Chapter 1 Summary

The story opens with the narrator (Ellen) revealing that she's considered killing her father in her mind. While she tries to lighten her confession with humor (e.g., a tale of a poisonous spider biting her father), her calculated response to his ensuing death (pretending to be upset and sad when she's really not) reveals a darker side to her nature.

Ellen then goes on to reveal that she never had to follow through with her murder plan because in the end her father drank himself to death. Soon after, Ellen is removed by county officials from her father's home and care. A confession that she's better off now that he's dead solidifies the bad blood that existed between daughter and father.

Ellen goes on to describe her living conditions as a ward of the county. Under such institutionalism, she finally receives the...