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
Sergeant Raco interrogates Deacon about vandalizing Falk’s car, but he doesn’t get him to reveal anything meaningful and lets him go. Five minutes after Deacon leaves the station, Falk follows him and confronts him as he’s getting out of his car. He asks Deacon why he always seems so sure that Luke and Falk weren’t together on the day of Ellie’s death.
Falk’s decision to follow Deacon’s car shows him ignoring Raco’s advice and trying to go off and do things on his own. Despite everything that Falk has learned about himself from coming back to Kiewarra, he still can’t overcome his urge to try to be independent and avoid having to rely on other people.
Themes
In a flashback to 20 years ago, Deacon yells at Dow about making tea, but Dow says that’s Ellie’s job. Ellie is apparently still at school. Deacon goes to Ellie’s neat room and gets the feeling that something must be wrong for her not to be back yet.
While the early flashbacks in the novel generally involved events that Falk either witnessed personally or could have heard about, as the book goes on, it increasingly incorporates flashbacks of events that Falk would have no way of knowing about, expanding the scope of the novel and showing how it really is about a whole community and not just Falk’s personal journey.
Themes
Back in the present, Falk says he knows that even if Deacon had nothing to do with the Hadlers’ death, he had something to do with Ellie’s. He says Deacon was probably so quick to accuse Falk because he knew that Deacon’s own neglect or possibly abuse of Ellie would look suspicious. Deacon gets angry and says he loved Ellie. They get into a physical fight, which Falk easily wins.
Falk wants to fight the version of Deacon that existed 20 years ago and abused Ellie, but now Deacon is a frail old man and there’s no way to have a fair fight. Falk finds that, when it comes down to it, he might not be as different from the violent Deacon and Dow as he’d like to be, although at the same time, he does learn from this encounter that violence can be dissatisfying.
Themes
In a flashback, Luke dresses nice and puts on body mist before going to see Ellie. He sees Ellie kiss Falk earlier and is jealous. Meanwhile, Falk gets his fishing rod and debates whether to go upstream where the fish are biting or to go to the rock tree on the off chance that Ellie would stop by later.
While Falk was jealous about how Luke was always the center of attention when they were younger, it turns out that Luke was jealous about Falk’s relationship with Ellie. This revelation reaffirms that there were cracks forming in this seemingly tight-knit group, but it also suggests that perhaps Luke and Falk were alike in ways they never even realized.
Themes
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In the present, Sergeant Raco angrily calls Falk and asks him what he’s been up to. Raco knows Falk eavesdropped on his interview then left to follow Deacon. Raco wonders if maybe Falk is in over his head. Raco says he has proof that Deacon’s not the murderer: the pharmacy representative confirmed that Deacon was on that phone when the murders happened.
Raco reacts negatively not only because Falk may have caused legal trouble for himself but also because Falk’s decision to go off alone after Deacon represents a betrayal of their investigative partnership. Raco used to be the one person that Falk told all his secrets to, and Falk has broken that bond, at least for the moment.
Themes
