Previous
Part 2, Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Razor’s Edge, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Wisdom and the Meaning of Life
Social Norms and Conformity
Trauma and Self-Destruction
Snobbishness, Social Status, and Cosmopolitanism
Truth and the Problem of Evil
Summary
Analysis
At lunch the next day, Somerset asks Larry how he likes Paris, and Larry says he likes it very much. When Somerset asks Larry what he does with his time, Larry says, “I loaf.” And, he says, he also reads. He adds that he and Isabel are both poor letter writers, but that she’s coming with her mother next year to stay with Elliott, so he’ll see her then. Otherwise, Larry is interested in Somerset’s trip to China, but the conversation quickly stalls. Somerset is confused about why Larry asked him to lunch since the two didn’t seem to have much to talk about. After he leaves, Somerset thinks that he doesn’t know anything more about what Larry has been doing in Paris than he did before going to lunch.
This passage reveals that even Somerset doesn’t truly understand what Larry wants or what he is doing with his time, signaling that part of the disconnect between Larry and Isabel or between Larry and Elliott might stem, at this point, not simply from close-mindedness on others’ parts but from Larry’s own lack of self-knowledge or self-understanding. At this point, Larry seems to sense dimly what he is after, but he doesn’t seem to have enough of a grasp on what he desires to be able to explain or clarify it to others.
Themes
