The Education of Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams Summary | Chapter 1 Quincy (1838 - 1848) Summary

Adams's education begins in Quincy, Massachusetts, a small Massachusetts town two hours walk from Boston. It is the home of his great-grandfather, President John Adams, and his grandfather, John Quincy Adams. He sets out the main formative influences on his early character: his elite birth, a serious case of Scarlet Fever, the start of his formal education, and the changing seasons. Regarding the first, he was a direct descendant of the Adams line, which included the patriot Samuel Adams and would later include his father Charles Francis Adams. He took his circumstances as natural and assumed that other boys had backgrounds as special as his, and did not realize the doors that such a background would open. The second major impact was a serious case of Scarlet Fever, which almost killed him when he was 8. He survives, but is smaller in stature than his brothers. He falls behind them physically but moves ahead mentally - he doesn't realize it at the time, but his illness and its effects cause him to question the world around him, to consider rather than to act. The third major influence is the start of his formal education in school, against which he rebels at first, until his grand father, J. Q. Adams, leads him there by hand. The final major influence on his early years was the seasons - winter and summer, which for him are nature and school, respectively. The sense impressions of the season, the smells and sights, stay with him all his life, and in youth encourage a sense of dualism, winter in opposition to summer, school in opposition to nature