Jasper Jones: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

An unidentified narrator says that a young man named Jasper Jones has come to his window. The narrator has no idea why, but guesses that Jasper is desperate and in trouble. The narrator says that he lives in a small “sleepout” with only one window. Because it’s summer, and very hot, the narrator reads at night. Tonight, Jasper Jones knocks at the narrator’s window, frightening him.

Jasper Jones calls to the narrator, whom he addresses as Charlie, to come out. Charlie does so, thinking that this is the first time he’s ever snuck out of his home. He’s also excited that Jasper Jones needs his help. As he squeezes through his window, he feels like a foal being born.

Jasper and Charlie walk through the moonlight, away from Charlie’s house. Charlie thinks that his mother is asleep, and he studies Jasper. Jasper is a year older than Charlie, but he’s much stronger and bigger. He wears no shoes, and looks like an “island castaway.” Before Jasper and Charlie have gone far, Charlie runs to the back steps of his house to fetch his sandals. As he puts them on, he senses that he’s somehow proving himself weak and effeminate.

After Charlie puts on his sandals, he and Jasper head out of the small town where Charlie lives: Corrigan, Australia. Jasper offers Charlie a cigarette. Because Charlie has never smoked before, he puffs his cheeks and sighs, as if to say that he’s smoked too much already. Jasper shrugs and lights a cigarette for himself.

Jasper and Charlie reach their destination: the house of Mad Jack Lionel. Charlie feels a twinge of fear. Mad Jack is a notorious person among the children of Corrigan, largely because no child has ever seen him. There is a local legend that Mad Jack killed a young woman years ago, and the children like to prove their daring by stealing peaches from the tree that stands on his property.

Charlie wonders if Jasper has brought him to Mad Jack’s house to steal a peach, and hopes that this isn’t the case. Charlie wants to become more popular, and stealing a peach would guarantee this—but he’s neither fast nor brave. He asks Jasper where they’re going, and Jasper says that they must keep moving. Jasper adds that he’s seen Mad Jack many times, and Charlie believes him. When Charlie asks Jasper what Mad Jack looks like, Jasper ignores him and walks on.

As Charlie and Jasper walk along the river, Charlie thinks of everything he knows about Jasper. Jasper’s mother is dead, and his father is “no good.” Jasper has a reputation for being a thief and a criminal. As a result, the other families of Corrigan warn their children to be good, or they’ll end up like Jasper. When the children do something wrong, they can blame Jasper, and their parents almost always believe them.

Once, Charlie heard that Jasper was “half-caste.” He brought this up with his father, who is a calm, intelligent man. When he did so, his father became angry, and told Charlie that it was impolite to talk about people’s race. Later, he gave Charlie a collection of books by Southern authors: Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, and Mark Twain. Charlie was pleased, because he’d always wanted to read his father’s books. He enjoyed Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird best, though he told his father that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was his favorite.

Charlie thinks about how he fits into Corrigan. As a lover of books, he’s something of an outcast, since most of the children love sports, and most of their parents work at a mine. Charlie is a good student and bad at sports, meaning that he’s generally resented. His best and only friend is a Vietnamese boy named Jeffrey Lu, who’s a year younger than Charlie and skipped a grade of school. Jeffrey is bullied because he’s Vietnamese. Still, he’s always optimistic, and in many ways braver than the children who steal peaches from Mad Jack. Besides Jeffrey, Charlie’s only competitor for being the cleverest student in school is Eliza Wishart—and he has a crush on her.

Charlie follows Jasper away from the river. He asks Jasper where they’re going, but Jasper only tells him to follow. Charlie thinks that he and Jasper have barely spoken before tonight, and in fact, he’s surprised that Jasper knows his name at all. Charlie wonders what would happen if he were to disappear tonight—his parents would probably assume that he’d been kidnapped. Funnily enough, he thinks, he would then be the only child in town who could honestly say that Jasper had gotten him into trouble.

Jasper leads Charlie into a thick patch of bushes. He stops here, and tells Charlie to look through a wattlebush. He adds that he thinks he can trust Charlie. Charlie thinks that if it were anybody other than Jasper, he would leave immediately. Yet for reasons he can’t fully explain, Charlie stares through the bush. There he sees a dead girl, wearing a white nightdress. She has dirt and bruises on her face, and she is hanging by the neck from a eucalyptus tree. Charlie’s eyes fill with tears, and he feels himself silently screaming, but he can’t look away. Jasper cannot bear to look.

Charlie, terrified by the sight of the dead girl, asks Jasper who it is. Jasper tells him that the girl is Laura Wishart. He insists that Charlie help him, since Jasper doesn’t know what to do. He explains that Laura is hanging from the same rope that Jasper uses to swing. Because Jasper always hides his rope by wrapping it around a high, inaccessible branch, it’s impossible that Laura hanged herself—she was murdered.

Charlie, still panicking at the sight of the dead girl, asks Jasper if he killed Laura. Jasper looks confused and disdainful, and denies that he has anything to do with the girl’s death. Still, Jasper says, Laura died at the same place in the bushes that he has been using as a makeshift shelter. He points to Laura’s face and says that someone beat her before she died. Charlie feels as if he’s living in a nightmare. He looks at Laura’s body and thinks that it’s nothing but an empty bag now.

Charlie insists that he and Jasper have to alert the police to Laura’s death, a suggestion that Jasper immediately disagrees with, since the police will undoubtedly blame him for the crime. Charlie denies that this will happen, but Jasper points out that even Charlie immediately thought of Jasper when he saw the dead body. Charlie realizes that Jasper is right: everyone in Corrigan will blame Jasper for the girl’s death. Jasper insists that they must find the real criminals responsible.

Charlie asks Jasper if he ever brought Laura to the bushes. Jasper replies that he did, but always by a circuitous path. This prevented Laura from learning how to get to the bushes by herself. Jasper preferred to be the only one to know how to get there. He tells Charlie that “it wasn’t like that,” a statement that Charlie doesn’t understand at all. Jasper explains that Laura was clever, but not like Charlie—her cleverness was a kind of “wisdom.”

Jasper tells Charlie that he thinks Mad Jack killed Laura, since Jack often saw him walking with Laura. Charlie is furious that Jasper would bring him into a dangerous area, when it’s possible that Mad Jack is there. He turns to leave, but then remembers that he has no idea how to get back home. Jasper puts his hand on Charlie and tells him to calm down, adding that he knows Charlie is “a good sort.” He explains that he and Charlie must track down Laura’s real killer before the police find out about her death and arrest him for the crime. Charlie shakes his head and tells Jasper that they’re not detectives—they won’t be able to solve the crime by themselves.

Even as he tells Jasper that they won’t be able to track down Laura’s killer themselves, Charlie feels a part of himself wanting to conduct the investigation. Jasper might be right, he thinks—maybe the police would arrest Jasper, and maybe Mad Jack is responsible. Although he prefers reading books to solving crimes, he feels a little proud that Jasper chose him out of everyone in the town. Charlie feels like Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird: calm, intelligent, and committed to justice.

Charlie proposes that he tell the police about Laura’s death without mentioning Jasper’s name. Jasper refuses to let Charlie do this. If the police find out about the clearing in the bushes, he says, then other girls will come forward, saying that Jasper brought them there, and so Jasper will be a prime suspect in Laura’s death. This will also make Charlie an accessory after the fact, since he will have tried to cover for Jasper. Charlie then proposes that he and Jasper move the body, but Jasper refuses to help with this either. He says the police will see that the body has been moved, and trace the steps back to the bushes.

Jasper proposes that he and Charlie throw Laura’s body in the river, so that no one else will find it before he and Charlie have found the real killer. Charlie finds this disgusting and immoral, since it will deny Laura’s family the ability to perform last rites on Laura’s body. Jasper argues that Laura’s parents are “no good,” and besides, they’ll be more interested in the truth about who killed Laura then about how she was buried. Charlie finds it difficult to respond—he keeps staring at Laura’s body, swinging eerily in the breeze.

Jasper tells Charlie to focus—Charlie has to help Jasper prove his innocence. Jasper explains that he’s always been blamed for everything—to the rest of the town, he’s an animal “with half a vote.” He encourages Charlie to be brave, and tells him to look around the area for evidence. Too traumatized to say no, Charlie looks around with Jasper. They find footprints leading back the way Jasper usually took Laura, and also some trampled grass that might suggest that Laura tried to escape before she died.

Jasper climbs the eucalyptus tree where Laura is hanging, intending to cut her down. As he climbs, Charlie thinks about Jeffrey Lu, who is undoubtedly awake at the moment, thinking about the upcoming cricket match featuring his favorite player, Doug Walters. Charlie notices that Jasper is climbing very skillfully, using his strength and agility, and he doubts that Jack Lionel, an old man, could have climbed the tree. Jasper reaches the branch where Laura is hanging, and, without looking at her, uses a small knife he carries on his belt to cut the rope. Laura’s body falls to the ground with a horrible thud. Charlie’s heart is beating rapidly, but he can’t force himself to move.

Jasper climbs back down the eucalyptus tree and walks to where Laura’s body is now lying. He tries to untie the knot in the rope around her neck. Charlie is terrified, but he kneels down next to Jasper. Jasper says, “Hey, Charlie,” very casually. Unable to untie the knot, he uses his knife to cut the rope around her neck. He notes that the rope isn’t really a noose at all—the knot isn’t tight enough, suggesting that Laura may not have been hanged at all. Jasper carefully pulls away the rope, revealing that Laura’s neck is covered in dark marks and scratches.

As Charlie stares at Laura’s body, he senses that he’ll never be able to forget her. She looks warm and eerily peaceful, almost as if she’s sleeping. Charlie thinks that Laura looks a lot like her sister, Eliza, and wonders what will happen when Eliza finds out about Laura’s death. As Charlie thinks, Jasper walks into the darkness, and returns a moment later carrying a heavy block of granite, which he ties around Laura’s feet using the rope. Charlie notices that Jasper is tying Laura’s feet very gently, and he wonders if Jasper and Laura were in love.

Jasper gently runs his hand against Laura’s cheek. For some reason, the sight of Jasper doing this makes Charlie conscious for the first time that he is an accomplice in a crime. Even so, when Jasper tells him to help him pick up Laura, he does so, feeling as if he’s trapped in another person’s body. As he and Jasper carry Laura to the river, he feels the body slipping from his hands. Jasper urges him to be careful, and his words encourage Charlie to find new strength, which he uses to carry the body the rest of the way. Charlie feels as if he’s “getting brave,” as Jasper told him to do.

At the river, Jasper directs Charlie to swing Laura’s body into the water. They swing the body three times, and Charlie feels like they’re playing a childish game. They throw the body into the river, and it lands with a dull “plunk.” Charlie watches the body float for a few seconds before the granite stone pulls it to the bottom of the river. He senses that he and Jasper are monsters—they have drowned a girl. He wonders what Laura was doing that afternoon—perhaps spending time with her sister, or walking around the town.

Charlie turns and sees that Jasper is bent over, shaking. The sight of Jasper collapsed on the ground makes Charlie weep. He feels drained. At the same time, he’s reluctant to let Jasper know that he’s weeping—thus, he doesn’t sniff.

Charlie notices that Jasper is holding a small bottle without a label. Jasper takes a swig, and offers Charlie the bottle. Charlie doesn’t take it, but asks for a cigarette. Jasper gives him one, and Charlie sticks it in his mouth the wrong way, which makes Jasper smile. Charlie reverses the cigarette, and Jasper lights it. Charlie coughs, never having smoked before, though he says that he’s only coughing because of the humidity. They lie on the ground by the river for a few minutes, Charlie coughing and Jasper drinking.

After a few moments of silence, Charlie tells Jasper that he feels like he’s in a dream. Jasper says he knows what Charlie means, and tells him that Laura was everything to him—she was his mother, his sister, his friend, and his family. He offers Charlie the bottle again, and this time Charlie accepts it. Jasper informs him that it contains Bushmills. Charlie finds this alcohol disgusting. He thinks that now he’s tried and hated two things that his literary heroes (Sal Paradise, Huck Finn, and Holden Caulfield) revered: booze and cigarettes. He lies and tells Jasper that he doesn’t like the drink because he usually drinks only single malt. Jasper doesn’t press for more details, but explains that he took the bottle from his father, who can’t hold his liquor because he’s white. He insists that he never steals anything from his father that he doesn’t really need.

Jasper continues to tell Charlie about his father. He explains that his father spends all of his money on whores and alcohol, rather than buying Jasper three meals a day. For this reason, Jasper is forced to steal his food from others—sometimes strangers, sometimes his father. As Jasper continues drinking, he explains that he is never accused of the crimes he committed: he’s only blamed for crimes of which he’s innocent. Charlie asks Jasper if he ever feels guilty for taking things, but Jasper says that he never does. He believes that he’s had a rough life, and thus he deserves everything he steals. At the same time, Jasper refuses to go through life believing that he’s a victim.

Jasper takes another drink from the bottle, and tells Charlie that he thinks about leaving Corrigan one day and making his fortune in the oyster business in the north. He asks Charlie what his plans are for the future, and Charlie feels uncomfortable—it seems strange to talk about the future so soon after having thrown Laura in the river. Nevertheless, he tells Jasper, a little nervously, that he dreams of becoming a writer. To Charlie’s surprise, Jasper is supportive of this plan, and tells Charlie that he’ll have to write Jasper’s story one day. Hearing Jasper say this makes Charlie believe that his dreams of becoming a writer are plausible.

Jasper finishes the bottle of Bushmills, and almost as soon as he does so, he turns and vomits. He explains to Charlie that he can hold his liquor—just not for long. Suddenly, Charlie notices that it’s dawn—he must return to his house before his parents discover that he’s missing. Charlie and Jasper walk back through the town of Corrigan, and Charlie feels as if he and Jasper are old friends.

As Charlie and Jasper pass by the center of Corrigan, the Miners’ Hall, Charlie thinks about Jasper. Though he’s still terrified by the sight of Laura hanging from the tree, he feels thrilled that Jasper views him as a friend and an equal, and that he and Jasper are working together to solve a mystery. He also thinks that Jasper is worthy of respect for surviving on his own from an early age. Charlie feels guilty for having a house and parents to take care of him.

Charlie and Jasper arrive back at Charlie’s house. Jasper helps Charlie climb back into his room through his window. He says he’ll see Charlie soon, and runs away. Alone in his room, Charlie becomes conscious that he’s very dirty and sweaty. He thinks about the facts: Laura was hanging from a tree, she’s now in the river, and only Jasper knew the area where they found her. Charlie concludes that, while he doesn’t know what the future will hold, he feels comfortable having Jasper as a friend and ally.