Strange Sally Diamond

“I knew that corpses decomposed and began to rot and smell, so I carefully placed the bag into the incinerator barrel. I splashed some petrol over the top and set it going. I didn’t stay to hear it burn. He was no longer he; it was a body, an ‘it,’ in a domestic incinerator beside a barn in a field beside a house at the end of a lane, off a minor road.”

This quote introduces Sally’s strangeness and lack of understanding about certain realities of the world. Because she does not realize that a domestic incinerator is an inappropriate method for disposing of a human body, Sally’s error emphasizes a vacuum of practical knowledge that makes it difficult for her to engage with the world. This quote also captures Sally’s pragmatic approach to life; she takes a very practical view of corpses and does not romanticize the concept of life after death. Ultimately, this tendency is just a part of what many people find strange about her, for she does not subscribe to common religious, spiritual, or social beliefs about how to properly deal with a dead body.

“My mum used to ask me to play this game in my head. To imagine what other people were thinking. It was a curious thing. Isn’t it easier to ask them what they think? And is it any of my business? I know what I think.”

Sally has a hard time relating to other people. Her mother’s trick of imagining what other people are thinking is designed as a game to help Sally consider other people’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences. This quote emphasizes Sally’s social isolation, her detachment from others, and her protective nature, as her inability to understand what other people are thinking is also her own defense against other people trying to know what she is thinking.