Prologue- Chapter 3: Settings

In these chapters, we are introduced to the troubled Wingo family.  Tom, the narrator, tells us cynically about his challenging childhood, decaying marriage, and most importantly, his suicidal sister Savannah. The prologue addresses the importance of Tom's South Carolinian identity and his past.  In chapter 1, Tom discovers that Savannah has attempted suicide for the second or third time, and that he must travel to New York to see her.  Tom does not like New York one bit, but Savannah seems to be happier there than in South Carolina.  Chapter 2 reveals the details of Tom's first visit to New York with his brother Luke to see Savannah.  Extreme contrasts are made between southern, rural South Carolina and urban New York. We (the readers) also realize just how deranged Savannah is in the mind.  In chapter 3, Tom, back in the present, meets Dr. Lowenstein, Savannah's psychiatrist.  She tells him how serious Savannah's condition is and asks to know more about Savannah's past. 


Colleton, South Carolina is characterized by sterotypical Southern culture and the astounding beauty of nature.  The people have similar southern roots, know each other, and are courteous.  In New York City, on the other hand, the cold concrete buildings and streets parallel the aloofness of the people.  Having been raised in the South, Tom is uncomfortable in the impersonal city of New York.  Conroy's diction indicates Tom's disdain for the city, incorporating words like "enervating", "hideous", "cheerless", "damaged", and "s***hole" when describing New York.  Tom says:

"It takes too much energy and endurance to record the infinite number of ways the city offends me.  Were I to list them all, I would fill up a book the size of the Manhattan yellow pages, and that would merely be the prologue (32)."

Unlike Tom, Savannah is fascinated with the fierceness and artistry of the city.

"Even the muggers, drug addicts, winos, and bag ladies...are a major part of the city's ineffable charm for her.  It is these damaged birds of paradise, burnt out and sneaking past the mean alleys, that define the city's most extreme limits for her.  She finds beauty in these extremities (33)."

Tom and Luke think that no one can find privacy in New York because there are so many people.  Savannah believes that precisely for that reason, one can have privacy.  She explains that in such a big city, nobody knows you personally, so you can get by unnoticed.
Savannah also loves New York because it is the opposite of Colleton.  She had a difficult childhood and needed to escape from the memory of it.  She tells Luke:

"'That's why I came here to New York, to escape everything in my past.  I hated every single thing about my childhood.  I love New York because I'm not reminded of Colleton at all.  Nothing that I see here, absolutely nothing, reminds me of my childhood.' (44)"

We think that the details of Savannah's feminist followers and the bleeding angels in her vision suggest that she was raped, possibly by her father.  We are eager for more information about Savannah's past to be revealed so that we can see if our predictions are correct.
We noticed in these chapters that Tom and Savannah are closely connected, but that the setting divides them.  Their different opinions of Colleton and New York City reflect the different ways they deal with their childhood.  Tom says that his job is to forget his past, so he loves South Carolina because he doesn't acknowledge what happened there.  He says that it is Savannah's job to remember her past in detail and try to escape from it, so she moves away from the locus of her suffering.  As the novel progresses, it will become Tom's job to remember everything so that he can solve the mystery of Savannah's madness and save not only Savannah, but himself as well.