Summary
Susie looks back at Mr Harvey’s childhood memories. She starts by describing the dreams that he has and how these change around the time of a crime. She also looks back through Mr Harvey’s life and sees him as a child in his mother’s arms; she identifies that he had a dysfunctional childhood. Mr Harvey has his father’s old sketchbooks and looks through them when he is troubled by his bad dreams. Mr Harvey loved his mother but after a fight with his father she ran away and abandoned him; she left him an amber pendant to remember her by.
Narrative structure: dreams and memories (AO1, AO2, AO3)
Dreams form an important component of the novel and Susie utilises her abilities to explore the dreams of other characters, she is able to describe Mr Harvey’s dream visions of others in fine details which demonstrates her omniscient narrative style. She uses a range of evocative noun phrases to create vivid imager of the dreams Mr Harvey has about buildings. Susie is describing the inner thoughts of the man who murdered her and uses the possessive pronoun ‘my’ to describe the murder which would ordinarily be impossible. Susie reserves her judgement during this chapter and presents her thoughts dispassionately and harbours some degree of sympathy for Mr Harvey in childhood. Susie’s ability to see the detail in private thoughts and memories of other characters provides the novel with a great deal of immersive depth.
Why do you think Mr Harvey dreams of buildings?
I think that Mr Harvey was dreaming about buildings because the architecture and structure of them mirrors the carefully structured and arranged life that he leads for himself and his dreams about buildings are almost metaphorical of that.
How does the text suggest Mr Harvey’s deep attachment for his mother as a young child?
Susie seeing Mr Harvey in his mothers arms during this chapter suggests that he always had a close relationship with his mother and after she abandoned him that lack of a secure attachment is what led him to commit crimes because of his dysfunctional childhood.
