The Egotist Considers
- The more time Amory spends with Isabelle, the more he realizes that he has no real affection for her. He just gets caught up in her beauty and her love games. After all, Amory is an egotist who likes to think of himself as a winner. And in his mind, winning Isabelle's heart still counts as winning at life.
- When Isabelle won't let Amory kiss her, he ups the ante by announcing that he's going to leave town. Finally, the two of them have a falling out. Isabelle says she found Amory's ego charming at first, but now it's just annoying. So yeah, they break up.
- Things don't get any better for Amory once he's back at school, either. He ends up failing a crucial math course and becomes ineligible for all kinds of Princeton clubs as a result. So basically, his social status has plunged because he can't work up the motivation to do better in his classes.
- Amory realizes that his way of coasting through life isn't going to work anymore. The time has come for him to decide what he stands for.
- The next Thanksgiving, Amory's father dies, leaving the family's estate in Lake Geneva to Amory's mother, Beatrice. Turns out that the estate has become a bit of a dump and the family fortunes have shrunk drastically since Amory was young. So it looks like he won't be able to fall back on his family's fortune if things at school don't work out.
- That Christmas, Monsignor Darcy invites Amory for a visit. Amory admits that he's been thinking about leaving Princeton.
- Monsignor tells Amory to stop thinking about his life as one giant thing that's either worthwhile or not worthwhile. His advice is for Amory to focus on what's directly in front of him. "Do the next thing" is a motto of his. Amory doesn't know what to do next, though, without some larger sense of purpose guiding him.
- Without a sense of purpose, Amory spends more time with his jaded friend Tom and looks for someone who can help create a new poetic tradition for America. It's a long shot, but what else is a guy going to do?
- Amory writes satirical poems to help vent his feelings about how phony and superficial the world around him is.
- One night, Amory goes out with his buddy Fred Sloane and a couple of girls. The night starts off well enough, but Amory notices a guy at the bar who's staring at him and feels uncomfortable. The group goes back to an apartment, but Amory doesn't feel right. He eventually leaves and hears footsteps following him down an alley. When he turns, he confronts the face of his dead friend, Dick Humbird. Amory has been hallucinating and reliving Dick's traumatic death.
- When Amory wakes up the next day, he wishes he had someone in his life that was stupid, simple, and good. He feels like things are too complicated and that he's going mad.
- Things don't get much better when Amory returns to his Princeton dorm room. His first night back, his buddy Tom becomes terrified when he thinks he sees something outside Amory's window staring at Amory. This is almost too much for Amory to bear. It seems like madness is closing in on him.