52 pages • 1 hour read
Robert GalbraithThe Cuckoo's Calling
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Strike’s Prosthetic Leg
Prior to the events of the novel, Strike lost his right leg in an explosion while serving as a military policeman in Afghanistan. He has been fitted with a prosthetic that causes him a significant amount of physical and emotional discomfort. Several times throughout the text, the end of the amputation becomes enflamed due to overexertion or falling. Further, he frequently is the recipient of comments and questions that are well-meaning but overwhelm him and make him feel less than. He even goes so far as to hide the truth of his disability from Robin, feeling uncomfortable sharing something so emotionally intimate with her.
Strike’s prosthetic leg represents his struggle with self-care and emotional closeness. Following his accident, he is uninterested in taking care of himself, instead devoting himself to his business so that he can find a sense of purpose following his exit from the military. He infrequently takes care of his amputation, only paying attention to it when it is in active pain. Charlotte was the only person he was comfortable having emotional and physical intimacy with, a comfortability that was disrupted during their breakup. The result is that Strike emotionally distances himself from others, ignoring his emotional concerns just like he ignores his prosthetic. At the novel’s conclusion, the reader sees Strike enter a business arrangement with Robin, comfort fellow veteran Jonah, and attend a doctor’s appointment for his leg. These are all moments that show his growth and his healing as he starts attending to things he would otherwise neglect.
Lula’s Blue Paper
After leaving her mother’s house the morning of her death, Lula writes on a piece of paper that disappears after meeting with Rochelle. This paper is revealed to be her last will and testament, witnessed by Rochelle. She leaves everything to Jonah and then stores it in an African-style custom purse, which represents her shared heritage with Jonah. This blue paper becomes the subject of Strike’s focus and contains John’s motive. It propels Strike’s devotion to detail, supporting his search for the truth, because it is a physical piece of evidence he can use to confirm what is said in his interviews. The blue paper thus is representative both of Lula’s desire for family and the necessity of details, both concepts that are clarified at the novel’s climax.
Clothing
As a novel set amongst the fashion elite, clothing is a very important, recurrent part of the book. Observations about clothes are filtered through Robin and Strike’s perspectives, making them the audience stand-in for critiques of fashion and luxury. Clothing is used as yet another dividing tool, stratifying the socioeconomic statuses of the characters. Those who have access to high fashion and expensive clothing are also those who have social and economic sway within the broader world, making clothing a representation of their power. Galbraith takes care to note which characters have expensive clothing, which do not, and the strangeness of when characters cross this invisible social line. For example, Strike notes Rochelle owns an expensive jacket and uses this to deduce that she is blackmailing Lula’s killer.
Clothing is performative within The Cuckoo’s Calling, as the rich and famous use it as an extension of their statuses. For example, Evan frequently wears a wolf’s head mask to prevent paparazzi from photographing his face, while Guy is critiqued for his edgy shirt designs involving members of the British monarchy. Money moves clothing out of the realm of utility and into the realm of performance and expression. Occasionally, the performative nature of clothes in the fashion industry presented in the book is at odds with a sincere desire to represent something greater, such as Guy’s use of Lula’s modeling photographs after her death. This complicates the clothing imagery, showing that it is further capable of deep meaning, such as to represent grief and mourning.
Cameras and Photographs
Cameras and photographs have conflicting utility in The Cuckoo’s Calling, serving as both the prime source of physical evidence to solve Lula’s murder but also the contributing factor to suppose her death as a suicide.
Because Lula’s death took place three months before Strike is hired, photographic evidence is the sole physical evidence he can access. It is through studying photographs that Strike can showcase his attention to detail and reinforce his position as a premier detective. For example, he is alone in recognizing Guy’s custom hoodie, made specifically for Deeby, in the CCTV photos, as he is similarly the only one who realizes Tansy is being abused by looking at crime scene photos. Photographs provide an irrefutable window into the past, allowing Strike means to prove John’s guilt in Lula’s death. Cameras and photographs thus, to Strike, represent the unshakable truth of evidence and the inability to alter the past.
For Lula and her cohorts, however, cameras and photographs are much more sinister. Lula makes her living by being photographed, making it a vital part of her livelihood as a model. However, when cameras leave areas in which she consents to their presence, they become malicious. The paparazzi were so fascinated with her that they often compelled her decision-making processes, forcing her to pick an apartment that felt “safe” as opposed to one closer to her community. This isolation was furthered as the paparazzi bugged her phone to access her private conversations, leading her to emotional privacy to keep herself and her interests safe. Thus, while photographs allow Strike to solve her murder, they are also one of the primary reasons why her death was masked as a suicide.
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By Robert Galbraith
