The Labors of Hercules Beal

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of parental death.

Hercules Beal, the 12-year-old narrator, shares that he dislikes his name because, unlike his mythically strong namesake, he has always been small. His older brother, Achilles, claims that he will hit his growth spurt soon. In the fall, Hercules will attend the Cape Cod Academy for Environmental Sciences for seventh grade, even though everyone he knows is going to Truro Middle School. He is not excited, because his new homeroom teacher, a retired marine, is less than welcoming.

Over a year ago, Hercules’s parents died. His dad was strong, like Zeus, the mythical Hercules’s father, and his mother was beautiful and smart, like Alcmene, the mythical Hercules’s mother. When they died, Achilles, who was a writer, moved home to take care of Hercules and to run the family business, Beal Brothers Farm and Nursery. Because his brother traveled the world writing for Smithsonian Magazine and National Geographic, Hercules assumes his brother is unhappy living in Truro, Massachusetts, their hometown. However, Hercules believes Truro is “the most beautiful place on the planet” (6), and every morning, he walks to the ocean, climbs “the Dune,” and watches the sunrise.