There’s Someone Inside Your House

by

Stephanie Perkins

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on There’s Someone Inside Your House makes teaching easy.

David Ware Character Analysis

Osborne High student David Ware is the Osborne Slayer—the villain responsible for the grisly murders of his fellow Osborne High seniors. David Ware’s most remarkable feature is that he is entirely unremarkable. When David’s hood slips off during his attack on Makani, she can’t quite place who he is, though she knows she recognizes him from somewhere. Later, when the local news announces the killer’s identity to the grieving town, residents express their collective disbelief that a kid who’d seemed so normal and unmemorable could be capable of such evil. Further solidifying David’s forgettable face and personality is the fact that, after he flees Osborne to avoid capture, he is able to hitch rides with multiple unsuspecting truck drivers—even as his face is plastered all over the local and national news stations. David’s murders follow a predictable pattern. He generally begins messing with his victims well in advance of their murders, hiding or rearranging their personal belongings to make them ill at ease and paranoid. Then he attacks them when they least expect it, killing them in a gruesome, taunting, and personalized way. After killing the ultra-religious Caleb Greeley, for instance, David severs Caleb’s hands and stitches them together in a grotesque mockery of prayer. Until the very end of the novel, David’s motivation for killing baffles the teenagers and authorities alike. Ultimately, though, Makani and her friends realize that David is targeting ambitious students whose drive, privilege, or skillset have afforded them a path out of Osborne and toward bigger, better things. David believes that he is fated to remain in Osborne forever, and he’s jealous of those who get to leave. But what David ultimately fails to recognize is that it’s his own fault he’s so miserable and unfulfilled—not Osborne’s. In truth, David’s failure to reflect inwardly guarantees that he would live the same miserable, unremarkable, and aimless life regardless of where he might live. Ultimately, though, David never finds out that he is the cause of his misery—he dies at the end of the novel when Makani uses his own knife to stab him in the back.

David Ware Quotes in There’s Someone Inside Your House

The There’s Someone Inside Your House quotes below are all either spoken by David Ware or refer to David Ware. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Trauma, Loss, and Grief Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

It had been so long since Makani had felt any amount of genuine, unadulterated happiness that she’d forgotten that sometimes it could hurt as much as sadness. His declaration pierced through the muscle of her heart like a skillfully thrown knife. It was the kind of pain that made her feel alive.

Related Characters: Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Jasmine
Related Symbols: Knives
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

The serial killers in her imagination, the fictional centerpieces of innumerable movies and television shows, were colorful and fascinating and impossible to keep her eyes off of. But her eyes had always glossed over David. Who do you think did it? She’d looked past him, even when he’d asked her. She’d looked past him, even when he’d been sitting right in front of her.

Related Characters: Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Grandma Young
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“If they’re hiding anything,” Ollie said, lifting his head to extend his own peace offering, “you’ll find it.”

Related Characters: Ollie Larsson (speaker), Makani Young, David Ware, Darby, Alex, Chris Larsson
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

“They want you to speak,” she said. “The town. They want you to stand up in front of all those people and cameras and be their mascot.”

Related Characters: Grandma Young (speaker), Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Darby stepped in front of Alex to block her from Makani’s view. “You’re right. But I know what it’s like to be angry—to think that everyone has it easier than you. Or that everyone is against you. And if you don’t deal with those feelings, they don’t go away on their own. They keep building and building until they force their way out.”

Related Characters: Darby (speaker), Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Alex
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

Ollie stopped. His expression was serious. He waited to speak until she stopped, too. “Everybody has at least one moment they deeply regret, but that one moment . . . it doesn’t define all of you.”

Related Characters: Ollie Larsson (speaker), Makani Young, David Ware, Grandma Young, Chris Larsson, Jasmine
Page Number: 231
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

That was it. The news rehashed the story from the top. David kept climbing into the truck, and it kept making a right turn. The killer kept going home.

Related Characters: Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Grandma Young
Page Number: 253
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“People are sick. They think this is all a game.”

Related Characters: Makani Young (speaker), Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Grandma Young
Related Symbols: Corn
Page Number: 259
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

The terror was finally spreading outward. If the corn were an ocean, the cries were its waves.

Related Characters: Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Rosemarie Holt
Related Symbols: Corn
Page Number: 279
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

David didn’t know her, but Makani knew herself. And neither of them was a monster. She was a human who had made a terrible mistake. He was a human who had planned his terrible actions.

Related Characters: Makani Young, David Ware, Jasmine
Related Symbols: Corn, Knives
Page Number: 283-284
Explanation and Analysis:

Running away from home didn’t change the fact that a person still had to live with themselves. Makani had learned this, though perhaps her mother never had. Change came from within, over a long period of time, and with a lot of help from people who loved you. Osborne wasn’t David’s problem. For Makani, Osborne had even been restorative. Being a psychopath was David’s problem. David was David’s problem.

Related Characters: Makani Young, David Ware, Makani’s Mother
Related Symbols: Corn
Page Number: 284
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire There’s Someone Inside Your House LitChart as a printable PDF.
There’s Someone Inside Your House PDF

David Ware Quotes in There’s Someone Inside Your House

The There’s Someone Inside Your House quotes below are all either spoken by David Ware or refer to David Ware. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Trauma, Loss, and Grief Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

It had been so long since Makani had felt any amount of genuine, unadulterated happiness that she’d forgotten that sometimes it could hurt as much as sadness. His declaration pierced through the muscle of her heart like a skillfully thrown knife. It was the kind of pain that made her feel alive.

Related Characters: Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Jasmine
Related Symbols: Knives
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

The serial killers in her imagination, the fictional centerpieces of innumerable movies and television shows, were colorful and fascinating and impossible to keep her eyes off of. But her eyes had always glossed over David. Who do you think did it? She’d looked past him, even when he’d asked her. She’d looked past him, even when he’d been sitting right in front of her.

Related Characters: Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Grandma Young
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“If they’re hiding anything,” Ollie said, lifting his head to extend his own peace offering, “you’ll find it.”

Related Characters: Ollie Larsson (speaker), Makani Young, David Ware, Darby, Alex, Chris Larsson
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

“They want you to speak,” she said. “The town. They want you to stand up in front of all those people and cameras and be their mascot.”

Related Characters: Grandma Young (speaker), Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Darby stepped in front of Alex to block her from Makani’s view. “You’re right. But I know what it’s like to be angry—to think that everyone has it easier than you. Or that everyone is against you. And if you don’t deal with those feelings, they don’t go away on their own. They keep building and building until they force their way out.”

Related Characters: Darby (speaker), Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Alex
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

Ollie stopped. His expression was serious. He waited to speak until she stopped, too. “Everybody has at least one moment they deeply regret, but that one moment . . . it doesn’t define all of you.”

Related Characters: Ollie Larsson (speaker), Makani Young, David Ware, Grandma Young, Chris Larsson, Jasmine
Page Number: 231
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

That was it. The news rehashed the story from the top. David kept climbing into the truck, and it kept making a right turn. The killer kept going home.

Related Characters: Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Grandma Young
Page Number: 253
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“People are sick. They think this is all a game.”

Related Characters: Makani Young (speaker), Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Grandma Young
Related Symbols: Corn
Page Number: 259
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

The terror was finally spreading outward. If the corn were an ocean, the cries were its waves.

Related Characters: Makani Young, Ollie Larsson, David Ware, Rosemarie Holt
Related Symbols: Corn
Page Number: 279
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

David didn’t know her, but Makani knew herself. And neither of them was a monster. She was a human who had made a terrible mistake. He was a human who had planned his terrible actions.

Related Characters: Makani Young, David Ware, Jasmine
Related Symbols: Corn, Knives
Page Number: 283-284
Explanation and Analysis:

Running away from home didn’t change the fact that a person still had to live with themselves. Makani had learned this, though perhaps her mother never had. Change came from within, over a long period of time, and with a lot of help from people who loved you. Osborne wasn’t David’s problem. For Makani, Osborne had even been restorative. Being a psychopath was David’s problem. David was David’s problem.

Related Characters: Makani Young, David Ware, Makani’s Mother
Related Symbols: Corn
Page Number: 284
Explanation and Analysis: