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Chapter 35
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
In the present, Falk, Sergeant Raco, and Barnes go to the school. Barnes finds Remington shotgun ammo locked in the school caretaker’s shed. More police officers from Clyde are on their way. From a distance, Falk, Raco, and Barnes watch Whitlam come out of school. Barnes says $50,000 seems like a small amount to commit triple-homicide over, but Falk argues that Whitlam is a gambler, and so it’s more about taking a chance.
While Whitlam wasn’t a farmer, his gambling nevertheless put him in a similarly desperate financial situation. At first Barnes can’t understand Whitlam’s motive, reasoning that $50,000 isn’t worth committing triple homicide. As Falk realizes, however, people don’t always act in logical ways, and Whitlam’s willingness to kill for $50,000 seems to show how fully gambling has warped his way of thinking.
Themes
Whitlam stands by the school, thinking of how he just has to wait a couple more months before he can leave town. It turns out that two tough-looking men from Melbourne came to his house one day with a nail gun, threatening him to pay off his debts, and then the Crossley Educational Trust money came in two days later. He planned to eventually repay the money, when he needed it less urgently.
While Whitlam’s actions in the story are horrific, his motive of trying to protect his family from money lenders is at least somewhat understandable (even though Whitlam himself put his family in that situation with his previous gambling). Perhaps the real tragedy is that in looking out for his own family, Whitlam failed to see the common humanity in Luke and Karen, who were also protective of their family.
Themes
Whitlam thinks back to the day Karen came into his office. He knew if he went to prison, the debt-collectors from Melbourne might go after his family. That was when Whitlam made his plans to kill Luke and his family. He had specifically tried to arrange it so that Billy wouldn’t be there, but Karen cancelled the playdate at the last minute.
It’s unclear to what extent Whitlam’s fears here were real and to what extent Whitlam is just trying to justify his murderous actions in hindsight. Whitlam’s cold calculation about killing the Hadlers seems to suggest that he failed to recognize their humanity, possibly as a result of a prejudice against rural people.
Themes
Whitlam thinks back to the first man he killed, who was actually a man who lent him money. Things got heated, and Whitlam killed him in self-defense, making sure he was dead before going to get help. He tries to justify killing Karen as a different kind of self-defense.
While Whitlam’s story about killing a man who tried to rob him wasn’t totally made up, Whitlam also changed and twisted key details of the story when he told it to Falk, perhaps suggesting Whitlam’s belief that he can bend the truth to fit what’s convenient for him.
Themes
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