Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Woman in Cabin 10, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Entrapment and Isolation
Perception vs. Reality
Trauma, Mental Illness, and Resilience
Ambition and Compassion
Wealth and Power
Summary
Analysis
Lo is next awakened by the lights flickering on and a tray of food being left beside her bed, but she’s too slow to stop her captor. She figures it’s at least Wednesday by now, and she’s feeling the dizzying effects of medication withdrawal more and more. Feeling hateful toward the girl from Cabin 10, she breaks the food tray in half, producing two sharp-edged pieces. She crouches next to the door and waits.
Lo is afraid, angry, hungry, disoriented, and suffering from withdrawal. It’s little wonder that she’s devising a weapon from whatever limited means are at her disposal.
Themes
Lo spends most of that day fighting to keep herself awake. When the girl from Cabin 10 finally cracks the door open, Lo pounces, stabbing at the girl’s arm with the jagged edge of the tray. The girl forces her way into the room and locks the door. Lo growls to be let go and asks why the girl is doing this. The girl replies, “You wouldn’t stop digging, would you? ... If you’d just kept your mouth shut about what you saw in that bloody cabin—”
Lo follows through on her plan and manages to inflict some damage on the girl, showing how desperate she is—and how determined, despite how sick she is with hunger, sleep deprivation, and withdrawal. Her suspicions also prove correct—she witnessed something the girl didn’t want anyone to know.
Themes
The girl from Cabin 10 says that “he” would never let her release Lo. Before asking any questions about that, Lo negotiates with the girl for access to her antidepressants. The girl agrees to give her pills in exchange for good behavior. While she waits, Lo puzzles over the identity of the girl’s male accomplice.
One of the male passengers is complicit in Lo’s imprisonment, but she makes sure to bargain for her pills before pursuing that lead any further.
Themes
