A Rip in Heaven

A recurring theme throughout the book is the transition from childhood to adulthood, during later adolescence. Cummins returns to this theme repeatedly, constantly using thematic imagery to characterize the Cummins and Kerry children in relation to their maturity. One of the basic purposes of this theme is to emphasize the weight of the violent crime that is perpetrated on these young people at a vulnerable time in their lives. At the opening of the narrative, Cummins focuses on the innocent, childlike behavior of the Cummins and Kerry children as they play together and prepare to let go of their childhoods. In particular, Tom has been growing up and maturing, becoming a responsible member of the fire department under Julie’s influence. Julie and Robin are both college students and are moving forward in their lives. Cummins highlights this important transitional phase in their lives to examine how the crime impacts Tom’s development and to ponder the lost potential of Julie and Robin.

This theme is developed most profoundly through Tom, whose characterization shifts dramatically throughout the book. Cummins alternatingly characterizes him as a young, innocent, and vulnerable child and as a mature, confident man. The purpose of this notable inconsistency in Tom’s characterization is twofold. First, it illustrates that Tom’s development has been drastically confused and muddled due to the violent crime that he has been exposed to. Just as Tom is becoming a burgeoning adult, he is beaten back into childhood, making him weak and susceptible due to the trauma he has been through. In other moments, however, it gives him the opportunity to face challenges and become a man. The second purpose of this dichotomous characterization is to set up Tom’s eventual recovery at the end of the book, when he lets go of his guilt and weakness and becomes a self-actualized adult.

The focus on Julie and Robin’s transition from childhood to adulthood only magnifies the tragedy of their murder. Cummins elaborates on their lost potential, imparting to the reader the great poets and activists they may have become had their lives not been ended so suddenly. By characterizing Julie and Robin in relation to their adolescence and burgeoning maturity, Cummins invokes the idea that their passionate humanitarian work was only beginning and that the world was robbed of two hardworking, productive advocates.

A less consistent, but still important, theme is the injustice in police investigations and in media representation of victims and their families. Both the police and the media take advantage of the Cummins and Kerry families, using and manipulating them to achieve their own selfish ends. The police, under pressure by the media attention on the case, want to wrap up the case as quickly and cleanly as possible. It is this pressure, in part, that causes the police to jump on Tom as the primary suspect after he fails a polygraph test under extreme shock and exhaustion. It also causes the police to neglect due diligence, like confirming Tom’s story through a medical exam, which would have found Tom’s broken hip and confirmed that he fell from a great height.

The most chilling example of injustice in the investigation is when the police outright lie to Tom and Gene. Tom is told that two of the four killers are present in the station, even seeing him through a two-way mirror, and that they have implicated Tom. This lie is profoundly traumatic to Tom, in his state of shock, as he is frightened for his life by these killers even as the police have apparently sided with them over him. Even more unjust, they lie about the height of the bridge to Gene, telling him that it is over 90 feet tall, when in fact it is only 50 feet. This causes Gene to doubt Tom’s story, to the point that Gene sides with the police over Tom for a moment, urging Tom to tell the truth. Gene betraying his son in this way creates even more emotional turmoil in Tom, who all the while is innocent.

Finally, the media representation of Tom and his family is a recurring injustice in the book’s second half. Tom is consistently painted as a sick, perverted killer in the media, and he is treated as a suspect even after he is cleared by the police department. Reporters harass the Cummins and Kerry families, even putting microphones in the face of young Jamie without her parents being present. Such false representation causes Tom to be viewed as a criminal back in his hometown, as the less exciting news of the four real criminals never makes it there. Finally, the media falls for Richardson’s lawyer’s machinations to turn Richardson into a victim. Richardson becomes a national martyr due to misleading, inaccurate media stories, which causes only more emotional trauma for the Cummins and Kerry families.