Summary

The novel is prefaced with a quote from the Bible, from the Book of Matthew, 11:12: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.”

Part 1, Chapter 1 – The novel begins in 1952 with the drunken, 14-year-old Francis Marion Tarwater being unable to finish digging a grave for his great-uncle, Mason. Buford Munson, a local black man, has to complete the Christian burial, unbeknownst to Tarwater. Tarwater’s uncle, dead at 84, had provided for Tarwater and educated him in everything from math and history to religion.

Tarwater’s uncle had taken him in as a baby to avoid Tarwater being brought up by his nephew, a schoolteacher. Mason had been living with his nephew, Rayber, when he discovered that his nephew was using him as a source of study for a magazine article. Infuriated, he leaves...