Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Girl on the Train, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Women and Society
Gaslighting, Memory, Repression, and the Self
Addiction, Dependency, and Abuse
Secrets and Lies
Motherhood, Duty, and Care
Summary
Analysis
Anna hurls the cell phone over the fence, down toward the train tracks, and heads back up to the house. She meets Tom at the bottom of the stairs. He asks what’s going on, and she replies that she thought she heard someone outside. Tom says that the phone rang and woke him up; he wants Anna to come back to bed with him. Anna says she wants to get up and have coffee instead. Tom, however, puts his hand on the back of Anna’s neck and says he won’t take no for an answer.
Anna throwing the phone toward the train symbolizes her desire to escape from the information she’s just learned. Anna cannot process the fact that Tom was having an affair with Megan—a woman who is now dead. Tom’s actions toward Anna now appear in a new, threatening light: he is not the man she thought he was.
Themes
