53 pages • 1 hour read
Steve CavanaghKill for Me, Kill for You
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A 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
Ruth’s Oak Chest
During her years in the psychiatric center, Ruth uses a calming technique in which she locks her fears and anxieties in an “old oak chest” in her mind (270). Although the oak chest is intended as a tool to support Ruth’s healing from the trauma of her attack, it ultimately becomes a symbol of The Lasting Effects of Traumatic Experiences. Dr. Marin encourages Ruth to imagine putting her memories of the attack and Mr. Blue Eyes in the oak chest, insisting that they “won’t be able to hurt you and they will never be able to leave that box again” (269). For Dr. Marin, the oak chest is a way of containing Ruth’s trauma as she heals. Ruth, however, imagines the chest as a place to contain her murderous rage. When she sees the blue-eyed Granger family at the hotel and believes they are taunting her, Ruth hears “metal being torn asunder, wood splintering, and the whine of heavy brass hinges” (285) as the oak chest in her mind explodes open. Freed from the restraints of her treatment at the center, Ruth feels a violent impulse to kill the Granger family. Ruth’s mental destruction of the oak chest draws a connection between her own trauma and her subsequent, violent impulses in Cavanagh’s narrative.
The September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
Throughout the novel, Ruth compares her traumatic home invasion to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The September 11 attacks act as a symbol of Ruth’s grief. Cavanagh establishes the symbolic connection between Ruth’s attack and September 11 before the home invasion even occurs. On the night of her assault, Ruth smokes marijuana while looking out at a light memorial honoring those who lost their lives in the September 11 attacks, explaining that for her, “like a lot of New Yorkers, that anniversary [is] hard, and she need[s] something to take the edge off” (12). This initial mention of September 11 highlights the unique resonance of the attacks for residents of New York City. As Ruth later notes, although the date, “has significance for the whole country […] it [holds] a cold place in the hearts of those who’d lost loved ones that day” (67). Ruth believes that New Yorkers remember the attacks “not just with the deadening sense of loss shared by the city and the country, but with their own personal grief gnawing behind their eyes” (67). The distinction she makes between national grief and personal grief mirrors the way in which Cavanagh distinguishes between the effects of the assault on Ruth herself and those around her. For example, although Scott and Detective Farrow claim to understand the pain caused by her attack, she knows that they can never share the grief of her personal experience. After the home invasion occurs three days later, Ruth forever associates September 11 with her own trauma—trauma for which “there [is] no Tribute in Light” (67).
Sparkles the Unicorn
Sparkles, “a white, fluffy unicorn” toy beloved by Amanda’s daughter Jess before her murder at age six (311), acts as a symbol of Amanda’s grief and desire for vengeance. Amanda’s in-laws bury Jess while Amanda is hospitalized with grief, and don’t know their granddaughter well enough to bury her with her favorite toy. When Amanda learns that Jess was buried without Sparkles, she is “so sick with grief that she [throws] up almost constantly” at the thought of “her murdered child unable to rest even in death without her toy” (30). After Jess’s death, Amanda sleeps with the toy every night as a reminder of her mission to avenge her daughter. When she is forced to flee her apartment, Amanda brings only “her laptop, the money, some clothes, Sparkles the unicorn, and Luis’s wedding ring” (291), knowing she “couldn’t leave those behind, not ever” (291). The toy serves as a reminder of everything that was taken from her. It’s only after Crone’s death that Amanda is able to let go of Sparkles. She burns the toy with Billy’s letter admitting to Crone’s murder, watching as “the flame ignite[s] the toy almost instantly, turning the sand around it from slate gray to gold once more” and the novel ends with Amanda “warming her hands over the tiny flames” caused by the fire (337). Cavanagh utilizes Sparkles as a throughline for Amanda’s arc. Her willingness to give up Sparkles when she knows Jess’s murder has been avenged underscores the toy as a symbol of her grief and desire for vengeance.
