After The First Death

Robert Cormier

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1979

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1 Summary

Ben Marchand, son of General Marcus Markhand, narrates Part 1. Ben attends Castleton Academy in New Hampshire, where he ghosts through classes and avoids most social interaction. He narrates this part as he types it, noting the cold weather and the football game going on outside his window. His father is visiting for the first time since the bus incident, and Ben is not looking forward to seeing him. He recalls the fireworks one of his classmates set off on Thanksgiving and how the explosions reminded him of the bus and made him sick. He then urges the reader that this is not a suicide note, adding that when it’s time for him to die by suicide, he “will do it without any prelude or prologue” (5).

Ben also recalls a discussion with his mother from a few months ago. In response to her questions about his life, Ben told her what she wanted to hear—that the kids were fine, and life was going all right. He leaves out the comments from one of his classmates, who looked up the bus incident in the newspaper and complimented Ben on his actions. The compliment left Ben feeling both like he wanted to laugh and cry because the picture of him painted by the newspaper is “a million miles from the truth” (9).

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Ben types asterisks to signify the passing of two and a half hours. He tells the reader not to ask what he did during that time but then tells them anyway: He ran up to the nearby Brimmler’s Bridge, looked over the edge, and decided not to jump because he “wanted to see [his] father before doing anything rash” (10).

Ben is from the fictional town of Fort Delta, Massachusetts. In the book, Fort Delta has been a prominent military site since the Spanish-American War. Within Fort Delta, there is a secret government organization called Inner Delta, for which Ben’s father works. Ben remembers the only time he ever saw his father in uniform. It was shortly after the bus incident, and Ben has blocked out what his father said to him that day. He wonders what will happen when his father arrives at Castle and thinks maybe he should “make another and final trip to Brimmler’s Bridge before he arrives” (15).

Part 1 Analysis

Part 1 introduces Ben and shows his life after the bus incident. Though Ben tells these sections of the story in first-person narration, the point of view feels distant, a result of the bus incident’s effect on Ben. The newspaper painted Ben as a hero, showing how news only reports so much: While the events may be recounted accurately, the news doesn’t capture Ben’s mental state. He doesn’t feel like a hero, and he struggles to put himself back together in the wake of the incident. His mention of suicide in the first section of Part 1 foreshadows that he dies by suicide later in the book.

Though Ben is from a military family, he only ever saw his father in uniform once, following the incident. Before this, Ben thought of his father as a parent who worked for a top-secret organization. After the bus incident, Ben has a firmer grasp on the gravity of his father’s work. Seeing his father in uniform changes Ben’s view of the man. Rather than simply a parent, his father becomes a soldier who is willing to do anything, including use his own children, to further his cause. This realization strains Ben’s relationship with his father and is a factor in his decision to die by suicide, as Cormier implies by Ben’s indecision on whether to die by suicide before or after his father arrives.

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Ben’s reaction to the fireworks indicate that he has PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, following the bus incident. PTSD is often triggered by loud sounds and stressful environments. Cormier, by revealing the aftermath of the bus hijacking for Ben before recounting the climatic events, foreshadows the action and tragedy of the novel and indicates that the detrimental effects of violence linger on long after the violence has ended.