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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Dry, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Human Cost of Climate Change
Justice
Urban vs. Rural
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
Falk leaves the police station and heads back toward the pub where he’s staying. He goes to buy some new shirts since he didn’t bring many. But on his way back to his room, he suddenly gets the impulse to go see Luke’s place again. He goes to the big barn and looks at the camera, noting that if the murderer wasn’t Luke, they either knew about the camera or got lucky.
Falk’s purchase of shirts is a small detail that shows how committed he’s become to staying in Kiewarra until he gets answers. His return to Luke’s farmhouse shows how the case continues to linger in his mind, dominating his thoughts.
Themes
Falk goes out into the fields of Luke’s farm. All of a sudden, something makes him stop. He decides he has to go right away to the river where he and Luke used to go when they were kids. But when Falk gets there, he finds that the river has completely dried up because of the drought. Falk feels naïve about believing a river would still be there.
This disappearance of the river provides perhaps the most visible sign of how Kiewarra has changed from the town Falk once knew. Falk’s naïveté about expecting the river hints that perhaps Falk’s nostalgia is causing him to have other blind spots about the town as well.
Themes
