39 pages • 1 hour read
Michele HarperThe Beauty in Breaking
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Michele: A Wing and a Prayer”
Harper recalls a vivid childhood memory of when she was seven years old, praying to a guardian angel to save her from the domestic violence that her father, Morris, perpetrated—primarily on her mother and brother. She expressed a longing for safety and security, a desire that in that moment felt like an impossible wish. Her life as a seven-year-old child, and for several years to come, was filled with fear and anxiety. As a tween, she finally worked up the courage to call 9-1-1 on her father, but the police were unconvinced that her father posed a threat to the rest of the family.
After a particularly violent confrontation between her father and her brother, her brother ended up in the emergency room. As Harper observed the dynamic of the emergency room world, she became completely enthralled and fascinated by it despite the chaos and urgency. Later, at home, she wondered if someday she could become an emergency room doctor and provide an “offering to the world” (19) in response to her own tumultuous upbringing.
Chapter 1 Analysis
This chapter introduces two of the book’s central themes: the aftermath of domestic abuse, and expectation versus reality. She puts readers in the mind of her seven-year-old self to focus on her identity as a survivor who had to develop resilience as a young child. The vividness of her memories speaks to the lingering effects of domestic violence in her life, which will haunt her for years to come.
The expectation that her childhood would be safe and secure conflicted dramatically with the reality of her home, a place she describes as devoid of “law” or “help” (13), particularly after the police did nothing to protect her and the rest of her family from her father’s violence. In the chapter’s last anecdote, she identifies her first memory of wanting to become a doctor someday, which intertwines these themes—the aftermath of domestic abuse, and expectation versus reality—with the strength of her aspirations.
