Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Gone Girl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Secrets and Lies
Marriage
Misogyny
Writing, Storytelling, and Narrative
Summary
Analysis
Amy writes that she refuses to blame Nick for being laid off—along with fifteen other writers—from his magazine job. To do so, she says, would be to “turn into some pert-mouthed, strident angry-girl.” It is the day of their third wedding anniversary, and despite the occasion, Nick has called Amy to tell her that he needs to stay out with his coworkers, many of whom are distraught, angry, and upset. Even though Amy knows that Nick will surely pay for all these men’s drinks with a credit card linked to her bank account, and even though Nick and Amy had their annual treasure hunt planned, Amy insists that in getting mad she’d just be “being a girl.”
Again, Diary Amy is engaging in an hyperconscious rejection of wifely tropes. She draws herself as a woman who has always tried to resist reacting out of anger, jealousy, or scorn her husband’s many missteps and misdeeds. Amy is demonstrating the ways in which women who speak up for themselves are classified as being nagging or high maintenance, demonized for their self-respect and agency.
Themes
Nick gets home at four in the morning. Amy is waiting up for him, angry that he’s missed their anniversary. When Nick doesn’t say anything to acknowledge the milestone, Amy passively-aggressively wishes him “happy day after anniversary,” and the two have a small argument. When Amy realizes just how scared Nick is to have lost his job—despite Amy’s wealth, he still feels nervous about money because before their wedding he signed a prenup—she softens a bit. Nick tries to explain to Amy that he’s never not had a job, and has worked his way up from blue-collar jobs in the Midwest to achieve his spot at the magazine—now, he has lost it all. When Amy pokes fun at one of Nick’s old jobs (working as a Huck Finn impersonator), Nick curses at Amy and goes to sleep.
Nick and Amy can’t seem to get on the same page in this passage. Their resentments towards one another have begun to pile up, and are coming out in nasty new ways as the newlyweds confront the first real challenge to their marriage.
Themes
The two of them have never gone to bed angry, and have rarely had arguments as pointed and personal as this one. Amy goes over to the trash can and digs through it, pulling out Nick’s receipts from the night. She sees he’s been to two bars and two strip clubs. Though she know she should be a “good sport” about his trip to the adult establishment, she finds herself feeling angry. What’s more, she snoops through Nick’s notebook and finds a phone number with a woman’s name next to it on the most recently used page. Amy begins crying, but wonders how seriously she should be taking Nick’s callous actions. After a few minutes, she goes to the bedroom, joins him in bed, and they apologize to one another at the exact same time.
It's impossible to say whether the information contained in this passage is true—Diary Amy seems to be trying to set Nick up as a man tempted by the desire to stray, always reeled in by his love for her. Their marriage, at this point in the “narrative” of their lives together, is still strong—but there are cracks in the foundation.
Themes
