Brit's father, a former skinhead and a prominent figure in the white power movement. He raised Brit by himself after his girlfriend, Adele, cheated on him with a black man and, as he tells it, abandoned Brit. Around the time that Turk met Francis, the government was starting to crack down on overt white supremacy and Francis understood that the only way forward was to move online. He and Turk started the website lonewolf.org, a site that offers white supremacists an anonymous place to band together. Francis is a guiding force in Turk's life and a voice of reason throughout the trial. However, on the final day of trial, Wallace Mercy confronts Francis, Turk, and Brit with Adele, who is revealed to be black. Later, Francis confides in Turk that he and Adele were madly in love, but he was jealous and afraid of losing her. After beating her, she ran to her black choir director and Francis was picked up by Tom Metzger, a leader in the white supremacist movement. Following this revelation, both Francis and Turk are beaten and kicked out of the movement.
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Francis Mitchum Character Timeline in Small Great Things
The timeline below shows where the character Francis Mitchum appears in Small Great Things. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3, Turk
...insisted that killing a black person is the equivalent of shooting game. The man was Francis Mitchum, one of the most powerful men in the movement.
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Chapter 6, Turk
Turk and Francis Mitchum, his father-in-law, dismantle the nursery. Francis pulls down the curtains and repaints the walls...
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...He got it when he was 21, right after Brit agreed to marry him, and Francis called him stupid for it. When Turk walks back into the nursery, Francis softly says...
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That evening, Turk and Francis go to pick up Brit from the hospital. Brit recoils before getting in the car,...
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The next day, Turk puts on the suit he shares with Francis in preparation for his meeting with Carla Luongo, the risk management lawyer at the hospital....
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In the present, Francis watches Turk kick through the front window of the duplex. Turk insists the window was...
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A few weeks after Turk's fight with the bikers, he got a handwritten note from Francis asking him to come meet him in New Haven. Turk drove to a house in...
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Francis and Turk walked through the backyard, where Francis admitted that he likes talking to young...
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...spits that this would all be over if Turk would act like a real man. Francis ushers Brit upstairs while Turk grabs car keys and drives. He considers finding Ruth's house,...
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Chapter 9, Turk
Stepping back in time again, Turk says that he didn't believe Francis that the new wave of white supremacy would be fought on the internet. Francis, however,...
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...spends every night listening to Davis's ghost cry. One night, Turk gets up to drink. Francis lets himself in, throws a laptop at Turk, and tells him to get even. Turk...
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On the night that Turk took Brit out, they had dinner with Francis first. Brit talked about hitting a black man with her car and told Francis that...
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Outside, Turk notices media vans. He calls Francis and tells him to get Brit up and make her watch Channel Four. Turk puts...
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...the ones that gave suggestions for how individuals could stir up unrest without being violent. Francis and Turk tried a number of them, including slipping flyers about how the Holocaust was...
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One night, Francis asked Turk when he was going to marry Brit. It took him a while, but...
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Chapter 15, Turk
Three months after Davis's funeral, Francis tells Turk to post an invitation on LONEWOLF for people to come to the house...
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The next evening, Turk, Brit, and Francis are watching the news while Turk posts on LONEWOLF. After Francis goes to bed, Brit...
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...on his knuckles. At sunset, Turk and Brit walked down a makeshift aisle together, and Francis married them. Turk felt like he and Brit were the only people on earth.
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Chapter 27, Ruth
...Brit met when she gave birth to Brit. Brit throws herself at the woman and Francis yells for them to stop. His face looks ashen as he greets Adele.
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Chapter 28, Turk
...tries to touch Brit and then lies that Brit is her daughter. He looks to Francis, who says only the name of Brit's mother, Adele. Turk tells the reader that he...
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Brit runs off, and though Francis tries to get the LONEWOLF members to help look for her, they disappear. Turk doesn't...
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After that, Francis started leaving Brit in the car while he got drunk at bars, and that's where...
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Turk breaks into the graveyard and he and Francis approach Davis's grave. They find Brit there, brandishing her penknife. Francis shines his flashlight at...
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Chapter 31, Turk
...suicide. He tells them about how white supremacists came at night and beat him and Francis, and how he shut down lonewolf.org the next day. He was filing for divorce when...
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