Summary

Chapter 3 opens with an image of young Truman in his home town of Monroeville, Alabama. The narrator jumps around to different snapshots of Truman’s childhood. In the first scene, he is eight or nine on his way to his friend Nelle Lee’s house. While he waits for Nelle, he hears her mother on the phone. Mrs. Lee is loudly gossiping, much to Truman’s annoyance. Nelle and Truman leave the house to the sounds of Mrs. Lee yelling for Nelle to return. On another day, a year or two later, Truman and Nelle are wandering along the train tracks and come across two local men hanging around the tracks, gossiping about the women who occupy the local brothel.

In the next scene, Truman is ten and living with his cousins. He often fakes being sick, so as to not attend...