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 and Desi arrive at his grandiose, secluded lake house, and Desi gives Amy the grand tour. The space is impossibly luxurious, complete with a billiards room, sauna, wine cellar, and five bedrooms—one of which Desi has had specially repainted in Amy’s favorite color from high school, dusty rose. Amy knows that Desi derives an almost sensual pleasure from impressing her, and so she does her best to act extremely impressed.
Amy is slightly freaked out by the way things are laid out at Desi’s lake house—he seems to have built and decorated the entire house in anticipation of Amy’s return to his life.
Themes
As the piece de resistance, Desi shows Amy to an elaborate greenhouse—which he has had filled with tulips, Amy’s favorite flower. Amy admits that the gesture is sweet, but also feels a little bit of panic as she realizes that the tulips seem to have been planted for much longer than the twenty-four hours that have passed between Amy’s call to Desi and now. Nevertheless, Amy thanks Desi for creating a “fairy tale” for her. Still feeling nervous, she asks Desi if she can have some money—he assures her that she won’t want for anything, and hands her two twenties. Amy worries that she has made a huge mistake.
The tulips—Amy’s favorite—which have been growing in the greenhouse for a long time confirm Amy’s suspicion that Desi has been waiting for her to come back into his life. She’s suddenly afraid—she’s found herself in a story she didn’t want to be a part of.
Themes
