31 pages • 1 hour read
Deathwatch
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Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Ben is a college student who is well known in the area for his expertise about wild, bighorn sheep. Madec, a ruthless Los Angeles businessman, heard about Ben from the locals and offered him a job as his hunting guide in pursuit of bighorn sheep.
The story opens as the pair is on their way into the desert.
As they proceed, Ben notices that Madec is a skilled shooter and willing to shoot anything, regardless of whether or not it is moving. Madec is condescending toward Ben and does not think he is the type of person who can understand the appeal of big game hunting. Ben regrets taking the job, but he admits that the money Madec is paying him will cover a semester or two of college. Ben is studying to become a geologist and work for an oil company.
During their hunt, Madec professes to see a bighorn in the distance, but Ben tells him he does not see any horns. Madec argues that he sees horns, and he shoots. After shooting the object in the distance, Madec immediately begins trying to bargain with Ben. His permit only allows him to kill one bighorn, but Madec wants to take home a prime specimen. He explains to Ben that they could easily continue the hunt if the object Madec just shot is not the best sheep he thinks he can get. Ben goes along with Madec’s plan, but only because he knows he can lead Madec away from the bighorn so he is unable to find any others to shoot. Madec runs ahead to examine his kill. He returns quickly and claims to have missed his shot. Ben assumes that Madec shot a female sheep or a young male with no horns, which is illegal. Ben tells Madec he does not believe him, and Madec admits he shot a female sheep. When Ben makes his way to the body, however, he realizes that Madec has killed an old man.
Chapter 2 Summary
Ben examines the dead man and notes the severity of the damage from Madec’s rifle. Ben tells Madec that he will get the Jeep and some supplies so they can carry the dead man down. Upon Madec’s suggestion, Ben leaves his rifle with Madec to simplify the process. After Ben retrieves the Jeep, he hears the sound of his rifle firing twice. When Ben asks Madec to help him carry the old man down, Madec tries to convince Ben that it would be much better if they bury the old man in the desert and tell no one. Ben resists, and Madec shows Ben that the old man now has two gunshot wounds from Ben’s rifle. He tells Ben that it no longer appears the old man’s death was an accident.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The story begins in medias res, which is Latin for “in the midst of things.” This literary technique effectively grabs the reader’s attention by jumping into the story’s action before unraveling how the characters have found themselves in the situation. By opening with Madec poised to shoot, the author presents the reader with a high-stakes event that conjures many questions that can only be answered with continued reading. White’s use of in medias res immediately creates intrigue and suspense that set the stage for the rest of the story.
The story is told through the third-person limited point of view. Ben is the protagonist of the story, but he is not the narrator. The narrator, however, is intimately familiar with Ben’s thoughts and feelings. This use of point of view allows the reader to sympathize with Ben without being suspicious of his motives in telling the story. The third-person point of view creates a sense of objectivity as opposed to the first-person point of view, which is more clearly a subjective account of a story. However, this story’s point of view is somewhere in between objective and subjective since it has access to only one character’s thoughts and feelings and thus creates a bias against all other characters.
White uses the early descriptions of Madec to foreshadow the events to come. The narrator says of Madec, “[he] was dangerous with a gun” and “There was an intensity in his eyes far beyond that of just hunting a sheep. It was the look of murder” (10). The narrator also relates “It wasn’t enough for Madec to outwit somebody, outdeal a man in some tricky way, the guy had to get really hurt, too” (12). These quotes characterize Madec as immoral and sadistic. He doesn’t just enjoy outwitting business associates; he wants to inflict emotional or financial damage. Ben already recognizes that Madec is irresponsible with his weapon, shooting at inanimate objects, and the pomposity that we see in Madec’s condescension toward Ben foreshadows his deadly mistake and his refusal to face the consequences. White’s message here seems to reflect the proverb “pride comes before the fall.”
White builds a sense of danger around Madec and fulfills the reader’s expectation when Madec kills a man. Madec’s behavior—denying that he shot anything, then lying about what he killed—reveals more of his deceitful character and suggests that Madec might harm Ben to protect himself. White again confirms the reader’s suspicions when Madec shoots the old man with Ben’s gun, thus trying to implicate Ben in the man’s murder.
Just as White began the story in the middle of the action, he quickly introduces the inciting incident, the old man’s death, to hasten and progress the plot. He fashions Madec as the villainous antagonist right away, and, through Ben’s decisions to take the body back into town, reveals Ben as the wholly moral protagonist who wants to do the right thing.
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