Part 1 of The Executioner’s Song is structured according to Gary’s experience of life outside prison. The first three chapters of the book follow his first day, his first week, and his first month of freedom, respectively, with each chapter introducing and exploring the theme of Individual Will Versus Societal Control. When the book starts, Gary has already spent most of his life in jail, prison, or institutions like Reform School. His brief experiences of life outside prison have, to this point, ended swiftly with a return to incarceration, setting up the key conflict between Gary’s willfulness and the society he struggles to adapt to.

Brenda describes Gary’s struggles with adjusting to freedom and the structure of the chapters—the incremental increases in the periods of time that they portray—reflect how the passage of each day, week, and then month feels meaningful to Gary. The first day treats freedom as a novelty, while the first week shows Gary’s sincere desire to adjust to this new world. By the end of the first month, however, Gary’s struggles are beginning to seep back into his life. His drinking and gambling, crude mannerisms, and fleeting displays of aggression and violence—such as harassing Lu Ann Price for sex and vandalizing Marjorie Quinn’s car after she turns down his advances—reveal his more problematic qualities, foreshadowing his eventual return to crime.

After Brenda agrees to help Gary adjust to life outside of prison, she becomes the representative of a more stable social existence, which Gary initially aspires to adapt for himself. Brenda understands Gary’s desire to reform and to embrace his freedom at last, and she offers him considerable support and guidance. Brenda also witnesses, however, the increasing tension between Gary’s understanding of the world and the typical expectations of society. At first, Brenda is amused when Gary lacks knowledge of basic tasks and when he veers from the rules and etiquette that govern social behavior. His struggles with money, for example, do not immediately alarm her, as she reminds herself that Gary has never really held a job before and thus lacks any experience managing his finances as most people do.

Gradually, however, she begins to worry about Gary’s behavior. When he drinks, a different version of Gary emerges. He tells violent stories from prison, stories that can scare those around him and gesture toward a profound darkness in Gary, reinforcing his disregard for social cues and norms. While Brenda continually reminds herself that she must be understanding about Gary’s difficulties, her rising uneasiness reflects how Gary’s reintegration into society is not going well and might not be as easy to effect as she had at first hoped.