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Chapter 23
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 enters a dark period of his life. He works in a library sorting government files. The librarians think he’s smart and talented. When Geryon’s mother asks him about his coworkers, he can’t remember if they’re men or women. He references some photographs he took of them, but the photos are only of their feet. One photo depicts a naked foot resting on an open filing cabinet. Geryon explains that the foot belongs to the assistant head librarian’s sister. Geryon’s mother asks if she’s a nice girl, and Geryon scowls at her.
Geryon’s inability to distinguish between his coworkers and his decision to fixate on their feet reflects his diminished affirmation of self as a result of his depression. It develops the idea that our sense of self is an internalization of what others reflect back to us. Because Geryon can’t ruminate on himself, he can’t see others. It’s a vicious cycle where not having a clear sense of self puts him at a disadvantage, unable to connect to others and unable to receive their assessment of him and internalize that.
Themes
The phone rings, and Geryon answers it. It’s Herakles. They engage in some small talk. Herakles mentions doing some graffiti with Hart, whom Geryon hasn’t met. Herakles then changes the subject to his real reason for calling: he’d dreamed about Geryon. In Herakles’s dream, Geryon was an old Indian man. He was standing on the back porch beside a pail of water containing a drowned yellow bird. Geryon lifted the bird by its wings, flung it into the air, and the bird came alive. Geryon can’t believe the bird was yellow and decides Herakles has never known him.
Herakles’s casual comment about his new friend Hart shows how differently he’s easily he’s handling the breakup. He appears to be completely over Geryon, whereas Geryon has descended into a death-obsessed state of melancholy. This exchange between Geryon and Herakles is significant because it shows Geryon how little Herakles really knows about him. If Herakles knew Geryon at all, he would know to associate Geryon with the winged bird rather than the old man, since wings are the characteristic by which Geryon centrally defines himself. He would also know that the bird should be red, not yellow.
Themes
Herakles tells Geryon the dream is “a freedom dream,” which is what Herakles wants for Geryon, as his friend. Geryon almost tells Herakles he wants to be with him, not to be free, but swallows his words. They end their conversation. Geryon angrily leaves the house, telling his mother he’s headed to the beach.
Herakles’s desire for Geryon to be free reflects Herakles’s valuation of individual freedom over responsibility to the outside world. He thinks honoring one’s personal desires is more self-affirming than connecting with others. Geryon believes the opposite is true, yet he holds back his true feelings and denies himself the chance to connect with Herakles, feeling the rejection that would come when Herakles turns him down once more.
Themes
It’s dark outside when Geryon returns. He goes to his room, undresses, and observes himself in the mirror. He lies down in bed and cries until he can’t cry anymore, then he falls asleep. He wakes up in the middle of the night feeling angry. He pictures Herakles going about his life without Geryon and laments “wrong love.”
Geryon’s lamentation about “wrong love” shows that he understands intellectually how ill-suited Herakles’s ideas about freedom are to Geryon’s need for intimacy and mutual respect. Yet, on an emotional level, he can’t make himself understand that Herakles is bad for him. The mythic figure Herakles might have slew Geryon, but this Herakles wounds him romantically.
Themes
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