53 pages • 1 hour read
April HenryThe Night She Disappeared
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012A 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
The Willamette River
The investigation into Kayla’s disappearance centers around the Willamette River, which flows through Portland. The river symbolizes the persistent possibility that Kayla is dead. Even the psychic, Elizabeth Lamb, describes seeing Kayla’s body in the water.
After Kayla’s car is found abandoned near the water, police quickly develop a theory that Kayla was murdered and her body disposed of in the river. Gabie goes down to the river and plunges into it, trying to understand what Kayla felt, but emerges still certain that Kayla is alive.
In Robertson’s chapters, he plans to kill Kayla and dump her in the river so that he can kidnap Gabie. He describes the act of putting her body into the water as “[releasing] her from her troubles” (44). When Elizabeth Lamb calls up Kayla’s spirit, she claims to have felt “water rushing past me” (176), implying that Kayla’s dead body is in the river.
Throughout the investigation, Gabie has dreams and visions of Kayla in many situations—in a bare room, disappearing around a corner, behind a pane of glass—but she never sees Kayla in the water. This distinction symbolizes the truth Gabie knows and no one else believes: Kayla is still alive and in need of rescue.
Scale Models
Robertson works as an architectural model maker, designing scale models of proposed projects for companies. The models symbolize his vague “project,” and the figurines he uses in these models symbolize the way he dehumanizes his victims as part of this project.
When Robertson gives his motives for attempting to kidnap Gabie, he references something he calls “The Project, Part Two” (42). The specifics of this project are never revealed, but he makes it clear that he wants to use Gabie as a pawn in it. As he laments his mistake in taking the wrong girl, Robertson says that his work has taught him that “the correct raw materials” are essential for the success of a project (43).
In Chapter 37, Robertson places a tiny figurine of a girl inside one of his scale models. He comments that “she serves [his] new purpose well” (197), creating a parallel between his figurines and the girls he preys on. Robertson views Gabie and Kayla the same way he views his figurines—as pieces of material. Gabie is the piece that will complete his project. Kayla is an unsuitable piece because she refuses to mold herself to his whims. He does not see them as humans but as objects that exist to serve his desires. His objectification of the girls allows him to easily plan Kayla’s murder without remorse.
Empty Houses
Though Drew and Gabie have different familial and socioeconomic backgrounds, they bond over the fact that they both feel neglected by their parents. Drew’s mother has a substance use addiction, while Gabie’s parents work demanding hours as surgeons, but the result is often the same: an empty house where they are left to fend for themselves.
As quiet loners who can’t rely on their parents for company, Drew and Gabie share a feeling of loneliness. After Kayla vanishes, loneliness turns to fear for Gabie, who is constantly looking over her shoulder for Kayla’s abductor. She spends the first few nights after the abduction alone at home, clicking through articles about missing and murdered girls and growing increasingly fearful.
Drew comes to stay with Gabie when she grows fearful of being alone. The way he literally takes up the empty space in Gabie’s life symbolizes how he makes her feel seen and understood. Gabie does the same for Drew, inviting him into her family after he cuts off contact with his mother.
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By April Henry
