Goodbye, Columbus: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Three days before Ron’s wedding, Neil and Brenda drive into New York. Neil waits in Central Park while Brenda goes to the doctor’s office. When Brenda goes through the doors, she is almost crying. Neil walks over to the park, but then he decides to turn towards St. Patrick’s church to escape the heat. Neil sits in the church and prays to God, thinking that he wants to make the best of things, and he wonders what exactly it is that he loves. He also wonders what God’s “prize” is. When Neil leaves the church and walks along Fifth Avenue, he answers his own question, thinking that God’s prize is gold dinnerware, nectarines, and “bumpless noses.”

Neil goes to the fountain in Central Park, and he sees Brenda coming out of the doctor’s building carrying nothing. For a moment, Neil is glad that Brenda might have disobeyed him. But then Brenda tells Neil that she’s wearing the diaphragm. Neil says that he loves her. That night, they make love very tenderly, nervous about Brenda’s new device. Over the weekend, Neil and Brenda barely see each other, as the last-minute wedding preparations become chaotic.

The night before the wedding, Ron invites Neil to listen to music in his room. Ron plays the Columbus record for Neil, which he says his college (Ohio State) gives to all the seniors. The song is a marching song, and overlain on it are recordings of key events throughout Ron’s senior year, including a recording of basketball game commentary that featured Ron. When they announce his name, the crowd goes wild and Ron is excited to hear his name on the record. At the end of the record, the band plays the Alma Mater, and ends with a voice saying “goodbye, Columbus.” As the song finishes, Ron closes his eyes, and Neil sneaks from the room as Ron hums on his bed.

At the wedding, Neil meets many of Brenda’s extended family members, including Mr. Patimkin’s half-brother Leo. At the reception, the band starts to play. Mr. Patimkin dances with Julie, and Brenda is dancing with Ron’s best man, Luther Ferrari. Neil winds up sitting next to Leo. Leo commends Neil on dating Brenda, saying that he has a “deal” if he doesn’t mess up their relationship. Leo then says he wishes he hadn’t rushed into marriage, and he says that the only good thing that happened to him was getting a cheap deal for his apartment in Queens from his mother-in-law.

Brenda, Ferrari, Mr. Patimkin, and Julie stop dancing, and Neil rushes over to Brenda. Ferrari whisks Julie away, and Mr. Patimkin talks to Brenda and Neil about the wedding, implying that if they want to get married, they would have his blessing and Neil could work for his business. Brenda and Neil then dance and have dinner together. After dinner, the night continues with more eating, drinking, and dancing. By three o’clock in the morning people begin to depart, drunk and sated. Brenda, who has been drinking copious amounts of champagne, heads for the bathroom.

When Brenda departs for the bathroom, Leo—who is also very drunk—returns to sit next to Neil. Leo, who is a lightbulb salesman, starts to ramble about the quality of the fluorescent lights in the room. He laments that he isn’t as successful as Mr. Patimkin, that he can’t even buy a car and wears out all of his shoes. He says that he could mass produce something of less quality and make a lot of money, but it’s better to keep up a good reputation. He also notes that he often has to take long train trips for his work, and that his wife complains when he comes home smelling like alcohol instead of coming home early and playing with his daughter.

Leo asks Neil how much he thinks Leo makes in a week. Neil doesn’t know, and Leo says that a cab driver makes more than him. Leo continues to drunkenly ramble, describing the second good thing that happened to him: before he was married, he visited San Francisco and spent the night with a girl named Hannah Schreiber, who took him back to her room and gave him oral sex. He says that he can count the good things that have happened to him on his fingers. He then wonders why Mr. Patimkin has so much success, while he has nothing, and he concludes it’s because Mr. Patimkin was “born lucky.” He then goes silent, seeming to be about to cry.

Neil suggests to Leo that he go home. Leo agrees, and he says goodbye to Neil, saying he’ll go far. He says that next time he sees Neil, it’ll be Neil’s wedding. Neil then finds Brenda asleep in the hotel lobby. As he watches her sleeping, Neil thinks that he doesn’t really know her. He wakes her and they drive back to the Patimkins’ house. Neil thinks about how, in a few hours, Leo will be on a train, trying to find some luck in business. He thinks that the world is open to Leo if he wants, but he won’t pursue it for fear of new discomfort and sorrow. The next day, Neil drives Brenda to the train at noon, and she returns to school.