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Explanation and Analysis:
Donna Tartt's The Secret History is a psychological mystery that follows the protagonist Richard Papen through his first transfer year at Hampden College. Occurring during a moment of drastic transition in Richard's life, when he moves from his working-class background in California to the high-class environment of an elite college in Vermont, the novel can also be classified as a bildungsroman. The reader witnesses Richard's growth as a student, but more prominently his intense indoctrination by an uncanny group of students from his Greek class.
The main plot of the novel deals with two murders, one unintended and one very much intended. Even though the reader knows about Bunny's inevitable and calculated death from the prologue, the reasoning is something which must be unraveled. Through the combination of cultish murders and classical Greek allusions, the novel can also be called an example of dark academia—a more recent genre designation used to describe novels that combine traditional elements of Gothic fiction with contemporary academic landscapes. In dealing with the aftermath of the murders, Richard and the other Greek students endure psychological distress in the form of guilt and anxiety. To cope with their stress, the students indulge in drugs, sex, and alcohol, all of which cause further conflict in the novel and eventually tear the group apart.
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