48 pages • 1 hour read
Layne FargoThey Never Learn
Layne FargoFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Power Dynamics and Sex Crimes in Academia
Power dynamics and sex crimes in Academia is They Never Learn’s most overt theme. These issues allow Layne Fargo to discuss violence against women on college campuses and victim blaming, and with them, Scarlett’s motive for vigilante justice. The novel was published in 2020, several years after the height of the #metoo movement, and in many ways, it is a product of the campaign and its seismic shift in feminist discourse. Although #metoo was not limited to gender-based violence in universities, it was a focal point. At its core, the movement is meant to address the very campus culture depicted in the novel—one in which male staff, faculty, and students prey on campus women, and their behavior often goes unpunished by administration due to their fixation on reputation rather than justice. Although the novel includes several examples of predatory men, Gorman University’s dean, a woman, illustrates the systemic nature of gender-based violence on campus, as she blames Allison for sending mixed signals to fellow student Bash and suggests an official report would “ruin” him for a “non-assault.”
It is this accepted violence against women that propels Carly/Scarlett to seek accountability as both student and professor. Her commitment to vigilante justice begins during her freshman year at Gorman, after her roommate Allison is assaulted by Bash. However, Carly’s first kill is her and Allison’s friend Wes rather than Bash, who, like her professor Dr. Alex Kinnear, feigned support to take advantage of her. While Wes weaponized kindness, Alex also used his authority as a professor to intimidate her into not reporting him. The novel’s first kill is Scarlett’s: She fumes over student Tyler Elkin and his fraternity brothers having gotten away with a sexual assault, and asserts “true justice would have been bolting the fraternity house doors and setting the whole place on fire, burning every one of those boys in their beds” (5). This sentiment reflects the collective nature of gender-based crimes, as they are the collective fault of many: For example, if university administration were more focused on helping survivors of sexual assault, Allison might have found peace and Scarlett might not have felt compelled to take matters into her own hands.
Campus cultures like Gorman’s fixate on the female survivors of assault themselves, regarding what they were drinking, wearing, or “signaling” at the time of their respective assaults—as if the answers to these questions make them any less victims. The novel partakes in this interrogation through its male characters: Rather than fixating on how women might “encourage” predatory men, Fargo depicts male professors who openly ogle, pursue, and coerce female students into relationships. Carly and Mikayla are both subjected to this behavior, and Fargo depicts their fear in full. As for Allison’s assault by Bash, he is depicted as equally flippant toward this fear and Allison, as if “the light inside her had been snuffed out” (168). Overall, Fargo showcases male toxicity on campuses and depicts its traumatic consequences for female staff, faculty, and students.
Misogyny and Sexism in Academia
Another key theme is the pervasive climate of misogyny and sexism in academia. Although both male and female academics are experts in their fields, female academics are often paid less and treated with less respect than their male counterparts. This climate of misogyny, sexism, and inequality is most evident in the triangulated relations between Scarlett, Stright, and Kinnear. Kinnear favors Stright as a fellow man, a like-minded man who ogles and harasses female students. This behavior mirrors Kinnear’s own, and thus normalizes it: To him, if they, Jasper, and presumably other male faculty are all engaged in this behavior, there isn’t anything wrong with it. Normalization often relies on numbers, as forming a perceived majority reinforces a certain behavior—in this case, predation—as “acceptable.”
Among their fellow faculty, Kinnear’s behavior toward Scarlett is markedly different. Rather than address her as he does male faculty—by their titles—he calls her “Scarlett.” This sexist microaggression, often called “un-doctoring,” is common in academia, an oft-written subject by female faculty in higher education. In addition to this disrespect, Kinnear asks Scarlett to take notes during a department meeting. It is customary for department staff and administrative assistants to perform such duties, but he justifies his request by saying she is “so good at it” (168). Note-taking is not as difficult as research and instruction, so the slight is meant to demean her, to put her in her place. Fargo uses these moments to paint a broader picture of academia, the pervasiveness of misogyny and sexism in Scarlett’s academic life. Having once been married to Kinnear, Mina reinforces this perspective, recognizing his and other male professors’ behavior as a way to control female professors and elevate themselves. In a telling twist, Fargo writes Scarlett as a vigilante, an intellectual and physical endeavor. Physicality is often associated with male strength, so her ability to successfully plan and execute kills is meant to read as cathartic, a subversion of her abusers’ low expectations—academic or otherwise.
Vigilante Justice and Morality
Scarlett’s endeavor as a vigilante makes vigilante justice and morality an overt theme. In America, impartial judiciary systems and principles such as “innocent until proven guilty” are considered cornerstones of civil society—and thus, vigilante justice is societally frowned upon. However, bar Mina’s initial reaction to Scarlett’s vigilantism, the novel never explicitly condemns it. Although Fargo is interested in writing “unlikeable” female characters (Fargo, Layne, et al., hosts. Episode 1, Unlikeable Female Characters, 2018), her novel encourages readers to sympathize with Scarlett and the survivors whom she avenges with her kills.
Scarlett responds to a blatant lack of justice for survivors of sexual harassment and assault at Gorman. On campus, sex crimes are often unreported or dismissed, which is indicative of a climate in which abusers and other authorities are complicit—and thus, corrupt. Tyler Elkin, Scarlett’s first victim, was part of a group of male students who sexually assaulted a female classmate and remain free at the time of Tyler’s death—though rumors surround the attack. Kinnear, who preyed on Scarlett when she was Carly, a student at Gorman, is still a serial pursuer of undergraduates. He has become so brazen that he brings his “conquests” to a campus bar. Jasper, Scarlett’s graduate teaching assistant, preys upon undergraduate Mikayla and, because of their imbalance of power, she feels unable to report his abuse. Scarlett herself understands power dynamics and wields power over Jasper as his graduate supervisor, yet pursues a sexual relationship with him. The novel attempts to bypass this abuse of power by villainizing Jasper, but it is a form of abuse nevertheless. With that said, the inclusion of this relationship plays into Scarlett’s conception as a complex character, “unlikeable” even. Overall, she sees herself as the only obstacle between abusers and their targets: Even if she is unable to put a permanent end to abuse, she can at least punish individual abusers.
For Scarlett, vigilante justice is personal. Accustomed to verbal and emotional abuse because of her father’s mistreatment of her and her mother, young Carly is initially hesitant to assert herself in the face of abusive authority figures. However, Allison’s assault by Bash and her own assault by Kinnear push her to take justice into her own hands. She urges Allison to report Bash, but Allison’s doctor and the dean dismiss the attack. Although Allison is too traumatized to respond to this mistreatment, Carly becomes enraged on their behalf and vows to physically punish Bash. Wes’s verbal abuse in the face of rejection further cements her desire to mete out justice—leading to her first kill. Carly’s initial acts of revenge are her first moments of assertiveness, and it is through vigilante justice that she becomes Scarlett and recognizes her own power.
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