52 pages • 1 hour read
Gillian FlynnGone Girl
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart One: Pages 103–141Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Nick Dunne: Three Days Gone (Pages 103–117 Summary)
Nick arrives at the Find Amy Dunne search center and realizes that Amy probably won’t be found. Nick gets another call on his disposable cell phone, but he cannot take the call in front of the volunteers and Amy’s parents.
He arranges to search the mall with an old high school buddy, two other friends, and Rand Elliott later that night. With hours to spare until that meeting, Nick pursues Amy’s next clue and drives to Hannibal, home of Mark Twain, where he used to work as a Huck Finn impersonator at the tourist attractions.
He finds Amy’s note and the next clue. He reads her sweet words, and he believes that she is using the treasure hunt to try to reconcile with him. He is sad that Amy didn’t try to reconcile with him before it was too late.
Nick picks Rand up on the way to the mall that night. They confront a man inside, who is the unofficial head of “security” in the derelict mall. Lonnie tells them that Amy was there on Valentine’s Day, asking to buy a gun.
Amy Elliott Dunne: October 16, 2010 (Pages 118–123 Summary)
Amy reports on her first month in Missouri: she mocks the housewarming party, complete with hors d’oeuvres such as pickle spears wrapped in ham, which is thrown in her honor and mentions her attempts to make friends with Maureen’s friends, as well as her attempts to throw herself into the role of a Midwestern housewife, by selling raffle tickets and volunteering. She gives Nick and Go the last of her money to buy The Bar. She describes Nick as grudging and surly toward her.
When Bill Dunne—addled with Alzheimer’s—makes a fuss at the housewarming, yelling at her that she doesn’t belong there, she leaves. She expects Nick to come after her, but he doesn’t.
Nick Dunne: Four Days Gone (Pages 124–138 Summary)
Rand Elliott and Nick discuss who Amy might have been so afraid of that she wanted a gun. Her old stalkers come to mind: Hilary Handy and Desi Collings. In addition, a neighbor, Noelle Hawthorne, has claimed to the police that she is Amy’s best friend. Nick knows that Amy wasn’t friends with this woman at all. They add Noelle to the stalker list.
Nick plans to confront the police about their lack of progress and the fact that Nick and Rand are finding all the leads—doing the police’s job. When they confront Boney and Gilpin, the detectives tell them that they have been following up on the leads and that Nick and Rand need to let them do their jobs. They turn up the heat on Nick, asking him about a fight overheard by a neighbor the night before Amy disappeared. Nick tries to downplay the argument to a typical marital spat. Overhearing this, Rand begins to lose faith in Nick.
Nick calls Hilary Handy from the search center, but she hangs up on him. His disposable rings again; he ignores it.
That night, Nick follows Amy’s next clue to his father’s old house. The alarm goes off, but Nick’s code doesn’t work, and he doesn’t get a phone call from the security company as he should. Eventually he gets the alarm company to turn the alarm off, but he is frustrated. He finally realizes that Amy must have changed the code.
He finds the next clue, but he doesn’t understand what it means. He returns to Go’s house, where she feeds him and tries to comfort him. Go retires for the night, as Nick gets a text message.
Amy Elliott Dunne: April 28, 2011 (Pages 139–141 Summary)
Amy reports that she spends her time caring for Nick’s mother and father, sitting with Maureen during her chemotherapy treatments and taking flowers to Bill in the care home. She reports that Nick has deserted his parents and his wife. He runs around town like a kid again: all he wants to do is have a good time.
Part One: Pages 103–141 Analysis
As Nick follows Amy’s clues, he starts to believe that Amy was attempting to reach out and reconcile with him through the treasure hunt. Amy’s note makes Detective Gilpin think that Amy is a “sweet lady” (75). Nick also pursues other clues, such as calling Amy’s stalker Hilary Handy and talking to the men in the mall. However, nothing that he finds out leads to his exoneration; instead, Rand becomes upset when he discovers that Amy and Nick fought the night before she disappeared, and the clues and their locations are increasingly unsettling. Nick does not want the police to get wind of their true contents. Everything looks bad for Nick.
As Amy’s narrative continues in Carthage, she builds an unpleasant picture of her life there. Nick is remote and unpleasant to her. She struggles to build a life in Carthage, helping to care for Nick’s parents and trying to make friends. Nick acts like a returning hero, enjoying his new role as an entrepreneur. In these chapters, Amy reveals that she is afraid of Nick for the first time.
The only place the two narratives meet is in both characters’ misery. At this point, the reader knows that Nick is lying, as he continues to avoid calls on his disposable cell phone. Amy’s narrative continues to paint her in a positive light; however, the reader may be suspicious of her many acts of kindness, such as driving Maureen to chemotherapy or taking chocolate chip cookies to Bill’s care givers. These acts seem completely out of character given the life she described in New York City. Does this Amy seem too good to be true?
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