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Chapter 4

Summary: Chapter 4

In the first week after classes have resumed, Richard has not heard from any of his classmates, and he feels both annoyed and confused. Unable to sleep one night, Richard goes to get a soda from the Commons, where he runs into Bunny, who is drunk. Richard asks Bunny what has been going on with everyone, though Bunny cryptically answers that Henry is not who he appears to be. The next morning, Richard realizes he left his Greek book at Henry’s apartment and goes to retrieve it. Letting himself into the empty apartment, he finds his Greek book and a piece of paper with flight information and a phone number. Richard calls the number, pretending to be Henry confirming his reservation, and learns that Henry booked four tickets from Boston to Buenos Aires departing the next day. 

On Monday, Richard arrives at Julian’s office to find all his classmates there. After Richard arrives back at his dorm, Henry shows up and asks him to go for a drive. They first drive out to an estate sale, then stop at a diner, where Henry asks Richard if he’d like to know about their trip to Argentina. Henry explains that the airline mentioned he had called the day before the flight, and Henry knew it must have been Richard. Henry takes Richard back to Francis’s apartment, where he has been staying. There, Henry explains that he, Francis, and the twins had planned on going to Argentina, but Francis had been unable to get the money he needed from his trust fund. Richard asks Henry why they needed to leave the country, and Henry asks Richard why he did nothing to stop them.

Richard realizes that Henry and the others must have killed someone, which Henry confirms. Henry explains that he and the others decided to have a bacchanal after discussing Dionysiac madness in Julian’s class. They made several attempts at Francis’s country house by drinking, doing drugs, and even taking small amounts of poison. While they included Bunny in their first attempts, he did not take it as seriously as the rest of them, and they feared Richard would think they were insane. One night, they left Bunny behind and went themselves. Henry has a memory of hitting something while they were in the woods, which turned out to be a farmer he had killed. Miles from Francis’s house, they decided to leave the body where it was and return to Hampden because nothing was tying them to the dead man. Henry thought the ordeal was over, though thanks to Bunny, it is not.

Analysis: Chapter 4

Though Richard has felt that he has made progress with becoming an accepted part of his classmates’ select group, he finds himself still considered an outsider. Richard’s hurt and confusion over the tickets to Argentina are driven more by his feeling left out than by wondering what his friends are running from. As Henry points out, Richard does not try to stop them from leaving. However, Richard once again feels that he is part of the group when he is let in on what happened at the bacchanal and his classmates’ reason for booking the tickets to Argentina. Richard is so desperate to be accepted that he overlooks the seriousness of another man’s loss of life. Henry reveals through his actions how adept he is at manipulating Richard. By keeping Richard on his toes, never quite knowing where he stands with Henry and the others, Henry can ensure that Richard will not betray them. Though Richard has desired genuine friendship from his classmates, Henry’s actions show that his intentions may be far more nefarious than they appear.

In telling Richard the story of why the students tried to leave for Argentina, Henry reveals how far he and the others are willing to go in the search for the beauty Julian discussed in his class. For Henry, Francis, and the twins, the only purpose of having a bacchanal was to lose their sense of self and achieve the beautiful terror described by Julian. In simply attempting a bacchanal, they were displaying their deep sense of privilege, spending weekends doing nothing but drinking and doing drugs in search of a particular aesthetic. Losing control led them to kill an innocent person. However, they do not seem overly concerned with the farmer’s death and are certainly not plagued by guilt over killing a man. They consider anyone outside their circle inconsequential and are only concerned with the consequences of what will happen to them if they are found out. Readers might wonder what their love of beauty really means.

The consequences of secrets are also explored in this chapter, as Richard is finally let in on the secret his friends have been keeping from him. The darkness of the secret, a man’s murder, is secondary to Richard. He is at first hurt by being left out of what is happening with Henry, Francis, and the twins, showing the impact secrets can have on friendships. However, knowing their secret implicates Richard in their crime. This complicity brings them closer as friends, yet it also makes it more difficult for Richard to disentangle himself from any potential fallout.

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