How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again

How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again Summary | Detailed Summary

The narrator begins this story by describing a scene in which she finds herself walking through Braden's, an "excellent" department store. She is fifteen years of age and a student at Baldwin Country Day School. The year is 1968.

As the narrator walks through the store, she pauses near the costume jewelry counter to look at the rings, earrings and necklaces. Although they are not expensive, the girl decides they are ugly, and so she moves on to the glove counter. Looking at the gloves, which she decides are likewise ugly, she looks around at the women shoppers; none of them seem to be in a hurry. A short time later, the girl finds herself at home being questioned by her mother. Apparently, the girl had been caught shoplifting a pair of gloves and was released to her parents because her father, a doctor, was an acquaintance of the storeowner's physician.

An unspecified period of time passes. One afternoon, the girl is out shopping with her mother but is not interested in the things her mother is showing her. The mother, who, according to the narrator belongs to so many clubs and organizations that she seems to be in "perpetual," can't understand why her daughter seems so disinterested. The girl explains to the reader that she has an urge to shoplift again, but she chooses not to share this fact with her mother.

Several weeks later, the girl is at a bus stop. She has walked out of school and has decided to take a bus to Detroit. As she walks down the street, she passes a pawnshop and wonders what purpose a shop like that serves. She eventually meets Clarita, a prostitute and drug addict who is likely between the ages of twenty-five and thirty. Clarita wonders why the narrator has chosen to leave her clean, comfortable home and live on the street, but nonetheless, takes her to Simon, her pimp. Simon is also a drug addict.

The story briefly returns to the narrator's Sioux Drive neighborhood in the Detroit suburbs. She tells us that there seems to be no weather in her neighborhood; the change of seasons passes without much fanfare. She describes the various homes that line the streets of this neighborhood and provides the names and occupations of those who live in them. When she describes her own home, she tells us that in addition to the stacks of magazines that are regularly delivered there, there recently was a letter from her school informing her parents that she has not been working to her potential. This thought leads her to mention her brother, who is enrolled in a preparatory school in Maine. She tells us that when her brother was ten years of age, he stole trick-or-treat candy from some six year-old children. The narrator seems to have followed his example; in addition to the incident in Braden's department store, she also has been caught shoplifting a magazine from a local pharmacy and on separate occasions, a roll of Life Savers and a package of Tums. In contrast to her own neighborhood, she describes the weather in Detroit as constantly changing.

The narrator then describes the series of events that eventually caused her to land in jail. She returns us to the afternoon she shoplifted the gloves from Braden's department store. Exhilarated at having nearly completed her mission, she tells us that her heart is pumping and her eyes are glowing with excitement as she makes her way to the store's exit. Before she can safely reach the door, however, she is stopped by a store detective. Meanwhile, her father is attending a medical convention in Los Angeles.

The narrator finds herself at the Detroit apartment that Clarita shares with Simon. The apartment is located over a restaurant in a bad neighborhood. Clarita tells her that the torn wallpaper is the result of a pill binge she recently had. As the narrator takes in the unfamiliar sights, she realizes that if Clarita were to come to her neighborhood, she would feel just as uncomfortable. She wonders what Clarita's life would have been like if she hadn't left home at the age of thirteen. The narrator recalls that when she was thirteen, she was going to friends' slumber parties. While at Clarita's, the narrator is seduced by Simon, an experience she says she would gladly submit to again and again. Simon introduces her to intravenous drug use, and on one morning, even forces her to give him an injection with a needle she knows is dirty. She is terrified of the needles, partially because they remind her of her father. She remains at this apartment for two weeks before she is arrested. She wonders if her father was at home worrying about her when she was being taken into custody.

After having been taken into custody, the narrator, now sixteen years old, wonders if Simon is the reason why she is in jail. She vows not to tell the authorities about Simon, even at the risk of not being able to go home again. She remains steadfast in her convictions until one night when she is cornered in the bathroom by two other female inmates and brutally beaten.

The narrator recovers in the hospital before being taken home by her father. As they make the trip from Detroit to their suburban home, she is almost surprised by how clean everything looks. When she finally enters the house, she breaks down in tears and vows never to leave again. She still does not admit that Simon or any of the other men she was with had hurt her.

A short time later, the narrator has returned to school and is attempting to collect her thoughts by composing the series of notes that make up this story. She says the words keep coming and she is finding it difficult to stop writing. Twice a week, she visits her therapist, Dr. Coronet. Sitting once again in her pink bedroom, her thoughts turn to Simon, and she wonders how he would react to being in her home. She remembers her first sexual encounter with him and how she felt like she had a new life afterward. Despite this, however, she also thinks it was Simon who called the police.

The narrator reads in the newspaper that Raymond Forrest, the owner of Braden's department store, has died. She wishes she could thank him for not pressing charges against her for that long ago shoplifting incident.

As the story ends, the narrator sees her home in a new light and is thankful for all that she has.