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Chapter 32
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 continues to through the album and finds one of Karen, Luke, and Gretchen together at a community event. Gretchen walks in on him and knows immediately what photos he’s looking at. Falk asks if anyone else knows the truth about Lachie. Gretchen claims that Luke isn’t the father and that he just visited a few times to be a male role model. When Falk asks if she has any photos of Lachie’s supposed real father, Gretchen doesn’t produce any photos and finally has no choice but to admit that she was deeply hurt by Luke’s choice to be with Karen instead of her, which is the root of Gretchen’s bad relationship with Karen.
Although Gretchen denies that Luke is the father, she knows immediately what Falk is thinking, suggesting that either Luke is the father and she’s lying, or that this is a common rumor that she’s had to confront before. Previously, when Falk was about to confess about his fake alibi during Ellie’s murder, Gretchen seemed to advise Falk that some secrets should stay hidden. Gretchen seems to be taking her own advice here, officially denying that Luke is Lachie’s father, even as her reaction to Falk’s accusations seems to confirm that Luke is the most likely father.
Themes
Gretchen asks for Falk to stop asking if Luke is the Lachie’s father, since if he was, that would mean she had an affair with a married man (since Luke would have been married to Karen by that point. Gretchen and Falk get angry with each other. Falk says he hopes he doesn’t find out that Gretchen had any connection to the murders. Gretchen replies that she’s known all along that Falk’s alibi on the day of Ellie’s death was false because she knows where Luke was that day, but she kicks Falk out and closes the door before he can ask more.
It isn’t clear if Falk realized that he was accusing Gretchen of having an affair with Luke, given Lachie’s age (since he’s a couple years younger than Billy was). As was the case earlier at McMurdo’s pub, alcohol leads people to speak more freely, and both Gretchen and Falk find that the distance between them is greater than either of them realized, particularly as the nostalgia of the past wears off and they have to face each other in the present.
Themes
