Summary

In Chapter 21, Stanley searches for the ginger-bearded man that he saw leave the coffeehouse. He assumes that the man and his dog walked toward the beach, so he decides to look for them there. As he is walking along the boardwalk, Stanley considers turning back because he is in the Shoreline Dogs’ territory and does not want any trouble with them. He decides to keep looking for the man regardless.

When he reaches the beach, Stanley still does not see any sign of the man or his dog. He kneels down in the sand and looks along the “pattern of light at the sea’s edge” (143). As he is gazing at the shoreline, Stnaley thinks back to how he taught himself this trick when he needed to pass the time while traveling in boxcars. He would look through a narrow strip of the...