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Chapter 32
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
Varya wakes in her car the next morning, still in the parking lot. She is hung over and very hungry. She drives home and cleans herself up before driving to the lab. When she arrives, she learns from a coworker that Frida is in isolation because she’s been plucking out her fur. Varya goes to the isolation chamber and sees that Frida has pulled her own hair out. She is sitting in a layer of her own urine and rocking herself. Varya tries to soothe her, but Frida does not stop. Two weeks prior, Frida bit her left thigh so badly she needed stitches.
Frida’s self-harm becomes the first sign that surviving for a long time is not necessarily better than having a shorter, more fulfilling life. Even though Frida’s restricted calorie diet and captivity make her biologically healthier, they also cause her to be miserable. This misery, in turn, negates all the positive health effects of her diet, since she is hurting herself so badly. In Frida’s case, the cost of surviving for a longer period of time is not worth its benefit.
Themes
Suddenly, Luke enters the room with the isolation chamber. He is still wearing his clothes from the day before, and his hair is matted and greasy. Varya asks what he’s doing there, and he says he needs to talk to her. He snaps a photo of Frida, and when she says he wasn’t authorized to take the photo, he cowers. Varya realizes that Luke isn’t actually a journalist and asks who he is. He tells her that she named him Solomon. Varya reels as she realizes that Luke is her baby—the baby she ultimately decided not to abort.
The revelation that Luke is Varya’s child adds another example of family members being pulled toward one another despite great estrangement. Varya gave Luke up for adoption, and yet he wanted to try to find her because of the shared connection they have and his desire to know their shared history.
Themes
