Mystic River

Jimmy’s growing sense of trepidation sets the tone for Chapter 9. With the discovery of the police having the water searched by frogmen, the chapter heightens the perception that Katie’s safe return is hopeless. The readers realize this as Jimmy does, though he holds out hope that the worst has not happened. However, the text betrays Jimmy’s understanding of what happened with Katie before it’s confirmed: “You felt the truth [in your soul] sometimes—beyond logic” (115). Here, the novel demonstrates Jimmy’s perceptiveness and highlights the importance of listening to one’s intuition.

The chapter also provides insight into the strained relationship between Sean and Jimmy: “Jimmy could still see that thing in [Sean’s] face he’d always hated, the look of a guy the world had always worked for” (119). This stresses the perceived difference in the men that feels insurmountable. Jimmy’s observation echoes his childhood opinion of Sean; that, because he’d grown up in a nicer neighborhood, Sean had an easy, worry-free life. Thus, the chapter highlights the difference that stems from a class consciousness ingrained in them since childhood; that one’s neighborhood had great influence over one’s sense of self.

Chapter 10 characterizes Celeste and emphasizes her increasing doubts about her husband. Perhaps because of the hard life she’s had due to her economic status, or because Dave is emotionally distant, Celeste feels insignificant: “Celeste found herself consciously trying to ignore a notion that it wasn’t only the things in her life but her life, itself, that was not meant to have any weight or lasting impact” (123). By comparing her to a broken appliance that is not worth fixing and can only be replaced, the text reveals Celeste’s insecurity and deep suspicion that she is broken. This analogy also works to insinuate Celeste’s sense of being used, even used to the point of breaking. Despite this, Celeste is characterized as resilient and spirited (127). This is significant because it reveals just why Celeste is so quick to help Dave, despite the situation and her doubts; she enjoys challenges, and she’s empowered by overcoming obstacles. This, though, is presented somewhat ironically as she watches the news and her suspicions toward Dave change. She begins to believe that Dave fooled her, despite her strength and shrewd mind. The chapter ends by again associating Dave with Katie’s disappearance with little—though compelling—evidence. Celeste, too, falls for this trap. 

Chapter 11 returns the narrative’s focus to tragedy and trauma as Katie’s fate is revealed. Sean, before finding her body, can sense what’s happened to Katie. Through Sean, the chapter breaks down the far-reaching consequences of a tragedy, how trauma doesn’t just touch the victims but everyone around them: “[T]he worst thing wasn’t the victims—they were dead, after all, and beyond any more pain. The worst thing was those who’d loved them and survived them” (133). The image Sean paints is a parallel of the way the world changed for Dave when he returned from his abduction—of the way everyone who he once knew seemed to have left and were replaced by “smiley-faced look-alikes” (111). In this way, the novel offers a contrasting view of trauma; the novel asserts that it looks differently on the inside than it does on the outside.

Moreover, Sean’s thought foreshadows what Jimmy feels when he realizes Katie is gone: Sean held “Jimmy’s eyes with his own […] until Jimmy’s surging stare saw what Sean had just seen, saw that it was over now, the worst fear had been realized. Jimmy began to scream and ropes of spit shot from his mouth” (138). Their ability to communicate through a look hints at a connection forged through their shared childhood trauma; Jimmy may recognize the look of someone telling him that things will never be the same again. The chapter also subscribes to the detective fiction genre most concisely at this point by walking the reader through police procedure on the scene. Lehane offers gruesome detail because it is what the genre demands, but each detail also contributes to constructing the image of what happened to Katie.