it upon herself to school Simon and Augie in the ways of worldly success.

Grandma Lausch, the first of the major Machiavellian influences in Augie's life, teaches Augie to lie to the free dispensary in order to receive a pair of eyeglasses; additionally, she advises the boy to read novels by Tolstoy. Her basic tenets include: "Nobody asks you to love the whole world, only to be honest"; and "Respect is better than love" (9).

At twelve, Augie finds a summer job passing out theater handbills, and befriends Sylvester, the son of the theater-owner. The following summer, Grandma Lausch sends Simon to work in a resort hotel as a bellhop. Augie moves to the North Side to help with the Coblins' newspaper, and lives with the family while working on the morning route. Anna Coblin, Mama's cousin, an immense, mournful woman whose own son, Howard, has run away to the Marine Corps, dreams of marrying her daughter, Freidl, to Augie. She tells Augie to consider himself a member of her household. One day, however, when Anna becomes furious with Augie for blowing on her son's saxophone, he thinks to himself that he would rather not become a part of the Coblins family: "My mind was already dwelling on a good enough fate" (28).

Anna's brother Five Properties, an up-and-coming "big-footed contender for wealth", wishes to marry. Grandma Lausch arranges for Kreindl, a neighbor, to find him a good match, hoping that if she is successful she will secure some money for herself. Five Properties, however, rejects the pale, thin girl Kreindl manages to ferret out for him: "He had in mind a bouncing, black-haired, large-lipped, party-going peach" (25).

When Simon becomes high school valedictorian and Augie skips a grade in school, the March brothers become known as a clever pair. Simon then returns home from his summer job as a bellhop a changed man; Augie senses this from the broken tooth that his brother refuses to explain. The flaw changes the overall look of Simon's face, as well as the quality of his laugh. In Chicago, Simon lands a job with the Federal News Company and begins working concessions near the trains. He also begins referring to Grandma Lausch as a "stranger", rebelling against her through quiet repudiation. Augie also begins working concessions for Simon's boss, but fails to stay on top of the change and is fired.

After Augie loses his job, he and Jimmy Klein find work together as Santa's helpers at Deever's department store during the holiday rush. They skim money off of the inventory, but the Deevers eventually discover the thievery and inform both of their families. Jimmy Klein's father beats him, and Augie suffers a scolding. Jimmy Klein's cousin Clem Tambow, along with Jimmy and Augie, begin discussing various ways to burn down the Deevers' store. The talk is, however, all in jest; life goes on, and Jimmy's older sister Eleanor, a large, big-hearted girl, begins calling Augie her "lover". Augie, on the other hand, has fallen in love with Hilda Novinson, the daughter of a tailor.

By this time, Augie has begun to notice a general unease in the town: it is "a bad winter for everyone-not just for the notables but for people oblivious of anything except their own ups and downs and busy with the limited traffic of their hearts and minds" (50). Mama, for example, appears "dizzy" with "the buzzing of some omen" (50). Grandma Lausch then delivers her "stroke": something needs to be done about Georgie. She advises that Augie's younger brother be put into an institution before he creates trouble for the family. The suggestion throws everyone into a state of confusion, but Grandma Lausch is ultimately successful. Augie is angered, feeling that Grandma Lausch "made it something it didn't necessarily have to be, a test of strength, tactless" (56). As Georgie stands ready to leave the house, dressed like a traveler, Grandma Lausch refuses to say good-bye, and Mama exhibits "the trembling anger of weak people" (57). Augie drives Mama and Georgie to the dormitory, where they all weep their good-byes. Augie later explains: "After that we had a diminished family life, as though it were care of Georgie that had been the main basis of household union and now everything was disturbed" (58). Simon begins to show open disrespect, and the house grows "dinkier, darker, smaller" (58). In May, Grandma Lausch's dog Winnie dies, and they bury her in a shoebox in the yard.

Analysis

Augie March begins the narration of his adventures by declaring his place of origin: Chicago. Next, he discusses the nature of a knock on a door, and how it can echo the character of the owner of the fist. Augie then quotes the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who declared that a man's character is his fate. This opening immediately casts Augie's fate - as well as his character - as key issues. Augie then enigmatically refers to the "suppression" he faces in his endeavor to tell the story of his life. An inevitable quality of first-person narratives, this tendency towards suppression pushes the storyteller to skip over details, revelations, worries and, oftentimes, disappointments. At the same time, this suppression calls into question the very nature of fiction-writing: what is conveyed to the readers are often selective, carefully-chosen moments pulled out of a vast plain of facts.

Augie's honesty, a major theme in the novel, is immediately called into question when he reveals himself to be a liar, having been schooled by Grandma Lausch. She teaches him that people will only ask that he be honest, but it is up to the individual whether or not to respect this expectation. Augie, in contrast to his elder brother Simon, doesn't seem to mind lying. Simon is upstanding and honest to a fault, and unfailingly follows the social codes of the most proper English schoolboy. Augie's questionable honesty enables the narrative to become more spacious, and allows room for rich layers of history, myth, and symbolic allusions to embellish the events. Augie's own childhood home seems to have been marked by the visit of an unseen Greek divinity who impregnated their mother before departing into the heavens - though in reality the father appears to have been a working-class man who couldn't resist the allure of indulgence.

Grandma Lausch is a tyrannical figure who dominates the family, though she is not even a blood relation. The first major influence in Augie's life, Grandma Lausch is described as "one of those Machiavellis of small street and neighborhood" (4). The boys can't imagine that she will ever die. She teaches both Augie and Simon that respect is better than love (a key theme in the story) even as Georgie wraps his arms around her legs, loving her with a pure, whole-hearted tenderness. Sweet and mindless, Georgie represents love, while the cold, calculating Grandma Lausch represents respect. Grandma Lausch, however, is intent on drumming into the older boys her belief that love is weakness. She points to their mother as the "prime example" of someone whose affections have been dangerously taken advantage of. When Augie is betrayed by a friend of his, Grandma Lausch once again reiterates her point.

Grandma Lausch's streetwise opportunism kick-starts the stream of "Machiavellians" who appear in Augie's life and seek to influence him. The book offers a rich and detailed canvas of characters, places, and objects, all exquisitely painted by the narrator's unique voice. Augie says that "all the influences were lined up waiting for me" (43), suggesting the multitude of humans who sought to shape his life.

When Augie admits that he has "a weak sense of consequences" (43), he seems to be hinting at his failure to dictate his own fate because of his inability to accurately deduce the consequences of his present actions. Ultimately, however, Augie fails in his endeavor to control his fate because of his natural passivity: through most of the book, he allows various influences to exercise far greater influence over him than they ought to. In other words, his own inaction leads to a diminished ability to discern the possible consequences of events. He responds to human influence, but fails to sustain any relationships that require commitment.

In their youth, both Simon and Augie are hailed as clever boys, talented and promising. It is little wonder, then, that Grandma Lausch wishes to have a hand in their upbringing. Having started life with this sense of promise, Augie is thrown when Anna Coblin presses against him the possibility of a hard-and-fast fate: marriage to her daughter and inclusion in her family. This is the first fate that Augie firmly rejects: he decides that he wants something better, or at least something "good enough". This vague desire is enough to propel him into the future, but perhaps not enough to inspire him to set out on an actual path.

The issue of honesty is underscored by Simon's successful manipulation of change at the concessions stand. He is covert about his thievery - and highly effective. Augie, on the other hand, joins his friend Jimmy in skimming money off of the inventory, basing their actions on the erroneous assumption that, since it is a busy season, the Deevers will never check their records. Simon succeeds because he approaches the situation with intelligence, while Augie's endeavor fails because he approaches the con with a cavalier, naive sense of invulnerability and lack of foresight.

Augie's childhood comes to a dramatic conclusion when Grandma Lausch announces that Georgie must be put into a home before he causes any trouble. The fact that Simon tacitly agrees with her hints at the possibility that he will eventually grow up to be like Grandma Lausch. Simon's missing tooth indicates a newfound flaw in his character, and he seems to take Grandma Lausch's Machiavellian teachings more seriously. Simon, with his strong code of ethics and profound ambition, appears certain to be the member of the family who successfully ousts Grandma Lausch from her seat of power.

Augie and Mama both cling to "love" as they take Georgie to the institution, and though Grandma Lausch ultimately succeeds in sending Georgie away, she loses her power over the family. Simon accelerates her demise, and "love" goes missing from the house. The family weakens, and the implication is that, though respect may be better than love, a lack of both is even more profoundly damaging.

The death of Grandma Lausch's dog Winnie only reinforces the fact that, with Georgie's departure, a chapter in the family's life has come to an end, along with Augie's childhood.

According to Augie, Einhorn is "the first superior man I knew", an intelligent and capable individual crippled in the arms and legs whose job is to steer the vast Einhorn family holdings. Augie works as Einhorn's personal assistant during high school. Einhorn Senior, or the Commissioner, is the originator of the family fortune, and Einhorn is his son by his first wife; Dingbat is his son by another woman.

Augie describes Einhorn's wife, Tillie, as heavy and attractive. Arthur, Einhorn's son, studies at the University of Illinois in Champaign, and the Einhorns continually emphasize the fact that Augie should not expect to share the inheritance; all of it will eventually go to Arthur. Augie finds this constant reminder irritating, but knows, in the end, that he is "adoptable". Also, Augie knows about Einhorn's extramarital affair with Lollie Fewter, a woman Einhorn is "mad" about - and who invites Augie to kiss her one day. Soon, a fire destroys the Einhorn's living room, and Einhorn files a two thousand dollar claim. Augie learns that this is the way Einhorn answers his wife's desire for new furniture. Augie also receives, as a gift, a charred set of Harvard Classics that have been salvaged from the fire.

Meanwhile, Simon decides that something must be done about Grandma Lausch; her personality has become intolerable, and she treats Mama, who is by now almost completely blind, as though she is her servant. Simon writes to Grandma Lausch's sons, and suggests that they either hire a housekeeper or take her back. In response, Simon receives a letter outlining their intention to have Grandma Lausch placed in a home for the aged. Augie drives her to the home, and understands that under her hardened face, Grandma Lausch is trying desperately not to cry.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner hovers near death, and Dingbat finally admits that his father is dying. During the funeral, Augie is the one who carries Einhorn to the gravesite. Arthur, who has come up from school, walks with his mother and later goes out to meet some friends. It is Augie who sits with Einhorn, watching as he composes his father's obituary and burns some of the Commissioner's papers.

The Great Depression arrives, and the Einhorns lose most of their fortune, along with Dingbat and Arthur's inheritance. The March family's money also disappears. One night, Augie joins Joe Gorman and a bunch of fellows who are planning to rob a store selling leather goods on the North Side. The robbery is successful, but Augie states that he doesn't want to be included in any more escapades. Einhorn learns through the grapevine of Augie's participation, and sits him down for a serious talk: "This is where a young fellow starts to decay and stink, and his health and beauty go. By the first things he does when he's not a boy any longer, but does what a man does" (116). He tells Augie that Joe Gorman was carrying a gun, and in order to keep him out of further trouble, hires him back for less pay. He says: "You've got opposition in you. You don't slide through everything. You just make it look so." Augie, stricken by this moment of recognition, thinks: "This was the first time that anyone had told me anything like the truth about myself. I felt it powerfully."

Now that the inheritance no longer poses an issue, Tillie and Einhorn express their affection for Augie more openly. When he graduates from high school, Einhorn takes Augie to a brothel. Afterwards, as Augie prepares to head to Jimmy Klein's house for the graduation party, Einhorn tells him to take the car, but that he must not get drunk and go joy-riding.

Analysis

Einhorn clearly serves as a father-figure to Augie. The second of the great Machiavellian figures to appear in the book, Einhorn wins Augie's admiration for being crippled, and for refusing to be confined by his physical limitations. In spite of having grown up rich, the task of overcoming his physical deficiencies provides Einhorn with the necessary strength to overcome the hardships brought on by the Depression. By contrast, Einhorn's son Arthur grows up with the security of an inheritance and pursues endeavors such as philosophy and poetry. Great wealth, in other words, affords one the freedom to pursue an interest in beauty and culture. Augie idealizes Einhorn, the Commissioner, and Arthur as a kind of ideal American family, as they symbolize a progression from the self-made man to the lover of highbrow beauty: "the conqueror, the poet and philosopher succeeding the organizer, and the whole development typically American, the world of intelligence and strength in the open field, a world of possibilities" (67). In other words, the Commissioner, a self-made man, created a dynasty of fortune and beauty.

Augie draws the similarity between Einhorn and Grandma Lausch. The two have a similar turn in their thinking: "both believing they could show what could be done with the world, where it gave or resisted, where you could be confident and run or where you could only feel your way and were forced to blunder." Augie underlines this similarity by showing Einhorn's decision to make a false insurance claim in order to purchase new living room furniture. This dishonesty echoes Grandma Lausch's ploy to get eyeglasses from the free dispensary, as well as Simon's manipulation of change money while working concessions. Dishonesty, in other words, is an intrinsic aspect of the real world.

As Simon matures, he also takes the shape of a Machiavellian figure. In an ironic twist, Simon decides that it is time for Grandma Lausch to go, much as she herself decided that Georgie needed to be sent away. Her real sons likewise decide to place her in an institution for the aged; it seems that the "respect" she instilled in her two sons, as well as in Simon and Augie, is a respect bereft of "love". She finds herself condemned to the institution, and the narrative suggests that perhaps love is in fact superior to respect, as it is respect that condemns both Georgie and Grandma Lausch to their unhappy fates.

The narrative becomes increasingly spacious, linking together characters and events through strategic echoing. Grandma Lausch's two real sons are echoed by Simon and Augie, and Georgie's placement in an institution is eventually echoed by Grandma's Lausch's departure: the institution, it seems, symbolizes the conclusion of a chapter in the life of a family. Grandma Lausch's departure also echoes the death of the Commissioner, as both events occur just before the Great Crash.

During the funeral activities, Augie meets with Einhorn's son, Arthur. The two characters are linked together by virtue of the fact that their names both begin with "A", and because they are both sons (either literally or figuratively) to Einhorn. While it is unclear where the name "Augie" comes from, it sounds both intimate and affectionate; it may also be rooted in the word "august" (or "great"), but at times it sounds almost ridiculous. "Arthur", on the other hand, is a name with an unambiguously noble ring to it. In the end, however, Augie proves to be more of Einhorn's son; it is he who carries him to the Commissioner's gravesite, and he who stays up with him late into the night while he composes the obituary. Augie is physically close to Einhorn, and is thus able to act as his spiritual son, while Arthur, living downstate in Champaign, is exposed to a host of influences over which Einhorn has little control.

The Great Crash wipes the slates of fortune clean, thereby revealing the characters' true personalities. Einhorn is strong from having overcome his physical disabilities, but Arthur, having been ripped from the lifeline upon which he had depended - his inheritance - is incapable of engaging in a real profession. The job of rebuilding the Einhorn fortune, in other words, will most likely not fall to him.

Augie, in the meantime, joins a thief named Joe Gorman in a robbery. Einhorn, filling the role of the father-figure, assumes the responsibility of having a talk with Augie when his involvement is revealed. He reinforces the fact that Augie is no longer a child, but a man, and that the first actions he makes as a man are crucial. He holds up a mirror to give Augie a sense of who he is. When Einhorn tells Augie he has "opposition" in him, Augie has a powerful feeling that Einhorn has spoken the truth, though it is unclear what, exactly, the older man means by "opposition". Einhorn's words, however, form a kind of "law" through which Augie interacts with the world as the narrative progresses. He pursues the opposite of what others want from him, after first being profoundly influenced by the person. This makes him into something of a rebel, though in the end this quality is insubstantial. What is Augie committed to rebelling against? He may claim that everything he does is intended to move him towards a better fate, but without grounding his ideas in something more solid, Augie simply reacts in "opposition" to the possibilities that are presented to him. The contrast between Augie and Simon soon becomes even more pronounced. While Augie confesses, "I know I longed very much, but I didn't understand for what," Simon is "making toward the mark he secretly aimed at." Augie adds: "I didn't know at the time which mark or exactly understand why there needed to be a mark; it was over my head."

In the end, Einhorn, as employer and teacher and spiritual father-figure, takes Augie to a brothel and initiates him into adulthood. From this point on in the narrative, the implication seems to be that the actions Augie makes as a man will prove crucial to his ultimate destiny.

Simon and Augie find work in a department store while they take courses at the city college. Simon hires a woman named Molly Simms to help with the household chores, and on New Year's Day, when Molly fails to arrive and Simon comes home with odd scratches on his face, Augie learns that they are involved in a romantic liaison. Molly claims that she loves him, but in response Simon fires the girl and has her replaced by an old Polish woman.

As a sporting-goods salesman in the suburb of Evanston, Augie begins making more money than Simon. He moves into an Evanston student loft, and Mrs. Renling, Augie's boss's wife, takes him under her wing; she dresses him, pays for horse-riding lessons, and enrolls him in evening classes at Northwestern. She tells him, "I'll make you perfect." However, when Augie begins dating a waitress named Willa Steiner, Mrs. Renling opposes the match, warning him that all Willa wants is to get married. In order to create distance between the two lovers, Mrs. Renling asks Augie to take her to Benton Harbor, a resort for the wealthy up in Michigan. Augie agrees to keep her company, quietly enduring her incessant commentary on the guests.

One day, Augie spies two pretty girls at a table, and quickly falls in love with the younger of the sisters: Esther Fenchel. Mrs. Renling, noticing the attention Augie gives to them, wrongly concludes that he is love with the elder girl, Thea. Augie allows her to think this while he secretly pursues Esther. In the end, however, Esther refuses him, and Augie is horrified to learn that the girls believe he is Mrs. Renling's gigolo. Nevertheless, Thea declares her love for him, but the next day the girls leave the resort. Augie finds a note from Thea: "It's true I love you. You'll see me again." As the summer holiday comes to an end, Simon arrives for a day trip with Cissy Flexner, and tells Augie that he intends to marry her. Augie observes how powerfully in love with her his brother is, and silently disapproves of the way Simon is made to "struggle" with the girl. Cissy, in Augie's view, asserts far too much power over his brother.

Back in Evanston, the Renlings offer to formally adopt Augie. If he accepts their offer, he will become "Augie Renling" and inherit all of their money; he realizes, however, that they assume he is "self-seeking" (153), like the rest. He goes to Einhorn for advice, but the man, assuming that Augie will accept the offer, extends his immediate congratulations, commenting on how lucky he has always been. In the end, Augie rejects the Renlings' offer.

Augie then returns to the city and miserably settles into a job selling paint. Soon, he runs into Joe Gorman again. Joe tells him that he has been running illegal immigrants over the Canadian border, and asks Augie whether he would like to join him. Augie, attracted by the idea of getting out of the city, agrees to help drive to Massena Springs, but nothing more. They roar off in Joe's fancy black Buick, but when a state trooper investigates the car when they stop for food and gas, Joe tells Augie that the vehicle is stolen. The two young men separate in an attempt to escape the police, and Augie later catches sight of Joe sitting between two men in the back of a police car.

Without enough money to buy a bus ticket home, Augie wires Simon, but never hears back from his brother. Augie takes the matter into his own hands, and begins jumping along freight trains headed west. After a circuitous route, Augie finally makes it home to Chicago. At home, Augie discovers that everything has changed. A Polish family now occupies the house. He goes next door to the Kreindls' home, where he finds Mama, who tells him that Grandma Lausch died while he was away, and that Simon sold the flat, along with all of the furniture. Mournful about Grandma Lausch, Augie heads over to Einhorn's house, and runs into Five Properties and Mr. Coblin outside. Five Properties announces that he is getting married, and invites Augie to the wedding.

When he arrives at the Einhorns', Augie learns that Five Properties is marrying Cissy Flexner, and that Simon, in his desperation to win back his love, lost all of his money in a betting pool. After wreaking havoc in the Flexners' house and spending a night in jail, he went into hiding. Einhorn advises Augie to be hard on his brother, since he has the upper hand now, but Augie can only feel heartbroken.

Einhorn sets Augie up with a job working for a Frenchman who runs a high-end dog-grooming business. Augie also visits Evanston, and learns that Willa has married. Later, he runs into Padilla, a Mexican classmate of his from the city college: a genius who has won a scholarship to study math and physics at the university. Padilla supports himself by stealing books, and rationalizes his job by stating that he doesn't intend to do it forever. Augie joins him in stealing books, and quickly discovers a reading fever of his own: "I realized how a general love or craving, before it is explicit or before it sees its object, manifests itself as boredom or some other kind of suffering."

Augie moves into a student house near the University of Chicago, where Simon finally visits him. He apologizes for not having wired him the money, and Augie observes that his brother has grown fat and unhealthy. Simon tells him that he is planning to woo and marry a rich young woman named Charlotte Magnus. He shows Augie a picture: she is heavy, but pretty in the face.

Soon, Augie runs into Clem Tambow, a registered student of psychology who is in love with a girl in Augie's student house named Mimi Villars. Mimi had initially come to Chicago to study, but was expelled for open sexual activity. She now waitresses at a student hash-house, and - unfortunately for Clem - is in love with her Frazer, a graduate assistant in Political Science who cuts an impressive intellectual figure. Mimi, it seems, is the kind of girl who prizes men for their genius. When Augie's friend Sylvester appears, he discovers that Sylvester's ex-wife is actually Mimi's sister, Annie. Now deeply involved in communist party activities, Sylvester aims to recruit Frazer.

Simon eventually hits his mark, and marries Charlotte Magnus in a secret ceremony. The large and indelicate family members look upon Simon as their prince, and he confides in Augie that the honeymoon was terrible. There is a new suicidal streak in his eyes, and he anxiously strains to make the coal yard he has been given as a wedding dowry turn a profit, learning from the powerful Uncle Charlie himself. Happy Kellerman, the manager of Simon's yard, and Augie work alongside Simon, and slowly, but surely, Simon learns how the business works; he becomes politically adept, and finds friendships within the police force and municipal government. Charlotte also proves to be an excellent businesswoman and councilor, and Simon eventually gives her his utmost respect.

Analysis

When the Renlings tell Augie that they wish to adopt him, they offer him the possibility of a special future, one which would find him a wealthy man with a new family. This highlights another Machiavellian influence in his life, as well as emphasizes Augie's attractiveness; he is young, energetic, promising, bright, and good-natured. He is, in other words, readily "adoptable"; others see that there is something good to be made of him. The trouble, of course, lies in his tendency towards "opposition", as noted by Einhorn. When the Renlings offer him the opportunity to become their son, Augie opposes it because he does not want to seem "self-interested". In other words, he defines who he is by rejecting others' assumptions - but later contradicts himself by offering the Whitmanesque insight that he assumes about others what he assumes about himself. On the one hand, Augie rejects others' assumptions, but on the other hand he assumes that his own assumptions are shared by others. This draws attention to Augie's inability to commit even to something as small as a point of view.

Augie also rejects the Renlings' offer by citing his own sense of origin and family, especially asserting his love for Mama and Georgie. This contrasts with Simon's willingness to be "adopted" by the Magnus family - in his view, a highly practical decision. Linking one's fate to others does not necessarily have to signify a repudiation of one's family or origin: Simon continues to provide for his mother and advise Augie.

For a little while, at least, Augie enjoys Mrs. Renling's attention, and when he accompanies her to Benton Harbor, he poses as her son, even welcoming this assumption when it is made by others. Augie's passivity with regard to his identity in Benton Harbor borders on dishonesty. Esther and Thea Fenchel realize he is not a relation but, ironically, assume the worst.

In Benton Harbor, Augie falls for Esther Fenchel, the purer of the two sisters. In his attempt to win her, he plays at being an "Arthur". Mrs. Renling mistakes the object of Augie's desire, and believes that he loves Thea, the more passionate of the two. This moment echoes a scene written by the poet Dante, who admires his beloved Beatrice from afar, only to have others mistakenly assume that the object of his love is the woman sitting next to her, and not Beatrice herself. Augie's attempts at romantic chivalry, however, fail, and Esther rejects him. Thea, on the other hand, a kind of Machiavellian figure herself, takes an active interest: she sees the "adoptable" quality in Augie, and her parting note points to her future reappearance in the narrative.

Meanwhile, Simon falls madly in love with Cissy, and loses his self-respect, as well as the respect of others. When Cissy marries for money, Simon reexamines his circumstances, recalling Grandma Lausch's assertion that respect is better than love. Augie muses: "I had accepted of Grandma Lausch's warning only the part about the danger and that, through Mama, we were susceptible to love; not the stigmatizing part that made us out the carriers of the germ of ruination." Simon, experiencing the havoc of love, fights off the possibility of ruination by gathering together his wits and quickly aiming at a new mark. He pursues Charlotte Magnus and marries into a wealthy family that has, thus far, lacked a "prince". He becomes that prince, and ultimately discovers that Charlotte, being a very intelligent and astute businesswoman, is a person he can respect. Having been burned by love, Simon chooses respect, just as Grandma Lausch had always advised.

The physical immensity of the Magnuses, including Charlotte, echoes the immensity of the Coblin family and Five Properties. Simon responds to Cissy's rejection by behaving in a similar fashion, pursuing a wealthy woman whom he does not love. He trounces his former lover's success, and arrives at his full-fledged Machiavellian potential by assessing the material world, his position within it, and the possible consequences of his actions, and arriving at the best possible decision given what he has to work with. Simon succeeds in making the marriage happen, and sets himself along the path towards becoming a rich man.

Augie, by contrast, suffers the consequences of having rejected the Renlings' offer, and finds himself accepting another dead-end route to fast money by agreeing to accompany Joe out East. He naively assumes that there won't be any trouble along the way, and that he is only coming along for the drive, but he soon ends up on the run from the law. The impulse to go east strikes the reader as escapist: Augie states that he wants to get out of the city. As someone "Chicago-born", he desires new landscapes and possibilities. Though the drive proves disastrous, the rambling route back to Chicago by way of hopping trains is at least quixotically adventurous; in this manner, Augie manages to see something of the country.

Augie's mistake in judgment, however, does not bode well for his future. The decision to go with Joe Gorman flies in the face of Einhorn's previous warning about Joe's character. Augie understands that these first actions are crucial, but grabs at straws nonetheless. He rejects offers based on groundless idealism in favor of questionable actions, and makes far too many baseless assumptions. While he forms the Whitmanesque belief that the thing one assumes about one's self can be assumed about others, he fails to fully develop this insight. He has an almost romantic faith in the possibility of social mobility and rising above one's past, but he fails to determine how one can actively construct a path to reach these goals. Augie's idealized view of the Commissioner, Einhorn, and his son Arthur serves as only the vaguest kind of map for progress. Clem Tambow tells him: "You've got more possibilities than you know what to do with. The trouble with you is that you're looking for a manager."

In this section of the novel, Augie passes through a quick succession of professions: personal assistant, salesman, dog-groomer, and book-thief. Though he avoids Joe Gorman's darker route, he is inspired by Padilla's justification for stealing books: Padilla doesn't feel that "stealing" is his fate, thereby expressing a kind of psychological control over his destiny. Augie recognizes the value of Padilla's statement, and makes it his own; at the same time, however, this belief strikes the reader as untenable over the long-term. At the end of the novel, as Augie finds work dealing in black-market activities in Europe, he may continue to find comfort in this same rationalization, but the irony is that he may have unwittingly made a criminal profession his fate.

The irony of the book-stealing job is that Augie threatens the job by reading all of the books first, thereby causing a delay in the turnover rate. Augie clearly craves knowledge: he reads to learn about the world, though in the end he appears to have trouble creating a bridge between what he reads and reality. Augie orbits the world of the university, though he never registers to become an actual student; indeed, the reader wonders whether Augie will ever cross the threshold and become a true scholar. He expresses a clear admiration for intelligence and exhibits some of his own, but the question of "knowledge", for him, is less about books than it is about life experiences.

The narrative introduces Mimi Villars by way of Clem Tambow's admiration, but the reader infers that Augie is also smitten with Mimi. After meeting her lover Frazer, however, Augie realizes that neither he nor Clem have any real chance with her. Augie probably aspires to become the kind of man Mimi desires - an intellectual - but as it is, Frazer appears to exist in a stratum that Augie cannot reach.

Since Simon has begun making real money, his wedding is held in a fancy hotel. Before the wedding, he tells Augie that he wants him to marry Lucy Magnus; to "not dissolve in a bewilderment of choices but to make myself hard, like himself, and learn how to stay with the necessary, undistracted by the trimmings." Five Properties and Cissy Flexner arrive, but promptly leave when they discover that they have been placed at a table set behind a pillar. Lucy is clearly interested in Augie, and begins calling him her "husband".

As Augie's relationship with Lucy progresses, Mimi Villars tells him that she is pregnant with Frazer's child. She refuses to tell Frazer, however, and plans to get an abortion. This prompts Augie to contemplate his own beginnings: "It couldn't have been an accident. On my mother's side at least I can be sure there was love in it" (254). Mimi counters this with: "Is it love that saves it from being an accident?" The question is left unanswered, and Augie defers to Mimi's decision. He takes her to an abortion doctor on the South Side, and Mimi receives a painful injection that is intended to cause contractions. The injection, however, fails to work, and an infuriated Mimi seeks other measures for terminating her pregnancy. In the meantime, Kayo Obermark, a melancholy and brilliant student who lives in the room between Augie and Mimi, notices that something is amiss. He guesses what is happening, and tells Augie: "Everyone has bitterness in his chosen thing...God had to have bitterness in his chosen thing if he was really going to be man's God, a god who was human." Mimi undergoes an operation to abort her pregnancy. When Augie expresses his concern, Simon becomes suspicious that is Augie sleeping with her.

Unfortunately, Augie runs into Kelly Weintraub at the abortion doctor's office. Kelly, who is related to the Magnuses, spreads the news that Augie is helping another woman get an abortion. Mimi begins hemorrhaging severely, and even though Augie attempts to keep his date with Lucy, he ends up driving Mimi to the hospital. Simon is infuriated when he hears the rumors, and calls Augie to berate him. The emergency room doctor refuses to treat Mimi, so Augie drives her to a clinic with Kayo and Padilla. After she is admitted, Augie rushes over to Lucy's house, only to find a very displeased Uncle Charlie. It is clear that the budding relationship between Augie and Lucy is finished.

Life returns to normal. Mimi's health improves, and she breaks up with Frazer, and Kayo Obermark begins taking Augie with him to lectures. Augie tells the reader: "I wasn't convinced about the stony solemnity, that you couldn't get into the higher branches of thought without it or had to sit down inside these old-world-imitated walls. I felt they were too idolatrous and monumental" (286). Mimi introduces Augie to her friend Grammick, a law student and CIO union organizer, and he embarks upon yet another occupation. As a union organizer, Augie begins dating Sophie Geratis, a Greek chambermaid at a luxury hotel. She is already engaged to another man, but the two tumble into a relationship regardless. One night, when Augie is in his room making love to Sophie, he hears a knock on the door. He immediately recognizes the voice on the other side as belonging to Thea Fenchel, and - much to Sophie's disappointment - rushes to answer it.

Augie's union activities become problematic, and Grammick tells him to lie low. Augie goes to stay with Thea at her hotel. The two fall in love, and Thea asks him to go with her to Mexico, where she plans to procure a divorce from her husband, a very wealthy man named Smitty. Augie, believing himself to be in love, agrees to go: "I was threaded to her as if through the skin." Thea reveals her money-making scheme to train an eagle to hunt giant lizards, and Augie learns that Thea has wealthy relations, but that she herself is not particularly rich. He also senses the extremity of her personality, particularly in the way she plays the piano: "loose on the keys, chords overreached and elements spilled." Still, however, Augie feels certain that he loves her. He sees the eagle as Thea's "chosen thing", and, ignoring the warnings of his friends, drives a station wagon down to Texas with Thea, where Thea purchases a bird. She seems to have an innate understanding of how to tame the bird, and they continue down into Mexico. In Mexico, the eagle commands extraordinary respect, and Augie christens him Caligula. Thea teaches him to fly after a lure and to descend on her fist, and Augie gradually becomes thrilled by the remarkable sight of Thea holding her eagle.

Analysis

Augie's desire to help Mimi Villars is largely what inspires the drama surrounding her abortion and the crisis with the Magnus family. Simply for caring about the girl and attempting to ensure that she receives proper medical care, Augie destroys his relationship with Lucy Magnus. Though his real feelings for Lucy are never explicitly revealed, the reader can deduce that Simon has orchestrated much of the relationship in the hopes that Augie will follow in his footsteps and become a part of the Magnus family: "The world hasn't set too tight yet. There's room, if you find the openings to it." While Augie is not by any means a Machiavellian figure, he tells the reader: "I had a desire to go along with him out of the love I felt for him and enthusiasm for his outlook. In which I didn't fundamentally believe."

The issue that ultimately splinters Augie's relationship with the Magnus family is that he doesn't have the same personality as Simon; he is not, as Uncle Charlie quickly deduces, a Machiavellian. Additionally, while Augie does not seem to mind taking Lucy out on dates, he never expresses any real desire to become her lifelong companion. In fact, he seems far more interested in Mimi. When Mimi Villars tells Augie that she is pregnant, the events unfold as though Augie is her lover and the father of her unborn child. Again, he passively allows others to make this assumption (perhaps as a form of wish fulfillment), and this characteristic passivity leads to disaster. The mistaken belief that Augie is the father echoes Thea and Esther Fenchels' early assumption that Augie was Mrs. Renling's gigolo.

In the end, one cannot be too judgmental about Augie's inability to commit to Lucy, because he abandons her out of a sincere desire to help a friend in need. Mimi's pregnancy and decision to abort her baby inspire Augie to contemplate his own origins, and the memorable conversation between Mimi and Augie about the "accidental" nature of the pregnancy and Augie's opinion that "love" transforms "accident" - that Augie's mother's "love" had transformed a series of accidents into a family - reveal Augie's genuine belief in love. He respects Mimi's choice, but holds on to his personal outlook on life. Mimi refuses to let "accidents" dominate her life, while Augie places all of his faith in love's transformative power.

The urgency of Mimi's infection, the rumor of Augie's paternity, and Lucy's New Year's Eve formal all converge into a swell of compelling narrative drama. Augie's choice of Mimi over Lucy echoes Kayo Obermark's words: there is bitterness in one's chosen thing. In the end, Augie regrets how things ended up with Lucy. Augie's "choice" also closes off the possibility that he might follow in Simon's footsteps, as Simon cuts Augie off altogether in retaliation for the mess he has made of his plans. Augie returns to his pseudo-student life, and Mimi finds a job for him as repayment for his help. Ironically, Augie's actions do not make Mimi any more inclined to become his lover; instead, she begins to date Arthur, emphasizing the fact that Frazer and Arthur are on a stratum far out of Augie's reach.

As a union organizer, Augie never quite expresses the strong sense of political commitment that inspires "meek" men such as Grammick to become eloquent speakers and effective leaders. When he visits Einhorn, the older man reveals his general cynicism about political ideals - a cynicism that Augie apparently does not enjoy hearing about. At the same time, however, Augie does very little to convince the reader that he truly harbors communist beliefs. Forever the dilettante, Augie does well under Grammick's direction, but has no trouble leaving his job when he falls in love with Thea and employment becomes inconvenient. The fact that Augie attends to Thea in Sophie's presence also reinforces his inability to commit to people. Though he displays bravery in his willingness to act on his feelings, he fails to put forth the steady "face" that the social world wishes to see.

When Thea (meaning "goddess") reappears in Augie's life, he quickly falls in love. Thea proves to be an extreme personality: passionate, powerful, and intent on adopting Augie just like the rest of the Machiavellian characters in the story. She dresses him in the clothes of a sportsman and aims to recreate him in her own "huntress" image, echoing Mrs. Renling's desire to make him "perfect". Augie, again displaying ambivalence about his true identity, allows Thea to define his identity for him. He welcomes the chance to go to Mexico, despite his friends' warnings. This escapist proclivity echoes his decision to follow Joe Gorman out east, hinting at the inevitably disastrous outcome.

Thea proves to be a decisively Machiavellian character. Like Augie, she acts in accordance with her feelings, but like Simon, she is honest about her ambitions, and has a clear - albeit bizarre - sense of commitment. Augie respects her "chosen thing": training the eagle. This endeavor symbolizes the relationship between nature and humanity: the Machiavellians in the narrative seek to dominate "nature" (usually represented by Augie). Thea hopes to train the eagle (and, it is implied, Augie) to hunt for a mark without flinching, just as she hunted Augie by hiring detectives. The fact that Augie labels this endeavor her "chosen thing" foreshadows the bitterness Thea will ultimately come to feel.

In Mexico, Augie and Thea stay in the vacation home that belongs to Thea's family, along with a housekeeper, her infant, and the house boy, Jacinto, who eagerly offers them help in training Caligula. Augie begins feeling affectionate towards the lizards, which irritates Thea: "You get human affection mixed up with everything, like a savage." Augie also notices that, in contrast to Lucy, who liked to call him "husband", Thea calls him "lover", like Jimmy's sister Eleanor. One day Jacinto catches an exceptionally large lizard to use as prey, but the lizard bites the eagle in the thigh. Caligula cries out in pain, and refuses to continue catching the beasts. Thea, enraged, condemns the eagle.

Augie begins to sense that though he and Thea love each other, they are "not quite the same in...purpose. She had the idea of action for which love makes you ready and sets you free." Augie, on the other hand, avoids any real commitments. Thea decides to give the eagle one more chance, and brings him to the home of the giant lizards: a steep, rocky, "snaky" place. However, when one of the iguanas bites Caligula on the neck, the eagle cries out and drops the lizard, giving up once again. In a rage, Thea casts stones at the eagle, calling it a coward. Caligula flies back to the house, where food is readily available. Thea begins ignoring the eagle completely, while Augie finds solace in the books strewn about the house. Craving other company, he goes to town in search of excitement: there, he meets the beautiful Stella.

Augie makes a plea on Caligula's behalf, but Thea refuses to listen. Augie takes the matter into his own hands, suggesting that they go back to the home of the giant lizards to determine once and for all whether or not Caligula is capable of doing her job. Augie climbs up the slope on the back of a burro, but descends too quickly, and flies off the animal. He hits a rock, injuring his head. Thea shoots the injured the burro dead and takes Augie back to the house, where a doctor mends the crack in his skull. Thea sends Caligula away to a zoo in Indiana, and nurses Augie back to health. They both mourn the failure of their endeavor, but over time Thea becomes restless and bored. She begins hunting snakes again, and Augie, disturbed, seeks company in the town. He befriends the international vagrant community, and begins playing poker through the night. When Augie suggests that he and Thea marry, she says no.

One day, Augie catches sight of Trotsky standing in front of the church, and thrills at having glimpsed a great man. This sighting makes him think of Einhorn, and Augie suddenly realizes that one of the bodyguards is Sylvester. They greet each other, and Sylvester tells him that Frazer is now one of Trotsky's secretaries. Meanwhile, in town, things heat up for Oliver, Stella's boyfriend; his trouble with the law intensifies, and Stella becomes frightened. Thea suggests that she and Augie leave for Chilpanzingo, and when Augie asks what she has in mind, she tells him that there are supposed to be some interesting animals there. Augie eventually agrees, only to leave her at Oliver's housewarming party to talk with Stella in private. Stella confides to him that Oliver held a gun to her head, and that she needs someone to help her get to Mexico City. She tells Augie that they're in similar situations, trapped by their lovers. Augie agrees, though he shivers "as if my fate had brushed me." Stella's words rings true to him: "you and I are the kind of people other people are always trying to fit into their schemes."

Augie explains to Thea that he intends to help Stella get away from Oliver, but Thea, infuriated, claims that Stella is lying. Augie invites her to come along, but she refuses, and Augie drives away with Stella. He accidentally takes a wrong turn, forcing them to spend the night together. He and Stella sleep together, and in the morning Stella tells Augie that she'll pay him back for his trouble by placing money in a Wells Fargo account for him. She also tells him that he should come by and see her some day. He drops her off in Cuernavaca, where he hires a car for her, and heads back, prepared to lie to Thea. Back at the house, however, Thea refuses to listen to his story; she intuitively knows the truth. She readies herself to go to Chilpanzingo without him, but Augie tries to make up with her. Instead, he only upsets Thea when he complains about her hunting and calls her "fantastic". She responds: "Maybe I am peculiar, that I only know these strange ways of doing something. Instead of sticking to the ordinary way and doing something false." She adds: "I felt mostly alone, as if the world were full of things but empty of people...I must be a little crazy...I'm sorry you're here now. You're not special. You're like everybody else. You get tired easily. I don't want to see you any more." Suddenly, Augie finds himself abandoned once again.

In the throes of a crisis, Augie tries to think of a way to prove to Thea that he loves her: "Everybody gets damaged, and you should forgive me so we can continue." When Augie learns that a former lover of Thea's has gone down to Chilpanzingo, he can only assume the worst, and heads south to profess his love. He confronts Thea, but finds her alone. He asks her whether they can be together again, but she says no. She tells him that she wishes he were dead, and Augie, recognizing that there is no longer anything binding them together, asks one last time whether he can join her on her journey. Once again, however, she tells him that he is not welcome.

Analysis

When the eagle proves to be a coward, no amount of human effort or discipline can change the animal's essential nature: he is irrevocably "domesticated". The parallel between the eagle and Augie is undeniable. Augie, in the face of Machiavellian influences, refuses to change or to conform to the expectations of others. He shows this by first sympathizing with the lizards that the eagle pursues, and then by sympathizing with the eagle when Thea begins to condemn the creature. Augie exhibits an unflagging desire to prove Thea wrong: first, he attempts to combat her unwillingness to continue working with the eagle, and later, he refuses to allow her to abandon him.

Augie's "opposition", however, proves fatal to the relationship. He opposes Thea by "choosing" Stella, dismissing Thea's assertion that Stella is a liar. This action recalls Augie's decision to choose Mimi over Lucy; he abandons his faithful lover, choosing instead to help Stella escape her dangerous boyfriend. The choice also allows for a degree of passivity: Augie feels that fate has made the decision for him and rushes into the future, closing off the possibility of a life with Thea, just as his decision to rescue Mimi shut off the possibility of him joining the Magnus family. Thea, however, despises all that is dishonest and banal. Already suspicious about Augie's lack of commitment, his decision to come to Stella's aid prompts Thea to make a clean break. In keeping with her forceful character, she rejects Augie as "false" and "ordinary".

The always-adaptable Augie suddenly finds himself abandoned once again. Devastated, he begins to look inward and examine himself: "My real fault was that I couldn't stay with my purest feelings." Thea's abandonment echoes Augie's unknown father, who swept through the house like a "god" and impregnated his mother before deserting them. The narrative signals that Thea's influence might have actually done Augie some good. In acting always in his "opposition", however, he destroys the chance to discover what might have been.

Augie meditates: "What was the matter that pureness of feeling couldn't be kept up? I see I met those writers in the big book of utopias at a peculiar time. In those utopias, set up by hopes and art, how could you overlook the part of nature or be sure you could keep the feelings up?" In other words, can something as pure as "love" become the material upon which one builds a future? A material world based on love - or "utopia" - starkly contrasts with the world of the Machiavellians, where the individual confronts his or her circumstances strategically, in an effort to accumulate power. Thea is the one figure in the novel who attempts to strike a balance, mixing her "love" with her "will".

Augie states in a memorable passage: "Everyone tries to create a world he can live in, and what he can't use he often can't see. But the real world is already created, and if your fabrication doesn't correspond, then even if you feel noble and insist on there being something better than what most people call reality, that better something needn't try to exceed what, in its actuality, since we know it so little, may be very surprising. If a happy state of things, surprising; if miserable and tragic, no worse than what we invent." The fundamental problem that can be derived from this passage is that the two lovers have different visions about what constitutes a "good" life. While they both believe that "love" is the fundamental building block, they have differing perspectives on how to build upon this love. Usually, individuals in a relationship must compromise, but Thea shows no inclination to do so. From Augie's perspective, he is nothing more than a "recruit": "There's one image that gets out in front to lead the rest and can impose its claim to being genuine with more force than others, or one voice enlarged to thunder is heard above the others. Then a huge invention, which is the invention maybe of the world itself, and of nature, becomes the actual world - with cities, factories, public buildings, railroads, armies, dams, prisons, and movies - becomes the reality. That's the struggle of humanity, to recruit others to your version of what's real. Then even the flowers and the moss on the stones become the moss and the flowers of a version." The "pure feeling" of "love" fails to dominate the need for control and power, and the lack of freedom only fuels any attempt to escape control. This misunderstanding causes love itself to be cast to the side. Augie is astonished at the dissolution of his affair, because he had put such great store in love. Suddenly, he feels "ugly", and wonders what to do next. Having freed himself up to the possibility of pursuing love, he recognizes that he has failed to commit to that love and do whatever it takes to ensure its survival. This forces Augie to consider ways in which he might be able to grow and change.

The contrast between Stella and Thea is underscored by Augie's choice of the former over the latter. Thea, always honest, tells the truth about Augie, as well as about Stella. Stella, however, proves to be less-than-truthful. The story about Oliver holding a gun to her echoes Einhorn's warning about Joe Gorman, but the key difference lies in the intention of the storytellers. Both assertions may have been false, but Einhorn hoped to set Augie upon a better path, while Stella is concerned only with herself, unmindful of the detrimental effects a romantic liaison might have on Augie's relationship with Thea.

Since Stella becomes a part of Augie's "fate" and "future", he experiences the human bitterness Kayo Obermark described with regard to Mimi's abortion: "It might be in the end that the chosen thing itself is bitterness, because to arrive at the chosen thing needs courage, because it's intense, and intensity is what the feeble humanity of us can't take for long." Though Augie "passively" makes his choice, he lives with the consequences with "courage" and tries to endure the bitterness that always comes with the thought of what might have been.

Augie continues to hope for Thea's forgiveness, but is finally forced to abandon his efforts. He seeks out Sylvester, who asks Frazer to find Augie a place to stay. Augie takes up residence with Paslavitch, a weepy, Chopin-playing Yugoslavian with whom Augie becomes good friends. One day, Frazer proposes that Augie act as Trotsky's nephew and help them with a plan to smuggle him into the United States. Augie agrees, but secretly prays not to be swept up again in "one of those great currents." The question turns out to be moot, as Trotsky vetoes the idea. Augie, recognizing that he can no longer hold his own in Mexico, purchases a bus ticket back to Chicago. On the way back, Augie visits Georgie at the institution down-state. He finds that Georgie has been trained in shoemaking, and the two spend a quiet, happy day together. When Augie reaches Chicago he goes to see Mama, who tells him to visit Simon, who has become rich.

Augie also goes to visit his old mentor, Einhorn, who complains to Augie that Mimi Villars is ruining his son, Arthur. Augie discovers that little of his former affection for Einhorn remains, particularly since the old man was the one who advised him to treat Simon harshly. Augie also meets with Clem Tambow, and confides in him the strange dream he had of a house with three grand pianos. Augie then persuades Arthur to give him a reference for a job as a millionaire's research assistant. The eccentric, miserly millionaire, Robey, intends to write a book on human happiness, but eventually Augie realizes that the lonely man just wants someone who will listen to him.

Augie begins to teach at a school, where he runs into Kayo Obermark, who is teaching Latin and algebra. Kayo is married with a child now, and invites Augie over to his house for a meal. There, Augie ends up selling his car to Kayo's wife's brother, who then tries to cheat him at a card game. In the end, Augie wins at cards, but when the car's malfunction (it has bent rods) is revealed, Kayo becomes angry with Augie for not having disclosed the problem earlier. Augie also resumes his relationship with Sophie Geratis, who is now married.

When Augie sits down for a serious talk with Clem, he tells him about the "axial lines of life, with respect to which you must be straight or else your existence is merely clownery, hiding tragedy...When striving stops, there they are as a gift. I was lying on the couch here before and they suddenly went quivering right straight through me. Truth, love, peace, bounty, usefulness, harmony!" Augie then reveals his dream for the future: he wants to have a home, a wife, and a family, and live with Mama and Georgie. He also wants a start a school, a kind of academy. Clem remarks that he wants to be "king". Augie, his vision now clear, is considering marrying Sophie when the war breaks out. Suddenly, all he can think about is joining the effort. Unfortunately, a hernia (a residual effect of the accident in Mexico) forces him to get an operation, from which he makes a slow recovery. Simon introduces Augie to Renee, his lover. Augie doesn't trust Renee, but sees how intensely Simon loves her. At the same time, Simon also makes it clear that he will never leave Charlotte, and that he feels strongly about his wife, as well. Nevertheless, he sees Renee every day. One day, Renee tries to kill herself, but Simon thinks that she is bluffing. From Augie's point of view, it looks like a second marriage. Eventually, Renee claims that she is pregnant and tries to sue Simon for support. Charlotte steps in with evidence against her husband's lover, and several scathing confrontations ensue.

As Augie finally prepares to go to war, Clem advises: "Don't push your luck. Don't take a risk with the clap. Don't tell your secrets to anybody to satisfy their curiosity. Don't get married without a six-month engagement." Simon himself gets turned down for service because of a bad ear.

In New York, Augie visits Stella, thinking: "What use was war without also love?" He kisses her on the cheek, and they both flush with the electricity of their connection. Augie tells Stella that he wants to be a teacher and have a family, and she tells him that she thinks he'll make a great father. He also tells her that she'd make a great film star, and hugs her around the legs in a show of affection, saying that he loves her. He returns to his training, but after a week returns to find her weeping and upset, worried sick that he will never come back. She tells him that she is in love with him, and he asks her to marry him, ignoring Clem's advice: "[his] advice was good for people who were merely shopping, not for someone who had lived all his life with one great object." They whisper to each other about their lives, and Augie learns that she is a "mystic". They decide to marry when he graduates from the training program at Sheepshead.

Analysis

The reader hopes that Augie will learn something from his failed relationship with Thea and begin conducting himself with more logic and foresight, but these hopes are readily dashed. Augie prays not to get swept up in pretending to be Trotsky's nephew, but doesn't actively say no to the request, either. Although it might be that Augie simply wants to meet Trotsky, he takes no agency in the matter, either in the affirmative or the negative.

When Augie finally returns to Chicago, he stops to visit Georgie and then Mama, the figures who represent "love" in his life. From there, he goes to reconcile with Simon. However, when Augie visits Einhorn, he notices the unhappiness in the house, its general state of decline, and the pervasive bitterness centering on Arthur's career struggles. When Augie considers the possibility that it may be best to let his affection for Einhorn go, he fails to show commitment to the man who, in better times, provided him with advice and fatherly support. Augie further disappoints the reader when he sells his car with the "bent rods" to Kayo Obermark's brother-in-law without being forthright about its bent rods. Even though Kayo's brother-in-law is portrayed as intolerable, Augie's dishonesty in this interaction casts him in a negative light.

At this point, a general sense of disappointment and decline pervades the narrative. Although rich, Simon is unsatisfied, and fills his need for attention with a mistress named Renee. He attempts to balance his "respect" for his wife, Charlotte, with his passionate "love" for Renee, but the situation proves highly unstable, given Renee's desire to share in Simon's great wealth.

The bent rods on Augie's car echo his speech to Clem Tambow about the "axial lines" of life. In this passage, Augie describes the straight lines that dictate the course of an individual life, and his desire to follow them; in other words, he aspires to live honestly. In these axial lines he can, as he professes to Clem, discern his fate. Oddly enough, Augie longs to "teach" - and indeed, he does teach in a school - but the narrative fails to mention what it is that he actually teaches, leaving the reader to wonder what Augie may have "learned" throughout the course of his adventures. Otherwise, Augie's vision centers on love, with Augie himself holding the central position; Clem likens his ideal position in life to that of a "king". This moment recalls Augie's assertion that he felt like a "king" with Thea Fenchel in Chicago, where they lived together in a hotel. During that time, they lived richly, although Augie didn't fully understand his lover's economic status. It seems that Augie thought that he was going to marry a rich girl just as his brother had done. That false belief might have been Augie's supreme ideal; over time, however, the illusion crumbled into a shape that he couldn't commit to. Along with his dreams of finding a wife, having a child, living with his mother and Georgie and starting a school, he professes a vision of "building" a community based on "love" - a kind of personal utopia. This vision, however, in keeping with Augie's character, washes away with the coming of the war; Augie, once again, gets distracted.

Padilla and Clem both offer counter-perspectives to Augie's argument. Padilla tells Augie that he is "too ambitious. You want too much, and therefore if you miss out you blame yourself too hard. But this is all a dream. The big investigation today is into how bad a guy can be, not how good he can be. You don't keep up with the times. You're going against history. Or at least you should admit how bad things are, which you don't do either." Padilla encourages Augie to be more realistic, to stop living in a fantasy world, and to learn more about the Machiavellian methods he openly rejects - or, as Padilla couches it - learn "how bad a guy can be." Clem, speaking from the perspective of a psychologist, insists: "The whole mystery of life is in the specific data," indicating the necessity of carefully studying the material world. Augie, however, refuses to listen to either of them. He understands the truth about himself: "In the world of today your individual man has to be willing to illustrate a more and more narrow and restricted point of existence. And I'm not a specialist." He discovers the root of his failure to find a long-term profession: he is wholly unable to narrow his point of view. Augie craves knowledge, experiences, and love, and demonstrates a kind of supreme "opposition" to the values endorsed during his era. The question is, then, how can Augie survive in a world that resists the acceptance of such a "pure" element?

Augie ultimately recognizes "how impossible it is to live without something infinitely mighty and great." Instead of dwelling on the loss of Thea, he moves on to a new vision - the one that he shares with Clem. He does so, however, aware of the fact that he is merely playing at the role of the visionary: "The reason why I didn't see things as they were was that I didn't want to; because I couldn't love them as they were." What can be viewed as a lack of honesty can also be viewed as a refusal. Augie works at continuing to see the beauty in things so that he will not sink into bitterness.

As Augie prepares to go to war, he decides to visit Stella, and makes a decision to love her. He seems intent on transforming the former "accident" of having rescued and slept with Stella in Mexico into real "love". The reunion feels genuine; they truly seem to fall in love with each other, and Augie falls to the ground and hugs her legs, recalling Georgie's show of affection to Grandma Lausch. The allusion is an ominous one, implying that Stella will go on to somehow betray Augie, but for the moment, the reader hopes that the special fate that Augie has set for himself will prove fortuitous.

In the final section of the novel, Augie goes to New York, where he befriends a mature Armenian divorce lawyer named Mintouchian, the lover of Stella's good friend Agnes Kuttner. Mintouchian - successful, wealthy, and highly educated - offers Augie his thoughts on love and adultery while sitting with him in a Turkish bath. Augie recognizes that Mintouchian is "another of those persons who persistently arise before me with life counsels and illumination throughout my entire earthy pilgrimage." As a lawyer, Mintouchian is suspicious of everyone's motives, and makes it a point to collect secrets. He also asserts that while love might be adultery, adultery might also be love, as it is in his case. He loves Agnes Kuttner madly, although Augie can't understand why. Mintouchian confides in him that Agnes, too, has her secrets. Back in Mintouchian's home, Augie meets his wife, who whispers to him that she knows all about her husband's affair, but tolerates his behavior and accepts his failings: "He is great, even if he's all too human."

Augie graduates from Sheepshead, and he and Stella marry. Mintouchian and Agnes attend the wedding, along with Robey, Sylvester, and Frazer, all of whom happen to be in New York at the time. Augie notices that Frazer, a lank figure of American elegance who engaged in intelligence services during the war, adds "tone" to the wedding. He carries himself, in Augie's view, like a person meant to become important.

After two nights on a honeymoon, Augie ships off to war, where he begins listening to the secrets and personal histories of the other men aboard the ship. On the fifteenth day at sea a torpedo sinks the ship, and all of the men (save for Augie and another Chicagoan named Basteshaw) drown. Augie and Basteshaw, the ship's carpenter, sit in a lifeboat, watching as the sea falls silent around them. Augie listens to Basteshaw talk disparagingly about his family, and particularly about his father. Augie disapproves of the man, and likes him less and less as he reveals his mad-genius tendencies. Basteshaw claims to have discovered the key to creating life, and declares that his theory is based on his studies of extreme boredom, a modern phenomenon that expresses his conviction that one cannot change. He adds that he is not a god, but desires to continue his work. He then tells Augie that he saw their position on the map clearly just as the ship went down; they should hit the Canary Islands soon if they go in the right direction. He also says that he would prefer to land quietly so that he will be able to continue his experiments; he doesn't want to enter into the service again. He asks Augie if he will join him, but Augie worries about whether he can trust this man's inner compass - or even his sanity. When Augie attempts to signal a passing ship, Basteshaw angrily ties him up, but during the night Augie frees himself. He considers throwing Basteshaw overboard, but notices that the man is running a high fever. He decides to let him alone, and even nurses him to health. In the end, a British tanker passes by and rescues the survivors, dropping them off in Naples - nowhere near the Canary Islands. After six more months, Augie finally returns to New York. On a night in September, he at last runs into Stella's arms.

As the novel draws to a close, Augie explains that he has abandoned his dream of starting a foster-academy, but that the dream was more about love than it was about education. He seeks love in Stella's arms, but soon finds that she has a preoccupation of her own: becoming a film star. They move to Europe, where Stella begins working for an international film company while Augie manages Mintouchian's black-market dealings abroad. In Paris, Augie runs across Frazer, who is now working for the World Educational Fund. As time passes, Augie also learns that Stella lies a great deal. Mintouchian reveals to him that she has been trying to sue a former lover of hers for his money. Augie begs Stella to stop, and she cries and promises him that she will. One day, Simon and Charlotte visit Paris, and Augie asks Simon if he knows what happened to Renee. Charlotte overhears Augie, and is angered by his inquiry. Simon admits that there never was any child. Renee, he tells Augie, simply disappeared, and is most likely married by now. Augie is heartbroken when he realizes just how badly Simon wants a child.

Augie takes a train to Bruges for business with Jacqueline, the maid, who is on her way to her uncle's farm in Normandy. When they arrive in Normandy, Augie decides to accompany Jacqueline to her destination. The weather is cold, and the walk is difficult. Jacqueline insists that they sing in order to keep their stomachs from freezing, and although it is a somewhat ridiculous suggestion, Augie begins singing a Mexican song. Jacqueline tells him that it is her dream to go to Mexico, and this revelation makes Augie laugh: "a Jacqueline, for instance, as hard used as that by rough forces, will still refuse to lead a disappointed life?" Augie considers his attempt to write down his life, and declares: "Why, I am a sort of Columbus...I may well be a flop at this line of endeavor. Columbus too thought he was a flop, probably, when they sent him back in chains. Which didn't prove there was no America." The novel ends on a note of laughter.

Analysis

Augie encounters two more Machiavellian characters in the final chapters of the book: Mintouchian, whom he befriends, and Basteshaw, whom he despises. Mintouchian, like Simon, attempts to strike a balance between his respect for his wife and his love for his mistress. Though the situation does not appear as unstable as Simon's (given that Mintouchian's wife condones his behavior), Mintouchian also strikes the reader as a different sort of Machiavellian - and a far more successful one. While Thea was unfailingly honest, Mintouchian obsesses about gathering the truth so that it may one day be used to his advantage. Additionally, unlike the other Machiavellians who attempt to control Augie and shape him into their own likeness, sparking the "opposition" that is natural in him, Mintouchian states: "You must take your chance on what you are. And you can't sit still. I know this double poser, that if you make a move you may lose but if you sit still you will decay. But what will you lose? You will not invent better than God or nature or turn yourself into the man who lacks no gift or development before you make the move. This is not given to us." In other words, he finally explains the basic drive behind the Machiavellian urge to succeed in terms that Augie can understand. Augie realizes that he has the same drive in him - the need to take a chance. Augie's problem is that he cannot figure out who, exactly, he wants to be.

Additionally, Mintouchian states that "It is better to die what you are than to live a stranger forever." By this time, Augie already understands that individuals try to ensure that their fates are shared; herein lies the basic building block of communities, families, and romantic relationships. The narrative emphasizes encounters with various individuals, drawing attention to the importance of relationships and highlighting the fact that Augie fails to commit to any of them. Clem Tambow suggests that they go into business together, and Thea encourages Augie to build a relationship with her; both of these individuals push Augie to seek out a more prosperous future in the company of others. Ultimately, Bellow seems to believe that little can be accomplished alone. Bellow rejects the vision set forth by the narrator of Albert Camus' The Stranger: the narrator in Camus' work sets himself apart from society and refuses to conform to its expectations. Bellow's novel, however, rejects this image of the romantically alienated "stranger", asserting that fate lies in the flow of experience, and that character development rests upon one's willingness to be held accountable to others.

In an interesting moment, Mintouchian's wife states to Augie that her husband is "all too human", thereby emphasizing Mintouchian's humanity (both in a positive and a negative sense). Later, Basteshaw claims he is "not a god"; this statement conveys the same information as "all too human:, but in a manner that appears false: Basteshaw actually feels that he is a kind of god. When the ship disappears into the sea, Augie and Basteshaw are the only survivors. Augie, having become the repository of the secrets - or truths - of the men on board the ship, represents the kaleidoscope of ordinary, mortal lives: he wishes only to see his wife, and clings sincerely to the hope of a future filled with love. Basteshaw, on the other hand, obsesses over his ambitions: the megalomaniac imagines that he will be able to alter the very direction of humanity. He represents "force", while Augie argues with him that poets can never be forced to appear - they rise up from the natural wellsprings of the time. The two visions cause the men to come to blows: Basteshaw binds Augie down, but Augie ultimately turns the tables on his ill companion.

The narrative draws to a close by revealing that Simon and Charlotte are childless, and that Charlotte is unable to conceive. This fact recalls Simon and Augie's own accidental births, Mimi Villars' accidental pregnancy, and the general warning expressed in the narrative that men should be careful not to be trapped by a woman who becomes pregnant. Simon and Charlotte, in the end, echo the Renlings; later in life, they too may seek someone who is "adoptable".

Although Augie recognizes the undercurrent of disappointment in Simon's life, he suppresses his own, only showing enough for the reader to suspect that his marriage to Stella is breaking down. He feels love for her, but wants it to be the "victory of love over preoccupations." Stella's desire to become a film star dominates the marriage; there is little room for compromise. She brushes off Augie's dream of starting a family, and in the end Augie realizes that the woman is indeed what Thea believed her to be: a liar. Stella's attempt to sue a past lover links her to Simon's mistress, Renee, as well as to the disturbing Agnes Kuttner. Additionally, the text hints at the very real possibility that Stella has a lover in Paris.

An additional source of disappointment for Augie lies in his inability to settle on a real profession. When he runs into Frazer in Paris, he finds that Frazer is working for the World Educational Fund. The moment prompts the reader to consider the trajectories of the two characters. While both jumped from one job to another, dabbling in various professions, Frazer appears to have been much smarter about his moves. Both men end up in Paris, but in vastly different positions. Augie merely stays afloat, with one foot planted firmly in the underworld, while Frazer seems poised to launch a career on the international stage.

Augie's management of Mintouchian's foreign black-market interests shows that he has ultimately come to be dominated by one of the Machiavellians that have haunted him throughout his life. Mintouchian has an understanding of how to speak to Augie, and knows how to convince him to share in his fate. Mintouchian shares with Augie his own secrets as well as Stella's, and, in this way, binds them together.

The novel, interestingly, closes with Augie's laughter, and a description of his journey with Jacqueline. Echoing the figure of Molly Simms, Jacqueline lives a decidedly difficult life. Whether Augie will mimic Simon's action is left up in the air - it is unclear why Augie gets off the train with her and does not continue on to Bruges. However, Augie explains his decision to disembark with the maid by saying that he sees hope in her. Given the many disappointments that Jacqueline has faced, her "refusal" to live a "disappointed" life is almost dishonest, but her dishonesty has merit: it motivates her to push her life in a new direction. Bellow, it seems, believes that things can change. Augie looks back on his own existence, come to life on the page, and sees that the diversity of his encounters has rendered his life a kind of discovery, not unlike Columbus' discovery of America. America is what one makes of it: it is a land of possibilities, in which each man struggles to realize his own, unique fate. Though it is left to the reader to judge whether Augie has been a success, it is undeniable that he has truly been an American.

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