Chapter Eleven Summary

Eugene relates how he first met the famous t.v. firebrand Jason Wilder when Wilder attended a board meeting in which Eugene was unceremoniously fired. Kimberly, Jason Wilder's learning disabled daughter, tricks Eugene into making a series of incriminating statements over the course of a semester in which she has him as teacher. Kimberly wears an audio recording device so that she can later prove Eugene spoke badly about America and his government, thus bringing into question his loyalty as a citizen. Eugene explains that Kimberly only recorded the parts of his impromptu lectures about the evils of America out of context, omitting whenever he mentioned that America was still a great country, flaws and all. Eugene points out that the college is full of children of important people, whereas the prison across the lake is full of children of unimportant...