90 pages • 3 hours read
Jane HarperThe Dry
Jane HarperFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Lighter
A lighter provides a tangible connection between Falk's past and present experiences in Kiewarra. When he visits the rock tree (a sentimental place for him and a significant setting within the story) for the first time, he discovers his old lighter there. He chooses not to light it because he is aware of how dangerous that would be in the dry conditions, but because “it felt like it belonged there, in a different time,” he puts it back in the gap (105). Throughout the story, Falk frequently lingers in his memories of Kiewarra and grapples with his sense of belonging to it. By leaving the lighter, he leaves a concrete part of his childhood at this landmark. Only at the very end, when his sense of belonging has been affirmed (and survives the fire Whitlam starts), does he retrieve it.
A lighter is also a present feature in the climax of the story, when Whitlam threatens to start a wildfire. It is characterized as “the stuff of nightmares […] a tangled parachute, failed brakes on the motorway” (303), underscoring just how dangerous this otherwise innocuous object can become in a landscape plagued by drought. It has the power to destroy an entire town, and everyone in it, “with inhuman efficiency” (304), which is infinitely more destructive than a gun.
Fire Warning Signs
The fire warning signs posted on Kiewarra's roads mark the increasing danger and the rising tensions in town. When Falk first arrives, the level is “severe,” but within a few days, as Falk uncovers more information related to the case and relationships begin to strain, it reaches “extreme.” These warnings foreshadow the officers' dangerous standoff with Whitlam. The signs' commands, “Prepare. Act. Survive,” echo the mentality Falk uses to initially get through his time in Kiewarra, the mentality Ellie uses to plan her escape, and the mentality Whitlam uses to get away with murdering the Hadlers.
Shooting Rabbits
Shooting rabbits is a frequent necessity for farmers in Kiewarra, and this activity subtly bridges Ellie’s murder to the deaths of the Hadlers 20 years later in a variety of ways. It is the lie that Luke comes up with to protect himself and Falk (and, subsequently, Gretchen) when asked where they were when Ellie died, which Luke insisted on until his death.
When Falk starts to second-guess Gretchen's innocence, the image of her shooting rabbits is enough to make him suspect her. Whitlam overhears Luke and Jamie making plans to shoot rabbits, which inspires him to plan the Hadlers' murders. Intended for shooting rabbits on school property, Whitlam steals the ammunition from the maintenance shed to kill the Hadlers. This commonplace act of killing is symbolic in that it is used as a lie to protect the innocent, as the source of suspicion, and as the antecedent to the Hadler deaths.
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