40 pages • 1 hour read
Michelle McNamaraI'll Be Gone in the Dark
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Cuff Links
McNamara refers to a pair of cuff links in several places throughout I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. The cuff links become a symbol both for the sense of excitement McNamara feels when she believes she’s discovered a new lead, as well as for the disappointment that washes over her when the lead turns into a red herring.
The cuff links first appear in I’ll Be Gone in the Dark’s Prologue. McNamara describes staying up late one night after her husband and child have gone to sleep. McNamara is going through a list of items the GSK stole from his victims, hoping that one might appear in an online search and provide a lead as to who the killer might be. Though McNamara believes this search to be “grasping at straws,” she is ecstatic to discover what appears to be a stolen pair of cufflinks for sale on a vintage store’s website (5). McNamara is so excited by the discovery that she immediately wakes her sleeping husband. In this instance, the cuff links become emblematic of the sense of exhilaration that overcomes McNamara many times throughout I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, as she excitedly believes she’s finally stumbled onto the GSK’s identity.
McNamara continues the story of the cuff links in the “The Cuff Links Coda,” in Part 2. After ordering the cuff links by overnight delivery, McNamara decides to share them with investigator Larry Pool. At first, Pool is similarly elated by McNamara’s discovery, believing that he might finally have a fresh lead on the decades-old case. However, when Pool checks the victim’s family, he learns that the cuff links are not a match with the ones the GSK stole. Though the ordeal embitters McNamara, Pool remains “unfazed,” as he is used to the experience (189). Through the cuff links, McNamara illustrates the cycle of elation and disappointment that detectives experience constantly throughout their search, as they continually chase down fresh leads only to turn up empty handed.
Anonymity
Throughout I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, McNamara explains that the unknown nature of serial killers’ identities drive her to endlessly pursue them. For McNamara, anonymity grants the killer power over the communities he terrorizes. Revealing the killer’s identity becomes a means for McNamara to steal that power.
McNamara’s first encounter with a killer’s anonymity comes when she is a 14-year-old, living in Oak Park, Chicago. One night, a neighbor of McNamara’s is brutally killed by an unknown individual, who disappears before police are able to apprehend him. McNamara grows obsessed with the mystery of the killer’s identity:
What gripped me was the specter of that question mark where the killer’s face should be. The hollow gap of his identity seemed violently powerful to me. (45)
McNamara describes how her mind substitutes the killer’s face with a ghostly question mark. She grows increasingly fixated on the killer, visiting the site of his crime and searching for any trace of the unknown criminal. As the killer is never apprehended, McNamara’s obsession refuses to abate, and she channels it into investigating other unsolved murders, culminating in her hunt for the Golden State Killer. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark closes with a letter McNamara writes addressed to the GSK, vowing to pull the GSK out of the darkness and “into the light” (328). If the GSK and other killers gain their power by remaining hidden under the cloak of darkness, McNamara’s quest for their identity becomes a means of revealing them and taking away their power.
Ligatures
One of the identifying characteristics of the Golden State Killer’s crimes are his usage of ligatures to tie up victims before raping and murdering them. The ligatures are often made from shoelaces and are “precut,” meaning that the Golden State Killer had planned to use them before committing his crimes (121). Further, the victims often had deep red marks from the ligatures, signifying the brutal force the GSK used in tying them up.
McNamara employs the ligatures as a symbol of how the GSK’s crimes are often a means of asserting power and control. While many rapes and assaults are committed impulsively with little care, the GSK’s crimes are unique in his obsession with planning: McNamara writes that “control was this offender’s chosen language” (150). McNamara speculates that the killer may have been a social outcast in his daily life. In turn, the GSK’s crimes become a way of asserting his power. By imposing a sense of control over his victims, the GSK could also feel to be in control of his own life. The GSK’s need to brutally tie up his victims before his attacks is a means of realizing this need for control.
