Part 2, Chapter 21 Summary

There had been a temperance campaign for local choice in town several years before, and Gant, the alcoholic, had publicly supported it. He rents a room to a 49-year-old widow and her son and has an affair with her until he tires of it. One day, he comes home after drinking and goes on a rampage, driving her out.

Meanwhile, Ben, still working at the paper, has become a ladies' man, although most of the women he has affairs with are at least ten years older than he is.

Part 2, Chapter 21 Analysis

Irony of ironies. The raging, raving alcoholic comes out on the side of a temperance ordinance. He constantly plays to the crowd. He has a robust appetite for female flesh and has not been very discriminatory in his selections, which has played a role in Steve's stunted development because...