The Locked Trunk Symbol in Near the Bone: Hidden Truths and Control
What the Locked Trunk Is
The locked trunk is a wooden chest kept in the bedroom of the mountain cabin where William holds Mattie captive. William carries the keys with him when he leaves the cabin, or hangs them on a hook near the door, and he has forbidden Mattie from entering the bedroom while he opens it. The trunk holds three layers of secrets: packets of heroin, stacks of cash, and newspaper clippings that document Mattie's true identity as Samantha Hunter, an eight-year-old girl who went missing after her mother was found brutally murdered.
The trunk first appears in Chapter Six, when William locks himself in the bedroom to access it. Mattie realizes the money inside could fund her escape, but she cannot break the lock. From that point, the trunk becomes a recurring object of Mattie's attention—she examines its lock in Chapter Eight, wonders about its contents in Chapter Seven, and considers breaking it open in Chapter Eleven when she hopes it will help her remember where she came from. She finally opens it in Chapter Seventeen using William's keys, which C.P. finds in the snow.
The Trunk as Forbidden Territory
William's prohibition on the trunk is absolute. Mattie has been told many times not to try to enter the bedroom when William opens the trunk, and that she is never to look inside. This prohibition is part of the broader coercive control through religious justification that William exercises over every aspect of her life. He controls her movements, her appearance (he insists she keep her hair long), her access to information, and even her name—he renamed her Martha and calls her Mattie.
The trunk is the physical embodiment of William's power: it holds everything he does not want Mattie to know, and the threat of punishment for approaching it keeps her compliant. When Mattie considers trying to pick the lock in Chapter Eight, she immediately worries about leaving a scratch that would betray her. The fear of discovery is so ingrained that even the thought of touching the trunk feels dangerous.
The Trunk as Escape Route
For Mattie, the trunk's significance shifts over the course of the novel. Early on, she sees it primarily as a source of money—a means of escape. In Chapter Six, she realizes she needs the money inside to flee but cannot break the lock yet. In Chapter Eight, she finds a roll of bills in William's pants pocket instead and hides it under the couch, a small act of rebellion that foreshadows her eventual theft from the trunk itself.
When she finally opens the trunk in Chapter Seventeen, C.P. estimates there are thousands of dollars inside. Mattie takes money and the keys, tying them around her neck. The trunk's cash becomes her ticket off the mountain—she later uses the vehicle key to find William's truck and drive down to the state troopers' barracks, where she gives her name as Samantha.
The Trunk as Identity Archive
The trunk's most significant contents are the newspaper clippings. Mattie finds a black-and-white photo of a little girl with light hair and dark eyes—herself as a child. The first clipping reads: TRAGEDY—8-year-old girl missing after mother found brutally murdered. The second reads: MISSING—police seek information. The third clipping makes her breath stop.
This moment is crucial because Mattie has had no mirrors in the cabin for years. She had not tracked the changes in her face and body because it had been years since she had seen herself; she had forgotten the shape of her own eyes, nose, mouth, and cheeks. The clippings restore not just her face but her history: she is Samantha Hunter, a famous missing-person case. C.P. tells her her case is on every TV station, with annual anniversary stories asking what happened to her.
The trunk thus becomes the archive of Mattie's erased identity. William renamed her, isolated her, and suppressed her memories—the clippings are the physical record of everything he tried to destroy. When Mattie asserts her real name is Samantha in Chapter Eighteen, she is reclaiming the identity the trunk preserved.
The Trunk and William's Criminal Enterprise
The trunk also reveals William's source of income. C.P. identifies the brown packets as heroin and explains that William is a drug dealer. Mattie recalls days when she heard an engine near the cabin, was forbidden to go outside for anything, and William would leave with his rucksack and return to shut himself in the bedroom. The trunk's cash—thousands of dollars—explains how William can afford the arsenal of grenades, rifles, and traps he purchases in town.
This revelation reframes William's power. His control over Mattie is not just personal cruelty; it is funded by criminal enterprise. The trunk connects the domestic horror of the cabin to a wider network of illegal activity, and it also explains why William is so desperate to keep Mattie compliant—she is a witness to his crimes as well as his captive. The trunk's contents also confirm what Mattie has begun to suspect: William killed her mother and took her as a child, making him not just an abuser but a murderer.
The Trunk and the Box
The trunk has a dark counterpart: the Box. The Box is a coffin-like trapdoor space beneath a rug in the cabin, where William imprisoned Mattie when she tried to run away as a child. Mattie describes it: the Box is for bad girls who try to run away. The trunk is locked and secret; the Box is hidden and imprisoning. Both are wooden containers that William uses to control Mattie—one holds his secrets, the other held her body.
The parallel is significant. The trunk is the container of William's secrets; the Box is the container of Mattie's punishment. When Mattie opens the trunk, she is symbolically opening the Box's opposite—releasing the truth instead of being sealed inside it. The trunk's contents give her the means and the identity to escape; the Box was designed to keep her trapped.
Study Questions
1. Why does William forbid Mattie from looking in the trunk, and what does this prohibition reveal about his control?
William's prohibition is absolute: Mattie is never to enter the bedroom when he opens the trunk, and never to look inside. The prohibition reveals that William's control depends on information asymmetry. He needs Mattie to remain ignorant of her own identity, her mother's murder, and his drug dealing. The trunk holds the evidence of his crimes and her stolen life. The prohibition is also a test of obedience—Mattie's fear of punishment for touching the trunk keeps her compliant even when he is away.
2. How does the trunk's contents change Mattie's understanding of William's power?
Before opening the trunk, Mattie knows William is violent and controlling, but she does not understand the source of his wealth or the scope of his crimes. The heroin packets reveal he is a drug dealer; the cash explains his arsenal; the clippings reveal he murdered her mother and kidnapped her. The trunk transforms William from a domestic tyrant into a murderer and criminal. It also gives Mattie the evidence she needs to understand that her captivity was not her fault—she was a child taken by her mother's boyfriend.
3. What role does the trunk play in Mattie's recovery of her identity?
The trunk's newspaper clippings are the first physical record Mattie has seen of her own face since childhood. With no mirrors in the cabin, she had forgotten her appearance and her name. The clippings restore both: they show her as an eight-year-old girl, and they identify her as Samantha Hunter. C.P. confirms her case is famous. The trunk thus functions as an archive of her erased self, and opening it is the first step in reclaiming her identity—she later asserts her real name to William and to the state troopers.
4. How does the trunk connect to the novel's themes of predation and control?
The trunk is the physical locus of William's predation. It holds the profits of his drug dealing, the evidence of his murder of Mattie's mother, and the record of his kidnapping of Mattie herself. The trunk is also a symbol of control: William's power over Mattie depends on keeping its contents secret. When Mattie opens the trunk, she breaks that control. The trunk's contents give her the money, the keys, and the identity she needs to escape—turning William's own instrument of control into the means of her liberation.