48 pages • 1 hour read
Brother
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Chapters 8-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of bullying, sexual violence, child abuse, child sexual abuse, animal cruelty, animal death, addiction, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.
Chapter 8 Summary
With the Rolling Stones playing loudly in the car, Reb and Michael drive back to the little house with green shutters. No one is there, so Reb wants to leave. Michael is afraid Momma will be upset, but Reb says they won’t be in trouble. He implies that he’s visited the home multiple times. Michael thinks abducting and killing hitchhikers is easier.
Michael wonders if the woman has been approved by Momma as a “mark,” and what would happen if their parents knew they were socializing with “locals”—the girls at the Dervish. Reb claims Wade is paranoid due to fighting in the Vietnam War, and that Wade is “manipulative.” As a 23-year-old man, Reb won’t submit to Wade.
The brothers drive to the Dervish. When Michael doesn’t want to go into the store. Reb claims he is afraid of girls. Worried about Alice’s safety, Michael eventually enters. He sees Reb and Lucy go into the storage room, and he observes Alice with a local radio DJ, Barb Callahan.
Michael notes her uncommon beauty and again references Snow White. She tells him that she looks “freaky,” but she’s not: Unlike Lucy, she wouldn’t have sex in the storage room. Michael says he wouldn’t either.
