Charles attacks Adam

Charles attacks Adam is a pivotal event in the early life of the Trask brothers, marking the first eruption of Charles's murderous jealousy and establishing the pattern of violence, fear, and guilt that will define their relationship. After Adam unexpectedly beats Charles at a game of peewee, Charles beats him savagely with a bat and later returns with a hatchet to kill him, an act that forces Adam into a lifelong awareness of his brother's dangerous nature and his own role as a target.

Causes and Background

The attack grew out of a trivial game of peewee played in the dooryard of the Trask farm in Connecticut. Adam, who was not good at games, by some accident of eye and timing beat his brother four times. A wild flush came over Adam, and he did not watch and feel out his brother's mood as he usually did. When he turned happily to face Charles, he suddenly froze deep in his chest at the hatred in Charles's face. Adam lamely said, "I guess it was just an accident," but Charles set his peewee, struck it, and, as it rose into the air, swung at it and missed. The hatred was already kindled, and Charles moved slowly toward Adam, his eyes cold and noncommittal. Adam edged away in terror, not daring to turn and run, for his brother could outrun him.

What Happens

Charles moved close and struck Adam in the face with his bat. Adam covered his bleeding nose with his hands, and Charles swung his bat and hit him in the ribs, knocked the wind out of him, swung at his head and knocked him out. As Adam lay unconscious on the ground, Charles kicked him heavily in the stomach and walked away. After a while Adam became conscious, breathing shallowly because his chest hurt. He tried to sit up and fell back at the wrench of the torn muscles over his stomach. He saw Alice looking out, and there was something in her face that he had never seen before—it might have been hatred. She saw that he was looking at her, dropped the curtains into place, and disappeared. When Adam finally got up and moved, bent over, into the kitchen, he found a basin of hot water standing ready for him and a clean towel beside it. He could hear his stepmother coughing in her room.

Later that evening, after Charles had gone to the village inn, he returned with a hatchet. Adam, hiding in a ditch, saw a sulphur match struck, lighting his brother's face grotesquely from below, and saw the hatchet in Charles's right hand. Charles searched the road for signs, and when he gave up, he threw the hatchet far off into the field and walked rapidly away toward the pinched lights of the village. For a long time Adam lay in the cool water, wondering whether his brother would feel panic or sorrow or sick conscience or nothing—and feeling these things for him.

Consequences and Aftermath

Charles had one great quality: he was never sorry. He never mentioned the beating, apparently never thought of it again. But Adam made very sure that he didn't win again at anything. He had always felt the danger in his brother, but now he understood that he must never win unless he was prepared to kill Charles. In the months that followed, Cyrus turned a gentleness on Adam, speaking softer toward him and not punishing him anymore. Adam was more afraid of the gentleness than he had been at the violence, for it seemed to him that he was being trained as a sacrifice, the way victims intended to the gods were cuddled and flattered so that they might go happily to the stone. When Cyrus later learned of the attack, he took his shotgun and went out into the night looking for Charles, and it is probable that if he had found him that night he would have killed him or tried to. Charles hid out for two weeks, and when he finally returned, murder had sunk back to simple anger and he paid his penalty in overwork and a false theatrical humility. The beating also directly precipitated Adam's enlistment in the army, as Cyrus, using his influence, had a captain of cavalry and two sergeants come to the house to enlist Adam while he lay in bed recovering from his injuries.