The Housemaid is Watching

The pocketknife that Enzo gives Ada symbolizes heroism. When Enzo gives Ada the knife to defend herself, he tells her that it’s just “cautionary.” He wants her to use it only to defend herself, as he uses violence only to defend those who need it, like when he nearly killed Dario both in revenge for his abuse of Antonia and to protect anyone else who could be abused by him—a heroic attempt to rid his community of an abuser. Once Ada has the knife, her own heroic arc begins. When Hunter is harassing her at school, she thinks, “I bet if I took out that knife, Hunter would go away real quick” (324). She wants to threaten Hunter only to keep herself safe, as she later threatens him verbally to keep him away from both her and any other girl at their school.

Ada is a foil for her mother, but in her defense of Nico, she is like her father. When she stabs Jonathan, she thinks, “[Jonathan] doesn’t see the glimmer of the knife in the overhead lights until I have jammed it right into his belly, exactly where my dad told me to put it” (344). She copies Enzo’s instructions for how to use the knife to incapacitate the man who abused her brother and would likely kill her if she didn’t stop him. Millie acknowledges Ada’s heroism, thinking, “Ada did not do anything wrong. She is a hero, as far as I’m concerned” (374). Though her actions were violent, the novel suggests that they were justified to prevent a child killer from abusing and murdering any children again.