Mystic River

Opening Chapter 6 with Sean’s dream is an echo of his childhood dreams; Sean’s fears, anxieties, and traumas tend to be represented through his subconscious. The shifting scenery, Sean’s fall through a roof, and the “upended sail boat” (76) symbolize the instability or lack of control he feels in his waking life. This is further supported by Sean’s revelation that after Lauren left him, the whole world “was fast and fluid and built to move” (77). In this chapter, Sean feels left behind—stuck in place—as the world continues to move forward while his has stopped.

The chapter also works to build the suspenseful tone as the police work to decipher what happened to Katie. It uses the symbol of a bird, “the belted kingfisher” (83), ironically; the kingfisher typically represents peace and prosperity, but its persistent presence on the scene of a murder is not only out of place but an obscene contrast to reality. The bird’s screech, too, disrupts the scene further. As Sean watches “the lone rattling bird” (85), his thoughts drift to Jimmy, the father of the victim and Sean’s childhood friend. Sean associates the lone bird, whose calls resonate as painful to Sean, with Jimmy because he knows how much pain his former friend will be in—pain that will accompany a lifetime of other heartache and trauma.

The significance of Chapter 7’s title, “In the Blood,” accomplishes a dual meaning first in the metaphorical exploration of human nature and in a literal sense as the detectives follow Katie’s trail of blood. The former is represented as Jimmy works through whether crime is part of his nature. By settling on the fact that he is inclined toward it but that it simply doesn’t matter if he is, Jimmy exhibits a restraint and level of self-awareness that marks his maturity and profound love for his daughter. The chapter does this to foreshadow the agony Jimmy will suffer when he learns about Katie. The latter meaning of the title works to construct the assumption that whatever happened to Katie the night before, the sheer amount of blood indicates a tragic ending. The blood, literally, is the path that allows the police to interpret the events of last night. The chapter’s theme of blood culminates with Jimmy’s sense that something is wrong with Katie. As shown earlier in the chapter, what’s really in Jimmy’s blood—the greatest part of his identity—is not crime but his position as a father. The feeling that moves through his blood and makes him think, “Sweet Jesus. Katie” (100), represents this and its influence over his intuition as a father.

Chapter 8 explores the motif of silence and the theme of childhood trauma through Celeste and Dave. First, Celeste’s admission that she knew instantly that Dave had lied, “but she’d decided to ignore it” (103), is the first indication that their marriage is full of this understanding; that Dave will lie and omit, and Celeste will ignore it. This is confirmed as Celeste unfolds the history of their marriage—of Dave’s avoidance of speaking on his childhood, of his lie about why he lost his job, and of how his mother died. Celeste perceives that Dave “needed to rewrite his history” (106) to cope. Here, the motif of silence intertwines with the effects of childhood trauma; Dave lied—or remained silent—about his past and his present as a survival mechanism. He was psychologically scarred by his abduction, and the habits he formed then have influenced how he communicates in his adult life. Dave’s trauma is also alluded to in how he interacts with and views his seven-year-old son: When he sees vulnerability in his son, his instinct is “to take it away” (106), perhaps to protect his son from experiencing anything like Dave did as a child.

The chapter’s most significant revelation, though, is that of Dave’s mother’s response to his abduction; rather than addressing it, she ignores it and silences her son on the subject. Therefore, a part of Dave’s trauma was being conditioned to repress his emotions and never speak on his pain because it upsets others. This is symbolized by the song “Old MacDonald,” which his mother hummed loudly when Dave tried speaking to her. When Dave bitterly recalls the meaning of the songs—that “everything was hunky-dory” and “everything was just fucking great” (111)—he reveals his desire at the time to address what happened to him, and that part of his remaining psychological scars stem from being isolated and ignored. Now, Dave is emotionally stunted and unable to communicate because he was taught that those around him would “do just about anything but listen to” (111) him.