Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Dry, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Human Cost of Climate Change
Justice
Urban vs. Rural
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
Falk goes to the local cemetery to see some graves, including Luke’s, Karen’s, and Billy’s. Falk keeps wondering where Luke was when Ellie died. He goes and takes a nap by his mother’s grave. Eventually, he wakes up and decides he has to go see Ellie’s grave, but as he’s on the way, Deacon appears, startling him. Deacon warns Falk to get his hands off Ellie before he realizes that it’s the younger Falk, not Erik Falk.
When he sleeps next to his mother’s grave, Falk manifests a desire to go back to the past and feel the comfort and innocence of childhood rather than having to face his current adult world. Deacon’s confusion of Falk with his father (which provides evidence of his dementia mentioned in the previous chapter) shows how Deacon is stuck in the past and losing touch with reality as the world changes around him.
Themes
Falk remembers a time when he was 12 and Deacon came over to accuse Erik Falk of stealing some sheep. Deacon also accused Erik of persuading Deacon’s wife to leave for Sydney and possibly even having sex with her. Deacon punched Erik in the face, then he pushed over the younger Falk when he tried to help.
Although Deacon is frail now, it seems that in the past he was just as violent as Dow is currently. It seems that Erik Falk had to deal with gossip similar to what Aaron Falk himself deals with in Kiewarra today, suggesting that perhaps Deacon isn’t totally mistaken about Falk turning into his father in some ways.
Themes
In the present, Deacon tells Falk that Erik Falk came to him shortly after the murder, pleading with him that the younger Falk didn’t kill Ellie and that Deacon needed to convince the rest of the town. Falk has never heard this before.
The story that Deacon tells about Erik Falk coming to visit raises as many questions as it answers. Perhaps the reason why Falk finds this story so shocking is that Falk thought of his father as distant, particularly after the death of Ellie, but this story shows that Erik Falk was still thinking about his son even when it didn’t necessarily seem like it.
Themes
