Do you believe that the novel offers catharsis for the reader? Explain.

And Then There Were None offers a partial catharsis for readers, though it is not complete. By revealing the identity of the killer in the final chapter, Christie allows the reader to discover who carried out the murders, how they were committed, and the motivations behind each one. The killer admits that the murders were motivated by an unexplainable compulsion to kill, but that they were planned and carried out methodically with the ultimate goal being justice. Psychologically, the reader is left feeling as though a certain sense of order has been restored to the world. However, a sense of unease must remain since the final act of justice is not one carried out by society but by the killer’s own hand. The reader is reminded that the reality of evil still exists in the world, often beyond the reach of institutional justice.

I think that catharsis and resolution of order are a part of detective novels like this. Detective genre fiction often resolves with the underlying idea that the right order of the world can be reconstructed through the identification of guilt and the elimination of evil from the world. Christie’s novel is a prime example of this belief. The Indian Island murderer seeks to right a wrong order in the world; the novel's victims have committed a grave wrong against humanity and have been allowed to continue in their lives without justice. The murderer, through his violence, removes this wrongness from the world. Literary critics have noted that this process of resolution is one explanation for the genre’s mass popularity – this resolution of order removes ambiguity and allows the reader to finish the novel with their own conscience cleared of guilt.