Jaws Summary
Peter Benchley

Everything you need to understand or teach Jaws by Peter Benchley.

  • Jaws Summary & Study Guide
  • 2 Student Essays
  • 1 Encyclopedia Article
  • 4 Literature Criticisms
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Jaws Summary

The great white shark is introduced in Chapter One. A beautiful young woman swimming late at night after making love on the beach is its first victim. When Benchley's editor, Tom Congdon read the first draft of Jaws, he was impressed by the power of the opening chapter and felt that the shark was the most convincing character in the book. After the work was published, most critics agreed with Congdon's original opinion that the shark was the most believable of Benchley's creations. His knowledge of the shark enables him to present the great fish as perhaps the most terrifying of the ocean's predators. Its appetite is never satisfied for long.

Most of the humans in the book are at best only slightly more than stock characters such as might appear in an average adventure novel. Benchley does develop his protagonist, Martin Brody, Chief of Police in Amity...

(read more from the Short Guide)

Study Pack

The Jaws Study Pack contains:

Jaws Short Guide