From little kids playing dress-up to adults trying to score dates with attractive people by getting all dolled up, pretending to be something you aren't is woven into the fabric of our identities. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with trying to put your best foot forward or imagine what it would be like to be a princess when you grow up, Gone Girl shows that taken to extreme degrees, personality shape shifting begins to look like different versions of reality. And when this happens, it can corrupt relationships and lives.
Questions About Versions of Reality
- Amy has a bad habit of not just reinventing herself, but reinventing her worldview to the exclusion of reality. What compels her to do this?
- How does Nick's tendency to create alternate realities and believe them play into his need to please people?
- Besides Nick and Amy, what other characters in Gone Girl are overly concerned with the versions of themselves that they reveal to others?
- How does the tendency of the books' characters to create alternate versions of themselves relate to the theme of technology?