56 pages • 1-hour read
Too Old for This
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, graphic violence, and death.
The Walker and Cane
The walker and cane function as a symbol of Lottie’s dual identity, embodying the central themes of The Performance of Identity as a Tool for Survival and The Frailty of the Body Versus the Resilience of the Will. On one level, these mobility aids are a genuine reflection of her physical decline. Her reliance on them is real, a constant reminder of the arthritis, aches, and pains that accompany old age. However, Lottie transforms this symbol of weakness into a prop for her calculated performance of harmlessness. She uses the walker to appear frail and unthreatening to visitors like Cole Fletcher and the detectives, lulling them into a false sense of security. Detective Kelsie Harlow directly challenges this performance, observing, “You always use it at home, but when I saw you at the grocery store, you weren’t using it. You didn’t even have a cane” (82). This observation exposes the walker as a conscious tool in Lottie’s manipulation, an object she can adopt or discard to suit her needs. At the same time, Lottie becomes more reliant on the cane as a result of her physical exertion in her murders, using it constantly when she leaves her home. Instead of just playing the role of feeble, it slowly becomes her reality. However, when she uses it as a weapon, killing Norma Dixon, her identities merge, confirming that Lottie’s aging does not mean the end of her life but is instead a reality she learns to accept and adapt to.
Food and Tea
The recurring motif of offering guests food and tea serves as the cornerstone of Lottie’s deceptive performance of a harmless, hospitable grandmother. This ritual is a calculated façade, a disarming tactic she employs to manipulate visitors and prey on their underestimation of her. From the moment Plum Dixon arrives, Lottie initiates her routine, noting her own actions as a kind of script: “Fill the teapot, put it on the stove, set out two cups with saucers and spoons. My standard guest etiquette” (3). By framing the act as “standard etiquette,” Lottie reveals it to be a rehearsed, impersonal performance rather than a gesture of genuine warmth. She repeats this ritual with Cole, the detectives, and even her future daughter-in-law, Morgan, using the comforting familiarity of tea and cookies to establish control and project an identity of benign domesticity. This façade is directly linked to the theme of the performance of identity as a tool for survival, as it allows Lottie to mask her violent nature behind a universally accepted symbol of care. The act of serving tea becomes a sinister prelude to deception or violence, turning a gesture of welcome into a weapon of manipulation.
Technology and Surveillance
The motif of technology and surveillance functions as a primary antagonistic force in the novel, representing the modern world’s encroachment on Lottie’s old-fashioned methods of murder and concealment. Lottie is acutely aware of this threat, operating under the assumption that in the digital age, “Every device is being tracked” (8). This creates a central tension between her practiced, analog approach to crime and a world where digital footprints are permanent. Initially, technology is a tool that her adversaries use to find and track her. Burke finds Lottie again after 40 years using facial recognition software to find Lottie’s face on Morgan’s Facebook, then tries to set up a hidden camera in an attempt to expose her. Similarly, Tula tracks Kelsie’s whereabouts leading up to her death, an act which leads him to Lottie’s home. However, at the same time, Lottie adapts to these tactics, using Burke’s camera to her advantage, utilizing a voice-changing software to taunt Norma, and taking over Norma’s identity by coopting her phone.
Lottie’s most significant error, taking her phone with her when she murders Kelsie Harlow, is a distinctly modern mistake, a failure to account for the pervasive surveillance she fears. This slip, which she attributes to getting “too old, and too weak” (117), highlights the vulnerability of her aging mind against an unforgiving technological landscape. Ultimately, the constant threat of being recorded, tracked, and exposed forces Lottie to continually adapt her performance of identity to survive in a world where secrets are increasingly difficult to keep.
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