A Little Life

In another flashback to Jude’s years in the monastery, Jude’s life continues its mostly miserable daily patterns of various kinds of abuse, but Brother Luke provides a safe haven. He makes Jude feel intelligent and special and gradually begins making up stories about how they could run away from the monastery together and live in a cabin in the woods. One day, he tells Jude that he wants to turn these stories into a reality. Jude agrees, and the two make plans to run away in the night in two months, shortly after Jude turns nine. When the night arrives, they successfully flee.

Back­ in the present, Jude finds himself unable to recover from the trauma of his relationship with Caleb. His memories of the beatings follow him every day; he begins to conceive of them as a pack of beasts stalking him, mixing with his traumatic memories from childhood. Though he takes on an increasingly huge workload at the law firm, he can never distract himself thoroughly enough.

As he continues to find himself unable to move on from the beating, he begins to consider suicide as a more and more plausible solution. He formulates a plan, finalizing his will and writing letters to his closest friends.