55 pages • 1 hour read
Kate Alice MarshallNo One Can Know: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Domestic as a Dangerous Space
Content Warning: The novel contains descriptions of emotional and domestic abuse, anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and references to suicide.
In a key scene at the end of the novel, Emma reenters the Palmer estate, leaving the gate open because “it had never been protection for anyone here. The danger never came from the road” (320). This observation highlights the text’s central theme of The Domestic as a Dangerous Space. The author shows how the notion of the domestic space can be misused to exert patriarchal control on women and children. Further, in the novel, the notion of the safe domestic space operates as a front covering family violence. Emma’s leaving the gate unlocked recalls the rule that she keep the doors to her home locked, first by her parents, and then Nathan. However, as Emma notes in this scene, the locked doors have not prevented her from danger or trauma, because the danger came from within the house, rather than the world outside.
Randolph and Irene Palmer use the idea of a safe domestic space to control their daughters throughout the flashback scenes. Emma notes, for example, that she and her sisters can only apply to colleges within an hour of home. The Palmer parents do not like the sisters going out and object to outside influences. Emma notes that her mother dislikes her going to Lorelei’s house for painting lessons. For Randolph and Irene, the idea of a safe space is interlinked with specific, prescribed behaviors. They expect their daughters to behave demurely, and they police their sexuality. The author describes Randolph, for example, as “obsessed with his daughters being virgins” (278) and often making Emma and JJ swear they have never done anything inappropriate with a boy. Ironically, while Randolph and Irene see the outside world as corrupting their daughters, they traumatize them within the safety of their house.
Nathan, too, uses the pretext of Emma’s safety to keep her home and under his control. He installs cameras around their property, tracks Emma’s location, and even makes Emma promise she won’t leave the house. However, the author reveals his desire to protect Emma as insincere when Emma discovers that he planned to take full custody of their child, financially bankrupt her, and file for divorce. Thus, the domestic sphere is not always as cozy as portrayed.
However, the Palmer sisters renegotiate their idea of the domestic on their own terms to make home safe. JJ does this by accepting herself and building a home with Vic. Daphne keeps a one-room cottage that embodies her unique personality. Emma builds her own safe space by jettisoning her unhealthy relationships. Only after Emma regains control of her life can she and her sisters leave the gates open. Thus, the domestic becomes a safe and nurturing space only when it is negotiated on women’s own terms, rather than on terms imposed by others.
The Psychological Effects of Abuse and Trauma
No One Can Know illustrates the psychological effects of abuse and trauma by exploring the different ways their childhood abuse impacted each Palmer sister: Emma cultivates a people-pleasing persona to become more lovable; JJ completely cuts herself off from the past; and Daphne continues her childhood habits of secrecy and control, to sometimes devastating effects. The trauma’s impact on the sisters suggests that psychological scars are invisible and long-lasting. Though trauma and abuse do not define a person or their destiny, they are challenging to negotiate, and survivors like the Palmer sisters, must deal with trauma by negotiating the past accepting themselves.
The lingering psychological effects of Emma’s trauma are visible from the first chapter, when Emma notes that “she always ha[s] to know what she would find when she walked in the front door of her own home” (3). Nathan thinks this is a quirk, but Emma’s heightened startled response derives from the trauma of her childhood, particularly the scene of her parents’ murders. Similarly, Emma has an exaggerated fear of catastrophe and abandonment rooted in her traumatic past. Complicating the trauma of her parents’ murders is the fact that they were abusive in life. Emma’s response to this multilayered trauma is to cultivate a persona that is far-removed from her assertive teenage self. Thus, Emma puts on an act, much like JJ did throughout their childhood. JJ, in contrast, obeyed her parents and did what her mother asked to protect herself until she could escape. However, the constant pretense, along with the trauma of witnessing her mother’s suicide, causes JJ to suppress her memories. After leaving home, JJ struggles with addiction and dangerous behaviors, telling Emma she did “the kind of sleeping around that ends with being dismembered in a dumpster” (83). While JJ numbs her feelings and memories, Daphne copes with her own trauma by making herself “invisible,” a word she often uses to describe herself. While Daphne initially appears the surest and most well-adjusted of the sisters in adulthood, the effects of trauma may be the deepest in her. Although Daphne’s dispassionate attitude to killing and death may be influenced by other factors as well, the author suggests it is partially due to the survivalist instinct she developed during childhood.
To contextualize the Palmer sisters’ psychological trauma, the novel provides vignettes into their traumatic childhoods. The sisters are supposed to be from a wealthy, stable, safe home, well-cared for and educated. However, inside the home, they are threatened, manipulated, and beaten. Randolph referred to his practice of corporal punishment as “corrections,” and Daphne recounts how Irene triggered panic attacks to prove Daphne’s asthma was in her head. JJ recalls Randolph threatening physical harm unless she behaved or kept her mouth shut. While the psychological trauma of their childhood is deep, the end of the novel shows that the sisters can work through their trauma with the right tools and support.
The Complex Bond of Sisterhood
In No One Can Know, the author explores the Palmer sisters’ complex relationships to show how the simultaneously fraught and nurturing dynamics between siblings. Emma and JJ’s relationship symbolizes the rivalry of childhood, while Daphne symbolizes the impulse to protect siblings. The sisters’ ultimate defeat of their traumatic past comes only after they mend their relationships with each other and come (mostly) clean about the past. This suggests that a supportive family can overcome adversity together.
At the novel’s start, Emma notes that she and JJ have not met in 14 years. When she recounts her childhood to Nathan, she refers to JJ with some acrimony, describing her as “the golden child” (36) of the family. Privately, she thinks of JJ as having “yes, Mother-d and no, Mother-d her way into the golden light of her parents’ approval” (33). These statements make it obvious that Emma resents JJ for playing the good girl before their parents, setting Emma up as the villain. In the past timeline, Emma and JJ often argue, with JJ blaming Emma for being needlessly confrontational with their parents. Despite this childhood dynamic, Emma never reveals to the police what she knows about JJ’s actions the night of the murders. This shows that while Emma may dislike her sisters sometimes, she loves them and puts their needs above her own. To varying degrees, Daphne and JJ also demonstrate this behavior at different points in the novel.
Daphne murders Randolph to protect her sisters. She notes that “nothing else mattered. No one else mattered. It was Emma, and Juliette, and Daphne” (322). Once Emma is back in town, Daphne keeps a close eye on her, following her and tracking her phone. Even JJ, who initially most wants to escape her family, acknowledges she will do anything to protect Emma by the end of the novel. The sisters’ banding together traces back to their troubled childhood. Though Emma struggles to remember anything good about her parents, she has no such trouble recalling good times with Daphne and JJ, suggesting that the sisters’ relationship was a point of light in a dark period. Daphne also remembers the sisters as each other’s sanctuary and in the treehouse, where they had sleepovers, “a sacred place” (232). Exhausted by their parents, Emma, JJ, and Daphne build a private, safe world with each other.
However, the sisters also commit actions that harm each other throughout the novel. For example, Daphne reveals Emma’s UCLA application to their father, and JJ tells the police Emma and Irene argued about Gabriel the night of the murders. The adult Daphne stalks Emma, enters her house without permission, and watches her sleep, and JJ interacts with Nathan without Emma’s knowledge. The sisters also perceive each other inaccurately at times. For instance, Emma believes JJ abandoned her and Daphne, only learning later that JJ kept away because of the anonymous letters and feeling overwhelmed with her own problems. These instances highlight the feelings of competition, solidarity, and possessiveness that typify sibling bonds. The author demonstrates the bond between sisters, which is not easy to define or parse but ultimately can be a source of solace and redemption.
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By Kate Alice Marshall
