50 pages • 1-hour read
The Arrangement
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Symbols & Motifs
The House and Porch
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and emotional abuse.
The house and porch function as a powerful symbol of the deadly contradiction between domestic perfection and moral corruption that defines Peter and Ainsley’s marriage, contributing to the theme of The Performance of Domestic Normalcy as Survival. Modglin uses this architectural foundation to represent how the couple’s relationship is literally built upon buried secrets and violence. When Peter observes that “[they] live at the scene of the crime” (125), he articulates the central irony that their family home—traditionally a symbol of safety and love—has become the repository for their darkest acts. The porch serves as both the literal burial ground for Stefan’s and Illiana’s bodies and the metaphorical stage where Peter and Ainsley perform normalcy for their children and community.
The symbol gains complexity through Modglin’s emphasis on maintenance and renovation. Peter’s obsessive cleaning of the porch and their decision to pour concrete over the burial site represent their desperate attempts to create a stable foundation for their family out of violence and deception. The concrete patio becomes a permanent monument to their shared guilt, yet it also enables them to host family gatherings above Stefan’s grave. This architectural transformation embodies the theme of performing domestic normalcy as survival—they must literally reconstruct their home’s foundation to maintain their facade. The house’s hidden room, where Peter stores trophies from his serial killings, further reinforces how domestic spaces can conceal the most horrifying truths. Through this symbol, Modglin demonstrates that the pursuit of suburban respectability can become more important than genuine moral behavior, suggesting that the home itself can become complicit in perpetuating cycles of violence and deception.
Blood and Cleaning
The recurring motif of blood, bleach, and obsessive cleaning creates a visceral representation of the cyclical nature of violence and cover-up that defines the Greenburgs’ relationship and contributes to the novel’s exploration of The Performance of Domestic Normalcy as Survival. Modglin uses this motif to explore how the aftermath of violence becomes as psychologically consuming as the act itself, trapping the perpetrators in endless cycles of guilt and concealment. Peter’s compulsive scrubbing of the porch with bleach and his subsequent shower in which he scrubs himself until his “skin [i]s red, raw, and scalding hot” reveal how the attempt to erase evidence becomes a form of self-punishment that can never truly cleanse him (77). The brown water in his bucket, “tinged red,” demonstrates the impossibility of completely washing away their crimes.
The baseball bat’s transformation from a murder weapon into cleaned and disposed evidence illustrates how objects become contaminated by violence and must be ritually purified or eliminated. Ainsley’s discovery of blood “under [her] fingernails no matter how hard [she] scrub[s]” suggests that their guilt has become embedded in their very bodies (100), impossible to remove despite their frantic efforts. The motif gains psychological depth through its connection to Peter’s broader pattern of violence—his hidden room requires a “vigorous clean” after each victim, revealing that cleaning has become an integral part of his killing ritual. The pervasive smell of bleach that fills their home serves as an olfactory reminder of their crimes, making their domestic space reek of attempted erasure. Through this motif, Modglin demonstrates how the couple’s relationship has become defined by shared complicity in cycles of violence and concealment, where each act of cleaning only prepares the ground for future crimes while never truly achieving the purification they desperately seek.
Secrets and Envelopes
The motif of sealed envelopes and hidden information operates as a sophisticated exploration of how secrets function as both weapons and shields in intimate relationships, ultimately demonstrating the corrosive power of withheld truth and developing the theme of The Erosion of Truth in Intimate Relationships. Modglin uses physical envelopes as tangible representations of the invisible barriers that destroy authentic intimacy between partners. When Ainsley writes, “Sorry, honey. Rules are rules” in the envelope that she knows Peter will open (209), she reveals how secrets can become elaborate games of manipulation and control. The envelope’s tape and signature, designed to reveal if it has been tampered with, illustrate how couples create surveillance systems within their own relationships when trust has eroded.
The motif extends beyond literal envelopes to encompass all forms of information control, including the rules and agreements that structure Peter and Ainsley’s arrangement, connecting with the theme of Control and Manipulation Disguised as Love. Their dating rules function as another type of sealed communication—appearing to offer transparency while actually enabling greater deception. Peter’s violation of the envelope reveals his inability to respect boundaries, while Ainsley’s anticipation of his betrayal demonstrates her superior understanding of their power dynamics.
The final envelope in Peter’s hidden room, containing evidence of Ainsley’s manipulation of his serial-killer trophies, serves as the ultimate revelation that she has been controlling information throughout their entire relationship. As Ainsley notes, “I own your secret now, Peter. I own you” (197), the motif reveals how secrets accumulate like poison in marriage, transforming love into leverage. Through this progression, Modglin suggests that once truth becomes negotiable between partners, authentic intimacy becomes impossible, leaving only the strategic deployment of hidden information as the foundation for their relationship.
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