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Symbolism In The Secret History By Donna Tartt

Decent Essays

In Donna Tartt's novel, "The Secret History", she uses the setting of Bunny's murder site to divulge the deceptive and dangerous life Richard Papen starts for himself in Hampden. Will this life he has chosen lead him to the life he wanted or will he be haunted by regrets? The Sunday of the murder, in April, stood still and oppressive. A silent and musty forest, a deep ravine with deeper secrets and at last a purifying snow that would soon melt away leaving a shocking revelation. When seen in Bunny's murder site, Richard's underlying emotions are the cause to a grave mistake that would change his life forever. The heavy woods, the deep ravine, and the chilling snow are all important settings within Bunny’s murder site. Each setting represents …show more content…

The woods, the ravine and the snow are all symbols that can represent an idea. The woods represent seclusion, the ravine represents a solution and the snow represents a sudden and ongoing change. The woods are uncertain, hidden, silent, threatening and lifeless. These qualities can symbolize Richard’s transformation once he moved to Hampden. Richard started out uncertain about the Greek students; he became one of them and found himself quietly learning about them. They let him in on a secret that now threatened him as well and ultimately he ended up helping them take a life. The ravine simply symbolizes the vast change in Richard’s life and how far down anger can bring someone when they refuse to let it go. The snow symbolizes how quickly his transformation took place, how his life in Hampen, especially the murder, possessed a dreamlike quality and how his past will always return with an ever chilling presence. To bring these symbols and ideas to life Tartt uses vivid imagery. The woods, she describes as being “surreal”, “forbidding” and “stagnant” with a damp smell of decay that is heavy in the air (265). The ravine, she expresses chillingly as being “raw” and “treacherous” with its deep “plunge” to the earth below (265). The snow, she peacefully describes as white “big silent petals” that were “dreamy and soft” and looked like “white bouquets segueing into snowy …show more content…

Throughout the novel there is a constant tug-of-war with tension and peacefulness, with enjoyment and disgust. The setting at Bunny’s murder site enhances the story by showing the reader the cold and despicable things people are capable of and the harsh reality of the tale. Richard tells the story with somewhat of a nonchalant attitude about a sinister act. However, the setting and its vivid description reminds the reader just how vile the group and Richard can be. Richard reveals the cold truth about his lack of horror and shock during the murder and how if it had taken place a couple months before he might have felt otherwise (277). He explains how he just stood there and watched Bunny fall swiftly, faster than “thirty-feet per second”, and it was just over (277). This setting draws the reader in through the imagery used by Tartt. Her passionate and enchanting descriptions pull the reader in and keep them captivated and spellbound for the whole

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