Disclaimer

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-19

Chapters 20-30

Chapters 31-43

Chapters 44-57

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Perfect Stranger

The Perfect Stranger, the book within the novel, is a multifaceted symbol that stands for opposing things for the two main characters. For Catherine, the book—though its narrative is untrue—represents the threat of exposure for a secret she has been keeping for 20 years. Before Catherine forces herself to read the book in its entirety, its mere presence in her house produces immense paranoia and feelings of danger. Catherine doesn’t even want to look at the book, because this association is so strong. She tries to cover the book up with a newspaper when Robert is around, and when he is asleep, she tries to burn the book and rid the house of its threat. These actions reflect Catherine’s desire to keep her trauma hidden from her family, which the book’s existence jeopardizes.

On the other hand, for Stephen, the book is a symbolic weapon of justice. Stephen assumes that Catherine is to blame for Jonathan’s death, so he uses the book to force her into accountability. Stephen sees the book as “a little grenade waiting for someone to pull the pin” (63). He hopes its story will inflict as much damage on Catherine as possible. When Catherine doesn’t respond as apologetically as he hopes, Stephen further weaponizes the book by sending copies to Nicholas, Robert, and Catherine’s workplace, hoping to torment Catherine by ruining her relationships and reputation. Eventually, Stephen even sells the book to the general public, taking comfort in the idea that people will hate the character modeled after Catherine even if readers don’t know the connection between the character and Catherine. Stephen views any interaction with the book as an expansion of his justice.

Jonathan’s Photographs

Within the world of Disclaimer, the characters understand photographs as representations of objective truth. Jonathan’s photos “capture something real and natural” (179) because his ultra-zoom lens allowed him to be distant from his subjects but capture them in postures that read as intimate and interactive. Some of his photos show Catherine and Nicholas together on their Spanish vacation in various locations, like on the beach and in cafes. Other photos show Catherine posing in sexually explicit positions, which Jonathan forced her to perform before he sexually assaulted her. To Catherine, the photos clearly show that Jonathan stalked and assaulted her, and they are unambiguous representations of her trauma. Catherine shuts down when she sees them, as their reality forces her into reliving the scarring experience.

Conversely, characters who already hold resentment toward Catherine warp the reality of the photos. To them, the images become symbols of confirmation bias rather than truth. Stephen and Robert both fixate on the sexual images, which they believe to be consensual, while they see the reportage-like images of Catherine as evidence of a relationship between her and Jonathan. Both men are so shocked by the sexuality of the photos and the betrayal this signifies that they don’t interrogate the obvious differences in Catherine’s demeanor in the two sets of pictures: She is calm and happy when she doesn’t know Jonathan is taking pictures of her, while her eyes display terror when Jonathan is forcing her to pose. Neither man sees Catherine’s fear and pain in the posed images because they read the photos as confirmation of their preexisting bitterness and resentment of Catherine; they immediately decide the photos represent concrete evidence of a secret affair because they are predisposed to think the worst of Catherine’s motives and actions. Instead, the mixture of the posed and unposed photos within the negatives muddle the truth further for both men, as they misinterpret the photos of the unaware Catherine and Nicholas as showing Catherine’s intentional, flirtatious behavior with Jonathan behind the camera. Only after they learn the facts from Catherine do the men realize that they only saw the reality they wanted to believe.

Nancy’s Cardigan

Nancy’s cardigan is one of the few clothing items Stephen keeps from his late wife’s closet. As the narrative progresses, this cardigan comes to symbolize Stephen’s obsession both with revenge and with holding on to Nancy. The cardigan is one of Nancy’s oldest pieces of clothing, dating back to when she and Stephen first got married. Nancy wore the cardigan doing almost every task, but especially while writing. Stephen amplifies this connection when he begins wearing the cardigan during his re-writing and publication of The Perfect Stranger. To him, the cardigan holds Nancy’s courage not only to write about Jonathan’s death but to seek justice for their son. Stephen thus wears the cardigan to manifest Nancy’s courage in himself; the clothing becomes a protective armor that shields him from his cowardice. While wearing the cardigan, Stephen feels empowered to follow Catherine on the subway and to work, and he secretly wears the cardigan to the hospital when he plans to kill Nicholas.

The cardigan also protects Stephen from his grief. While he wears the cardigan, Stephen believes he is keeping Nancy alive by becoming her. Stephen’s narrative voice changes from the singular to plural because he incorporates Nancy as an active participant in his decisions—something he did not get to do during her life, when she isolated him in the family unit and later moved out of the house and separated from him. The cardigan allows Stephen to carry Nancy’s memory with him beyond their house, like when, at the subway station, Stephen says, “I’ve brought Nancy with me. Her arms are over mine, my chest is where hers was” (96). The cardigan allows Stephen to feel both physically and spiritually close to his late wife. As the narrative progresses, the cardigan reflects the destruction of Nancy’s character, since Stephen’s fantasies paint her as much more violent than she was in life. Stephen eventually has “worn the cardigan to death” (323), so he decides to finally let go of it—and his obsessions—when he is finally confronted with reality.