The Stranger

“He stared at Ryan and felt that overwhelming feeling he sometimes got when he looked at his boys—part pure joy, part fear of what could happen to them in this cruel world, part wishes and hopes, all blended together in the only thing in this entire planet that felt completely pure.”

Navigating the Role of Parent and Protector is a central theme, and this quotation explores the myriad emotions that parents feel toward their children. As his sons grow older, Adam struggles with how closely to protect them without smothering them, as he wants to shield them from the chaos of the world while also letting them have the experiences they want, not just the ones their parents want for them.

“Adam slept well most nights. Corinne was the one who stayed up and worried. Somewhere along the way, Adam had learned to not worry about what he couldn’t control, to let go. That had been a healthy thing, this ability to compartmentalize. Now he wondered whether it was an ability to let go or simply to block.”

This quotation showcases the differences in Adam’s and Corinne’s personalities. Whereas Adam is the laidback partner who can look at the bigger picture, Corinne is the more detail-oriented partner who focuses on the minutiae. Though there is a negative connotation to Corinne’s worrying, Adam sees how his nonchalance can be equally as unproductive, as it shields him from confronting issues he wants to avoid.

“It hadn’t been what he wanted so much as the smooth, well-paved path that men like him simply ended up taking: a safe place to raise children, a lovely home with four bedrooms, a two-car garage, a basketball hoop in the driveway, a gas grill on the wooden deck overlooking the backyard. Nice, right?

Tripp Evans had wistfully called it ‘living the dream.’”

Dreams, or aspirations, are a symbol in the text that represent the characters’ various fantasies about success. Residents of Cedarfield perceive themselves as “living the dream,” as they have everything that most people strive for, and then some. Though Adam explains that this wasn’t his dream, he happily went along with the life set out in front of him.

“God, he loved the too-rare moments when she let go and was even a little naughty. For a split second, he forgot about the stranger. A split second, no more. Why now? he wondered. She made remarks like that twice, thrice a year. Why now?”

When Corinne and Adam watch Thomas’s lacrosse game together, Corinne makes a dirty joke to Adam that delights him before quickly turning to paranoia. This excerpt connects to the theme of the destructive power of secrets, as the knowledge of Corinne’s deception makes Adam pick apart their every interaction for hidden meanings since he no longer trusts a word she says.

“Corinne knew what she wanted from life, and she could laser in on the goals that would help achieve it. When they met, Adam had fuzzy future plans at best—something about working with the underserved and downtrodden—but he had no specifics about where he wanted to live or what kind of life he wanted to lead or how to form that life or that nuclear family.”

This excerpt illuminates the relationship dynamic between Adam and Corinne and explores how, despite their seemingly opposite personalities, they fit perfectly together. Where Adam is drifting aimlessly through life, Corinne has set a plan for her life. She compensates for his lack of ambition, and he is the solid emotional support needed to buttress her goals.

“But even at this distance, even through his son’s face mask, even behind the mouth guard, Adam knew that Thomas, his oldest child, was smiling, that he was happy, that it was Adam’s job as a father, first and foremost, to keep that boy and his brother smiling and happy and safe.

What would he do to keep his boys happy and safe?

Anything.”

Expanding on the theme of navigating the role of parent and protector, Adam watches Thomas in a moment of joy and vows to do anything to keep his boys smiling. Adam explicitly states that it is the father’s role to be the family’s protector, emphasizing the gendered expectations of parenthood for men and women in their social set.

“It was as though he were watching a movie montage of his own life—the happy family he and Corinne had created, having dinner, enjoying one another’s company. He could almost see the camera slowly circling the table, getting everyone’s face, getting everyone’s back. It was so everyday, so hackneyed, so perfect.

Tick, tick, tick…”

Adam observes a normal family dinner, but the ordinary scene has a nostalgic feeling, as he’s certain that after his confrontation with Corinne, there won’t be any more of these dinners. The text employs the symbol of explosives and includes the simple line of “Tick, tick, tick” throughout this scene to emphasize the looming threat of destruction that Adam feels.

“‘In the end,’ Ingrid said, ‘we are doing her a favor.’

That was the justification. The stranger agreed with it. If the foundation is rotten, you need to demolish the entire house. You can’t just fix it with a coat of paint or a few planks of wood. He knew that. He understood it. He lived it.”

The stranger, Chris Taylor, and his partner, Ingrid, watch Heidi and wait to approach her with a secret about her daughter. This excerpt explains the purpose behind this work through an extended metaphor about demolishing an unsafe house. Chris and his group seek to justify their criminal misconduct by claiming that they’re addressing the destructive of power of secrets. In reality, they are extorting people for large sums of money and inflicting severe emotional distress on others.

“What, Heidi wondered, would have been the outcome if that busybody had never called? In the end, what good had it done? It embarrassed her daughter. It strained the relationship between father and daughter. It had, Heidi believed, been a huge part of Kimberly’s decision to go to college so far away.”

Despite Chris’s claimed intentions, his targets are not grateful for him interfering in their lives. Heidi compares her interaction with a stranger to a previous acquaintance’s attempt to expose Kimberly for Heidi’s benefit, which backfired and ruined the girl’s relationship with her father. Developing the theme of the destructive power of secrets, this excerpt explores how exposing minor secrets can detrimental, especially when it involves interfering in someone else’s life.

“People think a site is anonymous because a site says so. That’s a lie by definition. Behind every secret site on the Internet, there is a human being monitoring every keystroke. Nothing is really secret or anonymous.”

A major motif in the text is digital anonymity, which is the false sense of security that the characters feel while using the internet to hide their secrets. In this excerpt, Chris explains that digital anonymity is a complete falsehood because there is always someone on the programming end who can see a user’s every move.

“I guess you figured, what, I’d go back to David now? Tell him I know the truth and ask his forgiveness? And then what? He’ll take me in his arms and we’ll live happily ever after? Is that how you see this working out? You being the hero of our love?”

This excerpt offers another example of the targets’ reaction to Chris exposing secrets in their life. Michaela Spiegel’s case is different, as Chris doesn’t demand blackmail from her and only wants to prevent her from marrying the man who non-consensually released her sex tape. As with Heidi, the stranger is now forcing Michaela into a difficult decision that she wouldn’t have had otherwise, and he creates a new secret rather than destroying one.

“They will judge you on everything—how you enter, how you exit, how you walk, your poise, your smile, your confidence, your demeanor, your facial expressions. You get one chance to make that first impression. You can lose the competition with your very first step.”

Kristin Hoy represents the obsession with appearances in towns like Cedarfield. Here, she explains to her trainees how the judges at the physique competition will evaluate every minute detail of their bodies, which extrapolates onto her larger experience of life in Cedarfield. Kristin’s life as a bodybuilder acts as a microcosm for the suburb’s larger issues of competition and ambition, reflecting The Precarious Façade of Suburban Bliss.

“Does our government seize hardworking people’s property and give it to the rich? Do we throw war heroes and elderly women into the streets? Do we just take away their home after they’ve worked a lifetime to pay it off? Do we just bulldoze their dreams to create yet another strip mall?”

Adam poses a series of questions to a group of journalists who are covering the story of Michael Rinsky’s fight against developers who want to tear his house down. This subplot connects to the theme of the precarious façade of suburban bliss, as the developers attempt to destroy the Rinskys’ lives under the guise of bettering the community. This excerpt also illustrates Adam’s desire to help the helpless, which stems from his early work as a defense lawyer.

“But I always wanted kids. Even as a little girl, I wanted a big family. My sister Sarah, who swore she’d never have any, well, she has three. And I remember how happy she was when she was pregnant. How she glowed. I guess I just wanted to see what it was like.”

Suzanne Hope explains why she faked pregnancies for so many years: She dreamed of being a mother but couldn’t have kids naturally with her husband. Connecting to the theme of navigating the role of parent and protector, Suzanne coveted motherhood not only for its role as caregiver but also because mothers receive a unique kind of attention from the community that she didn’t have access to.

“He lost his job. He lost his pension and his benefits. But worst of all, he could no longer afford to give his son the best treatment available. That had been toughest on him. Whatever else a father is in this life—cop, fireman, Indian chief—he provides for his family. He does not sit by idly watching his son in pain without doing all he can to alleviate it in some way.”

John Kuntz explains the motivation behind his extremely violent acts: He has little money to care for his family after being fired and needs to ensure that he gets the $17 million payout from his new job in two months. Kuntz represents a dangerous perversion of the parent’s role, as he decides to commit violent acts—including murder—just for his own family’s advantage.

“The past few weeks, he’d been anonymous, the stranger, and no one called him by name. Even with Ingrid, the protocol had been clear: No names. Anonymous. There was irony in that, of course. The people he approached had assumed and craved anonymity, not realizing that in truth, it didn’t exist for them.”

Chris reacts to a member of his group using his name in conversation, as they have a strict set of protocols to ensure they remain anonymous and hidden. Despite claiming that his targets are in an ironic position, Chris doesn’t recognize the irony of his own endeavors: He, more than anyone, knows that nothing can truly be anonymous, yet he’s certain that his group won’t be found out. Chris’s hubris leads to the group’s demise.

“Tripp was right, of course, but it was interesting how we described our personal paradise as a ‘dream.’ Dreams are fragile. Dreams don’t last. One day you wake up and poof, the dream is gone. You stir and feel it pull away from you as you helplessly grab at the smoky remnants but it’s useless. The dream dissolves, gone forever.”

As the mystery unravels and complicates Adam’s life, he comes to realize that his and Corinne’s dream life was never as stable as they thought. Adam emphasizes the ephemerality of this dreams, visualizing it in this excerpt as a kind of smoky mirage that vanishes no matter how much you try to maintain it. This speaks to the theme of the precarious façade of suburban success.

“‘The pregnancy startled me, you know? But in a good way. It brought me back. It reminded me of what was important. That’s the other irony here. It worked. Corinne was right to do it.’

‘No, Adam, she wasn’t right.’

‘It brought me back to reality.’

‘No, it didn’t. She manipulated you. You’d probably have gotten back to reality anyway.’”

Adam and Johanna argue about Adam’s feelings of guilt over Corinne faking her pregnancy. Whereas Adam understands Corinne’s manipulation and sees how he was the cause of her desperation, Johanna is more critical of the deception. The text suggests that both Adam and Corinne needed to be more open and transparent with one another to avoid the destructive power of secrets.

“‘My whole life,’ Dad had told him, ‘has been one big lie.’

Chris’s father had tried to do the ‘right thing’ then. He had reminded himself that a father is not merely a sperm donor. A father is there for his child, provides for his child, loves and cares and raises him. But in the end, the lie had just festered too long.”

This excerpt explains Chris’s motivation for starting his group and going on a crusade to rid the world of secrets: The man he called “Dad” for 16 years wasn’t his biological father, and he couldn’t deal with the fallout after 16 years of deception. This story illuminates why Chris particularly detests people who use websites like Fake-A-Pregnancy.com—like Corinne and Suzanne—as their secrets are the most damaging to the families they deceive.

“Parents always think it’s best to ‘protect’ you, even though by ‘protect,’ they mean ‘lie.’ They think they’re helping by shielding you, but in the end, it makes it worse.”

This excerpt follows Thomas’s perspective after he learns from Adam that his mother, Corinne, is missing. Thomas curses his father for lying to him for so long to protect him from the truth, when all the secrecy did was make him worry more. Thomas’s reaction exemplifies the fine line that Adam tries to walk as the family’s protector and how it sometimes backfires.

“He steeled himself by thinking again of Robby in that hospital bed. That was really what it came down to for him. Did he let these people continue to break the law and blackmail people? Or did he do what a father had to in order to ease his family’s suffering?”

Right before he descends into the basement to kill the group of blackmailers and prevent them from revealing his boss’s secret, Kuntz thinks of his son. Kuntz’s invocation of his son as an excuse for violence and cruelty toward other reinforces how he perverts his role as a parent and protector, as he willingly hurts other families just to advance his own.

“Pull the trigger. I want you to. I got nothing anymore. I can’t find work. Our house is in foreclosure. Melanie is going to leave me. Go ahead. Please. I bought a good insurance policy from Cal. The boys will be better off.”

Adam confronts Bob in the parking lot and threatens to shoot him if he doesn’t reveal what he knows about Corinne, but to Adam’s surprise, Bob asks to be shot instead because his sons will get an insurance payout and live a better life with him gone. This interaction exposes the precarious façade of suburban success, as Bob’s private life is in such shambles that he’d rather be dead than endure living anything but the outwardly perfect life that he’s presented thus far.

“Adam entered the office. He hadn’t gotten inside before. Tripp had tried his best to keep him out. Little wonder. The office was a dump. One room. The carpet was worn. The wallpaper was peeling. The computer was dated.

Living in a town like Cedarfield cost big bucks. How had Adam not seen the truth before?”

Further developing the theme of the precarious façade of suburban success, Adam finally peers behind Tripp’s exterior veneer of perfection to see the cracks beneath. Tripp’s office becomes a metaphor for the double life he leads: one of outward ease and luxury and one of hidden struggle and financial strain.