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Chapter 34
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 rushes over to the station, telling Sergeant Raco that he just realized the crime was never about Luke. In a flashback to the day of the murder that began in the previous chapter, Luke stops to help the person by the side of the road. All of a sudden, the person hits Luke over the head with something heavy. The attacker is Whitlam.
While Harper sometimes misleads the reader or depicts Falk following a false lead, this passage does exactly the opposite, providing proof via flashback of how Falk’s deductions are true. By providing flashbacks that clearly dramatize the events of the murder, Harper suggests that while the people of Kiewarra might all have their different perspectives, it is still possible to find the truth, and Falk has done so through his investigation.
Themes
In the present, Falk explains to Sergeant Raco that when Karen wrote “Grant??” she didn’t mean Grant Dow, she meant a monetary grant. It turns out that Kiewarra Primary did receive a grant for $50,000 from the Crossley Education Trust, but no one else knew about it. Falk explains how he just found out about Whitlam’s gambling problem.
The Dry is not really a whodunnit—it would be difficult for an audience to make the same deductions as Falk to figure out the killer’s identity in advance. Still, the book plants small clues that take on much greater meaning in hindsight, like Gretchen’s casual reference in the park earlier to the Crossley Education Trust. The grant confirms that the murders did involve money after all, just not exactly in the way most people expected.
Themes
In a flashback to the day of the murders, Karen goes to see Whitlam about a problem, showing him a letterhead with the Crossley Educational Trust logo on it. She seems to be giving Whitlam a chance to confess to hiding the money, but he tries to minimize the letter, telling her to ignore it, which he realizes in hindsight is a mistake. Meanwhile, Karen goes to cry in the bathroom, sad because she’d hoped that Whitlam would reassure her he didn’t steal anything.
Karen reveals her own trusting nature by going straight to Whitlam about her problem rather than trying to turn him in first. This passage shows how her character wanted to believe the best about people and how she didn’t realize the lengths that a man like Whitlam might go to for the sake of money.
Themes
Still in the flashback, Karen thinks back to how Luke advised her to call the police about Whitlam’s theft. Karen tells Luke she wanted to be sure about Whitlam’s crime before taking any other action. She knew school parents would react badly, particularly if it turned out she her accusations were wrong. Nevertheless, Luke gave her Falk’s number, vouching for his ability to help with financial crimes.
Although Karen might have seemed naïve to confront Whitlam directly about his embezzlement, here, Karen deals with the very real concern of how the rest of Kiewarra might react to her accusations. Karen knows that Whitlam seems respectable because he’s a principal and comes from Melbourne, and she knows how difficult it can be to fight people’s preconceived ideas about the truth in Kiewarra.
Themes
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