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Part 2, Chapter 7
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
Somerset doesn’t see Isabel or Larry for the next 10 years. He does continue to see Elliott, though, perhaps even more frequently than before. Elliott periodically gives Somerset news about Isabel but doesn’t know anything about Larry. Later, Somerset will meet Larry again and learn what he did over those 10 years. To maintain a sense of chronology, Somerset writes, he has decided to include Larry’s account of what he did during those 10 years at this point in the novel.
Somerset, as the narrator, interrupts the story to explain the mechanics of the narrative he’s telling. This interjection functions, again, to try and make the fiction of the novel seem as real as possible by transparently displaying the novel’s storytelling devices. With that in mind, Somerset, as the narrator, argues that the reader can trust him and the story he is telling, in part to try and make the case that the reader can also trust any insights the story might reveal because it all “actually happened.”
Themes
Larry says that after two years of studying for 8-10 hours a day, he needs a break from books and decides to go work in a coal mine in the north of France. He thinks spending a few months doing manual labor will help him clear his mind. Somerset wonders if Isabel’s decision to break off their engagement might have also contributed to Larry’s desire for a change of pace. In the mine, Larry works with a man he calls Kosti, who had been an officer in the Polish army. Other people at the mine tell Larry that Kosti was kicked out of the military after he was caught cheating at cards. Kosti is well-educated and is a devout Catholic. Larry enjoys listening to him talk about “the ultimate reality of things” and “union with God,” but Kosti only talks about those things when he’s been drinking.
Somerset is surprised that Larry would choose to do demanding manual labor when he has $3,000 in annual income, leading Somerset to speculate that Larry takes the job in the mine in part to help cope with the difficulty of losing Isabel. Regardless of Larry’s motivations, Somerset’s reaction to him working in the mine reveals again that Larry doesn’t do what other people expect of him or what other people would understand; instead, he follows his own values and beliefs about life, even when they guide him to unexpected places and situations.
Themes
