Atkinson and Contemporary Fears: Chapter 1

What kind of reaction do we have to the ending of chapter 1?

A visceral reaction - we are disgusted by the crime.

What is the difference between terror and horror?

Terror is the unsettling dread and tension before an event, whereas horror is the reaction we have when we are made to see whatever the terror is leading to.

What does it mean to be brutalised?

To have been exposed to enough horror that you become desensitized to it and have a higher emotional threshold.

what does callous mean?

Without feeling/emotion

How does Atkinson's Verisimilitude contrast traditional detective fiction?

In Golden Age detective fiction the hermetically sealed, cosy environment allows us to distance ourselves and view the detection as a game. Atkinson chooses to seek verisimilitude through her writing, making her story appear reflective of reality and therefore more horrifying.

Why does the opening crime horrify us?

There is no motive, no reasoning. It us utterly arbitrary and therefore we fear that the same could happen to us.

What is the significance of the narration in Chapter 1?

Atkinson relies on free indirect discourse (the blending of a characters emotions with 3rd person narration) to introduce Joanna's innocence and therefore positions our perspective within the narrative in a state of vulnerability, making the crime all the more horrific.

What is significant about it being called Harvest?

Harvest is supposed to be a celebration of abundance and life, but here Joanna's mother is 'cut down', making her family's deaths appear as wastage.

What crime is the opening based upon?

The Chillenden Murders. Michael Stone brutally murdered a mother, daughter and their dog. One daughter survived.

What does the exploration of justice within the novel tell us?

It can only attempt to 'help' afterwards. Justice can't take pre-emptive measures to prevent these crimes, they can only pick up the pieces. Louise questions this within the novel.

What did TS Elliot say about reality?

'Human kind cannot bear very much reality'.

What is significant about the closing of the gate in Chapter 1?

When the family close the gate behind them, it forces us to recognise its allusion to the epigraph in which we are warned that attempting to prevent the inevitable is futile, sealing their fates.

Why has our fear of crime increased dramatically?

Although there has been a rapid growth in crime since the 1970s, the reporting of media distorts these facts to appear far larger, misguiding us to believing that crime is a much larger threat than it ever was.

What is a signal crime?

Any criminal incident that causes change in the public's behaviour and/or beliefs about their security.

Opening crime acts as a signal crime, playing on our societal, arguably irrational, fears.

Epigraph

We never know when we go, - when we are going

We jest and shut the door;

Fate following behind us bolts it, And we accost no more. -Emily Dickinson

''Country __-idyll''

''Country f*cking-Idyll''

Atkinson overtly undermines the expectations established expectation that a rural idyll acts as a harmonic equilibrium by demonstrating that the equilibrium is always, eternally, broken.

What range of motives does the novel cover?

Motiveless, arbitrary crimes as seen in the opening, justifiable acts of self defence as seen at the end and even complete accidents as seen in the train crash.

This ensures that there is at least one crime that resonates with us.

What is significant about time within the novel?

The 30 year jump forces us to seek the aftermath to crimes rather than focus on motives and plots.

People always remember the name, not the ''Yorkshire Ripper's victims''. This novel allows victims of crime to have a voice where the crime is secondary to the experience.

''__ horror of the world''

''Random horror of the world.''

What is established at the end of Chapter 1?

Survivor's guilt. ''It would have been better to have tried to save the baby''

Why is the first chapter fundamental to our reading of the novel?

By seeing this crime, we are unable to separate this perspective of Joanna later in the novel like other unknowing characters such as Reggie can.

What did Atkinson say about her child

She read a lot of fairytales where good was rewarded. WWTBGN subverts this and prevents any good and any reward from occurring.

What does Atkinson say about leaving characters unrewarded?

She finds it very difficult.

This is likely due to the fact that traditional detective fiction, which we are likely exposed to earlier than the gritty reality of crime, meaning that when the equilibrium fails to be entirely resolved, we feel unsettled and disturbed.