The Wasp Factory: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

The book opens on the day that Frank and his father, Angus, are informed that Eric, Frank’s brother, has escaped from the mental hospital. Frank has spent the day surveying and maintaining his Sacrifice Poles, superstitious totems that he has set up around the island on which he lives.

Frank sees the town policeman, Diggs, cross the bridge from the mainland to Frank’s island. He spies on Diggs with his binoculars, watching him disappear down the path towards the house Frank shares with Angus.

Frank uses a catapult to fire a ball bearing across the river separating his island from the mainland. He hits a sign, which he sees as a good omen. He notes that the Wasp Factory had sent him a vague, but likely important warning. Frank decides he will consult the Factory again tomorrow.

Frank wonders if, when he returns home, Angus will tell him the truth about his interaction with Diggs.

Frank returns home in the early evening. He notices that Angus looks worried, but thinks he might be trying to manipulate him. Angus tells Frank that something has happened with Eric, and Frank immediately understands that his brother has escaped from the mental institution where he had been incarcerated. Angus adds that the authorities suspect Eric will try to come home, but are sure they will capture him soon. Frank is sure Eric will make it to the island; he doesn’t even feel compelled to ask the Factory about it.

Angus serves Frank soup and sits at the far end of the kitchen table. Frank observes his father, noting his delicate face “like a woman’s,” and his stiff left leg, which requires him to walk with a walking stick. Frank explains how his father’s walking stick prevents him from going into the loft above the house where Frank has set up the Wasp Factory. Angus has never told Frank his real age, but Frank guesses he’s around 45.

Angus asks Frank how tall the table is. Frank answers it is thirty inches, and Angus corrects him, arguing it’s “two foot six.” Angus has obsessively asked Frank about measurements in the house all his life. Angus was once “genuinely afraid” of these attacks, but now sees them as “idiotic.”

Frank was homeschooled by Angus, who taught him a mixture of facts and total lies. Only when Frank grew older and was able to go to the library on his own was he able to begin to distinguish fact from fiction.

Angus says he hopes Frank wasn’t out killing animals. Frank doesn’t answer, but thinks to himself that of course he must kill animals, because how else is he supposed to get bodies for “the Poles and the Bunker if I don’t kill things?”

Angus remarks that sometimes he thinks Frank, not Eric, should be in the hospital. Frank thinks that this once would have scared him, but not anymore. He understands that people in town consider him strange, but he knows better than to make his obsessions and deviancies public.

Frank knows Angus is also nervous about Eric coming home, because any police investigations into the family might lead to “The Truth About Frank” coming out. The truth is that Frank has no birth certificate. He believes this is because his father was a “hippy-anarchist” back in the day. As a result, Angus educated Frank himself, and provided all of his early essential medical care.

Angus goes to bed. Frank thinks about his father’s study — the one room in the house he’s never been in because his father carefully locks it whenever he leaves. Frank suspects there is a secret in the study, but knows he cannot ask. Frank recognizes that his father holds “little bits of bogus power” in the form of secrets and locked doors, to control “what he sees as the correct father-son relationship.”

Frank hears the phone ring, and answers it. It’s Eric. At first, Eric repeats everything Frank says, but eventually the two begin to have a conversation. Eric won’t tell Frank where he is, but remarks that he’s still “mad, of course.” Eric says he’s coming home to check in on Frank and Angus, but refuses to say how close he is. Frank cautions Eric not to “annoy people,” and especially not to torment their pets or burn their dogs. Furious, Eric denies ever having done such a thing, and hangs up the phone.

Frank goes to bed. He reviews the Sacrifice Poles in his mind, examining each “like a security guard changing cameras on a monitor screen.” He believes the sentries, “which came under my power” through the murder of various small animals, say that all is well, and nothing will harm him.

Frank looks in the mirror. He’s naked aside from his underwear. He wishes he were “strong and fit,” but explains that because of his accident he is chubby instead. He reveals, “looking at me, you’d never guess I’d killed three people.”