The Mendozas' apartment

At the end of Chapter 1, after Kook Mendoza finds Profane in the subway, Profane ends up at the Mendoza's uptown apartment. Here he meets Kook's older sister Josefina and brother Angel. Profane goes out drinking and girl-watching with Angel and his friend Geronimo (who sometimes sleeps on the Mendoza's floor) and decides to get a job with them hunting alligators in the sewers.

Chapter 6, "In which Profane returns to street level," which consists of a single section, begins with the sentence "Women always happened to Profane the shlemihl like accidents: broken shoelaces, dropped dishes, pins in new shirts." Because Profane accidents like these are instances of the inanimate world taking revenge upon him, we can see the above sentence as furthering the theme of women as inanimate objects.

This chapter begins with Profane, Geronimo, Angel, and Fina hitting the town. The boys are out looking for girls, and Madame Butterfly plays in the background. Profane woos a young lady by singing The Eyes of a New York Woman. Profane knows Fina is setting herself up for a gang bang by acting as "spiritual leader" for the Playboys but can't to anything to protect her as that would mean deflowering her himself and thereby attaching her to his life. The chapter ends with Angel discovering Fina has come to the fate Benny expected. Her eyes have become "hollowed," suggesting that she is now a Void that can only be filled by a man or a child. Angel beats her severely. Profane decides not to return to the Mendozas' and instead returns to traveling the umbilical yarn Pychon spins for (and of) him.


Copyright © 1995-97 San Narciso Community College