Big Little Lies

The elderly Patty Ponder lives across the street from the Pirriwee Public elementary school, the main setting of the novel. Patty enjoys looking out across the school and observing the comings and goings. She notes the frantic energy of the mothers, stating “Mothers took their mothering so seriously now” (2). Patty sees, too, that more fathers drop off their kids now.

The school regularly hosts trivia nights, and the parents turn the events into costume parties. During an Audrey Hepburn and Elvis Presley themed trivia night, Mrs. Ponder notices that the parents sound particularly riotous. Watching the parents from her vantage point, Patty sees two of the fathers dressed as Elvis begin to fight, resulting in a scuffle. Women scream and shout. Mrs. Ponder debates calling the police.

Statements of several members of the community break away from the traditional narrative, which becomes a regularly employed structural device. Different people give various explanations as to why the fight occurred: a simple misunderstanding, helicopter parenting, a rift between the working mothers and stay-at-home mothers, etc. Finally, Detective-Sergeant Adrian Quinlan states that he's questioning the parents because someone, at this time unnamed, was killed at the trivia night.