Gone Girl Lesson Plan

Why does Amy hate living with Desi? Does he deserve to die for it?

There are plenty of good reasons for Amy to hate living in Desi's lake house. Desi is controlling: he controls her portions to try to make her lose weight, he traps Amy in the lake house unless she risks trying to climb over the high gate, he invades her space. Students should understand that Desi doesn't treat Amy with respect for her autonomy, and look for examples of this in the text. An important point for discussion, however, is whether Desi deserves to die for being a creepy jerk. Amy evidently thinks so – but it's hard to make a case for it. Even the justification Amy gives to Nick sounds pretty...