Click! Snap! Crack!
The very first word of the novel that little bit of onomatopoeia will become the imagery that drives the engine of the narrative. Its very appearance will begin to control the reader’s emotions depending upon at what point in the story it suddenly pops up and what form it takes. Will be the click or the snap. And what does it mean when it begins show up as a crack! The significance of these words betray the smallness of their sounds to the point that it is impossible to imagine the novel without this imagery.
Of Nets and Fish
Very early on, the narrator affords us the peek into that darkest corner of George's mind that tells us how the story is likely to end: “he had to kill Netta Longdon.” The narrator will later provide a ridiculously simple description of Netta that is absolutely biting in its indictment of everything about her: “She looked like a Byron beauty, but she was a fish.” At one point Bone finally makes the connection between her name and the net that he feels she has trapped him and indulges in fantasia of riffs on the concept of netting. But throughout the novel are little sometimes insignificant references to fish: his “dead moods” make him feel like a fish gliding through the water, he fishes in his pocket for a shilling and—most comically chilling of all—he orders a filet of fish. All this imagery serves to further foreshadow the inevitability of the ending. And don't forget George's last name: Bone.
Understated Murder
The entire narrative leads inexorably, of course, to the moment when Bone kills. Everyone will see it coming so there’s no surprise when it happens…except that there is a huge surprise the snap-clicking-crack of his condition finally explodes into full-blown violent madness. George Harvey Bone is a big guy and not only is the murder expected, but the level of violence that it will take is also strong indicated. But when it finally happens, Bone makes Norman Bates look like Charles Manson. The politeness and tender concern to avoid causing pain to his victims rises to the level of the grotesque. The precise control of the imagery of the climax by the author is so macabre that many readers can expect to be far more disturbed by it than the excessive gore of horror movies.
Going to Maidenhead
Like the click-snap-crack that sends up a warning that Bone is about to slip into a fugue state, the repetition of various iterations of “going to Maidenhead” becomes a motif that facilitates a deeper understanding of his emotional state. The phrase is almost always an appendage to the other recurring phrase with which it is connected: he is going to kill Netta. A literal explanation is provided at one point (he had been happy there a few years ago during a two week stay with his sister), but Maidenhead’s true significance as imagery is as symbolism of happiness since the literal interpretation proves a disappointment by the end.
