Part 1 - Wisconsin, Fall, 1907 - Chapters 5 and 6 Summary

Chapter 5: Truitt is aware of the women, Mrs. Larsen and Catherine, tending to him during his illness. In language that evokes a feverish state of delirium, Truitt's recollections of his past includes his powerful businessman father, his quiet brother who died at nineteen and, most particularly, of his religiously domineering mother. She, tortured him with painful visions of hell and taunting comments about his unredeemable wickedness, which hurt particularly because he knew she was right, having been tormented by lustful thoughts about women ever since he was a child. The author then gives a history of Truitt's past including his attendance first at boarding school and then college, where he lived a life full of booze and women, funded entirely by regularly received money from his father, who also funded a...