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 walks back to town (since Gretchen originally drove him out due to his vandalized car). He makes it back to the pub near closing time, and Whitlam, who is about to leave, offers to stay and buy him a drink. At the bar, Whitlam tries to put the drinks on his tab, but McMurdo reminds him there are no tabs. Falk offers to pay instead.
Whitlam’s attempt to put drinks on a tab is highly suspicious, given that with his job as a school principal and his family’s previous history living in Melbourne, he should be one of the few people in town who doesn’t have a problem with finances.
Themes
After Whitlam leaves, McMurdo tells Falk that he put the drinks on his room tab so that it’ll be easier for him to expense them to his employer. Falk learns that McMurdo lied to Whitlam about not having tabs, since Whitlam is always gambling away all his money. Falk is surprised to hear this.
Whitlam’s need for money to pay for his gambling addiction suddenly gives him a motive to commit crimes. Whitlam’s polite manner and relatively respectable background allowed him to hide his money problems, once again showing how even in a tight-knit town like Kiewarra people find ways to keep secrets.
Themes
Falk goes back to his room to think about the case. In a flashback to the day of the murder, Luke drives his ute home from Sullivan’s with his palms sweating. He is nearly back when a figure stops him on the road, waving him down.
This flashback, which deals with events Falk doesn’t yet know about, seems to take place right before the murder. Although this chapter stops just short of revealing the murderer, the juxtaposition of this passage with the previous one about Whitlam seems purposeful.
Themes
