Previous Next

Book II

Chapters 6 & 7

Summary: Chapter 6

As the students drive back to campus, snow begins to fall. That night, Richard is unable to sleep. He goes to Judy’s room, where she gives him a pill and convinces him to go to a party with her. At the party, Richard talks to a girl whom he ends up going home with, though the night is a blur. Back in his dorm, Richard is woken by Francis knocking on the door. Francis kisses Richard, who protests, though Francis continues making advances until Charles knocks on the door, drunk, with a reminder from Henry to do their Greek homework. 

Later that morning in class, Julian remarks on Bunny’s absence. That afternoon, Richard takes a nap and dreams of Bunny drowned in a bathtub. The snow doesn’t melt that week, leading the students to wonder when Bunny’s body will be found. Bunny’s friend Cloke Rayburn, who deals drugs, worries that Bunny may have visited his supplier in New York to make some money and that things got violent. Charles and Cloke break into Bunny’s room, where Charles finds a newspaper article about the dead farmer. While Charles is leaving, he is called to the Dean’s office to speak to Bunny’s father on the phone. Charles reminds the others that they’ve done something terrible, but Henry says they are better off.

The next day, Charles is questioned by FBI agents, who seem interested in Bunny’s connection to Cloke. A newspaper reports that drugs may have been involved in Bunny’s disappearance, though Bunny’s parents vehemently deny this. One night, Camilla tells Richard that after they killed the farmer, Henry made them slit the throat of a piglet and hold it over their heads so that they could purify themselves of the murder. Camilla thinks this ritual is why the farmer’s death gave them no trouble. One morning, after a rainfall, the snow melted. That afternoon, a girl finds Bunny while walking her dog in the woods.

Summary: Chapter 7

Richard gets a ride from Francis to Bunny’s parents’ house in Connecticut for Bunny’s funeral. Henry and the twins are staying there as well. As Henry has one of his headaches, Richard finds some pills in the Corcorans’ bathroom for him, though he warns Henry about mixing them with alcohol. The funeral takes place the next morning, and Henry reads a poem that expresses regret for the loss of a friend. After the funeral, Bunny is buried, with Henry acting as a pallbearer. Henry tosses a handful of dirt into the grave, then wipes the dirt onto his chest to the horror of Richard, Francis, and the twins. 

Analysis: Chapters 6 & 7

Because Chapter 5 ends with Bunny’s appearance at the ravine, and Chapter 6 begins with the group driving away, the actual details of Bunny’s murder are not recounted, including who exactly pushed Bunny over the edge. While it is implied that Henry was the one to do it, as he stepped toward Bunny, Richard likely does not share this detail because, regardless of who pushed him, they are all equally responsible for Bunny’s death. Although the students all purport that they had no choice in the matter, their felt guilt is evident in their behavior. Charles, Francis, and Richard use sex, drugs, and alcohol to clear their minds of the event, while Camilla wants to think that engaging in some kind of ancient ritual purified them of Bunny’s death. Richard is also haunted by nightmares of Bunny dying. While the students may think they are immune to consequences from the real world, they do have consciences, and they cannot escape them.

Though Henry was the mastermind behind the entire plan, he is most obviously plagued by a guilty conscience, first manifested by his headache, and then by his behavior at the funeral. The rest of the group is confused by the poem Henry reads, in which he implies that he is to blame for Bunny’s death. When Henry wipes the dirt on his shirt, he is stigmatizing himself as guilty even as he helps to bury Bunny. Henry’s earlier comment to Charles about being better off having killed Bunny is proving to be ironically wrong. It will be even more so when Henry commits suicide.

Like the snow that falls right after Bunny is killed, making his body more difficult to find, the five students all appear as innocent as can be. They are seemingly viewed as privileged students who would never have reason to harm anyone. The police do not seem to suspect them for even a moment, focusing instead on Bunny’s drug-dealing friend. However, it is this innocent façade that makes the students so dangerous because they can get away with not one, but two, murders without attracting attention. The longer the snow lingers, the more mysterious Bunny’s disappearance becomes, showing how secrets become more powerful the longer they are buried. 

The reaction of Bunny’s parents to his disappearance shows again the superficiality of appearances. Though the police and reporters are interested in whether drugs had a hand in what happened to Bunny, his parents are more concerned with how their family looks than with what happened to their son. Their worry over protecting their reputation shows how Bunny became as obsessed with appearances as he was.

Previous section Chapter 5 Next section Chapter 8, Part One

Take a Study Break