72 pages • 2 hours read
Liane MoriartyBig Little Lies
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-7 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
The elderly Patty Ponder lives across the street from the Pirriwee Public elementary school, the main setting of the novel. Patty enjoys looking out across the school and observing the comings and goings. She notes the frantic energy of the mothers, stating “Mothers took their mothering so seriously now” (2). Patty sees, too, that more fathers drop off their kids now.
The school regularly hosts trivia nights, and the parents turn the events into costume parties. During an Audrey Hepburn and Elvis Presley themed trivia night, Mrs. Ponder notices that the parents sound particularly riotous. Watching the parents from her vantage point, Patty sees two of the fathers dressed as Elvis begin to fight, resulting in a scuffle. Women scream and shout. Mrs. Ponder debates calling the police.
Statements of several members of the community break away from the traditional narrative, which becomes a regularly employed structural device. Different people give various explanations as to why the fight occurred: a simple misunderstanding, helicopter parenting, a rift between the working mothers and stay-at-home mothers, etc. Finally, Detective-Sergeant Adrian Quinlan states that he's questioning the parents because someone, at this time unnamed, was killed at the trivia night.
Chapter 2 Summary: "Six Months Before the Trivia Night"
Madeline Martha Mackenzie takes her five-year-old Chloe to kindergarten orientation. Madeline also has a seven-year-old named Fred and a supportive husband, Ed. Madeline turns forty today, and as she drives, she ponders the implications of hitting middle age. She thinks forty is “Such a colorless age. Marooned in the middle of your life” (9). Still, Madeline enjoys celebrating, and looks forward to drinking champagne and getting coffee with her friend, Celeste.
Madeline notices the young woman driving in front of her is on her phone and becomes upset. She reminds Chloe to never use your phone while driving, and Chloe points out a time she saw her mom do exactly that. Undeterred, Madeline puts her car into park at the next red light and walks up to the car in front of her. She scolds the young woman, then takes the phone from the girl’s hand and throws it at the passenger seat. Vindicated, Madeline starts to walk back to her vehicle, only to twist her ankle in her high heels.
Chapter 3 Summary
Jane Chapman, a young single mother, drives the car behind Madeline. Jane is taking her son, Ziggy, to the same kindergarten orientation. She watches Madeline get out of her car and admires how put together she looks. Jane thinks of Madeline as a “glittery girl,” or one who “decorated themselves so affectionately, like Christmas trees” (14). Jane sees Madeline twist her ankle and fall to the ground but hesitates to help her. She wants to make sure Ziggy gets to his new school on time. After Ziggy asks if the woman is alright, however, Jane elects to check on Madeline. Madeline and Jane exchange pleasantries and learn that they are both headed to the same destination.
In the testimonies, several parents gossip. One parent claims the school split into two factions: Team Madeline and Team Renata. Other parents say the chaos at trivia night was because of too much alcohol and it being a full moon. Harper, Renata’s good friend and a nosy mother, says the trivia night murder can be traced back to the kindergarten orientation, after an incident sparked by Jane’s son, Ziggy.
Chapter 4 Summary
Jane accompanies Madeline to the Blue Blues café. She meets the barista, the laid-back Tom, and the two moms get to know each other. Jane is a single mom and Ziggy was conceived from a one-night stand. Jane remembers her mother suggesting she lie about Ziggy’s conception. Jane replied, “Lies get complicated, Mum” (26). Fifteen years ago, Madeline’s first husband, Nathan, walked out on her and their infant daughter, Abigail. Nathan has since remarried a younger woman, the relaxed Bonnie. Although Nathan appears to be a better husband to his second wife, and maintains a good relationship with Abigail now, Madeline remains resentful of him.
Jane supports her family through freelance bookkeeping. The young family has lived in numerous places, often renting a different apartment every six months or so. Jane hopes she and Ziggy will have a fresh start in Pirriwee. As they talk, Madeline’s friend, Celeste, walks into Blue Blues and Jane marvels at her beauty.
Chapter 5 Summary
Celeste is married to the dashing Perry, and has two twin boys, Josh and Max, who are the same age as Chloe and Ziggy. Celeste is mildly disappointed that her breakfast date with Madeline isn’t just the two of them. Since Jane and Celeste are new to the elementary school scene, the sociable Madeline offers to acclimate the two of them to the politics and gossip, which both Jane and Celeste have no interest in being a part of: “’I won’t get involved in any school politics” Celeste says, and Jane adds “Me either” (33), ironically foreshadowing that both will get involved in school politics.
Celeste gifts Madeline with an expensive set of champagne glasses as well as a bottle of champagne. Madeline, wanting to celebrate her birthday, coaxes Jane and Celeste into opening the champagne and having mimosas with their breakfast.
More testimonies conclude the chapter. Different parents offer different accounts of seeing the three women at the school after their champagne breakfast. Some claim they were drunk, others disagree.
Chapter 6 Summary
The three women reach the school and wait for their children to get out of orientation. Jane meets several of the other mothers, all with bold personalities: the hygienic Chloe, the helicopter parent Harper, and the business-minded Renata. Renata assumes Jane is a nanny, and Madeline—who already has a tense relationship with Renata—interjects and corrects Renata’s mistake. Jane notices that “Renata glanced uneasily at [her]” (45) upon learning that she was a young mom. Before Jane has a chance to alleviate the tension, the children get out of class.
Everything is joyous for a moment, until Renata’s daughter, Amabella, comes out of the classroom, visibly distraught. Amabella tells the kindergarten teacher, Miss Barnes, one of the boys hurt her. Renata is furious. All the boys are lined up, and Amabella points to Ziggy as the perpetrator.
Chapter 7 Summary
Madeline watches as Jane and Renata struggle to come to terms with what happened with their kids. Ziggy is insistent that he didn’t hurt Amabella. Renata demands that Ziggy apologize to her daughter, but Jane retorts: she can’t make Ziggy apologize for something he says he didn’t do.
At a stalemate, Renata tells Ziggy directly to never touch Amabella like that again, which angers Jane. Renata leaves with her daughter and their French maid, Juliette. Ziggy sadly says, “I don’t think I want to come to school anymore” (54), all but snuffing out Jane’s hopes that Pirriwee would be a fresh start for them.
Chapters 1-7 Analyses
The first seven chapters seamlessly introduce the primary mystery of the story and establish the main characters. Moriarty accomplishes this primarily by alternating the perspective of each chapter. The first chapter centers on Mrs. Ponder, who proves to be a very minor character. The placement of her viewpoint to open the novel, however, is essential; she kicks off the mystery that drives the story. Furthermore, the elderly woman provides a distant perspective of the community and the school. She is observational as opposed to actively participating. When she witnesses the commotion of trivia night, it is wrapped in mystery and ambiguities. She doesn’t know all the details, leaving the reader wanting to push ahead and learn more.
Moriarty starts off zoomed out on the setting of the Pirriwee Peninsula, and then zooms in, filling her world with more details. The next three chapters alternate between Madeline, Jane, and Celeste, the three main characters of the story. By moving back and forth between these three in the proceeding chapters, Moriarty is suggesting to the reader that these will be the characters we will be spending the most time with. While the perspective might jump around, the story maintains a cohesive flow because all the characters are connected. When Madeline sprains her ankle, it is reasonable to believe that the person in the car behind her would get out to check on her, which introduces Jane. Early on, Moriarty is showing the reader that the story will be moving through multiple characters and uses a murder mystery to enliven the pace of the novel.
Moriarty also introduces themes of community and familial relationships in these chapters. At a distance, Mrs. Ponder sees the mothers as frantic and dutiful. Up close, we see that she is largely right. Madeline is strong-willed and opinionated, so much so that she stops at a red light to scold a teenager for using her phone while driving. Jane sees this seriousness when she meets Chloe, Harper, and Renata. The community is a tense one, so concerned with the wellbeing of their children that it causes conflict, a subject Moriarty will continue to expound upon as the story goes on. Additionally, the car scenes show the complexities of family relationships. When Madeline tells Chloe not to use her phone while driving, Chloe dutifully points out that she’s seen her mom do that. Later, when Madeline has twisted her ankle, Jane debates driving around her; it is Ziggy who tells his mom she should check to see if Madeline is okay. In both cases, we see that children often bring out the best in their parents, forcing them to change for the better, a theme Moriarty will continue to develop.
Lastly, Chapter 6 introduces themes of abuse and violence when Amabella accuses Ziggy of hurting her. Bullying becomes the primary conflict surrounding the school. Later, domestic violence will play heavily into the lives of many of the adults. Moriarty builds to this intensity, showing us first the schoolyard violence before revealing the novel's darker content. The story avoids melodrama by initially creating a nuanced drama instead. The slow unwinding of the story and the various conflicts also allows tension to build.
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