Quotes WWTBGN

• "The heat rising up from the tarmac seemed to get trapped between thick hedges that towered above their heads like battlements"

  By opening in this way, Atkinson makes it clear that the Mason's are trapped and that there will be no escape for them as suggested by the setting used. The heat suggests tension and the hedges suggest that they cannot see the danger that is coming their way.
• "The Je Reviens perfume...that meant I will return"


  Je Reviens is a motif that repeats itself throughout the novel with both Reggie and Joanna, it refers to how Reggie's mother said she would be "back soon" but never does return and how Joanna's mother will also not return from the day out. I will return could also possibly refer to Decker's release from prison which we find out about later in the novel.
• "Thank God," Jessica said, in just the same way their mother did."


  This shows the influence that Gabrielle has on her children and thus amplifies her loss when she dies. This is similar to the way that Reggie quotes her mother and Joanna.
• "It was as if without Jessica there would be no Joanna"


  Atkinson's portrayal of wider effects of crime is clear here, it shows how people feel when they lose someone to a crime. They may feel as if they are missing a part of themselves because of the influence that that person had on their life and personality.
• "He seemed to come out of nowhere"


  The anonymity of Decker is what invites fear for the reader here. When you don't know who a person is this creates tension and suggests that they could be a threat just as Decker is to the Mason's.
• "There was something in her voice, something in her face, that frightened Joanna"


  When an adult is scared, this can be particularly terrifying for a child. If her mother is scared then this will invite fear into Joanna because this is something that she will not have seen before, Joanna's fear is justified here because a grown woman is scared of what is going to happen.
• "The mother was cut down where she stood"


  This seems to refer to the chapter name of "Harvest", her mother is harvest and she is being cut down or killed just as wheat or other things that are harvested might be. Symbolism.
• "Joanna liked to think that he never woke up but she didn't know"

  Joanna likes to imagine that Joseph was never in pain and never knew that he was dying. However, unfortunately this is unlikely as it is possible that the shock or noise of the stabbing will have woken him up but I believe that this is probably a defensive mechanism by Joanna.
• "Run, Joanna, run"


  Again, this a motif that is repeated throughout the book and tells of how Joanna escaped getting killed. It is also what she does when she escapes from her kidnappers and finds Jackson towards the end of the book.
• "It would have been better to have died with Jessica and her mother rather than being left behind without them"


  We see the wider effects of crime again here, Joanna is left behind to cope with their death's by herself as her father doesn't seem to care. It is suggested here that Joanna would rather die than live on without her mother and sister perhaps not her brother as he is just a baby and hasn't had an influence upon Joanna yet.
• "The green wasn't square, as he'd first imagined"


  This is our first introduction to Jackson but as Atkinson uses an omniscient third person narrator we think that Jackson could be Decker about to kill again or hurt one of the children.
• "Is this your ball, son?""Pretending to ruffle his hair"

  The use of 'son' as an address term is a clever device by Atkinson as it suggests exactly what Jackson believes, that Nathan is his son. As he pretends to ruffle Nathan's hair he extracts a piece of DNA for testing as we find out later in the chapter - "He had been clutching the thin black filament in his hand ever since he plucked it from the boy's head"
• "If she forgot her bus pass she could still get on board for a child's fare"


  Compared to the other crimes taking place in this book, this crime is a fairly menial one for Reggie to commit but nonetheless it is a crime.
• "The stupid thing was that inside she was a hundred years old""old soul""Body of a child, mind of an old woman. Old before her time"


  Despite her young appearance, Reggie is old and wise at heart. This could be symbolic of how people and crime is not always as they seem.
• "It was good to think that Billy was willing to do things for her even if they were nearly always illegal"


  Even though everything that Billy does for Reggie has some sort of implication that involves crime she appreciates the gesture. At this point in the book, Reggie still seems to appreciate her brother but this changes when she becomes a target because of him.
• "You never knew, it might be the first step on a slippery slope that would eventually lead to something bigger"


  This is exactly what happens with Billy, he does menial things but this increases to a life of drugs and crime.
• "They were helpless, they were confused and Reggie could easily identify with that"


  Reggie feels as if she is a child without her mother and that she feels lost ans confused due to the loss. Wider effects of crime.
• "Reggie liked Dickens, his books were full of plucky abandoned orphans struggling to make their way in the world"


  She relates to fictional characters as she knows no-one else who is in the same position as her. This again shows how Reggie feels as if she is lost without her mother, in the same way that Joanna, used to/still does feel lost without her mother.
• "Reggie's' father was a soldier in the Royal Scots but Reggie never got to know him"


  We have to debate here whether it is better that Reggie never met her father and therefore has no memories of him or whether it is better to love and lose like she has with her mother.
• "Gabriel Joseph Hunter"


  Gabrielle after her mother and Joseph after her brother. Wider effects of crime, he is now the only physical thing that he can remember his family by.
• "The baby was precious, he was as valuable as the most valuable object"


  Her baby means everything to Joanna and she is very protective over him.
• "That was when Reggie got Dr Hunter to teach her not just the Heimlich manoeuvre but mouth to mouth, how to stop arterial bleeding and what to do for a burn. And electrocution and accidental poisoning. (And drowning of course)


  As a lot of people have died around her and will die around her she wants to protect the people she has left especially the baby and Joanna. she also seems to wish she could have saved her mother from her death hence why she wants to learn how to save people from drowning, its as if he feels great remorse that she didn't learn it sooner despite the fact that she wasn't there when her mother was dying.
• "but you can't expect anything else given her history"


  This hints towards Joanna's early life which Reggie doesn't know about. This refers to the fact that Joanna is very wary about the baby and just wants to keep him safe in the way that she couldn't keep her brother safe.
• "Reggie had never told Dr Hunter about her mother, about her being dead, the weight of the sadness of it might have been too much for Dr Hunter to bear"

  Reggie should tell Joanna about the death of her mother due to the fact that this is a common point for them both. But in doing so this would result in further sadness for Reggie as she would have to admit to someone outside of her family that her mother was dead.
• "She was thirty-six this year, the same as Dr Hunter"


  This is perhaps another reason why we Reggie views Hunter a mother figure, she is the same age as her own mother. We also have to take into account here that Joanna is the same age as her own mother was when she died, this is also why she is so protective over the baby.
• "And he wanted a son because he was a man"

  This shows the place of toxic masculinity within society, Jackson feels the need to have a son to justify his manliness and make him feel more adequate. Excluding this though, Jackson is fairly manly, with most of the stereotypes of a male detective being present.
• "He tried to shift it bodily. It resisted, leaning its stupid weight against his"


  Atkinson creates an oddly comedic moment here, showing Jackson essentially fighting a sheep. It is most likely showing that there is a weaker side to Jackson and that it will appear later in the novel and that it subverts the classic stereotype of the male detective.
• "If someone he loved was lost he would stalk the world forever looking for them"


  This shows how Jackson feels about others and counterbalances later events in the novel when he is essentially missing but no-one goes looking for him when they realise he isn't Decker. This is also shows the way that he searches for Hunter just because Reggie loves her and the way that he searches for Tessa before he finds out that she has left him and taken all of hos money.
• "never hit a woman or child, he restricted himself entirely to duffing up his own sex"


  Again, this shows Jackson's attributes as a man, it makes him, appear strong and shows that he has a softer side but suggests that he wouldn't stop himself punching another man to protect himself or the former of women and children. In this novel, this is a role that he never has to fulfil due to the fact that Joanna kills her kidnappers, all he does is hide the evidence to help her get away with it.
• "People weren't science, people were a mess"


  This shows Louise's view on medicine, something that is repeated by Atkinson. She dislikes doctor's as they treat people like science or scientific subjects when they are anything but this.
• "Louise would have removed his organs without anaesthetic and given them to more worthy people"


  This shows Louise's view of criminals. As a detective, we make expect her to be neutral or understanding of the criminals but here she appears to be biased towards the victims and having a severe hatred for those that have done wrong. To be fair, in this situation, the man she is talking about has killed 4 people while driving a lorry and texting.
• "In a former life, before her beauty was measured in the size of a diamond"


  Louise resents the ring that Patrick has bought her and feels as if she is defined by it and also trapped by it. In this quotation she seems to long for a life before Patrick when she didn't feel this way.
• "She did it for Archie, thinking his problems must be a result of hers"


  She feels guilty about the way that Archie is and blames herself for it, treating herself almost like a criminal so needs help. This is her reason for seeking therapy, she won't just do it because she needs it, she has to find a suitable reason.
• "so the drunken old cow's good for something at last"

  Unlike Joanna and Reggie, Louise is pleased that her mother is dead and seems to deeply resent her, only praising her because she uses her money to send Archie to a private school that get's rid of his issues. There is an irony her that her mother's issues lead to the resolving of Archie's issues.
• "The real Louise wanted to be out there somewhere living the outlaw life, wearing jewels and furs, toting a gun."


  This is ironic due to the fact that she is a police officer and that she should be happy in the life she is in but instead she wishes to break the law showing how unhappy in her life she is.
• "threatening to set himself alight with his kids and ex-wife watching from an upstairs window"


  This refers to David Needler and his first crime in the novel, this is fairly low in crime compared to killing his mother and sister in law and yet this is what triggers the police assistance. On this occasion they turn up too late and don't catch him leading to the shootings and eventually the death of Marcus towards the end of the book. This shows police incompetence.
• "she just didn't want him to end up as obsessed with Alison Needler as she was"

  Louise is obsessed with criminals and victims and becomes highly obsessed with everyone she helps including Needler and Hunter perhaps to distract her from the life she feels trapped and unhappy in.
• "it's my job to be obsessed"


  This is Louise's justification for becoming obsessed with her cases and it's not a particularly solid one. She seems to need to prove that there is a reason for it.
• "and is she still a victim,boss?"

  This is the debate as to whether Joanna Hunter is still a victim, we later find out that she is not as she has visited Decker and told to kill himself and kills her kidnappers.
• "What Reggie wouldn't have given to have been a baby, wrapped in Mum's arms again"


  Although Reggie's mother's death is not a crime, it is nonetheless a tragedy and this shows in Reggie's yearning to be back with her, here she doesn't just visually seem like a child she wishes she was indeed a child again in the safety of her mother's arms.