A Little Life Themes

Jude St. Francis, the protagonist of A Little Life, endures unspeakable trauma and abuse throughout his early life. As a child, Jude is orphaned and brought up in a monastery by monks who physically, sexually, and psychologically abuse him. He manages to escape, but every subsequent semblance of a home he finds himself in as a young person manages to be just as traumatic as the last. When Jude flees the abusive environment…

At its core, A Little Life is a coming-of-age story about four friends who move to the city to pursue their passions and find themselves. In time, each of the book’s four central characters achieve fame and success in their chosen field. Their professional lives offer concrete, obvious means to measure their success: for JB, it’s when museums start to hang his work; Willem knows he’s made it as an actor when film directors…

A Little Life may be brutal in its depiction of abuse, pain, and human suffering—but it is not relentless. As often as the novel subjects Jude to physical and psychological torture, it also grants him temporary relief in the happy moments he shares with his friends. Jude, Malcolm, JB, and Willem meet and form a close bond in college, and their friendship endures, deepens, and evolves as they move through life. Jude and…

The world of the novel is a wretched place where suffering, tragedy, loss, and human cruelty spare nobody. Jude endures a lifetime of unbearable pain, health complications, and impaired mobility after a sadistic doctor runs him over with his car when he is 15, and his condition only worsens with age. He also struggles with unresolved trauma from an abusive childhood. Most characters die, many of them young and tragically. By the novel’s end, JB…