My Heart Is a Chainsaw

“When people in Proofrock can direct their binoculars across the water to see how the rich and famous live, that’s only going to make them suddenly aware of how they’re not living, with their swayed-in fences, their roofs that should have been re-shingled two winters ago, their packed-dirt driveways, their last decade’s hemlines and shoulder pads, because fashion takes a while to make the climb to eight thousand feet.”

Jade describes the town of Proofrock by comparing it to the new, wealthy housing development of Terra Nova. Using an anaphora, a rhetorical device where a word repeats at the beginning of several phrases, the novel draws attention to the visible signs of economic inequality. This sets up one of the major conflicts in the novel—the arrival of the wealthy Founders and their impact on the town’s safety.

“Real final girls only want the horror to be over. They don’t stay up late praying to Craven and Carpenter to send one of their savage angels down, just for a weekend maybe.”

Alluding to famous horror movie directors Wes Craven and John Carpenter, Jade suggests that her devotion to slasher films is like a religion. Jade’s remark about angels employs irony, as she is referring to “monstrous” antagonists like Freddy Krueger, Ghostface, or Michael Myers. Through this parallel between horror and religion, Jade implies that she lacks the moral virtues required to be a final girl, instead implying an ethical framework drawn from her ironic subversion of Christian religion.

“Letha Mondragon is embarrassed, not of the profanity, but that it even has to exist. Because that’s the kind of pure she is.”

When Letha notices the graffiti reading “skank station” above the bathroom mirror that Jade is using, Jade notices that Letha appears distressed. However, the italics denote that she assumes Letha is not just upset because of the crude term “skank” but because Letha is so pure of heart that she cannot understand why others would insult one another in this way.