Summary

In "Childhood," Chapter 1, Tove stays home with her mother, Alfrida, while her brother, Edvin, attends school, and her father, Ditlev, works. She only feels happy when she is alone with Alfrida. Alfrida becomes cruel when Tove thinks about language and poems.

In Chapter 2, Alfrida hates that Ditlev is always lying around reading. He is often out of work. Sometimes when the whole family is in the living room, Tove thinks they are happy. When Alfrida is "absorbed in her own world," Tove imagines lives for their neighbors (10). At night, Tove is often afraid. Her parents dismiss her nightmares.

In Chapter 3, when Tove starts school, the teachers scold her for knowing how to read and write. In the principal's office, Tove suddenly senses Alfrida's fear.

In Chapter 4, Tove considers the difference between facts and truth. When she is seven, Ditlev loses his job again. Whenever...