Sound and Fury Summary

The article Sound and Fury: Fred Phelps and Life Inside Westboro is an article/timeline telling the story of Fred Phelps and his family. He was a lawyer and the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. The Westboro Baptist Church was a "church" and organization which have spoken out strongly and viciously against government officials, gay and lesbians, AIDs sufferers, fallen soldiers, African Americans, and many others. They are a hateful community which have spend large amounts of money to protest against groups of people. Fred Phelps had a large family consisting of 13 children, all suffering from their fathers actions as well. Phelps was a dictator and an abusive father, leaving his children with violent injuries from beatings he gave them. Phelps would beat his kids for any reason: bad grades, unjustifiable assumptions, not meeting their quota in candy selling, having a girlfriend/boyfriend, trying to find other jobs, etc. Countless times, a child of Fred Phelps attempted to run away from home to find a different life. Some were successful, others were brought home by their siblings or came home realizing they could not support themselves. Either way, escape from the life inside Westboro was difficult for the children of Phelps. Anytime an outside source attempted to bring justice to the way Phelps's treated his children, his children would cover for their father as a result of the fear he instilled in them. Out of fear and loyalty to their father, the Phelps's children pursued law degrees and practiced law just like their father. In 1994-1998, the life inside Westboro baptist church and the Phelps's family hit national spotlight on CNN. Two Phelps's boys, Nate and Mark, provided newspapers with information on the abuses inside the Phelps's family. Overall, hearing the crimes of Fred Phelps and the lives of the Phelps's children were both disgusting and sad, respectively. The actions of this community seem to be in the wrong time period and unjustified.