The Pact

“Chris had killed deer; he would have enjoyed hunting moose or elk or bear. But he took one look at the hare and felt sick. He did not know if it was the contrast of the white snow with the bright blood, or the small stuffed-toy body of the hare itself, or the fact that this was the first time he’d preyed on something smaller and more defenseless than himself—but he turned to his side and threw up.”

The guilt Chris feels over killing the hare paints him as compassionate and supports his initial claim that Emily died by suicide, not murder. On the other hand, his knowledge of guns is useful to the prosecution’s case as the prosecution strives to demonstrate that Emily lacked such knowledge. Importantly, this incident provides evidence of Chris’s complexity, underlining The Complexity of Truth.

“Chris leaned closer, awkwardly slipping his arm around [Emily]. He let his eyes drift shut and decided in that instant that for the rest of Emily’s life, he would be her guardian angel.”

Though 13-year-old Chris initially intentionally led Emily down a dangerous ski slope, he immediately regrets his actions when Emily breaks her leg. The novel positions readers to interpret this past scene in light of Emily’s death: If Chris is sincere in his vow to protect Emily, then he would certainly not murder her. At the same time, the reader also sees how Chris initially had a malicious intention.

“The problem was that [Emily would] look down on Chris’s hand on her breast and she’d picture that same hand, albeit smaller, stealing a half dozen cookies from a fresh baked bunch before Chris’s mom could see. Or she’d imagine the long fingers crossed in a game of Scissors, Paper, Stone while they sat side-by-side in the backseat on the way to some family vacation.

Sometimes she felt like she was rolling around in the back of the Jeep with this incredibly gorgeous, sexy guy. And sometimes she felt like she was wrestling with her own brother. Try as she might, she couldn’t untangle one from the other.”

Because Emily and Chris have been close friends since birth, there are moments when Emily cannot separate her romantic feelings from the prior version of Chris. She often regards Chris as a brother, and thus being physically intimate with him strikes Emily as strange and discomforting at times. Chris does not experience this divide; for him, the transition from “friend” to “boyfriend” is a natural one. Chris and Emily’s different viewing of their relationship presents an element of dissonance between the two characters.

“I used to think that the study of ophthalmology was all about getting to the malady. I was looking people, literally, right in the eye, and I wasn’t necessarily seeing them. In hindsight—no pun intended—I realized how much I was missing.”

James acknowledges, then denies, the double meaning of his words. However, they ring true for Gus, who feels James’s focus on his career prevents him from recognizing the problems around him. Later James will admit that his failure to “see” the problem in front of him—the indictment of Chris for murder—is intentional. His manner of coping is to ignore a problem, pretending it does not exist. This becomes harmful as he and Gus grow increasingly divided. The reference to “hindsight” also speaks to the way in which none of the parents noticed any factors that might increase their risk of suicide in either Emily or Chris.

“‘I identified Emily’s body at the hospital. But the morning before that I had seen Emily at breakfast, running outside when Chris honked his car to take her to school. I watched him kiss her as she got into the car. And I can’t hold the two things together in my head.’

Selena studied his face. ‘Do you think Chris Harte killed your daughter?’

‘I can’t answer that,’ Michael said, staring at the table. ‘If I do, I wouldn’t be putting my daughter first. And nobody loved Emily more than me.’ He lifted his eyes. ‘Except, maybe, for Chris.’”

While his wife is unwavering in her belief that Chris is responsible for their daughter’s death, Michael Gold has difficulty imagining Chris harming Emily. He agrees to speak with the defense and later will serve as a witness, indicating that he sympathizes with the position Chris finds himself in. Michael is arguably the most conflicted of the parents as to whether Chris is to be blamed. While Michael ultimately wants Chris to be innocent, he humbly admits that he is unable to determine the truth.

“Feeling decidedly uncomfortable, Melanie began to read. Many of the entries were mundane, but certain sentences leaped out at her:

Sometimes it’s like I’m kissing my brother, but how do I tell him that. I have to look at Chris’s face to figure out what I’m supposed to be feeling, and then I spend the rest of the night wondering why I don’t. I had that dream again, the one that makes me feel dirty.”

Because Emily is deceased in the “now” portions of the novel, her diary provides insights into her thoughts and in a sense speaks on her behalf. Her conflicted feelings about dating Chris are evident, as she has difficulty separating the Chris of her childhood from the version of him who has romantic feelings for her. Emily’s doubts provide insight into her motivation, allowing both the reader and Melanie to speculate as to whether these emotions make her more or less likely to be thinking about suicide.

The dream Emily refers to involves the sexual assault she experienced as a child. Readers are aware of this event, but it is unknown by any of the novel’s characters.

“Did Chris have a right to know? Would she be lying, if she did not say anything at all? If she did tell him, they’d get married. The problem was, she wasn’t sure she wanted that. She told herself that it wasn’t fair to Chris, who thought he’d be getting a girl who’d never been touched by another man. But a small, nagging throbbing at the back of her thoughts said that it wasn’t fair to her either. If she sometimes went home and vomited for hours after making love with Chris; if she sometimes couldn’t bear his hands roaming under her bra and panties because it felt more like incest than excitement—could she really spend her whole life married to him?”

Emily’s complicated thoughts about her relationship with Chris, her pregnancy, and the sexual assault she experienced are evident here. The dissonance she feels regarding Chris provides a window into Emily’s psyche. The reader is privy to the knowledge of Emily’s sexual assault—a life-changing event that no other characters know of. In this way, the reader understands why physical intimacy with Chris is difficult and why Emily’s health may indeed suffer due to the trauma she has experienced.

“[Emily] felt Chris walk up behind her and gently slip his arm around her shoulders.

‘What are you thinking about?’

‘Drowning,’ she said softly. ‘Walking in there until it was over my head. Very peaceful.’

‘Jesus,’ Chris said, clearly startled. ‘I don’t think it would be peaceful at all. I think you’d be thrashing around and try to get to the surface—’

‘You would,’ Emily said. ‘Because you’re a swimmer.’

‘And you?’

She turned in his arms and laid her head on his chest. ‘I would just let go,’ she said.”

The narrative presents evidence that Emily may indeed have desired to die by suicide, thus lending credibility to Chris’s insistence that this is how she passed away. Emily and Chris disagree here—Emily views death as a welcome release, but Chris does not. These lines can serve as evidence that Chris did not make a suicide pact.

“[Emily] would not tell Chris [of her pregnancy], especially not now. Because as soon as she did, she would have to tell him about this horrible abortion and the doctor and why she couldn’t stand to have the man touching her. And why she couldn’t stand to have Chris touch her. As soon as she told him, she’d have made her own bed, and she would have to lie in it—with him. [. . .]

Emily listened to Stephanie, her options counselor, talking and talking for over an hour. Amazing, considering there really were no options at all.”

The trauma Emily deals with as a result of childhood sexual abuse is evident only to readers; this means readers have an inside look into a possible reason for Emily’s desire to die by suicide. Emily, clouded by her trauma, does not feel as though she has the agency to make decisions that will impact her future. She feels that by allowing Chris to become physically intimate with her, she has already given up control to him.

“[Emily] took a deep breath. ‘What if I was? What if I didn’t want to be…to be with you anymore?’”

‘Well, then,’ Chris said lightly, ‘I’d probably kill myself.’ He kissed her forehead, smoothing a crease.”

This quote is fraught with irony, as Chris does not regard Emily’s mention of suicide as anything other than hypothetical. Chris’s response—though likely made in jest—can, in retrospect, provide evidence of his willingness to enter into a suicide pact. The quote also speaks to the immense pressure Emily feels to do what Chris wants and to set aside her own desires and goals for her future.

“Michael shook his head. ‘I don’t believe that.’

‘Don’t believe what?’ Chris asked, his voice growing louder. ‘That the attorney general doesn’t plan to throw away the key? Or that I didn’t kill her?’

‘You didn’t,’ Michael said, his eyes tearing. ‘You didn’t kill her.’”

Michael, though not quick to condemn Chris like Melanie, is hesitant to defend Chris outright. Here he goes further, confiding his belief in Chris’s innocence to Chris himself. This will lead to Michael testifying for the defense and arguably widening the distance between him and Melanie so that it is irreparable.

“What [Gus] wanted to say to Melanie was: You aren’t the only one who was hurt. You aren’t the only one who lost a person you love. In fact, when it came down to it, Melanie grieved for one person, whereas Gus grieved for two. She had lost Emily—and she’d also lost her best friend.”

Emily’s death not only impacts her parents and Chris; it impacts Gus Harte in a less direct way. Melanie immediately severs their friendship after Emily’s death, and Gus must grieve its loss in a manner that parallels the grief Melanie feels for Emily. Likewise, Chris’s imprisonment and indictment create stress and sadness for Gus that Melanie does not experience. In this way, the novel suggests that it is impossible to argue that either woman’s situation is worse.

“Maybe Jordan had been right; the pregnancy had been the thing that made her so depressed. But why? They could have gotten married and had the baby; they could have gone together for an abortion. Surely she would have known they'd figure it out together.

Unless that was exactly what she was afraid of.

All of a sudden, a powerful rage shuddered through Chris. How dare she depend on him for one thing, but not the other?

With great precision, Chris rolled to his side and put his fist through the plasterboard wall.”

Here, Chris considers possible reasons for Emily’s desire to die by suicide. Though Emily shared her desire with Chris, according to Chris she failed to explain why she felt so hopeless. Emily does not fully reveal her doubts about their relationship to Chris as she does in her diary. Thus, Chris is left to fill in the questions left unanswered by Emily’s death. That Chris behaves in a rage-filled manner suggests that he may indeed be capable of the violent murder the state accuses him of.

“Gus settled her napkin on her lap, a thrill running through her chest and shoulders at the sight of [Michael], like a schoolgirl with a crush. She had known Michael for twenty years, but was only beginning to really see him, as if this situation had not only changed her perception of her world, but also the people who inhabited it. How had she never noticed that Michael’s voice could soothe so easily? That his hands seemed strong, his eyes kind? That he listened to her as if she were the only person in the room?

Gus was fully, guiltily aware of the fact that the conversation she was having with this man was the very conversation she should have been having with her husband.”

Gus and Michael grow closer to one another as they are driven away by their spouses. Importantly, they have both experienced a life-changing event and are intertwined in one another’s lives in a complicated way. The novel suggests that Gus developing romantic feelings for Michael is understandable, as neither of them is receiving emotional support from their respective spouses. Gus feels guilty for this intimacy. It is likely that he does as well, as he will later draw away from Gus permanently.

“Gus’s face drained of color. The secret weapon in Jordan’s arsenal was that he would be lying—making the jury believe that Chris had wanted to kill himself, too. Just as she was currently allowing Michael to believe it.”

Gus faces the moral dilemma of keeping the information Chris tells her about not planning to die by suicide a secret. She trusts McAfee that legally, it is in Chris’s best interest to make the jury believe he was complacent in a suicide pact. However, this legal strategy leaves room for moral ambiguity. At this point in the novel, Gus does not know that she actually does not know the full truth of Chris’s involvement in Emily’s death.

“Melanie shook her head. ‘You’re a fool. Don’t you understand the lengths a mother will go to protect her child?’ She glanced up, her nostrils flared, her lips white. ‘That’s what Gus is doing, Michael. Which is more than I can say for you.’”

Melanie is appalled to learn that not only has Michael agreed to testify for the defense but he has regularly been meeting Gus. In Melanie’s view, one cannot be loyal to both Emily and Chris; one must choose sides. She regards Michael’s displays of friendliness as a betrayal to Emily and thus to herself as well.

“Chris’s eyes widened. That was it. Em wanted his understanding, and his silence. If he played along, he’d have a chance to talk her out of doing it. Even up to the last minute. He’d pretend that this crazy idea of killing himself was acceptable, and then, like a white knight, he’d sweep down and save Emily from herself. No one else would ever have to know what had almost happened. And he wouldn’t have to break his promise to her about keeping the whole horrible plan to himself. The ends justified the means.

It did not occur to Chris that he might not succeed.”

These lines suggest that Chris is telling the truth when he insists that he did not kill Emily. Further, it lends credibility to McAfee’s insistence that a suicide pact existed. Chris is certain, at this point in time, that he can change Emily’s mind about dying by suicide. This passage opens up room for speculation about why Chris presumably changes his mind later and participates in Emily’s death.

“How could he stand by and watch her die? Then again, how could he stop her, if she was hurting so badly. Emily had trusted him, but he was going to betray her. And then the next time she tried to kill herself—because there would be a next time, he knew—he wouldn’t find out until after the fact. Like everyone else.”

Here the novel provides insight into Chris’s logic. His thought process when considering whether or not to assist in Emily’s suicide shows that the decision he must make is fraught with moral complexity. He decides that carrying out Emily’s wish to die is in keeping not only with remaining true to his promise to her but with an act done out of love. At its heart, the novel compels the reader to wrestle with the difficult moral issues that Chris faces.

“Michael turned to the jury. ‘A father ought to be able to tell that his daughter’s suicidal, right? Or even depressed? But I didn’t. If I can point a finger at someone else, then it’s not my fault that I didn’t notice, that I wasn’t looking closely.’ He raked one hand through his silver hair. ‘I don’t know what happened at the carousel that night. But I do know that I can’t accuse someone else, just so that I won’t feel guilty.’”

Though the novel does not state so explicitly, Michael’s words on the stand are directed at Melanie Gold. Here Michael explains the thought process by which Melanie has deemed Chris responsible for Emily’s death, leaving no room for the possibility that Emily desired to die by suicide. Melanie has channeled her guilt and grief into anger and blame. If Chris is found guilty, she will presumably feel vindicated and rewarded rather than saddened by Emily’s death. The situation, however, proves much more complicated than Melanie would like to believe, and the epilogue will suggest she has difficulty finding peace in the future.

“‘Do you think Chris loved Emily?’

‘I know he did,’ Gus said firmly. ‘I know.’ But she was thinking of what she had felt with Michael, even as she was drawn to him—that need to pull away flaring just as strong. And she was wondering if maybe you could not go from brother and sister to boyfriend and girlfriend, add that much more love and commitment, without feeling too close for comfort. Is that what happened?”

Gus testifies on Chris’s behalf. Though she still wants to help Chris and see that he is acquitted, Gus cannot so easily defend him after Chris confesses to Gus that he pulled the trigger. Gus tries to suss out what Chris’s and Emily’s true feelings for one another were, coming to recognize that, given their long history as friends, it would likely not be easy for either teen to pinpoint precisely how they felt for one another. Gus begins to see parallels between Chris and Emily’s relationship and the deepening friendship that has developed between her and Michael Gold.

“For the first time in ten years, maybe longer [McAfee] was going to be forced to salvage a case with the truth. Because that was absolutely all he had left. He had learned long ago that the truth did not belong in a courtroom. No one—not the prosecutor, and more often, not the defendant—wanted it there. Trials were about evidence, counter-evidence and theories. Not what had actually occurred.”

Throughout the novel, Picoult complicates the notion of the truth, suggesting not only that it can be difficult to discern but that it can be ambiguous—that more than one “truth” may exist. Ironically, McAfee feels that Chris telling the truth of Emily’s death will not help his case but hurt it. Here McAfee reiterates that the American court and justice system is not about revealing the truth but about presenting a favorable version of events.

“‘You know what?’ Jordan began, facing the jury. ‘Three hours ago, I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was going to say to you all right now. And then it dawned on me—I wanted to congratulate you. Because you’ve seen something very unusual today. Something surprising that never, ever makes its way into a courtroom. You, ladies and gentlemen, have seen the truth.’”

After Chris confesses to shooting Emily with the gun while on the witness stand, Jordan McAfee faces the difficult task of redirecting the case to go in Chris’s favor. He must either convince the jury to share in Chris’s logic, agreeing that Chris performed the shooting out of love, or he must shed doubt on the validity of Chris’s statement. McAfee decides the former, emphasizing how rare it is that the truth actually comes out in a trial. This tactic makes the jury feel special and unique, potentially winning McAfee their trust. McAfee will shift tactics, however, as he questions Chris, demonstrating the possibility that even Chris himself may not know the truth of what happened on that night. Through this scene, Picoult paints the complexity of truth.

“‘You have to find Chris Harte guilty if the death of Emily Gold was a direct result of his actions. If those actions were premeditated, deliberate, and willful. So…how do you know without a doubt that Chris Harte’s actions qualify?’ Barrie crossed the courtroom, ticking off her points. ‘Because he could have put down that pistol. Because he could have walked away at any time. Because he was not forced to shoot Emily Gold.’ She stopped at the exhibit table and picked up the murder weapon. ‘After all, ladies and gentlemen, no one was holding a gun to Chris’s head.’”

The assistant attorney general’s closing statement emphasizes some of the reasons Chris may be considered guilty of murder. To Barrie, the fact that Chris willfully pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Emily is proof that he is guilty of murder. For her, the argument that Chris did so out of love for Emily and was carrying out what Emily wished does not enter into the equation. Her play on the phrase “holding a gun to one’s head” stresses that Chris could have freely chosen to not be involved in Emily’s death. Barrie wants the jury to have a mental picture of Emily with a literal gun being held to her head by Chris.