Chapters 45 & 44 Summary

Tender reveals that when he was seventeen, the only thing he knew about the "outside" world was what his older brother Adam told him. The night before Tender was to venture into the outside world, he says that his brother cut his hair and told him about the outside world. As the oldest son, Adam had been allowed to go outside of the Creedish Church community. He tells Tender that women can change the color of their eyes and lips; people were visited in their house by spirits called televisions; and that people kept birds in their houses.

After Adam had married Biddy Gleason, he and his new wife went into town to obtain a marriage license. A church elder accompanied them. Church doctrine dictated that only the first born would get married. The rest of the children in the family were taught...