Summary
Chapter 1
Luke is watching a tree fall in the distance when he hears his mother call him to come inside. Luke hesitates because he may never be allowed outside again.
At dinner last night, Luke asks his parents why they sold the woods. Luke’s father explains that the Government wanted the woods, and the family had no choice but to sell them. Raising Luke was the family’s only act of defiance.
The Government will probably build houses on this plot of land, so Luke asks if this means he should stay away from the windows. His father tells him that he should be staying away from the windows already. Luke is not sure what will happen to him if anyone outside of the family learns of his existence, but he doesn’t want to find out.
Luke’s brother Mark complains that this means Luke won’t be able to do his share of the outside household chores. The argument is interrupted by the sound of wheels on the gravel driveway. Luke rushes to hide and his mother clears away his table and chair before opening the door to a visiting salesman.
Chapter 2
When Luke was six years old, he had asked his mother why he had to hide. He learns that there is a law stating that families can only have two children, and because he is a third child, his existence must remain a secret.
Luke had hoped that all small children needed to hide, and that when he was as a big as his two older brothers he wouldn’t need to hide anymore. Luke had never gone further than his yard, knew no one other than his immediate family, and had never made a friend.
When he asks his mother, she explains that she kept her pregnancy a secret and gave birth to him because she thought the Population Law would quickly be repealed. When the Law not only remained but alo became more stringently enforced, she and the rest of the family realized that they needed to keep Luke in hiding.
Luke accepted this strange and difficult situation, but when his parents sold the woods - which meant he couldn’t go outside anymore - the situation became much more difficult.
Chapter 3
Luke, bored, plays with a toy train. He hasn’t been outside for a week, and he is now not even allowed in a room with an uncovered window - his father yelled at him the last time he did that.
There’s a loud knock on Luke’s door and a cry of “Population Police!” However, it’s only Luke’s brother, Mark. Luke wonders again what would happen if the real Population Police found him.
Luke lets his brother into his room. Luke lives in an attic, which he doesn’t mind except for the fact that it has no windows.
In a rare moment of seriousness, Mark reminds Luke that neither he, nor Matthew, nor their parents have ever told anyone about Luke, so he’s safe. Mark immediately goes back to teasing Luke about playing with “baby” toys, referencing the train.
Mark asks Luke if he’d like to play checkers, and Luke immediately asks if their mother told him to do this. Luke snaps at his brother to leave him alone.
Luke paces around his room unhappily. He has a collection of toy cars, but he’s never seen a real one. His parents and brothers sometimes leave the house all at once, and he wonders what would happen to him if they never returned.
Luke realizes that there are open vents at either end of the roof, and he looks out through one of them. He realizes he can see the road and the field below. He is excited, but he quickly decides that he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life watching corn grow.
He looks out through the other vent and can see the area where the woods used to be. The area is buzzing with activity; construction workers are plowing the land and readying the foundation for a new building.
Once, when Luke was very young, a homeless person had come to the house asking for food. Like had hidden as his mother had instructed, but he peeked out to look at the man. That man was the only person he had ever seen other than his immediate family, but now Luke was able to look at all the construction workers. He felt overwhelmed.
Luke hears his mother’s voice and moves away from the vent. He isn’t sure if his parents will try to block that up if they know he can look out. His mother comes in and apologizes for the fact that she and Luke’s father have to be so strict. Luke’s mother hugs him and reminds him that it could always be worse. For some reason, Luke has a feeling that something bad is going to happen.
Chapter 4
Luke heads down for breakfast, but his mother stops him before he reaches the kitchen and explains that he needs to eat sitting on the stairs, out of view of the kitchen. His father explains that one of the workers had asked if they had air conditioning, since they kept the blinds closed even on a hot day. If Luke sits and eats on the stairs, he will be out of view of the windows.
Luke is unhappy about this but says nothing. From his seat on the stairs, he can hear the rumble of trucks arriving. He looks at his brothers and parents eating at the table and miserably eats his own food alone.
Chapter 5
Luke continues to eat every meal on the steps, a practice he hates but begins to accept. His mother speaks so quietly that it’s hard for him to hear the conversation; eventually, he doesn’t even bother to try to keep up with the rest of his family’s discussions.
One day, a letter arrives. Matthew brings it in from the mailbox, which is located a mile away at the crossroads. Normally mail is an occasion for celebration – Mother is often delighted by the thick letters that arrive from family members, and she saves her extra money in order to buy stamps to write them back. Mother has never mentioned Luke in any of these letters, however, and the rest of their relatives have no idea that he exists.
Today, though, Matthew brings back a letter from The Department of Human Habitation, Environmental Standards Division. He holds it the same way he would hold a dead pig. Dad deciphers the letter with the help of a dictionary, and announces that the Government is demanding that they get rid of the pigs, since having pigs too close to the new housing complex is considered a health hazard. The rest of the family is stunned because the pigs are the primary way that they make money; selling the grain that they farm just doesn’t pay enough.
Analysis
This section introduces the main characters and setting: Luke and his family are simple farmers who live under a strict government. It is clear that Luke's parents are generally law-abiding people who have defied the Government in order to create Luke.
This section contains a number of important quotes that set the scene for character and plot development. In one, Luke uses simile and personification to portray how dreadful the government is:
At twelve, he knew better, but sometimes still pictured the Government as a very big, mean, fat person, two or three times as tall as an ordinary man, who went around yelling at people, “Not allowed!” and “Stop that!” It was because of the way his parents and older brothers talked: “Government won’t let us plant corn there again.” “Government’s keeping the prices down.” “Government’s not going to like this crop” (pg. 2).
Luke's family must hide him because of rules made by the Government, and they must follow the other strange and conflicting directives sent down by the Government as well. It is for this reason that Luke views the Government as a large and rude person.
Luke isn't sure what the Government would do to him if they found him, or what they would do to his family. The chapter does contain a vague reference to stringent enforcement methods used by the Population Police, which is a literary technique used to build dread.
This section contains a few religious undertones, such as the fact that the children in the Gardner family are named Matthew, Mark, and Luke, after three of the Four Evangelists. This indicates that Luke's family is religious as well as simple and hard-working, and might be an attempt to make them relatable to readers.
