Arrested, Questioned, and Charged

Most of the people who had been brought to that police station with Mailer were released. But after many hours of waiting in a cell, word finally came through to Mailer that he was to remain in prison for at least a night. He resigned himself to his fate, and chose a bunk. Mailer recounts these events in the third person, but they are based on his own experiences. He found himself next to Noam Chomsky, a slim sharp-featured man with an ascetic expression, and an air of gentle but absolute moral integrity.