The Chain – Analysis

For Chris Neill, the protagonist, the chain signifies wealth. The reason he keeps it, not giving it to the police means he’s not a very rich man and he needs this kind of money. His inner excitement is far stronger than the fear of been found out by the police. However, all sin comes with a price. He is now fearful and living like a thief. The chain becomes the source of his negative emotion, and he’s constantly brainwashing himself into thinking he never saw the chain. Hence, his anger and guilt will haunt his mind and disturb his inner peace forever.

As for Ronnie’s wife, we don’t have so much detail about her, but we can assume that she likes the chain a lot. It could also mean the union between her and her husband. She wears it with her wherever she goes, even to her death, as everything she has became rotten, only the golden chain remains as intact as ever.
For the policeman, if he’d ever seen the chain, there’s a possibility that he’d put it in his own pocket. Hence, when Ronnie asks him if he has seen a gold chain, he might instantly suspected Chris, and regretted not interrogating him to see if he had ever hid anything. So I’d say, for the policeman, the chain is a sign of regret of a prey he had lost and could’ve obtained easily.

The journalist regards the chain as a subject he could discuss in the journal and pushes some deep analysis that will attract people’s eye and make his articles popular. Therefore, the chain represents an item that can potentially bring him fame and success. However, it’s still unclear whether the journalist knows its existence or not.

As far as the readers are concerned, the chain stands for an entity that pivots the storyline. It triggers our curiosity to discover the links between the chain and every character, as well as what secret lies behind this mysterious thing. It also adds a kind of sinister, dark, ghostlike felling to the overall atmosphere of the story.