Part II, Chapters 1-4 Summary and Analysis

Part II is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 pulls back from the immediate action and serves as another preface to the march on the Pentagon, much like the first chapter of the book. This chapter is written from the vantage point of hindsight. Mailer claims that the march on the Pentagon was an ambiguous event and that its place in history will not be known for ten or twenty years, if ever.

Chapter 2 returns the reader to the intimate details of Mailer's experience over this weekend. He now has a hangover. He uses a metaphor to describe his hangover. It has ravaged his brain as napalm ravages a countryside. He makes himself get up and then meets some friends and acquaintances in the dining room. At breakfast, the group talks about the plans for the...