45 pages • 1 hour read
Patricia HighsmithStrangers On A Train
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1950A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Highsmith writes, "Any kind of person can murder" (204). In the context of Highsmith’s novel, do you agree?
In Chapter 2, Guy glimpses himself in a mirror: "His eyes looked frightened, he thought, his mouth grim, and deliberately he relaxed." (28) Why do you think Guy is frightened?
At one point Guy thinks, "There was the deed he had done, which in the hours alone in the house, in his room, he felt sat upon his head was like a crown, but a crown that no one else could see" (116). Explore the tragic elements of Strangers on a Train.
Write about the way guilt functions in the novel.
Explore the theme of destiny in Highsmith's novel.
Cicero defined the Roman virtue pietas as the virtue "which admonishes us to do our duty to our country or our parents or other blood relations." Consider the relation of the Roman virtue of pietas to Highsmith's novel.
Discuss the function of time in the novel.
Socrates says in Plato's Republic: "Artists have no place in the just city." Examine the relationship between the murder plot and the novel plot in light of this statement.
How does the novel Strangers on a Train critique existentialist thought?
What significance do you think it has for Bruno and, more widely, in the novel that his victim was female?
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By Patricia Highsmith
