Chapter Eight Summary

Eugene relates the history of how the bells came to be in the valley's tiny college. They are made from scrap metal collected from the Battle of Gettysburg, it turns out. The melted iron from former weapons of death had been poured into the bell molds, thus creating something symbolically beautiful in its place. Eugene loves this story, feeling that it represents the best in humanity's yearning to set right wrongs committed by others even when previous to their own existence. Saddened by the decline of the world, Eugene fantasizes about his grandfather, the socialist, and how his ancestor would view the prison across the lake from the college. Eugene speculates the old man would be horrified to see that people had gone from being the primary consideration in the economy and degenerated into little more than largely unnecessary cogs in...