National Avenue · Chapter
I explained
The chapter introduces the Oliphant brothers, Harlan and Dan, contrasting their personalities and stately home on National Avenue.
What happens
The chapter introduces the Oliphant brothers, Harlan and Dan, contrasting their personalities and stately home on National Avenue. It describes their childhood differences: Harlan is fastidious and aristocratic, while Dan is lively and associates with all classes. A childhood quarrel over Dan's partnership with Sam Kohn in a bracket-making venture reveals their uncongenial yet neutral relationship, which persists through their college years at Yale.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Family
The Oliphants' stately home and Harlan's aristocratic demeanor contrast with Dan's egalitarian friendships, highlighting class distinctions within the family.
Progress and Destruction
The description of the houses as vulnerable to 'Progress' (city growth) introduces the theme of change undermining established order.
Characters to notice
- Dan Oliphant
The lively, disorderly older brother who enjoys playing with ragtag boys and running a bracket-making business with Sam Kohn.
- Harlan Oliphant
The fastidious, aristocratic younger brother who keeps immaculate and disapproves of Dan's activities.
- Sam Kohn
Dan's business partner in the bracket-making venture; a swarthy, bowlegged boy of thirteen.
- Mrs. Savage
Grandmother who hosts a dinner and predicts lasting hatred between the brothers after the quarrel.
Key passages
“People used to say of the two Oliphant brothers that Harlan Oliphant looked as if he lived in the Oliphants’ house, but Dan didn’t.”
Observers noted that Harlan seemed to belong to the family home, while Dan did not.
This sets up the contrast between the brothers' characters and their relationship to their environment.
“Those houses were of a big-walled solidity to withstand time, fire, and tornado, but they found another assailant not to be resisted by anything: this conqueror, called Progress, being the growth of the city.”
The houses were built to endure natural forces but were vulnerable to the city's expansion, which is personified as 'Progress.'
Introduces the theme of progress as a destructive force.
“The unarmed neutrality, which was not precisely a mutual ignoring, was resumed and continued.”
The brothers maintained a peaceful but distant relationship, neither hostile nor close.
Describes the ongoing dynamic between Harlan and Dan after their childhood quarrel.