67 pages • 2-hour read
The Stranger
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Symbols & Motifs
Explosives
In the text, explosives symbolize the destruction that secrets can wreak in a character’s life. References to bombs, grenades, and other incendiaries appear at key moments when a secret is revealed or leading up to such a revelation. The text immediately associates this symbol with secrets when Adam feels a bomb countdown start in his head as the stranger suggests that Corinne faked her pregnancy. As Adam holds this information in his mind, the narration breaks for “Tick, tick, tick…” because he knows that with each passing minute, he’s getting closer to confronting Corinne with her lies (71).
Adam dreads this confrontation because him exposing her secret will be like “pulling the proverbial pin from the proverbial grenade” (49): It will cause indiscriminate damage to their perfect life in ways he can’t predict. Corinne also wants to be careful with how she explains her secret, and she compares her precarious position to walking in a minefield: “We’re in a minefield. […] Like someone just dropped us right in the middle of it, and if we move to fast in any direction, we’re going to step on an explosive and blow this whole thing up” (88). Corinne wants to mitigate the potential damage by explaining one secret without revealing the other, which requires delicacy.
The stranger also understands the destruction that his work creates, and in one extended metaphor, he compares the revelation of secrets to blowing out the rotten foundation from a house: “If the foundation is rotten, you need to demolish the entire house. […] But that didn’t mean he relished being the one to work the explosives” (73). In his mind, these bombs are as constructive as they are destructive, as they clear the way for a person to rebuild their lives with honesty, though he also recognizes the damage that his targets must deal with in the interim.
Dreams
Characters refer to their dreams throughout the narrative to explain the decisions they make, and the dreams they aspire to become a symbol of success. Cedarfield is the pinnacle of the American dream for many of the characters, and as Tripp claims, “This town, these schools, these programs, these kids, these families—I sometimes sit back and can’t believe how lucky we are” (14). Corinne always dreamed of returning to Cedarfield to prove that she belonged among its ranks, and she recruited Adam to help facilitate her dreams. Adam comes to learn the instability of dreams: “Dreams are fragile. Dreams don’t last. One day you wake up and poof, the dream is gone” (299). Adam sees that it is futile to hold onto one’s dreams so firmly, as the chaos of life will always cause unpredictable disruptions. By the end of the novel, Adam feels like he is a symbol for the fragility of dreams, as he serves as a reminder to the other parents that their perfect lives could be ripped apart at any moment.
Several minor characters in the text have dreams that appear too far out of reach, and their inability to grasp these markers of success leads them to commit nefarious actions. Suzanne always dreamed of having a big family, so when she couldn’t get pregnant due to her husband’s sterility, she faked being pregnant so that she could still feel the attention of motherhood. Dan Molino similarly conceals his son’s steroid use because he dreams about sending his boy to a good college—something he could never achieve himself. Kuntz dreams of getting enough money for his son’s treatment, for his other children’s schooling, and for his wife’s peace of mind. Dreams sit in the forefront of the characters’ minds, and they will do anything to achieve their vision of success.
Digital Anonymity
Digital anonymity is a motif that explains the false sense of security that characters feel on the internet, but it is much more precarious than its users suspect. Characters assume that if they delete their history, use a false name, or trust a website’s claim not to retain data, then no one will ever know about their nefarious internet activity. Chris’s group exploits this naivety when digging for secrets. Since all the members come from computer programming background, they know there’s always someone working on the other side of these websites “monitoring every keystroke” (146). Their targets think that they can use the internet “to be anonymous and to lie and to keep terrible, destructive secrets” (343), but their blackmail proves that nothing digital is ever truly private.
Adam’s investigation also proves that digital anonymity is a façade. He scours through phone logs, credit card bills, and Facebook profiles to figure out key information about Corinne’s secret, her movements, and other players in her disappearance. Ironically, Adam’s research through digital data leads him right to the stranger and his compatriots. Chris and his group, knowing how easy it is to trace someone through the internet, set up a maze of VPNs and international routers, and they have strict protocols about communication and travel so that they can’t be linked to one another. Despite all this effort, a simple Facebook photo becomes their undoing, placing them in the same predicament of exposure as their many targets.
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