What made Gone Girl a Bestseller?
"The American Dream" Gone Wrong
One of the main reasons Gone Girl attracted so much attention and appeal is because it touches on everyday topics that most American readers can relate to: relationships gone wrong, insecurity and the endless strive towards perfection, identity conflict, the influence of media, the difficulties of marriage, and so on. The normality of these topics makes the novel timeless and relatable on many levels. However, the novel goes even further and pathologizes these everyday issues, intertwining normalcy with psychological thrill and a crime-ridden plot and providing some of the essential ingredients of a bestseller. Thus, Gone Girl can be described as the tale of an "American Dream" gone wrong. While Nick and Amy’s marriage escalates the idea of a “relationship gone wrong” to an extreme sociopathic level, their relationship retains many elements of the typical story of a young couple who fall in love and then get hit with the reality of marriage. The author consciously incorporates elements in the novel that highlight the relatability of their relationship. For example, the names ‘Nick’ and ‘Amy’ are regular names, nothing that stands out. They are also both placed in a very real situation, the 2008 recession, which many American readers could relate to. The narrative of how they fell in love is also fairly typical: meeting at a party, sharing a memorable first kiss; young love in all its glory. The way the realities of marriage hit them and affect them as a couple and as individuals is also normal and very real. Nick himself says, “I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking...What have we done to each other?” (Flynn 3).
By incorporating the theme of a troubled marriage, Gone Girl becomes a story of what happens when two very unstable people get married, and what they do to each other when they realize their marriage is falling apart. In a country like America, where divorce rates are particularly high and troubled relationships are a plotline of many movies and books, this novel is relatable to the American reader.
What does a married couple do when they realize the “American dream” is just a dream? What do they do when they have to move their lives from New York City to Missouri and essentially downgrade in every sense? What does a wife do when her career goes downhill, she moves to the Midwest and has nothing to do at home all day?
The audience becomes invested in Nick and Amy’s relationship, analyzing it and criticizing it. This brings in another important element in the novel: media. The whole novel arguably resembles a “guilty pleasure” reality TV show. This concept is also embedded within the novel itself, as it provides an insight into the multifaceted role of media in our world, from the lawyer hired for PR purposes, to the many TV shows used as a channel of communication between Nick and Amy initially, then between Nick and Amy and the world. The way that Nick and Amy’s own audience becomes absorbed and invested in their relationship reflects the way we as a generation become invested in celebrity relationships. The fact that the novel touches on this makes it even more appealing and relatable.
Works Cited:
Flynn, Gillian. Gone Girl. New York, Penguin Random House, 2012.
