Chapter One Summary

The novel opens with a scene of Norman Bates sitting in his library, reading a copy of The Realm of the Incas. A knock at the windowpane startles him from his intense reading. He thinks, for a moment, that the wind against the pane sounds like the Inca warriors in his book: stretching the skin of their dead enemies to form a drum. Grotesque, he thinks, but effective. In the distance, Norman hears his mother approaching, but he doesn't look up from his book. Almost immediately, the two begin to bicker. Mother wants Norman in the motel office in case anyone comes looking for a room, but they haven't had a customer in months, and Norman gets bored down there. The bickering breaks into a full-fledged fight, with Mother speaking condescendingly, even abusively, to her son. She screams about how he...