The Goldfinch Themes

The Goldfinch is a monument to art and beauty. It portrays art as what gives life meaning, particularly for people in the depths of despair. The novel’s protagonist, Theo Decker, comes to hold this view from his art-loving mother, Audrey. Whereas life is short, tragic, and cruel, art is a powerful (and in some ways eternal) source of meaning. Indeed, the novel shows that through being connected to art, humans can achieve a…

Through its examination of highly-valued artworks (such as The Goldfinch) and depiction of Hobie’s antique restoration business, the novel explores the question of why and how authenticity is valued over fabrication. Of all the characters, Hobie is the most dedicated to the importance of authenticity. Theo at first has a more relaxed attitude toward the issue of fabrication; yet after this gets him into deep trouble, he comes to realize the important of…

The Goldfinch is filled with different forms of illegal activity. Yet part of Theo’s coming-of-age experience involves learning to differentiate between illegal and immoral acts. This process starts at the very beginning of the novel when Theo commits an act (stealing The Goldfinch) that is illegal but arguably not immoral. Haunted by guilt and terror over this act, he rebels more and more against both moral and legal norms. Yet as the novel…

Over the course of the novel, Theo’s trajectory is defined by swings between extremes of hope and despair. While everything that happens to Theo might seem remarkably dramatic, the novel emphasizes that the oscillation between hope and despair fundamentally defines the human condition. Theo’s story indicates that hope and despair feed off each other, with each one making the other inevitable. Furthermore, Theo—like many other characters in the novel—experiences addiction, and this escalates the…