Part 1: String Beans Summary and Analysis

This chapter chronicles Feynman's experiences as a teenager employed in his aunt's hotel. Mr. Feynman studies the customers (as well as his fellow staff members) in a scientific manner—perhaps viewing the hotel as an anthropological microcosm of human society at large. He comments on the formulaic way in which these people live their lives and the way they go to their jobs and play cards and eat their meals as if by clockwork.

Teenage Feynman is skeptical and vocally critical of social customs he finds ludicrous or even detrimental. He tells his boss he has a problem with the custom of tipping, and that employees should be paid more by their employers rather than depending upon tips from customers. His boss fails to understand his point and ridicules him for "not wanting his tips".

He...