Portnoy's Complaint Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 4, Part 1 Summary

Chapter 4, Part 1 Summary

"Cunt Crazy" This chapter opens with Alex's brief but intensely graphic description of how, at the age of fifteen, he masturbated on a commuter bus on the way home from a lobster dinner with friends. He wonders to the doctor what made him do it—his obsession with sex, his obsession with shikses (one of which he sat next to on the bus) or the gushing sense of freedom he felt (see "Quotes", p. 79) after eating lobster for the first time—lobster being one of the taboo foods according to Orthodox Jewish food laws. Contemplation of the laws leads to another rant-like section (of which there are several in this chapter), this time focused on what he sees as the foolishness of those laws. This rant leads, in turn, to the comment that "such a creature" has never been cooked in his kosher home, which then leads...
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