Chapter 19 & 20 Summary

Chapter nineteen describes the conversation during the group's first night at the cabin, all of them drinking and smoking and eating steaks. While the other members of the group are engaged in other conversations and activities, Kerouac and Arthur Ma dive into a nonsensical conversation about old men's driving habits. After a while the group adjourns to the beach for a bonfire. Arthur and he continue their nonsensical conversation even after the group has returned to the cabin to pass out and continue until dawn, getting to know each other's rhythms and conversational tendencies better and better and enjoying each other more as the night wears on.

The twentieth chapter describes the progression of Kerouac's relationship with Monsanto's closest friend, Arthur Ma, and what he learns about Ma's background. He is the son of a traditional Chinese family in Chinatown, and his father...