In the previous reading of Wolff’s Old School, the narrator submits a plagiarised story to the writing contest, in order to win Ernest Hemingway’s visit. In the following section, this young “writer” ends up winning the competition, with bountiful praise of his work from Mr. Ramsey. His victory is released in the school newspaper and Hemingway not only compliments the submission, but also gives shares some of his wisdom on literature and alcoholism (which seem to go hand in hand). His fellow students also compliment the submission, and Purcell even sends him a first edition of In Our Time. While he bathes in this undeserved glory, his classmate Bill is offended by the narrator’s insincere depiction of life as a Jewish person. When the narrator goes to apologize, instead of finding Bill, he stumbles across his personal notebook and snoops through it, peeking into some of his most intimate thoughts.…show more content… The administration discovers his plagiarism, which has dire consequences. They kick the narrator out of school, he can no longer go to Columbia University, and shame him for tarnishing the reputation of not only his class, but the entire school. On the ride to the train station, the narrator has a decent chat with Mr. Ramsey before taking the train home. However, instead of going home, he stops in New York. Rather than going to college, he flies by the seat of his pants for a few years, taking on odd jobs, moving around, and making a few friends along the way. He eventually joins the military, and gets around to writing an apology letter to the woman whose work he plagiarised—Susan Friedman. She finds his copying to be more flattering than offensive, and accepts his invite to lunch. Similar to his last encounter with a female writer, she is more outspoken and witty than he expected. By the end of their meeting, Friedman not only reveals her mature, but her abandonment of her
