The Witch Elm

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-10

Chapters 11-13

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

After the discovery of a human skill in the garden, Susanna escorts her children inside Ivy House while the other adults assess the skull and call the police. The first officers at Ivy House question the group and instruct them to remain inside. The whirlwind of activity overstimulates Toby, giving him an intense headache. Leon seems especially unnerved by the skull’s appearance. Detective Mike Rafferty arrives a few hours later and interviews the children, Zach and Sallie.

Rafferty then interviews the adults, establishing a history of home ownership. Hugo recalls digging in the wych elm with his brothers as a child. Leon recalls playing near the wych elm and placing a long stick in its hole to assess its depth as a child. Toby remembers falling out of the same tree and breaking his ankle, but has trouble recalling his childhood memories. Rafferty informs the family that a tree surgeon will extract the wych elm, which saddens everyone. He asks for a key to the door in the garden wall, but Hugo reports that his only spare key went missing years ago. After Rafferty leaves, Leon seems irritated and regretful at not throwing the skull away and forgetting about it. He notices cameras and reporters arriving at Ivy House.

Susanna, Leon, and Toby hypothesize the potential consequences of the skull’s appearance. Toby surprises himself and his cousins when he speaks poorly of Rafferty, his disdain stemming from Detectives Martin and Bannon’s failure to find his attackers (despite being otherwise grateful for their fair treatment of him). The family watches a breaking-news report about the human remains at Ivy House before Rafferty provides an update. He informs the family that they can come and go from Ivy House, but no one is allowed in the garden. A police officer will remain stationed outside overnight, and the removal of the wych elm will continue the following day. Toby feels exhausted, but reassures Melissa of his well-being. He takes a Xanax and startles while looking out the window, noticing the missing wych elm.

Chapter 6 Summary

The entire Hennessy family arrives at Ivy House for Sunday lunch. The family members’ excitement overwhelms Toby. Rafferty interrupts the meal by speaking with Hugo and Toby, informing them that the garden will be excavated. This news enrages Toby. Rafferty politely explains Toby’s lack of control over the situation, increasing his detestation of the detective.

After several days of heavy rain, the police dig up the garden. Rafferty and his partner, Detective Kerr, meet with Toby. They inform Toby that the police discovered an entire skeleton buried inside a large hole in the wych elm; additionally, they found the hand of the skeleton nearby. Rafferty identifies the remains as Dominic Ganly, Toby’s former secondary school peer. This news shocks Toby, who believes Dominic died by suicide.

Rafferty questions the nature of Toby and Dominic’s relationship. Toby admits he and Dominic shared a friend group as teenagers, both being popular and athletic. He buries his memories of Dominic bullying Leon, instead describing Dominic more generally as a bully. He realizes he and his family are now suspects in a murder investigation. Rafferty asks Toby about previous parties hosted by him, Susanna, and Leon at Ivy House, and Toby recalls Dominic attending several of them. The detective maintains a friendly demeanor throughout the interview, but Toby continues to dislike him. He then informs Toby that the police need to search Ivy House’s interior.

Although Toby is not legally allowed to drive a vehicle (his brain injury leaves him susceptible to seizures), he drives Hugo away from Ivy House while the police search Hugo’s office. An outraged Toby pulls over to smoke, and Hugo relates to his disdain for Rafferty. Hugo wishes to know what happened to Dominic, and fears he will die before learning the truth. Toby realizes how quickly Hugo’s health is declining. Hugo asks about Toby’s health, and Toby admits he craves normalcy.

Toby calls Susanna and updates her on the police findings, and feels she only pays attention when he mentions the police search of Ivy House. She sounds more baffled than shocked upon learning the police found more remains belonging to Dominic. Toby warns her that the police will likely interview her, Leon, and the rest of the family.

Rafferty allows Toby and Hugo to return to Hugo’s office, though the sounds of the police search distract them from working. The detective asks about a bag containing a red sweatshirt, black jacket, sleeping bag, and gardening gear before announcing the search is complete. Melissa arrives just as the police leave, and the trio tour the house and garden to assess the damage from the investigation.

Chapter 7 Summary

Susanna and Leon arrive at Ivy House to discuss their police interviews. All three cousins believe they are now suspects, and Leon responds irritably to Susanna and Toby’s questions. Leon thinks the police are eager to hold someone responsible for Dominic’s skeleton, especially with media attention on the case. They talk about Dominic, and Susanna points out gaps in Toby’s memory of his former friend. She and Leon remember Dominic negatively; she also hints that Toby is self-absorbed and lacks empathy for others. Susanna recalls an incident in which Toby acted insensitively toward Hugo after Hugo ended a relationship with a girlfriend. Toby cannot remember this incident, though it sounds familiar. Susanna recounts the specifics of what authorities believed was Dominic’s suicide years prior, including apology texts he sent to friends before authorities assumed he jumped from a cliff at Howth Head.

Days go by with no contact from Rafferty, and the entire Hennessy family feels uneasy. They begin to replant the garden and continue to have Sunday lunch. Susanna warns Toby to be careful with Leon, noting how uneasy the police make him. She believes Leon will tell the police that Toby killed Dominic if he feels too pressured. Toby continues to observe Hugo’s health deteriorate. Hugo refuses hospice care offered by his doctors, and becomes defensive when Toby asks if he needs help dressing. Melissa stays with Toby and continues to support Hugo, though Toby notices her becoming more distant.

Detective Martin visits Toby at Ivy House. He reassures Toby that they have not given up the search for Toby’s attackers. He confesses that police are looking into a possible connection between Dominic’s killer and Toby’s attackers. Martin asks Toby about his youth and relationship with Dominic, as well as Dominic’s drug usage. He reveals Toby is a suspect in Dominic’s murder as a warning, and suggests that Toby investigate his family and friends as possible murder suspects. Toby realizes the camera stolen from his nightstand has pictures of Dominic from the months leading up to his murder, which could be evidence.

Toby invites Sean and Dec to Ivy House to discuss Dominic. Dec confesses Dominic bullied him, and he and Sean both confirm “Dominic was a genuine mega-prick to Leon” (268). He heard Dominic once beat Leon, sexually assaulting him with a soda bottle and then forcing him to drink the soda. Toby believes Dec’s story is exaggerated, but Dec and Sean convince him that Dominic terrorized Leon on multiple occasions. He excitedly realizes Leon had a motive to kill Dominic, was likely around Dominic on the night of his murder, and would have known about his own stolen camera. After Dec and Sean leave Ivy House, Toby and Melissa argue about investigating Dominic’s murder. Melissa believes Toby will regret learning the answers to his questions.

Chapters 5-7 Analysis

The changes in Ivy House symbolize How Trauma Influences Identity. Toby, Hugo, and Melissa assess the newly excavated garden: “mud, nothing left but the lines of trees backed up against the side walls in what looked like a doomed last stand” (225). French uses personification to describe the trees in the garden, emphasizing the humanlike qualities of the property the Hennessy family loves. The police excavation and search leave Toby and Hugo feeling like the house has been invaded and violated. Toby’s childhood memories are tainted by this experience, demonstrating how trauma can rewrite past events. Evidence of the police investigation continues to trouble Hugo, Toby, and Melissa for days: “It was like having some hidden interloper in the house, a goblin behind the skirting board or a sunken-eyed intruder crouched in the attic” (236). The home’s transformation into a crime scene alters it from a private space of innocence to an exposed place of violence. Toby struggles to view Ivy House with the same idyllic regard once the police begin their investigation, which echoes his struggle to view his identity after his own home invasion.

Ivy House’s garden highlights this inability to revert to an identity before trauma. Upon seeing the garden as “one vast solid expanse of churned mud, with a last strip of grass and bobbing poppies at the very top like a bitter joke” (202), Toby and Melissa resolve to replant the garden. Their efforts eventually fail, symbolizing the impossibility of returning to a former identity; however, this isn’t to say healing is impossible. Similar to how Toby avoids accepting his traumatic experience as a part of his identity (a part that can be worked through with time and effort), the characters fail to acknowledge the garden in its destroyed state, trying (and failing) to return the space to its former glory. The first step to healing from trauma is acknowledgment, which explains why Toby and Melissa’s efforts to grow something new in the old garden’s place fail.

Toby initially doubts Dec’s recollection of Dominic’s bullying, providing another example of How Luck and Privilege Limit Empathy. Calling Leon a “fucking drama queen” (269) for being bullied by Dominic, Toby feels selfish outrage in realizing “the school I had liked so much had never existed” (270) rather than outrage at Dominic himself for sexually assaulting his cousin. When the shock of Dec’s story dissipates, Toby feels excitement in realizing Leon had a motive to kill Dominic. Toby’s prioritization of his own comfort and innocence reinforces his self-absorbed nature—which also came into play during the Tiernan/Gouger conflict. He arrogantly states he would have defended Leon had he known about the assault; however, Dec reminds Toby that he dismissed what happened in both the past and present. Toby wants to think of himself as a good person who acts honorably, but fails to extend empathy to other people’s suffering.

While far from a good person, Toby’s perspective of Detective Rafferty highlights the power dynamic between suspects and detectives. Toby’s response to Rafferty’s jurisdiction in investigating Ivy House reveals his desire to feel in control. After sharing his view that detectives are insensitive and useless, Toby acknowledges, “The vicious edge to my voice startled me. I hadn’t realized, till that moment, just how intensely I loathed having Rafferty and his pals there” (186). His strained relationship with Rafferty, an authority figure who actively challenges his privilege, gives him a firsthand experience with injustice—which Susanna previously called him out for while discussing medical care. His experience with Detectives Martin and Bannon influences his opinion that all detectives lack care and consideration for the victims they work with, despite Martin and Bannon being relatively civil. However, Toby’s lack of trust in Rafferty isn’t unwarranted, as the detective later admits to misusing his power to complete his job; Toby’s worldview finally changes when he experiences a lack of control in an unjust situation.