Part 1, Life Styles in the Golden Land: Slouching Toward Bethlehem, Summary and Analysis

Didion feels the country is falling apart, so she goes to San Francisco to see where the missing children are congregating and calling themselves hippies. Didion begins making acquaintances among the people there and is told to speak to a man named Deadeye. Didion tries to find Deadeye, but keeps missing him at the places she is told he will be. Didion befriends Don and Max; Max tells Didion how he moved out of the conventional way of living, that his woman would not mind if he spent time with another woman and did not come home for days at a time. Max feels that he has removed all the 'don'ts' from his life and lives any way he feels like living. This...