A question about context (spoiler'ish)

[Greg]

I don't see this addressed in the existing topics - though, I'm on my phone and could easily be missing it - but I had a question about how one part of the story relates to the entirety of it.

At the airport, when Kirsten and Charlie are reunited and recalling the moment they shared in the nursery, it goes into great detail to support the existence of a ghost, or ghosts. Other than a brief mention of the fallen following their murderers to the grave, ghosts, or the paranormal, really have no play in this book. So was there a point to being so deliberate in this scene? It just seemed out of place, to me. Or am I missing an arc/theme here...?

[Phil]

It was probably just a "we're all haunted by our past" sort of thing. My guess is that Charlie had a bit of a mental breakdown and doesn't remember setting up the tea set.

[Aubrey]

This moment stuck out to me as well. I did felt that it supported a haunting quality that had been circulating throughout the book. The the dead bodies lingering around those who survived and all the things destroyed and left surrounding them for example. I also think the scene was particularly haunting because of it was about children and my feeling was that that's what was bothering Charlie the most about it.

That's a good thought that perhaps it was Charlie who set it up and had a breakdown...My other thought was perhaps someone was there just before them and wanted to set the tea set as a memoriam of some kind. However, I know she mentioned footprints in the dust or the lack thereof so maybe that's not a likely possibility.

[Lindsay]

I think the mundane explanation doesn't matter. It could have been either of the things Aubrey says.

I think the point of it was just to remind the reader just how many ghosts, figuratively at least, are haunting both these people and the world and that fact probably wouldn't be too far from the survivor's consciousness.

[Aubrey]

Lindsay wrote: "I think the point of it was just to remind the reader just how many ghosts, figuratively at least, are haunting both these people and the world..."

I completely agree, Lindsay. And I think that can be said for a lot of the book. So many ideas and images are fragmented throughout the book without a lot of explanation. You could almost say the whole book is made of these fragments and ghosts.