Chapter 12, Rollercoaster Summary

Stan enters the Louis Expresso Association annual dance, tipsy drunk. He works his way into the bathroom and begins making a speech on a chair to the mirror. Several members of the association come in and decide to eject Stan from the dance. Stan finds himself near the Ellis Island ferry boats when he sobers up enough to know where he is. His mind swings about in garbled and disjointed thoughts. He goes to Pearline's apartment and drunkenly sets it on fire. Pearline comes home to the burning apartment after telling another woman how ambitious Stan is.

Chapter 12, Rollercoaster Analysis

Stan, at twenty-two years of age, has a pathetic alcoholic life. His mind has deteriorated to be a mass of incoherent babblings and tune fragments with mangled lyrics. His farcical marriage to Pearline bothers him, and he loses control and starts...