Previous
Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Immortalists, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fate vs. Choice
Family and Shared History
Obsession
Death, Meaning, and Legacy
Surviving vs. Living
Magic, Religion, Dance, and Possibility
Summary
Analysis
The narration flashes back six years, just after Simon’s death. Klara returns to New York City. Despite the time she spent away from her family, she is grateful to hug Varya and see Daniel again. Gertie insists on a Jewish burial for Simon. Growing up, Klara enjoyed the stories of Judaism, if not its rules—she likes the story of Miriam, whose rolling rock provided water for 40 years, or Daniel in the lion’s den. The stories suggest that she can do anything. But praying with her family at Simon’s funeral fills her with a new appreciation for the prayers: they connect Simon and Saul to the living Golds.
When Klara comes home, the fact that she and Varya are able to provide each other with a comforting embrace in a time of shared grief is what draws them back together despite their previous estrangement. Klara also relates religion to magic here, exposing their similarities. Daniel was a prophet who disobeyed the king and was thrown into the lion’s den for a night as a death sentence. But miraculously, the lions left him alone and he emerged unscathed. In Miriam’s story, she had a sieve-shaped rock that traveled with the Jews when they were exiled from Egypt and roamed the desert for 40 years. Over that time the rock provided them with water. In both cases, the stories introduce supernatural explanations for some of life’s mysteries.
Themes
Three months after Simon’s death, Klara returns to New York for the High Holy Days. It is still difficult to be around people, but it is most comforting to be with people who also loved Simon. Still, soon into her visit, she and her siblings start to grow angry with each other. Daniel is frustrated that Simon cut them out of his life and that Klara didn’t call them when Simon got sick. Klara said it wasn’t her right to call, but inwardly she burns with guilt. She wonders what might have happened to Simon if she hadn’t suggested he go to San Francisco.
Klara’s return home demonstrates both the comfort and the frustration of being around family. She is glad to be around people who have shared the experience of losing their brother, but at the same time, she is annoyed that Daniel is picking on Simon for leaving and remaining estranged. Klara’s thoughts here also acknowledge her own role in Simon’s death—that she chose to go to San Francisco and take Simon with her, which may have set his fate in motion.
Themes
Klara also feels guilty that Varya is staying home to take care of Gertie. Varya put off grad school and is working as an administrative assistant at a pharmaceutical company. One night, Klara sees Gertie hugging Varya in Gertie’s room. Klara is ashamed, feeling that Varya has earned their mother’s love and she has not. Gertie, meanwhile, spends the Days of Repentance in misery, guilty that she turned Simon away. She prays, begging Simon to forgive her.
Klara’s disappointment and jealousy knowing that Varya has earned Gertie’s love illustrates that family members’ bonds are based on their shared experiences. While Klara was in San Francisco, Varya stayed at home to take care of Gertie following Simon’s death, and living together and comforting each other through a time of grief strengthened that bond.
Themes
Four months later, in January 1983, Klara notices Eddie O’Donoghue in one of her audiences—then she notices him at two more shows. After the third show, she confronts him. He says that he saw Simon’s picture in the paper after he died and wanted to apologize for being so hard on him. Eddie also tells Klara how much he loves her show—how it gives him faith. Her show reminds him of superheroes, how it’s “possible to be more than you [are].” Klara is amazed at his sincerity and she starts to cry. Suddenly, Eddie leans in to kiss Klara. She protests, and when he does not stop after a few seconds she shoves him backwards and runs away.
Eddie’s monologue illustrates that his passionate response to Klara’s show is based on Klara’s exact philosophy. Klara loves magic because it enables people to expand their worldview and imagine that more is possible than they once believed. Eddie’s comparison of her show to comic books—to heroes with supernatural abilities—supports this view of magic.
Themes
Get the entire The Immortalists LitChart as a printable PDF.
That fall, Klara returns to New York once again for the High Holy days. Daniel is in med school at the University of Chicago now, and Varya is studying molecular biology and disease at NYU’s graduate school. Klara feels very close to her siblings, and even Gertie seems lighter. Gertie suggests that the Golds perform a ritual in which they swing a live chicken over their heads, causing them all the burst into laughter.
Despite the conflict that arises between them, shared experiences and joy are what bring Klara back together with her family. Sometimes they aren’t as close, particularly because they now all live very far from each other. Yet the common ground between them pulls them back to their home.
Themes
Still, Klara is still pained when she thinks of Simon. There were whole chunks of her life that only Simon had witnessed, like mastering her tricks as a child, nights sneaking out to clubs in New York, and their life in San Francisco. They were always the closest of the siblings. One day while she is visiting New York, in September of 1983, Simon knocks for Klara, like the ghosts rapping for the Fox sisters. When she hears the knock, she is stunned—but then she thinks that she is just getting carried away.
One of the reasons that Simon’s death is so painful for Klara is because she has lost the one witness to some of her most important life experiences. It is her desire to regain their bond that makes Klara think she is receiving some kind of communication from Simon—and it’s why she ultimately becomes obsessed with speaking to the dead.
Themes
On the fourth anniversary of Simon’s death, June 21st, 1986, Klara decides to walk to the Castro. Many of the gay clubs have closed, but Purp is still standing. Klara kept in touch with Robert until 1985; she had gotten Robert into the trial for the experimental medication, but the pills made him sick and he stopped taking it. By October, every patient in the trial was dead, and Robert moved back to L.A. When Klara returns home from the Castro, she takes a bath. Suddenly, she hears the same crack that she heard in New York. She says, “if it’s you, do it again,” and the crack sounds again.
Unlike the previous knock in 1983, this time Klara begins to give credence to the idea that Simon is communicating with her from beyond the grave. Just as magic expands Klara’s worldview, it enables her to believe in these supernatural knocks. This incident sows the seeds of her obsession with the knocks, as she tries to discern their meaning.
Themes
