Mystic River

Chapter 1 establishes the characters of the three boys, particularly in how they compare to one another. While Sean and Jimmy are united by their fathers’ friendship and similar interests, Dave is painted immediately as an outsider. Dave is desperate for their friendship: His eagerness—often manifesting in mimicry of what Jimmy says—puts the other two off, though they are generally kind to him. Dave is drawn to Jimmy because of the chaos that surrounds Jimmy; though only 11, Jimmy is reckless and brave and carries himself with a rough, boyish confidence. Sean, on the other hand, is serious and feels like he doesn’t belong around Jimmy despite enjoying his company.

The differences between Sean and the other two are represented through their differences in class. Sean betrays an awareness of class consciousness when Jimmy suggests stealing a car. Sean realizes that his neighborhood has “expectations for him. He was not a kid who stole cars. He was a kid who’d go to college someday” (10). Jimmy conveys his own understanding of the great difference between him and Sean when he steals Sean’s baseball glove. Jimmy takes it because he realizes that Sean has never known the pain of having something taken from him, a pain that Jimmy and his parents—in fact, his whole neighborhood—know too well. As Jimmy hopes that he’s made Sean feel this, he notices that he feels this way about Dave. This reveals Jimmy’s understanding, through the veil of childhood naiveté, of the true meaning of Dave’s disappearance.

Chapter 2 introduces the theme of trauma. Trauma is explored and represented differently between the three boys. For Dave, he is visibly changed by the profoundly traumatic experience he suffers, his eyes described as holding a “blankness in them” (23). His trauma also manifests through the assault of memory; because he can’t forget the details of his abduction, the event feels inescapable. This, too, occurs through the treatment he suffers from his classmates, who blame him and degrade him for what happened. This further alienates Dave, making recovery that much more difficult to obtain. To cope, Dave must separate himself from what he experienced: “It helped Dave to see them as creatures, wolves hidden under costumes of human skin, and Dave himself as a character in a story” (27). This is a common coping mechanism for trauma victims because it allows distance between the body where the trauma occurred and the mind that strives to forget it.

Jimmy’s trauma, on the other hand, is the result of devasting guilt—over not protecting Dave and over being relieved that he didn’t get in the car. Though Jimmy cannot understand it, the weight of this trauma settles in when he realizes how changed Dave is: the “sadness [that] takes root in him” (26) is his scar from the trauma of losing a friend. Jimmy, in being unable to articulate his guilt, turns to avoiding Dave and becomes increasingly more reckless. Sean’s trauma, though, is represented primarily through his dreams; his guilt over not remembering enough to save Dave haunts him, keeping him up and keeping him away from Dave. All three, though Dave most of all, experience extreme isolation and intense psychological suffering because of that fateful day, and the novel alludes to their continued connection—despite the years they spend apart—because of this ordeal.