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Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Woman in Cabin 10, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Entrapment and Isolation
Perception vs. Reality
Trauma, Mental Illness, and Resilience
Ambition and Compassion
Wealth and Power
Summary
Analysis
During dinner, fellow passenger Chloe notices Lo’s bruise, and Lo feels uncomfortable talking about the burglary, wanting to appear “the smooth, capable journalist,” not a victim. As she explains how she got hurt, she thinks that she should have stayed in hiding that night instead of investigating the noises—“stupid Lo, sticking your neck out.” Archer suggests that Lo ought to learn self-defense and offers to demonstrate. Lo is pained and frightened when Archer twists her arm behind her back. Chloe stops him and pours Lo another drink.
Lo worries that her experience as a crime victim somehow compromises her status as a professional. She also berates herself for being bold enough to face the burglar at all—seeming not to realize that her willingness to “stick her neck out” might be a mark of courage and even competence, not foolishness.
Themes
