48 pages • 1 hour read
Brother
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying, sexual violence, rape, child abuse, child sexual abuse, animal cruelty, animal death, addiction, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.
Chapter 1 Summary
Not for the first time, the screams of young women keep 19-year-old Michael Morrow awake. He thinks about the phrase “bloody murder,” and he wishes Momma (Claudine Morrow), would kill the girls during the day instead of at night. To block out the screams, Michael’s young sister, Misty Dawn Morrow, plays music on her record player.
The Morrows live in a dilapidated farmhouse in Dahlia, a fictional area in the Appalachian Mountains in rural West Virginia. Michael looks out his dirty bedroom window and sees Momma, his father Wade Morrow, and his older brother Rebel, or Ray, surround the girl. She was a hitchhiker, and Michael and Reb violently abducted her to appease Momma’s “hobby.”
The girl flees, and Momma tells Michael to chase after her. On a hill, Michael considers letting her go. He wonders if the family would disown him and if the Morrows would get caught and receive death sentences like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy—two serial killers whom Reb idolizes.
Not inclined to betray his family, Michael catches the girl, and after a violent struggle, he almost kills her with a rock. Wade congratulates him, and Reb critiques him for nearly killing her—Momma wants them alive.
