The Pact

“[The carjacker] was coming at [Gus] again. She had to make a choice. She scrambled for the rear door latch, sobbing. ‘Come on, come on,’ she cried, jiggling the latch on the infant seat and pulling the baby into her arms. She raced up the other side of the car, Chris’s side, but the man was already revving up the engine and she watched, hugging one child, while the other was spirited away.”

The recurring dream Gus experiences when her children are young foreshadows the way in which she “chooses” Chris over Kate when Chris is imprisoned. Gus repeatedly puts Chris first during this time, opting, for example, to cut her attendance at Kate’s birthday dinner short in order to visit Chris. The dream speaks to the theme of choices and the difficulty of making them. Gus’s dream also parallels the difficult choice Chris was faced with in Emily’s desire to die.

“Chris had killed deer; he would have enjoyed hunting moose or elk or bear. But he took one look at the hare and felt sick. He did not know if it was the contrast of the white snow with the bright blood, or the small stuffed-toy body of the hare itself, or the fact that this was the first time he’d preyed on something smaller and more defenseless than himself—but he turned to his side and threw up.”

The guilt Chris feels over killing the hare paints him as compassionate and supports his initial claim that Emily died by suicide, not murder. On the other hand, his knowledge of guns is useful to the prosecution’s case as the prosecution strives to demonstrate that Emily lacked such knowledge. Importantly, this incident provides evidence of Chris’s complexity, underlining The Complexity of Truth.

“Chris leaned closer, awkwardly slipping his arm around [Emily]. He let his eyes drift shut and decided in that instant that for the rest of Emily’s life, he would be her guardian angel.”

Though 13-year-old Chris initially intentionally led Emily down a dangerous ski slope, he immediately regrets his actions when Emily breaks her leg. The novel positions readers to interpret this past scene in light of Emily’s death: If Chris is sincere in his vow to protect Emily, then he would certainly not murder her.