The GPS Tracker: A Symbol of Surveillance and Leverage in The Perfect Divorce

What Is the GPS Tracker?

In Jeneva Rose’s The Perfect Divorce, the GPS tracker is a physical device that Bob Miller secretly attaches to his wife Sarah’s car. The tracker first appears in Chapter 34, when Bob admits to his lawyer Brad, “I put a tracker on her car too.” From that moment, it becomes a concrete emblem of invasion, paranoia, and the power struggle at the heart of their crumbling marriage.

The device itself is never described in detail, but its function is clear: it transmits the car’s location to an app on Bob’s phone, allowing him to monitor Sarah’s movements in real time. Bob refers to it as having “eyes on her,” revealing that his need for control extends far beyond legal maneuvering.

Where the Tracker Recurs

The GPS tracker reappears at key turning points in the story, each time carrying a slightly different weight.

How the Meaning Changes

The GPS tracker is not a static symbol. Its meaning evolves as the plot unfolds, reflecting the shifting power dynamics between Bob and Sarah.

1. Tool of Coercive Control (Chapters 34–40)

Initially, the tracker embodies Bob’s desire to dominate Sarah after their separation. He installed it without her consent as a way to gain leverage in the divorce and custody battle. The tracker is a physical extension of his suspicion and his refusal to let go. It represents the breakdown of trust: Bob cannot accept Sarah’s independence, so he resorts to technological surveillance to keep her within his sight.

2. Illusion of Predictability (Chapters 40–46)

Sarah’s movements as recorded by the app appear utterly mundane—foundation, grocery store, school, home. This repetition lulls Bob into believing he has her figured out. The tracker thus also symbolizes Sarah’s counter-strategy: she uses Bob’s own surveillance against him by conforming to a boring schedule, making him underestimate her. The tracker becomes a mirror of Bob’s blindness; he sees only what he expects to see.

3. Evidence of Hidden Agency (Chapter 46)

When Bob later discovers a mysterious route that Sarah took to an unfamiliar location, the tracker suddenly becomes a clue. It no longer confirms Bob’s narrative but instead opens a crack in it. He realizes Sarah may have been orchestrating something beyond his surveillance. The tracker, once a tool of control, now exposes his ignorance. It shifts from an instrument of power to an object of paranoia, revealing that Bob never truly knew his wife’s plans.

Character Connections

The tracker is intimately tied to the two central characters and their psychological portraits.

• Bob Miller: The tracker reveals Bob’s deep-seated need for control and his fear of being outmaneuvered. He views it as an “insurance policy,” echoing his earlier comment in Chapter 10 that he knew from the beginning he needed something to guarantee Sarah could never do to him what she did to Adam. The tracker is Bob’s attempt to reclaim the upper hand, but it ultimately backfires.

• Sarah Morgan: Although the narrative does not explicitly state Sarah’s awareness of the tracker, her actions strongly imply she knows. She maintains a rigid routine, suggesting she is performing for an audience. In Chapter 40, she tells Summer, “There are some things you just can’t salvage,” referring to trust—but she herself is engaged in a game of deception. The tracker becomes a stage on which Sarah acts the part of a predictable wife, buying herself time to execute her real strategy.

• Brad Miller (implied): Brad reacts with alarm when Bob reveals the tracker, warning that it could destroy Bob’s custody case. Brad represents the legal rationalism that contrasts with Bob’s emotional desperation. His objection highlights how the tracker is not only unethical but legally damaging.

Theme Connections

The GPS tracker weaves together several of the novel’s central themes.

Betrayal and Trust

The tracker is a concrete manifestation of broken trust. Bob installs it because he does not believe Sarah’s public persona—and he is right to be suspicious, but his method destroys any remaining chance of reconciliation. The device shows that once trust is gone, characters resort to invasive tactics, creating a cycle of suspicion.

Manipulation and Deception

Bob uses the tracker to gather information secretly, while Sarah likely uses the knowledge of being watched to feed him false data. The manipulation and deception theme is embodied in the cat-and-mouse game of surveillance: who is watching whom, and who controls the narrative?

Power and Control

The tracker is a tool for one character to exert power over another. Bob’s desire to control Sarah mirrors his broader struggle for influence in the divorce, the foundation, and the criminal investigation. Yet control proves illusory—Sarah consistently stays one step ahead. The power and control theme is dramatized every time Bob opens the app and sees only what Sarah wants him to see.

Justice and Wrongful Conviction

While the tracker does not directly relate to Adam Morgan’s conviction, it contributes to the theme of flawed evidence. Bob uses the tracker’s data to build a case against Sarah in his own mind, but the data is incomplete and misleading. This parallels the way the justice system in the novel relies on incomplete forensic evidence, leading to tragic outcomes. See the justice and wrongful conviction page.

Survival and Resilience

Sarah’s ability to live under surveillance and still execute her plans demonstrates her resourcefulness. The tracker becomes an obstacle she must navigate, and her resilience lies in turning it into an instrument of misdirection. The survival and resilience theme appears in Sarah’s quiet defiance—she survives not by fighting the tracker but by exploiting it.

Study Questions and Answers

1. What does the GPS tracker reveal about Bob’s character and his approach to the divorce?

The tracker shows that Bob is paranoid, controlling, and unwilling to accept Sarah’s autonomy. He treats the divorce as a campaign rather than a dissolution, installing the device to gain leverage. His belief that he needs an “insurance policy” against Sarah reflects his awareness of her cunning nature and his own insecurity. The tracker is both a symbol of his fear and his flawed strategy.

2. How does Sarah’s awareness of the tracker affect her actions?

Although never stated outright, Sarah’s consistent routine implies she knows she is being watched. She deliberately limits her movements to predictable locations—the foundation, grocery store, school, and home—to lull Bob into a false sense of security. When she does deviate (the unknown route Bob discovers later), it indicates she saved her real activities for moments when she believed Bob would not be checking. Her awareness turns the tracker from a one‑way surveillance tool into a stage for a performance.

3. In what way does the tracker’s function change after Sarah’s death (or supposed death)?

After Bob receives the photo of Sarah’s body, the tracker becomes a memorial of her last hours—and a puzzle. The new route he finds suggests Sarah was active after the alleged time of death, or that someone else drove her car. The tracker no longer helps Bob control Sarah; instead, it forces him to question what he thought he knew. It transforms from a tool of power to a source of doubt, underscoring that surveillance does not grant true understanding.

4. How does the GPS tracker connect to the broader theme of surveillance in the novel?

Surveillance pervades The Perfect Divorce: Bob tracks Sarah, the police track suspects, and characters monitor each other’s digital footprints. The GPS tracker is the most literal representation of this theme. It illustrates how characters lack trust and therefore resort to watching one another. The novel suggests that surveillance breeds paranoia rather than security. Bob’s tracker gives him data but not truth—just as the sheriff’s investigation accumulates evidence but repeatedly misses the full picture. The tracker becomes a microcosm of the novel’s argument that constant watching only deepens the web of deception.

For a broader look at how control and deception operate in the story, see the betrayal and trust theme and the power and control theme. Learn more about the key characters involved: Sarah Morgan and Bob Miller.