Ordinary People: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Down the hall from Conrad's room, Calvin (Conrad's father, called Cal for short) and Beth (his mother) are also starting their day. Beth urges to Cal to make sure their son doesn't "look like a bum" when he leaves for school. Cal, meanwhile, quietly muses about his good fortune. He feels especially blessed that his wife is so beautiful, but is also grateful for his job as a tax attorney and his family's comfortable living situation. His present luck is a far cry from his childhood days in the Evangelical Home for Orphans and Old People. Cal (who was named "for his dead uncle") only saw his mother rarely, and never met his father.

Given his own lack of a father and family as a child, Cal worries about how to be a good father. But he believes that it involves a keen sense of responsibility: "looking for signs" of unhappiness in his son. He isn't sure if his son is truly happy, even though Conrad insists that he's fine. Cal notes to himself that Conrad hasn't spent much time with Lazenby, Truan, Genthe, or Van Buren – four boys who'd been Conrad's friends since they were all young kids. But Cal doesn't want to press his son too hard for answers.

Being a good father, Cal believes, requires giving a healthy amount of distance. He feels that his best accomplishment as a father and husband, though, has been making enough money to give his family as nice a life as possible.

All of the Jarretts gather in the kitchen for breakfast. Cal checks in with Conrad to see how things are going. With a healthy dose of sarcasm Conrad tells his dad that things are "fine," and adds that Lazenby will be giving him a ride to school. To Cal, Conrad seems just like "his old self"; yet, he worries that something is still amiss. Conrad hasn't put back on the weight he lost in the psychiatric hospital, and the breakfast conversation leaves Cal feeling a little uneasy. He reminds Conrad to "stick to the plan": that is, calling Dr. Berger, a psychologist in Evanston, to schedule a visit. Conrad insists that he has no time to see Dr. Berger because he has swim practice every evening, but Cal urges him to make the call when he has the time.