After The First Death

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1979

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 7 Summary

Part 7 takes place shortly after Ben meets with his father and is told from General Markhand’s perspective. Like Ben, his father also feared their first meeting since the bus incident, and he returns to Ben’s room after a meeting with the school’s dean to find Ben gone. While he waits for Ben to return, he wonders what he’ll tell his son about the bus incident and decides to start “at the beginning. Where else?” (135).

General Markhand goes over the details of the bus incident from his perspective—finding out who was involved and dispatching America’s forces to deal with the threat. When Ben doesn’t return by the time he finishes, the general sets out to look for his son. Knowing Ben as well as he knows himself, he goes to Brimmler’s Bridge. Ben isn’t there, so the general returns to Ben’s dorm, which is exactly how it was before he left. There is no sign of Ben’s return, and General Markhand reflects that it’s “as if you were never here” (141). He reads through the stack of pages beside Ben’s typewriter and realizes Ben plans to kill himself.

Part 7 Analysis

The switch to General Markhand’s point of view marks a turning point in the narrative. Ben has said all he needs to say, and it may be he has taken his life by this point in the story. As seen here, Parts 1, 3, and 5 were literally what Ben was typing as he narrated. General Markhand finds the texts in a pile beside the typewriter and uses them to infer the effects of Ben’s trauma. Ben’s parts of the story are a type of epistolary style, since those pages were a sort of letter meant for Ben’s father. This moment negates Ben’s earlier statement that, should he decide to die by suicide, he would do so without a letter, and without “preamble or prologue” (5).

General Markhand’s perspective shows the similarities between father and son. Both Ben and his father were nervous about seeing one another for the first time since the bus incident. They both feared the other would be disappointed in how they handled themselves, and each worried they had irrevocably let the other down. These similar emotions show how parents and children are alike. The mirroring of emotions also foreshadows Part 11 and the fusing of Ben’s and his father’s consciousnesses. That the general thinks to look for Ben on the bridge, comparing it to something he would do, indicates that the general has also contemplated death by suicide.