53 pages • 1 hour read
Karin SlaughterThe Good Daughter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Complex Dynamics in Families
The key theme of the complex family dynamics of the Quinns runs through the novel, and is part of the book’s creation of rounded and ambiguous characters and scenarios, and its presentation of realistic cause-and-effect consequences, including around moral responsibility.
This theme comes to a central point in the scene where Rusty, Sam, and Charlie reunite. Sam is meeting her father and sister after nearly 20 years, and the event that brought her to town is Rusty being stabbed. The only reason Sam has agreed to meet her estranged family is because Ben, Charlie’s husband, emailed her three words: “Charlie needs you” (229). As Charlie and Rusty banter with each other in Rusty’s hospital room, Sam’s patience wanes fast, and she notes that she has always been a “reluctant spectator of the Rusty and Charlie show” (246). When Rusty uses the plot of Lethal Weapon 2 to make up a story to explain his stabbing, both Charlie and Sam erupt in anger at their father’s attempt at showboating and humor. However, Sam takes it one step further, hitting her father with her handbag. An apologetic and amused Rusty asks Sam to take up Kelly Wilson’s case, leaving Charlie jealous of her older sister. Sam wants nothing to do with the case and storms out, claiming, “I need this shit like I need another hole in my head” (254). Minutes later, she does accept the case, despite Charlie’s exhortation to not get manipulated by Rusty.
As the quicksilver emotions informing the preceding sequence show, the dynamics between the Quinns include jealousy, rage, humor, and exasperation. At the same time, it is underpinned by love and a strong sense of mutual respect, the love and respect evident in the motivations of the characters. It is only because Charlie needed her that Sam came back to the town she detests. Rusty trusts only Sam, the daughter who has distanced herself from him, to secure justice for Kelly. Sam agrees to take up Kelly’s case because she does believe in the values by which Rusty lives. Charlie wants Sam to leave town so that Sam stays away from the mess of Pikeville.
By presenting the Quinns as far from the ideal family, the text argues that ideal families are largely non-existent but that love and mutual respect can create relationships that survive trauma, grief, and separation. Although often problematic, the love between the Quinns is continually shown in the narrative: in the way Gamma is ready to sacrifice herself for her daughters, in Sam asking Charlie to run away to save herself, and in Charlie keeping a terrible secret to protect Sam and Rusty. Though Sam blames Rusty for Gamma’s death and keeps away from him, Rusty continues to send Sam cheerful messages every year. When he sees Sam in his hospital room, he is transformed by joy. Before he dies in a later scene, Rusty tells Sam that has always loved her as much as Charlie, and promises her an unseen photo of Gamma. These examples show that the Quinns are bound to each other by love and solidarity, even if they feel wronged by each other.
The Lingering Impact of Violence and Trauma
A major concern of The Good Daughter is the ways in which violence and trauma have lasting consequences. This is built into the novel’s double timeline structure and is at the heart of the narrative’s emotional arc: Although the novel adheres to the generic crime trope of investigation and revelation, the true focus of the book is the emotional journeys and reconciliation of the Quinn family as they process their trauma. Charlie is central to this theme and her characterization explores the ways in which secrecy and shame are obstacles to healing, especially in comparison to Sam’s experience of post-traumatic recovery and rehabilitation.
One of the key methods through which the text emphasizes the impact of trauma is by creating strongly graphic depictions of violence, threat, cruelty, and pain, both in real-time and in the memory of survivors. For instance, Gamma’s daughters and her house are covered in her blood after she is shot dead, a physical metaphor for the longitudinal effects of her murder. Charlie discovering a bit of Gamma’s tooth in a cabinet months after her death mirrors this scene and evokes the continuing shock and loss of Gamma’s physical absence. Sam and Charlie often lapse into the visceral horror of their ordeal, as if the memories are lying in wait just under the surface of their composure. For instance, when Sam gets Ben’s email, she relives the night of Gamma’s murder, recalling how she had lied to Charlie that she could see, though in reality her vision was nearly gone, “Charlie…a blob of grey…Zachariah Culpepper…a menacing black square of hate” (229). Similarly, the lasting signs of Sam’s physical ordeal become a metaphor for the emotional trauma both she and Charlie underwent. Sam’s poor vision, her stiff gait, her difficulties with speech, as well as her daily practice to keep her body and mind nimble all show that living with trauma is an ongoing exercise.
Charlie is particularly essential to this theme. While Sam’s physical trauma is visible, her and Charlie’s emotional pain is less so. In Charlie’s case, the pain is exacerbated by silence and repression. The fact that Charlie was raped is known only to Rusty and Judith Pinkman; being asked to hide her sexual assault makes Charlie feel something shameful has happened to her, increasing her suffering and denying her a route to healing. Unable to express her pain, Charlie is further traumatized. As an adult, she puts herself in reckless situations, becomes distant from Ben, and refuses to go into marriage counseling. Charlie’s impulse to run into the most dangerous situation is directly linked with the double trauma of having to hide the rape: She tends to endanger herself because she feels that on the night of Gamma’s murder, she did not run fast enough. Thus, the text explores the idea that building secrecy around trauma amplifies its effect. To cope with the trauma while moving ahead, Charlie must express her pain. When Charlie does tell her story to Sam, she is able to negotiate the past in a more meaningful way, a process that also assists the reconciliation of the sisters.
The novel also shows how trauma impacts the future relationships of survivors. In Sam’s case, she refused to let the terminally ill Anton go easily because she felt she did not do enough to save Gamma and Charlie. Sam now feels her “inability to quit had prolonged his suffering” (256). Charlie’s residual shame makes her believe she is not worthy of Ben and therefore distances herself from him. This skewed perspective shows Charlie’s self-esteem has been affected by the trauma in her childhood. The sexual assault on Charlie has possibly led to her recurrent pregnancy losses, something she keeps from Ben as part of the secrecy surrounding the attack on her. The continuing physical and emotional toll of Charlie’s pregnancy losses is part of the novel’s presentation of the ways in which women’s lasting experiences of trauma can be gender-specific but are often marginalized or taboo.
The Flaws in the Criminal Justice System
Slaughter’s novel is an example of her interest in critiquing the justice system in America, especially the ways in which is it open to corruption and how it can reflect and exacerbate social inequalities and prejudices.
The question of who deserves a defense permeates the novel from the outset. Rusty Quinn, whom Sam describes as the kind of defense lawyer who would defend just about any “low-life alleged criminal in Pikeville” (8), certainly believes that every defendant merits a fair trial. The text shows that Rusty has even argued against the death penalty for Zach, the man whom he knows killed Gamma and viciously raped 13-year-old Charlie. Rusty continues to defend alleged criminals—though no longer those accused of rape—even after Gamma’s murder. He continues his pursuit despite the fact that his legal practice turns against him not just the town of Pikeville, but also Sam. It is Rusty’s conversations with his daughters, and their opinion of his values, that go a long way in explaining his decision to fight for those whom no one else will defend. Rusty fundamentally does believe that everyone deserves a second chance, even a murderer. However, that is only half of his motivation. The other half, which is even more important, is his belief that the criminal justice system is unfair and biased against alleged criminals, especially those who come from disenfranchised and economically underprivileged backgrounds. Rusty knows that though in theory innocence before proven guilty is the maxim of the justice system, in practice assumption of guilt is the norm. He tries to balance the bias with a vigorous defense for those considered indefensible. Rusty also believes that people are not defined by one or two actions, even when those actions are terrible. As he tells Sam, quoting John Steinbeck’s classic, The Grapes of Wrath (1939): “There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do” (356).
The novel presents many examples of the flawed working of the criminal justice system, as well as police brutality. One such example is the shooting of Daniel Culpepper. Daniel has not even been arrested, let alone arraigned, when he is shot dead by Ken Coin. When Coin kicks open the door to his home, Daniel reaches for his gun in reflex and is immediately shot to death by Coin. Because bloody clothes are found in a barrel near Daniel’s home, it is assumed that Daniel was indeed guilty of conspiring in Gamma’s murder and Sam and Charlie’s abduction. However, the novel reveals that Daniel was innocent, highlighting his death as murder and a travesty. Other examples of excessive use of force include police swarming the Wilson home, and Greg Benner hitting Charlie. The novel focuses on Coin trying to submit a hospital recording of Kelly as evidence against her, creating a scene in which Sam stands up for the basic rights of the accused.
The narrative also shows how the justice system can be manipulated by those with money, privilege, and knowledge. Mason Huckabee goes free for decades because his family buys Zach’s silence. Zach capitalizes on the situation by making money off the Huckabees. Even Judith Pinkman would never have been discovered were it not for Sam’s logical eye: Judith’s status as a white, Christian, middle-aged, financially stable teacher means she is not someone whom people would ever suspect of a school shooting. The media and popular opinion also enable the travesty, as seen in the sequence which describes an animated reenactment of the school shooting. The sequence shows Kelly with long hair and a black T-shirt, markers for her being an anarchist, while Charlie notes that Judith is shown as matronly and pious. Such depictions plant suggestions in the minds of watchers, coding people as sinners and angels. Since the truth is so far from the reenactment, the novel suggests the justice system should not ever mistake perception for reality. Instead, presenting Sam’s scientific method, the novel argues that the system should take care to arrive at the truth and deliver justice, rather than a sentence.
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