The Day of the Jackal

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1971

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-9

Part 2, Chapters 10-14

Part 2, Chapters 15-18

Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Part 1, Chapters 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Anatomy of a Plot”

Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary

The Jackal travels to Paris, taking a room in a modest hotel and quietly posing as a tourist. While he is touring France’s famous buildings, however, he is actually “mentally working out angles of fire” (85). Each spot seems unsuitable, until he arrives at the square at the southern end of Rue de Reims, now renamed for an important date on which the Gaullist forces took power in the city hall during World War II. There is “something about this square” (87) that appeals to the Jackal. Over the coming days, he carefully examines the surrounding buildings until he settles on a building overlooking the square. He sneaks into the building and clarifies his plan, including the use of the fire escape after the assassination attempt. He watches the concierge, Madame Berthe, and notes her routine. The nearby station is busy and could mask his escape. As he leaves the site, he sees de Gaulle’s motorcade pass by and the famous profile of the French leader. He thinks to himself that he will see the profile again “through a telescopic sight” (92). Then, he returns to his hotel.

As the Jackal watches the motorcade, an attractive young woman stands on the other side of the road. She watches de Gaulle’s car pass by and feels revulsion. Her name is Jacqueline Dumas and she comes from “a good family” (92). Her brother was conscripted into the Army to fight in Algeria, where he died tragically. The news damaged the once-tightly knit family. Jacqueline began to hate the Algerians. Her brother’s last letter was delivered to her personally by Francois, her brother’s platoon commander. He told her in detail how her brother died. They began a passionate affair. While Francois was away in Algeria, she worked for a beautician and waited for him. During one of his trips home, she became pregnant but did not tell him. When de Gaulle returned to power and the prospect of Algerian independence became real, Francois was among the many officers who launched a mutiny. He was killed. Jacqueline was heartbroken and tried to die by suicide but only lost her baby. Then, she joined the OAS. After several minor missions, she agrees to seduce an unnamed older man. As she engages in the affair with this married man, she imagines herself with Francois. She watches de Gaulle’s motorcade pass and returns home to prepare for her assignment, thinking of Francois, begging him to help her.

The Jackal visits a flea market. He purchases a long military coat and old medals. He studies the meaning of the medals and creates a backstory for himself, deciding which ones are appropriate for him to wear. Then, he checks out of his hotel and travels to Brussels.

Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary

Kowalski receives a letter, which he hides from Rodin and the other conspirators. When he is alone, he reads the letter, which details the sickness of a young girl named Sylvie. She has contracted “Luke-something” (102) but Kowalski is told not to worry. Kowalski is originally from Poland. He grew up under German occupation and killed his first German at age 15. After fleeing Poland, he traveled across Europe and engaged in petty crimes before joining the French Foreign Legion. Having served in Indochina and Algeria, he is familiar with violence, but he is not intelligent. While in Marseille, he met a sex worker named Julie. Their relationship involved “a lot of lust, particularly on her side, but no love” (104). When she became pregnant, Kowalski arranged for the child, Sylvie, to be adopted by his friend, Josef “Jojo” Grzybowski. Kowalski visited her whenever he could, even as he fell under Rodin’s influence and eventually joined the OAS. Kowalski is now concerned about his daughter’s health. He asks Rodin about the condition described in the letter; Casson interrupts to explain that he likely means leukemia and that is it “fatal” (106). Kowalski leaves the room, worried.

Rodin, Casson, and Montclair raise enough money to pay the initial part of the Jackal’s fee. Casson advises that they wait until their point of contact in de Gaulle’s entourage is ready: He claims that the OAS have inserted an agent near a member of de Gaulle’s team who can supply “the latest accurate information” (107) about de Gaulle’s whereabouts. They agree to delay for a few days. Meanwhile, Kowalski arranges to abandon his post and return to Marseille briefly to see Sylvie.

In Brussels, the Jackal meets with Goosens. The Jackal examines the “high-velocity, long-range, fully-silenced assassin’s rifle” (112). The gun can be disassembled for transit, but Goosens regretfully admits that he needs several extra days to fabricate the final part of the Jackal’s designs. The Jackal agrees to extend the deadline. Goosens advises him to try the rifle in the Belgian countryside, including the explosive rounds which are “banned by the Geneva Convention” (113). Next, the Jackal meets the forger. The false documents are in order, but the forger tries to extort more money from the Jackal. The Jackal kills him and leaves the body hidden in a chest in the forger’s photography studio, confident that it will not be found for months. He prepares to take a hire car out to the countryside and shops for hiking supplies.

Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary

Kowalski places a telephone call from Rome to Marseille. After managing to explain his friend’s Polish name to the operator, he reaches Grzybowski and learns that Sylvie has leukemia. With his thoughts in turmoil, he hangs up the calls. In Marseilles, Grzybowski is being held hostage by agents from Action Service. He must hope, they tell him, that Kowalski comes to Marseilles.

Meanwhile, the Jackal takes his new rifle to the countryside. He makes slight adjustments to the scope and tests the explosive rounds on a honeydew melon, which explodes so that it is “unrecognizable as anything but pulp” (136). He returns to his hotel, cleans his rifle, then visits Goosens again to collect the finely fabricated design. The result is “perfect” (139), he assures Goosens. The Jackal pays and leaves with a parting reminder that Goosens should forget everything about him. He packs his rifle and forged documents and returns to London.

Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary

After several sleepless nights, Kowalski flies to Marseilles. He is trailed to Grzybowski’s fake address, where he is ambushed by Action Service agents. Though they outnumber him six to one, he puts up a fight. Several agents are badly harmed, but Kowalski is eventually knocked unconscious. A doctor examines him in prison, but warns Colonel Rolland that he cannot sanction the interrogation of the badly hurt Kowalski as the prisoner will “either die or become a raving lunatic” (151).

The Jackal makes his final preparations. He packs a series of suitcases according to his false identities: Pastor Per Jensen, Marty Schulberg, Andre Martin, and Alexander Duggan. He believes that he will not need all four, but the priest and the student are “precautionary tactics” (153). Eventually, he receives the two letters, signaling the final green light. A letter from his bank account confirms that he is now “a wealthy man for the rest of his life” (154), and a second letter provides him with a contact in Paris who knows de Gaulle’s schedule.

In France, Kowalski wakes up after three days and is immediately interrogated. He is strapped to a chair, and electrical conductors are attached to his nipples and penis. When he does not answer, he is electrocuted. After a long torture session, he dies. The transcript of his interrogation is written up and sent to Rolland. Over the course of a night, Rolland reviews the transcript until he is certain that the three members of the OAS hiding in Rome have hired a foreign assassin to kill de Gaulle. He writes a report and sends it to the heads of France’s security services.

Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary

The Minister of the Interior Roger Frey takes Rolland’s report directly to de Gaulle. First, he meets with Jean Ducrat, the head of de Gaulle’s personal security. Frey believes that the assassination of de Gaulle “could only be the prologue to putsch and civil war” (168). Like many of the men in de Gaulle’s government, he is a staunch believer in the French leader’s status and importance to France. As the Jackal finishes a long, expensive lunch in London, Frey meets with de Gaulle. De Gaulle reads Rolland’s report but refuses to do anything. Any public response or change would “be cowering before the menace of a miserable hireling and […] of a foreigner” (174).

Frey calls a meeting of the head of France’s security services. After giving them access to Rolland’s report, they are all “sworn to total silence” (181). They discuss what they have uncovered. They traced Rodin’s meeting place in Vienna and, after a conversation with the desk clerk, learned that an unnamed man met with the OAS in Vienna. However, they have little descriptive information. They cannot abduct the three OAS leaders in Rome, as they are too well-guarded, and a diplomatic incident would ensue. Frey turns to Commissaire Bouvier, the chief of the Brigade Criminelle of the Police Judiciaire. Bouvier deliberates over the issue and decides they must first learn the name of the assassin. According to Bouvier, “the best detective in France [is his] own deputy, Commissaire Claude Lebel” (186). Frey orders Lebel to be summoned.

Part 1, Chapters 5-9 Analysis

As Part 1 of The Day of the Jackal continues to unfold, the subject of Algeria becomes increasingly prominent. The political resentment of the OAS members is rooted in the perceived betrayal by de Gaulle, whom they blame for surrendering Algeria, highlighting the theme of Political Resentment as a Catalyst for Revenge. This betrayal is not only a political issue but a deeply emotional and personal one for the soldiers and civilians involved. The OAS is staffed by men who fought in Algeria and believe that the country should have remained a French colony in perpetuity. The Algerian war for independence was a brutal insurgency, in which the French troops enacted great violence and faced brutal retaliation. For these men, the violence inflicted and suffered is embedded within their trauma and manifests as a personal desire for revenge against de Gaulle. Their campaign of terror reflects the colonial violence coming full circle, now targeting the political core of France. Following de Gaulle’s supposed surrender, the violence inflicted and violence suffered seem suddenly pointless. The traumatized soldiers—as well as civilians who have been traumatized by the deaths of their loved ones—can never forgive the Algerians for what the soldiers have done. De Gaulle becomes the figurehead of this resentment, the embodiment of the soldiers’ trauma. In this way, their need for revenge is directly tied to de Gaulle’s representation of their sacrifices’ futility. They bring the war home with them, enacting the same violence against de Gaulle and his security team that they enacted against the Algerians. This emphasizes how unresolved political and personal resentments can transform into violent revenge, disrupting both the internal and external stability of a nation. The Jackal’s mission is a threat to the French national project because he has a higher chance of succeeding than the traumatized soldiers trying to battle an insurgency in their own land.

Kowalski is himself a bitter soldier. He grew up in Poland at a time when his homeland was ravaged by war. After taking his first German life as a teenager and passing through camps for displaced peoples during the height of World War II, he has seen humanity at its most brutal and desperate. His experiences of displacement and violence shape him into a brutal man, demonstrating how war molds individuals into instruments of violence. In the military, Kowalski was happy to receive orders that gave purpose and direction to his listless existence, which is why he followed Rodin into the OAS. Kowalski does not care about de Gaulle or Algeria; he is just following his commanding officer into a new frontier. Coupled with the tragedy of his personal life and the way in which he has surrendered the fatherhood of his daughter to his friend, Kowalski treads the fine line between pathos and brutality. The tragedy of Kowalski is that his deep sense of loss and alienation is weaponized against him in a cruel irony by the French security forces. They appeal to his love for his estranged daughter, pretending that she is dying of bone cancer to lure him away from the hotel in Rome. Kowalski’s last bit of humanity—his love for his daughter—becomes another part of the broader conflict. Kowalski’s fate reveals The Consequences of Hubris on both sides of the conflict—his misplaced trust in the OAS and the French state’s reliance on brute force over strategic insight.

Kowalski’s death simultaneously shows the futility of the French security state, underscoring the inadequacy of traditional state tactics against a new, more methodical threat like the Jackal, who represents The Rise of Meticulous Men. When they fought against OAS, the French security state knew where they stood. They were able to meet violence with violence, and—with the backing of the French state—they emerged victorious. Against the Jackal, however, brute force means nothing. The state’s inability to adapt from traditional tactics to a new form of threat exposes a critical vulnerability, leading it to shift to the quiet professionalism of a man like Lebel. Lebel represents a new era of professionalism that recognizes the limitations of hubristic force and prioritizes strategic precision over emotional reaction, making him a match for the Jackal. In this sense, Kowalski is key to the failure of the OAS in that he demonstrates to the French security apparatus why their current techniques simply will not do. By dying, Kowalski shows the necessity of a man like Lebel. The shift in strategy symbolized by Lebel signals The Rise of Meticulous Men who must succeed where force alone cannot. As such, the Jackal’s slow precision and willingness to kill when threatened rather than when provoked highlights the quiet, well-paced determination that threatens the French state.