No Place Left to Hide

The second section of the novel introduces the central conflicts, both past and present. At the lake house, Brooke struggles maintain her image around her classmates while her former friend seeks to humiliate her. At the same time, she must avoid the news of her party going public, which would damage her family’s reputation. This echoes the theme of Crafting a Public Persona to Hide Secrets. With the threat of pictures going up on social media, taking her guests’ phones shows that maintaining an image of innocence about the underage drinking is more important than whether it occurred. The situation is dangerous, but to Brooke, it’s only a problem if someone finds out. 

In the present, whatever Brooke did to resolve the issues at the party is returning to haunt her with potentially deadly consequences. As the narrative tension rises, so does the thematic relevance of How Class and Privilege Determine Consequences. Wealth drives many of the characters and shape the world within which they operate—Brooke’s obsessive need to attend Yale is based on her family’s legacy at the school and their history of professional and academic achievement. They see these things as markers of their class and won’t allow any deviation. This dovetails with the theme of Ambition Versus Morality because the narrative again shows Brooke weighing her decisions based on how they will affect her family’s image. Further developing Brooke as anti-hero, these chapters reinforce that though Brooke is the novel’s protagonist, she’s not the protagonist in her own life. The Goodwin family history determines what she will do and who she will be, giving her little say over her day-to-day decisions and long-term plans.

This attitude causes Brooke to justify the downward spiral of Claire’s family, as Brooke equates moral corruption and the lower class. She tells Claire that losing her wealth and attending public school align with her moral failures, saying she was “always destined for the gutter” (135). Meanwhile, Brooke maintains a high-class status, and she knows that this can get her out of trouble in many situations—as long as she doesn’t tarnish the family name. It’s implied that whatever happened in the past was smoothed over through the Goodwins’ connections. Claire has lost this privilege, and from Brooke’s narrative point of view, Claire is merely a bitter, lower-class attendee attacking a respectable, higher-class student.

Brooke’s classism and her use of it to twist Claire’s actions to her benefit call her reliability as a narrator into question. Brooke is hyperconscious of how she’s perceived, and she’s willing to take a punch to ensure that she looks like a victim. The scene in which she and Claire argue in front of the glass door acts as a metaphor for the theme of Crafting a Public Persona to Hide Secrets: the audience may see what’s going on, but they don’t actually know the truth of the narrative. Their perception is being manipulated by someone who’s main priority is their own social wellbeing. Brooke understands that pointing out Claire’s manipulative behavior isn’t enough, Claire’s “elbow snaps back, and I don’t try to stop her” (135), Brooke thinks, as she knows that only a broken nose and bloody face will firmly pit everyone against Claire.

Brooke’s manipulation emphasizes her status as an anti-hero, someone who’s willing to step into a morally gray area to accomplish their goals. The scene doesn’t necessarily make Claire sympathetic as a character though: In stories with anti-heroes, the actions of the antagonist or villain must be more objectionable than those of the anti-hero to keep the narrative balanced in the anti-hero’s favor. In this case, Claire is presented as having a history of tormenting Brooke, long before the Goodwins ruined her family. 

When Brooke accuses Claire of taking the opportunities that are important to her, whether it’s becoming dance team captain or dating Dylan, Claire defends herself by saying, “I earned what you felt entitled to’” (118). This touches on the sense of entitlement Brooke feels as a wealthy only child with parents in positions of power, but it also characterizes Claire as being obsessed with beating Brooke on principle, not because she actually wants the same things Brooke wants. Since her desire for revenge against Brooke has a long history, her behavior at the party—from humiliating Brooke to planting drugs in the house—are in keeping with her role as an antagonist with bad intentions. However, when paired with the constant demand in the present day for Brooke to admit to an unspecified crime, it increases possibility that Brooke could have done more than trick Claire into punching her.