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
Nick is getting ready to attend a candlelight vigil in a nearby park. In the last twenty-four hours, Amy’s story has gone national—though she’s been missing a week, she’s suddenly front-page news. The media loves the Elliotts—but seems suspicious of Nick and his lack of an alibi. Go insists the media’s treatment of Nick is a “real problem,” but Nick is more focused on the fact that the media is using his real first name, Lance, which he hates.
Even as the tide of public opinion begins to turn against Nick, he’s not concerned about the larger implications—he narcissistically focuses on all the wrong details, ignoring the statements about his marriage and his possible guilt and focusing on the fact that the media is exposing parts of Nick he’s truly embarrassed about.
Themes
As Rand, Marybeth, Nick, and Go arrive at the vigil together, Nick notes Rand’s psychotic cheer and Marybeth’s medicated state—she has been drinking shots of clear liquor around the clock the last several days. Still, all four of them put on a brave face and united front as they head into the park. Up on a makeshift stage, Nick makes a speech about how much he loves and misses Amy, and prays for her return. As he looks up into the crowd he spots Andie, looking “disgusted.” Nick finishes up his speech, and a moment of silence begins—but Noelle Hawthorne, pregnant and with her triplets all around her, pushes her way through the crowd towards the stage, screaming at Nick and demanding to know what Nick has done to his “pregnant wife.”
Even the stoic Elliotts are beginning to crack under the pressure and pain of Amy’s disappearance. In stark contrast to Nick’s obsession with himself, Marybeth and Nick seem to be hollowing themselves out, unable to focus on anything but Amy. As Nick takes the podium, some of the women he sees as the bane of his existence—Noelle and Andie—complicate and derail his attempt to recast himself in a better light.
Themes
The media’s flashbulbs start going off, and the crowd goes “berserk.” Go appears at Nick’s elbow and hurries him off the stage. They flee together towards Go’s car, ignoring reporters who chase after them questioning Nick about whether Amy was—or is—truly pregnant.
This new development makes Nick look guiltier than ever. Flynn is directly making a connection between this case and the infamous real-life case of Laci Peterson, who was killed at seven months pregnant and became the focus of the US news cycle in 2002.
Themes
