Lovecraft Country

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1

Chapters 2-3

Chapters 4-5

Chapters 6-7

Chapter 8-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 6 Summary: “The Narrow House”

Montrose and Atticus drive across the state together. Caleb Braithwhite has offered to leave the Turner family alone forever if they locate Hiram Winthrop’s son, Henry, as well as the books he stole from his father when he ran away from home. Caleb explains that Henry Winthrop changed his name to Henry Narrow and moved to Aken, Illinois. Given that Henry married an African American enslaved woman, Caleb reasons, he might be more pre-disposed to selling the book to Montrose and Atticus. Montrose accepted the offer because he fears that members of the Order such as Lancaster harbor vendettas against Atticus. He wants to protect his son.

Montrose and Atticus arrive in Aken and find Henry’s house. The walls are graffitied with racist slurs. Inside, however, is a white man named David Landsdowne, a lawyer who led the trial for racial integration in the school system. Ever since, the community has violently turned against him. He invites Montrose and Atticus into the house which never belonged to Henry Narrow. Henry and his family, Landsdowne explains, were murdered in 1945 at a similar address on the other side of town. The murders were covered up by the authorities, including the mayor and the police chief. The half-burned house was bought by the police chief’s son-in-law, who died in a car accident while out celebrating with his father-in-law and the mayor.

Landsdowne explains that people began to believe that the three men were killed by the ghosts of Henry Narrow and his family. The house has since fallen into disrepair, but the lawyer shows them how to get there.

Montrose and Atticus get lost on the way to the Narrow House. They bicker as they try to find the right street. As the car splutters and misfires, Atticus asks a Korean cemetery worker for directions. Montrose exits the car and spots a young boy of diverse racial background. Blaming the boy for his car trouble, Montrose chases him through the cemetery until he comes to a house. The boy seems to follow an African American woman inside. Montrose approaches and notices the snow disappearing from around him. He enters to find the ghosts of Henry Winthrop, Pearl, and their son.

Montrose sits with the ghostly family in the house which appears just as it did before the fire. He has an urge to run away but he stays because he is worried about Atticus. Henry listens as Montrose explains the recent events. He agrees to hand over his father’s books and research in case they might be able to protect Atticus and break Caleb’s protective spells. In exchange, however, he wants to feel something again. He demands that Montrose tell an emotional story from his past so that the ghosts can experience the stirring feelings for themselves. Montrose tells the story of an African American man named Dick Rowland. In Tulsa in 1921, Rowland was falsely accused of attacking a white woman. Rowland was murdered by a lynch mob. Montrose’s father Ulysses was one of the African American men who tried to protect Rowland from the white mob. He failed and was forced to flee with his family as the mob burned down the thriving African American neighborhoods. Montrose remembers wanting to go out and help defend the neighborhood, he remembers George going to fetch his ancestor’s book, and he remembers his mother’s desperate fear. Montrose recalls how he went out into the streets, wandering through the violent chaos until his father grabbed him and carried him to safety. Before they reached home, however, a white man fired a pistol from a passing car and shot Ulysses dead. Montrose reflects on his struggles to protect his own son. The emotion moves him to tears.

Henry Winthrop listens to every word of the story with a hungry expression on his face. He talks about his own difficult relationship with his father Hiram, a man who wanted “to know everything about everything” (250) and was eventually consumed by his lust for knowledge. In a quest to live longer and learn more about the universe, Hiram Winthrop tried to make himself immortal using magic. Hiram’s efforts forced his wife into a wheelchair after he mistranslated a spell and she eventually turned against him. She died when she attempted to heal herself and Hiram covered up her death. Before her death, she arranged to help Henry run away from Hiram. He fell in love with Pearl, and they enjoyed a happy life together for a short time.

Eventually, they moved to Aken and were killed in the fire. Henry admits that he was a fool for not doing more to protect his family. The ghostly memory of the house burns down in a replay of the murders, taking Henry and his family with it. Montrose tries to escape but comes face-to-face with an image of his father. Ulysses tries to say something, but his lips move silently.

Later, Atticus finds Montrose in the burned-out ruins of the Narrow House. Montrose has the old books Caleb wants. However, he does not want to hand the books over to Caleb. Atticus agrees and they leave the house.

Chapter 7 Summary: “Horace and the Devil Doll”

Neville Porter, a young friend of Horace Berry, tells a story about a racist telephone operator. Neville, Horace, and their friend Curtis discuss the incident as they walk to the comic book store after school. Horace is determined to accompany his father on a research trip for the guide, even if it means going to the racist parts of the southern United States. Horace waits outside the store while the other boys shop; his Uncle Montrose has forbidden him to enter due to a racist incident with a clerk. The other boys buy Horace’s comics for him. As he waits, two of Captain Lancaster’s detectives approach and take him away for questioning.

The detectives take Horace to a diner and grill him for information. Horace nervously answers their questions while trying to avoid an asthma attack. The detectives have a copy of The Interplanetary Adventures of Orithyia Blue, recovered from the crime scene at Winthrop’s observatory. They want to connect the comic to Hippolyta and, by extension, Caleb Braithwhite. They want Horace to ask Hippolyta about the incident on their behalf. Captain Lancaster appears at the table, smoking a cigar which triggers Horace’s asthma. As Horace struggles for breath, the detectives drag him out of the diner into an alley. There, Lancaster puts a spell on Horace that will prevent him mentioning the conversation to anyone else.

Horace suffers from nightmares. At breakfast, his parents argue about Hippolyta’s last-minute plans to visit her mother in New York. Horace wants to warn his mom about the police investigation if she will be travelling alone but Lancaster’s spell makes him physically unable to say the words to her. Horace goes to his after-school job, running grocery deliveries for the local store. He has begun to write a special comic containing a coded warning for Hippolyta. He works on the illustration in the back of the store, but he is interrupted by strange voices. He looks around and sees the racist caricatures of African Americans used as logos and labels for various products. The caricatures take on a sinister, lifelike quality that scares Horace. Later, Horace makes a grocery delivery. Wherever he goes, the racist caricatures seem to follow him through the streets.

Days later, Horace plays board games with his friends in the attic of an old church. One of the games involves “a Fully Poseable African Pygmy Devil Doll” (274), which Curtis and Neville have incorporated into their tabletop war game. The devil doll scares Horace, seemingly coming to life and intimidating him. Whenever he tries to tell anyone what he can see, Lancaster’s magic turns his words into a meaningless, asthmatic wheeze. He passes out.

After his asthma attack, Horace wakes up in hospital. George is beside him and Horace is comforted by his father’s words. Hippolyta is already on her way to New York, so may not have the warning Horace made for her. Horace is discharged from the hospital the next day. His friends tell him that the room where they play boardgames has been vandalized but everyone denies responsibility. The devil doll which scared Horace is gone. That night, Horace speaks to Hippolyta on the phone. She has his comic but has not yet read it. Later, Horace eventually falls asleep and suffers from more nightmares. He spends the day exhausted and unable to discuss his problems with anyone.

That evening, Ruby babysits Horace while George attends a Freemasons meeting. They play Scrabble together and he feels the urge to tell her what happened to him. Though he cannot say the words, he spells out his problems using the Scrabble tiles. By the time he mentions Braithwhite’s name, Ruby begins to understand. She promises to help and agrees to meet him at the grocery store the next day.

The next day, Ruby is late to arrive. The grocery store receives an order and Horace is sent to deliver it to a strange address. He passes through a dark part of the park, keeping watch for strange shadows. The address leads him to a condemned house. Horace goes inside and finds Captain Lancaster waiting for him. The detectives approach Horace but he runs away into the park. The devil doll appears and chases Horace through the park. Just as he worries that he might be killed by the doll, he knocks it down with half a brick.

Horace runs again. A uniformed policeman tries to stop him. Horace thinks the officer is just another illusion so trips over the policeman’s outstretched foot. The policeman’s actions begin to mirror those of the devil doll. The policeman draws his pistol and aims it at Horace. Before he can shoot, an unseen force sends the man flying across the street. Caleb Braithwhite appears. He uses magic to prevent another asthma attack, then rips off the devil doll’s head. Caleb removes Lancaster’s spell from Horace as George and Hippolyta stand beside him. Caleb is pleased: He believes that Lancaster’s attack against Horace shows that the police chief is still underestimating him. He announces that he will join forces with the Berry family to kill Lancaster.

Chapters 6-7 Analysis

As the narrative focus switches from one chapter to the next in Lovecraft Country, the passage of time is not interrupted. Chapter 1 takes place in the summer and then, in each successive chapter, time progresses a little further forward. Christmas and New Year’s Eve pass, indicating that the overall narrative does not interfere with the day-to-day lives of the characters. Winthrop’s ghost does not prevent Letitia throwing a New Year’s Eve party, for example, while the January snow in Chapter 6 provides a natural juxtaposition to the fire which kills Henry Winthrop’s family. Even as magicians battle one another, even as the characters explore their own narrative strands, time marches on. The passage of time indicates that the racial injustices suffered by the African American characters are not limited to one time or place. The burning down of Tulsa in 1921, the death of Henry Winthrop’s family, and the racist caricatures which adorn the products in the grocery stores are part of the same unrelenting social issues. Just as one month passes quickly into the next, the characters pass from one racial injustice into another. The use of time in the novel illustrates the breadth and depth of the racial injustice the characters experience and shows the reader that the pain of racism is not limited to one time or one place.

In Chapter 6, Atticus accompanies Montrose on a journey. The focus of the chapter is Montrose, but Atticus’s presence suggests that the divides which kept father and son apart have begun to heal. Atticus and Montrose can occupy the same space without constantly arguing. Montrose’s memories of Tulsa and the recollections of his father’s death show why he has been so overly protective of Atticus and why he is so militant about fighting racism.

Montrose’s father Ulysses died protecting his family from an angry white mob and Montrose is concerned that his own son will suffer the same fate. He goes above and beyond to protect Atticus from the pain of racism, including criticizing the books he reads and trying to prevent him from joining the military. Montrose was betrayed by a society which actively oppressed people of his race and the institutional failures which resulted in the destruction of Tulsa have not been addressed. His emotional discussion with Henry Winthrop is an exorcism of sorts. While Henry’s ghost feeds on the emotions that Montrose reveals, Montrose is able to talk about the pain that he has kept bottled up for many years. He cannot talk to the living, so conversations about difficult issues cannot be had with Atticus. Henry’s ghost gives Montrose the opportunity to discuss his deepest, most painful memories with someone who will not hold them against him. The recollection of the night of his father’s death is almost as traumatic as the night itself, but Montrose only bargains with the ghost in the name of protecting his son. Montrose puts himself through great trauma to keep Atticus safe, even if he will never tell another living soul about what he has done. Montrose’s conversation with Henry allows him to confront the traumas which have haunted him his entire life. By speaking these words aloud, he gains a better understanding of himself which allows him to repair his relationship with his son.

Horace is too young to have experienced the same degree of racism as the other characters. His parents have protected him from many of the worst threats posed by the United States in the 1950s, such as refusing to allow him to go on the research trips to the American south. However, Horace is not isolated from racism. He has grown up in a world which treats African Americans so badly that racist caricatures are used as toys and advertising logos. Whenever Horace goes to a grocery store, he is confronted with a cartoonish mockery of his racial identity. When his friends find an old toy, the toy itself is designed to ridicule African American people. These tiny traumas are the aesthetics of the world Horace inhabits. These racist portrayals then come to life, functioning as physical metaphors for the way racial trauma can haunt those who grow up in a racist society. Horace is pursued and mocked by racist imagery. The devil doll is a physical incarnation of the racial mockery of the society which pursues him almost to his death.

Neither Horace nor his African American family have the power to counteract this problem. They must rely on Caleb Braithwhite, a representation of white American wealth and privilege, to help them address the issue. The culmination of Horace’s story suggests that white society needs to take responsibility for the horrors it has unleashed. The threats which seem innocuous to white Americans—such as the devil doll, which Caleb casually destroys—have the power to terrify African Americans. The problem can only be fixed by a unified effort. However, Caleb’s attitude reveals a twist in this proposed solution. Even after he removes Horace’s curse, he can only focus on what Lancaster’s spell says about his own personal problems. Caleb’s good act is undermined by his unconscious tendency to place himself at the center of every story. He does not care about how the devil doll haunted Horace or how magic has brought misery to the African American character. He is only ever concerned about his own wellbeing and his own rise to power. Even when behaving in an altruistic manner, Caleb cannot help but center the white experience in an African American story.