Previous
Chapter 15
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Autobiography of Red, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Creativity
Communication and Mystery
Time
Self and World
Summary
Analysis
Geryon has sex with Herakles. It makes him feel “clear and powerful” rather than wounded. He imagines himself as “a magnetic person like Matisse or Charlie Parker.” Afterward, they go to the Bus Depot for food. They rehearse their song, “Joy to the World.” Herakles moves Geryon’s head to his lap and pretends he is a gorilla, grooming him. The waitress arrives with their food and asks, “Newlyweds?”
Geryon’s reaction to feeling “clear and powerful” after sex recalls his earlier observation of how his relationship with Herakles makes him feel loose and shiny. His positive reaction to sex shows how intimacy with others can strengthen rather than diminish the self. His sense of self magnifies to the point that he feels “magnetic,”—as though he’s an artist like “Matisse or Charlie Parker,” whose art and music, respectively, immortalize them in history. Intimacy with Herakles—an act that requires the typically inverted Geryon to gesture outward—makes Geryon feel so confident in his sense of self that he feels almost immortal.
Themes
