Lee Child’s Killing Floor: Jack Reacher has two contradictory, alternate personalities—a silent, violent loner and a talkative, friendly, first-person narrator

Two Reacher Personalities

In this first of the series of Jack Reacher novels, the author wants the reader to enter into a long-term relationship with the protagonist. First-person narration promotes intimacy. I understand that.

But Reacher, the first-person narrator, describes himself as a person who travels by bus, because buses don’t keep passenger lists; who always pays by cash; and who does not carry a mobile phone. He is a reticent, violent loner, who doesn’t want anyone to keep track of him or know his business. This Jack Reacher personality is epitomized in the title of a book (quoted in a previous post), Reacher Said Nothing (1).

Therefore, Reacher’s providing an intimate, talkative, first-person narration is completely out of character. So there must be two personalities, as indicated in the title of this post.

Reacher Hears Voices

No issue is made of the fact that Reacher hears voices. It is mentioned in passing, as though most people hear voices, but most people don’t. In a nonpsychotic person, a rational voice may be an alternate personality, speaking from behind the scenes, which is probably the case here:

“I sat there in the back of the police Chevrolet listening to a tiny voice in my head asking me what the hell I was going to do about that” (2, p. 143).

“I…listened to the tiny voice inside my head saying: you’re supposed to do something about that” (2, p. 150).

“All of a sudden I was glad I had jumped off that damn bus. Glad I made that crazy last-minute decision. I suddenly relaxed. Felt better. The tiny voice in my head quieted down” (2, p. 156).

“I…started answering the question the tiny voice in my head was asking me again” (2, p.159).

Other than one personality’s hearing the voice of the other personality, the only other time that one of Reacher’s personalities is described as being aware of Reacher’s other personality is this:

“I noticed with a kind of detached curiosity that I was screaming, too” (2, p. 511). This takes place after the villains had been vanquished. It is a comment by the violent, reticent personality, who is watching the talkative personality celebrate.

E Unum Pluribus

The motto of the USA is E Pluribus Unum (From Many, One), meaning that the many colonies or states came together to form the one United States of America.

This novel reverses the motto for use as code words, which refer to a plot to make counterfeit hundred dollar bills: “E Unum Pluribus. Out of one comes many. Out of one dollar comes a hundred dollars” (2, p. 427). In the plot, one dollar bills were to be bleached, and then the paper was to be used to print hundred dollar bills.

Coincidentally, E Unum Pluribus could be code words for multiple personality, meaning that, from one person, comes more than one personality. Is that what Lee Child meant? Not intentionally.

1. Lee Child. Killing Floor. New York, Jove Books, 1997/2012.

2. Andy Martin. Reacher Said Nothing. New York, Bantam Books, 2015.