Chapter 1, "Through the Looking Glass" Summary

Willie Keith, a Princeton graduate, medium height, chubby, good looking, with curly red hair, and a talent for playing the piano and inventing party songs, enters Navy midshipmen's school at Columbia University to escape the Army. He reports to the chief, entering his new, strange world as easily as "Alice's stepping through the looking glass". Willie gets his shots before he and others have physicals. Willie cannot touch his toes without popping his back. He is diagnosed with "lordosis" (hollow back). Willie picks up his new uniform, study books, and a room assignment. He will report in the morning for another physical. He finds his Furnald Hall dorm room and his roommates, Keefer and Keggs. Keggs knows he will not pass. Keefer, a fat, hung-over, Southerner, goes to sleep on his cot as...