The Executioner's Song

The Executioner's Song

85 pages • 2-hour read

The Executioner's Song

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1979

A 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

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, substance use, mental illness, and death.

The Death Penalty as Public Spectacle

The Executioner’s Song is a story about a man who has been sentenced to death. The book’s portrayal of the life of Gary Gilmore is undertaken against the background of his fate. The book treats Gary’s case as a starting point for an investigation into capital punishment itself, examining the death penalty as public spectacle.

Gary is one of many murdered in the United States, yet his case is notable because—at the time of his sentencing—the country had been experiencing a moratorium on executions. As such, Gary is the first person in four years who may be executed by the state, so his sentencing invites a public discussion. For the advocates of capital punishment in the book, sentences such as Gary’s function as a warning to others. The death sentence, they believe, will prevent people from committing the most violent crimes. For opponents of the death penalty, this is not true, and Gary’s case seems to be evidence in support of this: He does not think about any possible punishment when he commits his crimes, if he even thinks at all. With no execution having taken place in four years, Gary’s case thus becomes a point of contention, a fulcrum around which the various arguments can be made.

Gary seems to confound traditional beliefs about the death penalty, as he accepts his punishment and pushes for his own execution, seemingly accepting the death penalty as a logical response to his crime. A familiar, routine discussion over the ethics of capital punishment is turned on its head by Gary seemingly refusing to fight for his life. Instead, he is fighting for his right to be killed by the state. For certain advocates of the death penalty, this is distasteful and forces them to align with a man they believe to be a violent criminal. The media seizes on this inversion of expectations. Whereas few media outlets were at Gary’s trial, many national news organizations are sent to his execution. The discussion over the ethics of capital punishment gives way to the spectacle itself, with the book interrogating the way society is more enthralled by novelty and spectacle than the actual ethics or morality of the situation.

Ultimately, Gary gets his wish. By the time that he is executed, however, even many in the media have come to recognize the lurid spectacle that his execution has become. Larry Schiller embodies this change in opinion. Having first come to Gary as part of the rush to secure media rights to Gary’s story, he believes that he has bonded with Gary and—most significantly—Nicole. At the same time, Schiller continues to collect testimonies from her, which form a key part of what will become The Executioner’s Song. Despite the book’s critique of such spectacle, Mailer seems aware of the irony of his book doing much of the same.

The Influence of Love and Hate in Human Lives

While Gary’s crimes and death are at the heart of the book, The Executioner’s Song also attempts to show a more personal side of him. Gary’s relationship with Nicole is both intense and sometimes harmful in its effects on her, yet it becomes important to both as a counterpoint to the abuses and difficulties of their upbringings. Nicole’s feelings for Gary also contrast with the hatred he feels toward society, revealing the influence of both love and hate in human lives.

Gary and Nicole quickly fall for one another. For both, this relationship is very different from what has come before. At first, Gary is thrilled by the novelty of an actual relationship, something that seemed unimaginable to him in prison. For Nicole, Gary’s affection seems initially sincere, and she almost wills herself into believing that this is love. The couple quickly moves in together, and at first, it seems as if they might build a more stable life for themselves. As time passes, however, the couple soon descends into petty criminality and drug use and starts arguing more frequently. Gary’s behavior then escalates, becoming physically and emotionally abusive to Nicole. Disillusioned, Nicole leaves him, but she returns to him with renewed intensity once he is imprisoned for the murders. Her attempt to die by suicide under pressure from Gary speaks to how her belief in the depth of her love for him impacts her life and mental health in profound and dangerous ways.

The intense dynamic between Gary and Nicole is counterposed by Gary’s intense hatred for society. The story of his youth is glimpsed through the nostalgic recollections of family members, but Gary rarely shares stories from his own childhood. The fractured, difficult nature of his childhood left a lasting impression on him that alienated him from many members of his family, particularly his father. Gary was sent to Reform School as an adolescent and soon began a career of criminality, which led to his many years spent in prison. Upon release, he initially tries to reintegrate into society but resists adapting to social norms and lapses back quickly into his old habits. He doubles down on his intense hate for society, as evidenced by his refusal to adhere to rules and laws.

Gary’s spree of petty crimes and violent outbursts reveals how he is driven by aggression and impulsive acts of violence, such as the killings of Max Jensen and Bennie Bushnell. While Gary’s brief attempts at forming loving interpersonal connections with people like Nicole and his family members offer a glimpse of an alternative life, his hatred of society ultimately seals his fate.

Individual Will Versus Societal Control

One of the main tensions at the heart of The Executioner’s Song is Gary Gilmore’s antagonistic relationship with society and social norms. From his troubled youth to his execution, Gary positions himself as someone who resents any type of restraint upon his behavior, while society’s response to Gary during his trial speaks to the complexities of balancing communal needs with individual rights, drawing attention to the dilemma of individual will versus societal control.

When Gary is first released from prison at the start of the narrative, Brenda takes him in and hopes that she can help Gary reform and integrate into the society he has long rejected. While Gary initially seems responsive, agreeing to take a job and apologizing when he behaves rudely, he soon lapses back into his old habits of substance use, gambling, violent outbursts, and petty criminality. Gary positions himself as the rebellious outsider, one who responds to his troubled upbringing and long spell in government institutions by rejecting the norms of society. The book contrasts Gary’s nihilism and willfulness with the altruism and commitment to community demonstrated by figures like Brenda and Vern, who both accept societal norms and attempt to reconcile Gary to them.

During Gary’s trial, a wider debate between individual will and societal control develops. Gary rejects legal norms just as he has rejected social norms: He baffles and frustrates his defense counsel by refusing to follow their advice, and he seems uninterested in doing anything that could aid his own defense during his trial. When the court imposes the death penalty on him, he further shocks his lawyers and observers by refusing to appeal the sentence.

Gary’s insistence on being executed without appeal creates an unexpected conundrum for the legal system and for both pro- and anti-death penalty advocates alike. Some argue that since Gary wishes to die, following through with the execution means that the state is giving Gary what he wants and thereby empowering him instead of punishing him. Meanwhile, those opposed to the death penalty end up lodging appeals in spite of Gary’s repeated public statements that he does not wish for them to do so. In this situation, societal control thus takes two contradictory forms: One group wishes to assert societal control by executing Gary for his crimes, while the other wishes to assert societal control by saving Gary’s life despite his individual wishes.

In the end, Gary does get his wish when the execution goes ahead, but his life and death continue to raise troubling questions for those around him. Some of his loved ones interpret his death as an act of will and voluntary atonement, while others regard the execution as a triumph of state justice in spite of the media frenzy and activist pressure. The Executioner’s Song does not offer a definitive verdict; instead, it simply draws attention to how the tensions between individual will and societal control remain.

Unlock every key theme and why it matters

Get in-depth breakdowns of the book’s main ideas and how they connect and evolve.

Explore how themes develop throughout the text
Connect themes to characters, events, and symbols
Support essays and discussions with thematic evidence

Get All Themes