Part II: Chapter 1 Summary

Twenty miles east of Baker, Thompson stops the Red Shark to take a quick drug inventory. Further down the road, he stops at a pharmacy to pick up more alcohol and a bottle of ether. In the parking lot, he reads a newspaper article about a twenty-five year old man who—under the influence of a drug overdose—clawed his own eyes out in his jail cell.

Part II: Chapter 1 Analysis

After the preceding few chapters, Thompson seems to have calmed somewhat. He still fantasizes about shooting lizards on the highway with his attorney's Magnum and he presents himself as sweaty and nervous, but the language of Chapter 1 is perfectly lucid and free of the panicked fragments that marked Thompson's flight from Las Vegas.