Part I, Chapters One through Five Summary and Analysis

The book opens with Nathan McCall and several of his friends, as teenagers, seeing a young white boy riding a bicycle and immediately attacking him, beating him severely. Each time McCall strikes the boy, he remembers some injustice against him, usually a slight based solely on race. When he realizes the boy isn't moving, he steps back and the group eventually stops beating the boy. McCall admits that for a moment he fears the young man dead, but then sees him breathing. Chapter two opens by stepping back in time to 1964 as McCall and his family arrive in a housing development called Cavalier Manor. The family has a new home among a development filled with new homes aimed at blacks. While the stated goal is to provide equal housing opportunities, the...