Chapter 11, Freak of Nurture Summary and Analysis

This is the only chapter of the book in which the author reveals much information about Michael's mysterious childhood. Michael's mother, Dee Dee, has an unhappy childhood herself. Her father is murdered in his bed when she is just a child. Her mother is an alcoholic and cannot take care of Dee Dee and her brother Robert. The children grow up in an orphanage. At age twenty, Dee Dee is already involved with drugs, and begins having children. She has five sons within six years.

Her brother Robert kills his wife when she asks for a divorce. While he is on Death Row for murder, he meets a man named Michael Jerome Williams. He asks Williams to visit Dee Dee after he gets out. Dee Dee and Michael Williams become involved, and she is soon...