Writing, Storytelling, and Narrative Theme in Gone Girl

Nick and Amy are—or were—both writers by trade. Laid off from high-profile magazine jobs before the events of the novel began, both of them struggle with repressed creativity, a desire to organize the things that happen to them into stories, and to wrest control of their life’s narratives from the forces that have derailed them both. As Nick and Amy become increasingly obsessed with taking back the reins of their own stories, they employ various methods in a series of escalating attempts to control, once and for all, the narratives of their lives and their marriage. Throughout Gone Girl, Flynn shows how deeply Nick and Amy both hold the belief that power over narrative is power over circumstance, and ultimately argues that this slightly sinister belief is, nonetheless, true.

The struggle between Nick and Amy to gain control over the narrative of their lives—together and separately—as well as that of their marriage is written into the very DNA of the novel. As the perspective alternates back and forth, gaining momentum and then careening to a rapid-fire conclusion, it becomes clear that Amy and Nick have been struggling for ownership of their own stories for the entirety of their relationship—and will continue doing so until the bitter end.

Amy is more well-versed than Nick in what it means to lose control over one’s narrative—and to try to gain it back at any cost. Her entire childhood was cannibalized by her parents, Rand and Marybeth, as fodder for their Amazing Amy series of children’s books, in which they cribbed important events from Amy’s youth and turned them into stories meant to educate other children in how to be “amazing.” In reality, Amy was never the perfect child her parents marketed her as to the masses—and yet the narrative that she had to be in order to keep up with her fictive alter-ego transformed Amy into a power-hungry perfectionist determined to live the kind of storybook life her warped childhood led her to believe she should. Amy’s backstory sets up the idea that she is desperate for a sense not just over the story she tells herself about her identity and her circumstances, but over what happens to her in her real life. Because the fictional “Amazing Amy” always showed her up no matter what regular Amy did in the real world, Amy knows that in order to regain control over herself, she will have to do something truly spectacular and unforgettable—which leads to the creation of her plot to get “gone.”

The diary that Amy keeps as a piece of evidence in her mysterious disappearance is a catalog of seven years of false entries which weave a mostly false story of suffering escalating abuse in her marriage with Nick. The diary is Amy’s last-ditch effort to reclaim power over the many slights and cruelties she sees Nick as having thrust upon her. Nick, in Amy’s view, has sucked up all her money, dragged her to the Midwest, and emotionally abandoned her for a younger woman. The story Amy had been telling herself about her relationship with Nick when they were happy and in love in New York—that they are two whip-smart, laid-back, bonkers-in-love equals—has fallen apart, and as she sets out to start her diary, Amy begins constructing a new story which she feels emotionally matches up with the way she feels: cast out, ignored, and used up.

Towards the end of the novel, when Amy makes her triumphant return to Carthage after “escaping” from her former high school boyfriend (and alleged stalker) Desi Collings’s lake house, she again begins spinning a narrative which suits her, once more showing that the ability to shape a narrative is essentially the ability to shape the circumstances of a situation. She alleges that Desi kidnapped her, tied her to a bed for weeks, and raped her repeatedly—but because Desi’s dead, and because of the “narrative” Amy put in place by framing herself as the victim, no one questions her story. She’s even offered a score of lucrative book deals from competing publishers—all she has to do is pick the vessel for her story and write it. Amy believes herself firmly in charge of her own story once and for all—until she realizes that Nick is staying up writing all night every night, working on a tell-all of his own. When Amy discovers what Nick’s doing, she threatens to hurt their unborn child—or implicate Nick in having done so. Nick realizes he has been “outplayed” by his “forever antagonist,” and that going forward, his and Amy’s lives together will be “one long frightening climax.” At that point in the novel, the story seems to be over—but the narration switches back over to Amy for one last, brief chapter in which she states that she just wanted to be able to have the last word.

As Amy and Nick wrestle for control both on the page and off, the two of them—both talented writers—demonstrate the knowledge that to finally gain control of their “story” is to gain control of their actual circumstances and shared future. In the end, Amy appears to have won—she is able to successfully wrangle the “last word” for herself, and has forced Nick into the realization that he has lost control not just over the narrative of his own life but of the blueprint for his future. Nick’s final words, however—that his and Amy’s story is just one long and harrowing “climax”—suggests that the struggle to continually claim and reshape their narrative will repeat itself for years to come with no end in sight.

Writing, Storytelling, and Narrative ThemeTracker

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Writing, Storytelling, and Narrative Quotes in Gone Girl

Below you will find the important quotes in Gone Girl related to the theme of Writing, Storytelling, and Narrative.

My parents have always worried that I’d take Amy too personally—they always tell me not to read too much into her. And yet I can’t fail to notice that whenever I screw something up, Amy does it right… […] This used to drive me mad… […] That my parents, two child psychologists, chose this particular public form of passive-aggressiveness toward their child was not just fucked up but also stupid and weird and kind of hilarious. So be it.

Related Characters: Amy Elliott Dunne (speaker), Rand Elliott, Marybeth Elliott

Related Symbols: Amy’s Diary

Page Number and Citation: 26-27

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage—one of the rare moments of truth within Amy’s falsified decoy diary entries—she discusses the fact that her parents have become millionaires based on the success of their popular series of children’s books, which are titled Amazing Amy and are based on Amy’s real life. The books, however, transfigure Amy’s real-life experiences—playing sports, learning instruments, making good and bad choices in social situations—into lessons for other children. “Amazing Amy” succeeds where the real Amy fails—she is up for any challenge, always has a sunny attitude, and embodies the perfect ideas of childhood. The real Amy grew up always Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusanti

I am fat with love! Husky with ardor! Morbidly obese with devotion! A happy, busy bumblebee of marital enthusiasm. I positively hum around him, fussing and fixing. I have become a strange thing. I have become a wife. I find myself steering the ship of conversations—bulkily, unnaturally—just so I can say his name aloud. I have become a wife, I have become a bore, I have been asked to forfeit my Independent Young Feminist card. I don’t care. I balance his checkbook, I trim his hair.

Related Characters: Amy Elliott Dunne (speaker), Nick Dunne

Related Symbols: Amy’s Diary

Page Number and Citation: 38

Explanation and Analysis:

More of Gillian Flynn’s exploration of her characters’ internalized misogyny is on display in this paragraph, as Amy describes being deeply in love with her new husband, Nick. Later in the book, when the diary is revealed to be a work of fiction designed to craft an alternate narrative about Nick and Amy’s marriage—one which frames Nick as an abusive and cruel partner—this passage, full of love and ardor, can be seen in a whole new light. Through this paragraph, Amy is making fun of women who “forfeit [their] Independent Young Feminist card[s]” without a care, and transform themselves into Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Ex

“People think they know [Amy] because they read the books growing up,” I said.

“I can see that,” Boney said, nodding. “People want to believe they know other people. Parents want to believe they know their kids. Wives want to believe they know their husbands.”

Related Characters: Rhonda Boney (speaker), Nick Dunne (speaker), Amy Elliott Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 91

Explanation and Analysis:

In this exchange, Nick and Detective Boney discuss the veritable litany of stalkers and harassers Amy has had over the years. Nick suggests that Amy has been the victim of so much unwanted attention because “people think they know her”—something Boney solemnly agrees with. When she says that “people want to believe they know other people,” she’s calling into question a sentiment which reverberates throughout many of the novel’s major themes. The unknowability of another human being haunts the themes of marriage, secrets and lies, and what it means to control or create a narrative. In just a couple of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea s

[Nick] promised to take care of me, and yet I feel afraid. I feel like something is going wrong, very wrong, and that it will get even worse. I don’t feel like Nick’s wife. I don’t feel like a person at all: I am something to be loaded and unloaded, like a sofa or a cuckoo clock. I am something to be tossed into a junkyard, thrown into the river, if necessary. I don’t feel real anymore. I feel like I could disappear.

Related Characters: Amy Elliott Dunne (speaker), Nick Dunne

Related Symbols: Amy’s Diary

Page Number and Citation: 102

Explanation and Analysis:

This quotation represents yet another rare instance where “Diary Amy” expresses a truth that the actual Amy no doubt felt in a very real way. As Nick and Amy packed up their beautiful Brooklyn brownstone and made their way to Missouri five years ago to care for Nick’s ailing mother, Amy may have indeed felt like she “could disappear”—like Nick had cast her aside. However, while Diary Amy seems hurt, frightened, and detached, information that comes to light later on in the novel allows readers to intuit that the real Amy was simply peeved to no longer be the center Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaeca

“This is going to be a real test for you, Nick,” [Go] murmured, not looking at me. “You’ve always had trouble with the truth—you always do the little fib if you think it will avoid a real argument. You’ve always gone the easy way. […] You’re still fibbing like a little boy. You’re still desperate to have everyone think you’re perfect. You never want to be the bad guy.”

Related Characters: Margo “Go” Dunne (speaker), Nick Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 200

Explanation and Analysis:

As Go, in this passage, warns Nick that he will soon need to stop focusing on his image and how other perceive him and commit to telling the truth, she touches on one of the novel’s major themes: how secrets and lies add up over the course of a life and create a self that is not authentic. Go points out the childish nature of the impulse to seem “perfect,” and construct lies or “fibs” that allow that illusion to persist. Nick is not alone in this impulse—Amy shares it, too, and it is because of their shared compulsion to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Re

Amy was blooming large in my mind. She was gone, and yet she was more present than anyone else. I’d fallen in love with Amy because I was the ultimate Nick with her. Loving her made me superhuman, it made me feel alive. […] Amy made me believe I was exceptional, that I was up to her level if play. That was both our making and undoing. Because I couldn’t handle the demands of greatness. […] I turned her into the brittle, prickly thing she became. I had pretended to be one kind of man and revealed myself to be quite another.

Related Characters: Nick Dunne (speaker), Amy Elliott Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 214

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage, Nick reflects on the surprising ways in which he has found himself missing Amy. In spite of how terrible and toxic their marriage was, in the wake of her engineered disappearance, Nick has begun to wonder who he is without his wife. Though their marriage has been built upon a foundation of lies, secrets, half-truths, and exaggerations, Nick and Amy have nonetheless shaped one another, and in this passage it’s clear that Nick regrets the ways in which he and Amy have harmed and poisoned one another. Without her, he feels less than “exceptional”—and is beginning to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Volupta

I’m so much happier now that I’m dead.

Technically, missing. Soon to be presumed dead. But as shorthand, we’ll say dead. It’s been only a matter of hours, but I feel better already: loose joints, wavy muscles. At one point this morning, I realized my face felt strange, different. I looked in the rearview mirror—dread Carthage forty-three miles behind me, my smug husband lounging around his sticky bar as mayhem dangled on a thin piano wire just above his shitty, oblivious head—and I realized I was smiling. Ha! That’s new.

Related Characters: Amy Elliott Dunne (speaker), Nick Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 219

Explanation and Analysis:

In this paragraph—the start of the novel’s explosive second part—Amy Elliott Dunne reveals that she is not dead or missing; rather, she has orchestrated her disappearance in an attempt to make her “shitty, oblivious” husband pay for the un-prosecutable crimes she feels he’s enacted against her. Amy is leaving behind all the trappings of her old life, and as she does, she is gleeful and elated. She’s not just happy to be free—she’s happy that she’s about to take revenge against the man who she feels has ruined her life. Readers are about to encounter a very different version of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Oc

That night at the Brooklyn party, I was playing the girl who was in style, the girl a man like Nick wants: the Cool Girl. Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, l don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.

Men actually think this girl exists.

Related Characters: Amy Elliott Dunne (speaker), Nick Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 222

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage from the novel—widely regarded by fans and critics as one of its most notorious moments—Amy delivers a scathing monologue indicting the ways in which women try to pass themselves off as the “Cool Girl[s]” men will like and want to be with. Amy admits that she has been playing the “Cool Girl” for a large part of her relationship with Nick—and seems to loathe herself especially for demeaning herself in such a way. In this passage, Amy is calling out the ways in which women, spurred on by their boyfriends’ or partners’ implicit if not outright misogyny—and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaec

[Amy] knew she’d punish me good. Now at our final stop, Amy was ready for me to know how clever she was. Because the woodshed was packed with about every gizmo and gadget that I swore to Boney and Gilpin I hadn’t bought with the credit cards I swore I didn’t know anything about. The insanely expensive golf clubs were here, the watches and game consoles, the designer clothes, they were all sitting here, in wait, on my sister’s property. Where it looked like I’d stored them until my wife was dead and I could have a little fun.

Related Characters: Nick Dunne (speaker), Amy Elliott Dunne

Related Symbols: The Woodshed

Page Number and Citation: 227

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage, Nick has just solved the last clue of Amy’s treasure hunt—and arrived at the big prize. He realizes, upon opening the doors of Go’s woodshed to find a cache of luxury goods and violent pornography, that Amy is framing him for her murder—and wants him to know it. Nick and Amy’s marriage, up to this point, has been portrayed as alternately loveless and violent, depending on their respective points of view. With this revelation, it becomes clear that Nick has truly had no clue as to how much his wife has come to loathe him. This moment Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam conse

I looked at the puppets. “So she’s giving me the narrative of my frame-up.”

“I can’t even wrap my brain around this. Fucking psycho.”

“Go?”

“Yeah, right: You didn’t want her to be pregnant, you got angry and killed her and the unborn baby.”

“Feels anticlimactic somehow,” I said.

“The climax is when you are taught the lesson that Punch never learns, and you are caught and charged with murder.”

“And Missouri has the death penalty,” I said. “Fun game.”

Related Characters: Margo “Go” Dunne (speaker), Nick Dunne (speaker), Amy Elliott Dunne

Related Symbols: The Punch and Judy Puppets

Page Number and Citation: 232

Explanation and Analysis:

The fifth anniversary gift Amy has given Nick—a pair of Punch and Judy puppets—is revealed in this passage to be an outright taunt meant to show Nick exactly what she’s trying to do. As Go and Nick realize, in horror, the “narrative” Amy has constructed, they come to understand that they are powerless to resist it. The gravity of what it means to construct a narrative of a life—for oneself, for another, or for both—is laid bare in this scene as Amy borrows a violent storyline and makes it her own in order to punish her husband. Nick knows now Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore

I could hear the tale, how everyone would love telling it: how Amazing Amy, the girl who never did wrong, let herself be dragged, penniless, to the middle of the country, where her husband threw her over for a younger woman. How predictable, how perfectly average, how amusing. And her husband? He ended up happier than ever. No. I couldn’t allow that. […]

I changed my name for that piece of shit. Historical records have been altered—Amy Elliott to Amy Dunne—like it’s nothing. No, he does not get to win.

So I began to think of a different story, a better story, that would destroy Nick for doing this to me. A story that would restore my perfection. It would make me the hero, flawless and adored.

Because everyone loves the Dead Girl.

Related Characters: Amy Elliott Dunne (speaker), Nick Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 234

Explanation and Analysis:

This passage further dissects Amy’s lifelong reliance on—and hatred of—constructed narratives, and the stories people tell one another about themselves and others. Amy, who has been subject to a prescribed narrative her entire life, loathes the idea of being neatly tucked into yet another narrative—the narrative of the put-upon, cheated-on wife. In an enraged yet considered inversion of this narrative, Amy chooses to take things into her own hands and play by the rules which have been stacked against her all her life. She considers what she knows about narrative, and what stories people like best, and comes up with Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Volupt

“My wife, she just happens to be the coolest girl I’ve ever met. How many guys can say that? I married the coolest girl I ever met.”

Youfuckingbitchyoufuckingbitchyoufuckingbitch. Come home so I can kill you.

Related Characters: Nick Dunne (speaker), Rebecca, Amy Elliott Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 300

Explanation and Analysis:

As Nick submits to an interview with a young journalist who has sought him out at a bar in downtown Carthage, he realizes that he has a unique opportunity to appeal directly to Amy’s narcissism. As he lovingly tells the reporter about his admiration for his wife, he describes Amy as a “cool” girl—the exact trope of femininity she has recently excoriated in a private, seething monologue. Nick can’t know that Amy is so contemptuous of “cool” girls—all he knows is that she is one. The coincidence shows that in spite of the flaws and chasms in their marriage, there Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non

I spent the rest of my day picturing how I’d kill Amy. It was all I could think of: finding a way to end her. Me smashing in Amy’s busy, busy brain. I had to give Amy her due: I may have been dozing the past few years, but I was fucking wide awake now. I was electric again, like I had been in the early days of our marriage.

Related Characters: Nick Dunne (speaker), Amy Elliott Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 357

Explanation and Analysis:

This passage shows how the sparks of misogyny within Nick’s heart have leaped into full-on flames over the course of Amy’s disappearance. Though Nick has never been a “good guy,” he’s never been cruel or murderous, either—but in this passage, he harbors wanton, cruel visions of killing Amy himself. This is yet another way in which Nick has unwittingly fallen into Amy’s narrative—through her diary, she sold a vision of Nick who wanted nothing but harm and retribution for his wife’s perceived missteps and slights. Now, Nick has become that man—he blames his transformation on Amy’s maddening plot, and her Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea s

I gestured to the twine, the hacked hair, the dried blood. “So, what’s your story, wife?”

“I’m back,” she whimpered. “I made it back to you.” She moved to put her arms around me. I moved away.

“What is your story, Amy?”

“Desi,” she whispered, her lower lip trembling. “Desi Collings took me. It was the morning. Of. Of our anniversary. And the doorbell rang, and I thought... I don’t know, I thought maybe it was flowers from you.”

I flinched. Of course she’d find a way to work in a gripe: that I hardly ever sent her flowers, when her dad had sent her mom flowers each week since they’d been married. That’s 2,444 bouquets of flowers vs. 4.

Related Characters: Amy Elliott Dunne (speaker), Nick Dunne (speaker), Desi Collings

Page Number and Citation: 372

Explanation and Analysis:

Here, Amy returns home to Nick after having been held hostage at Desi Collings’s lake house. The story Amy tells is both based in a kernel of truth—and one she has manufactured almost entirely. Amy put herself in Desi’s care out of desperation, knowing that she could use his undying affection for her in order to secure lodging, secrecy, and solidarity—she didn’t anticipate, though, how desperately he’d try to hang on to her and how isolated he’d keep her from the outside world. Amy did truly begin feeling like a prisoner, and used that shred of narrative truth to create Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placea

Who will 1 be then? The question wasn’t recriminatory. It wasn’t like the answer was the pious: Then you’ll be a killer, Nick. You’ll be as bad as Amy. You’ll be what everyone thought you were. No. The question was frighteningly soulful and literal: Who would I be without Amy to react to? Because she was right: As a man, I had been my most impressive when I loved her—and I was my next best self when I hated her. I had known Amy only seven years, but I couldn’t go back to life without her.

Related Characters: Nick Dunne (speaker), Amy Elliott Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 396

Explanation and Analysis:

Here, just hours after Amy’s triumphant return to Carthage, Nick—knowing his wife is lying to everyone about the “ordeal” she’s been through as Desi Collings’s “hostage”—feels his anger reach a fever pitch, and at the prospect of spending his life with Amy, lashes out in anger. As Nick wraps his hands around his wife’s throat, he brings to fruition her worst fantasies and most twisted diary entries. Amy has molded Nick into the man he is in more ways than one; she has foretold his anger, cruelty, and violence even as she has made him into the best version of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo.

I have a book deal: I am officially in control of our story. It feels wonderfully symbolic. Isn’t that what every marriage is, anyway? Just a lengthy game of he-said, she-said? Well, she is saying, and the world will listen, and Nick will have to smile and agree. I will write him the way I want him to be: romantic and thoughtful and very very repentant—about the credit cards and the purchases and the woodshed. If I can’t get him to say it out loud, he’ll say it in my book. Then he’ll come on tour with me and smile and smile.

I’m calling the book simply: Amazing.

Related Characters: Amy Elliott Dunne (speaker), Nick Dunne

Related Symbols: The Woodshed

Page Number and Citation: 406

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage, Amy—a national celebrity and beloved American icon in the wake of her return—reveals that she has secured a book deal. Because her entire childhood was co-opted by her parents for their Amazing Amy books, Amy has never felt truly in control of her own narrative, and has sought to take back control in strange and dangerous ways. First she presented herself as the “Cool Girl”; then she created seven years of fake diary entries meant to cast her and Nick’s marriage in a new light; finally, she committed cold-blooded murder and spun it as self-defense. Though Amy Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum

Yes, I am finally a match for Amy. The other morning I woke up next to her, and I studied the back of her skull. I tried to read her thoughts. For once I didn’t feel like I was staring into the sun. I’m rising to my wife’s level of madness. Because I can feel her changing me again: I was a callow boy, and then a man, good and bad. Now at last I’m the hero. I am the one to root for in the never-ending war story of our marriage. It’s a story I can live with. Hell, at this point, I can’t imagine my story without Amy. She is my forever antagonist. We are one long frightening climax.

Related Characters: Nick Dunne (speaker), Amy Elliott Dunne

Page Number and Citation: 413

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage, Nick Dunne at last acquiesces to his wife’s spell over him. She has coerced him into destroying his tell-all manuscript about her lies, forcing him to instead quietly go along with the plan she has concocted for their life together—a plan which includes the impending arrival of their first child. In this passage, he admits that the ways she has changed him are not all bad, as she has made him the “hero” in the “war story” that is their marriage. Though Nick knows that staying with Amy is outright dangerous, he has at last decided that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam of

Writing, Storytelling, and Narrative Theme Analysis

Writing, Storytelling, and Narrative ThemeTracker

Writing, Storytelling, and Narrative Quotes in Gone Girl

4. Amy, Diary Entry, Sep 18th, 2005 Quotes

6. Amy, Diary Entry, July 5th, 2008 Quotes

13. Nick Dunne, Two Days Gone Quotes

14. Amy, Diary Entry, Sep 15th, 2010 Quotes

27. Nick Dunne, Six Days Gone (2) Quotes

29. Nick Dunne, Seven Days Gone (1) Quotes

30. Amy Elliott Dunne, The Day Of (1) Quotes

31. Nick Dunne, Seven Days Gone (2) Quotes

32. Amy Elliott Dunne, The Day Of (2) Quotes

39. Nick Dunne, Eight Days Gone (3) Quotes

49. Nick Dunne, Fourteen Days Gone Quotes

53. Nick Dunne, Forty Days Gone Quotes

57. Nick Dunne, The Night of the Return (2) Quotes

60. Amy, Eight Weeks After the Return Quotes

63. Nick Dunne, Twenty Weeks After the Return Quotes