Chapter II The Bladder Totem Summary and Analysis

Wolfe waits for Kesey in a garage the author calls the Warehouse. The Merry Pranksters live in the Warehouse, but it has no plumbing. The only clean place to use the toilet is a nearby Shell gas station. The station attendant does not like the hippies who use the bathroom regularly but never buy gas. Wolfe names this attitude "the rotten look" when he takes the toilet key, attached by a chain to an empty oil can. The empty oil can is the bladder totem, uniting all the Merry Pranksters into a single, gypsy-like family unit due to their common need to urinate.

The Merry Pranksters look strange in their costumes but not as strange as some of the straight fraternity parties that Wolfe has been to. The way the Merry Pranksters think...