Chapter Fifteen Summary

Eugene details that he and Pamela became lovers that very night. She asks him after they finish if he ever killed anyone in the war during Vietnam. Used to having this question asked of him, Eugene answers by giving a cryptic, impossible-to-solve riddle to Pamela. He says that if she can figure out the answer, she will have also arrived at the precise number of people he killed while in action. Wilder plays a portion of one of Eugene's conversations with his daughter Kimberly to the firing committee. Eugene comes across badly, seemingly at war with himself and with a loathing for his country. Wilder advises the committee to consider that the students do not need a "defeatist" like Eugene teaching their children that failure is the inevitable outcome of all endeavors, after all. Wilder indicates the manner in which Eugene...