Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in An Imaginary Life, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Suffering and Personal Growth
Language, Perception, and Nature
Frivolity vs. Practicality
Childhood, Fate, and Identity
Summary
Analysis
Ovid and the Child move beyond the River Ister into an endless grassland. Although once the flat emptiness around Tomis bothered Ovid, now the wide expanse “feeds the spirit” and feels like freedom. Though Ovid is tired, he feels “lighter” and imagines he sees himself and the Child from a great distance overhead, where their physical fatigue seems only a minor discomfort. Evening falls and shadows stretch down from the hills. When the cold wind blows from the north, Ovid and the Child duck below the chest-high grass. When warm blows from the south, it feels like spring.
Having crossed the Ister and symbolically transitioned from one phase of life to the next, Ovid’s view of himself and the Child from far overhead suggests that he has a new perspective on their suffering. Viewed from above, his weary, aching body feels like a minor irritation rather than a great burden, since Ovid can now see the majesty of their new world as they press further into it.
Themes
Ovid realizes they’ve entered “the Child’s world at last.” The Child runs excitedly about, digging roots, finding eggs, showing Ovid all the ways to forage and survive. Ovid stops keeping track of the days as they pass, since the river is “far behind” them. Sometimes they see horsemen in the far distance, but they never approach. Occasionally, Ovid wakes at night to the sound of nearby wolves, but the Child growls in such a way that wards them off. Ovid no longer considers what their destination will be, nor does he feel the need for one. He wonders if this is how the village shaman feels when he goes into a trance and wanders the earth without his body.
Ovid’s sense that they no longer need to count the days because the Ister is “far behind” suggests that he is so far into this new phase of life and state of being, that there is no going back. Ovid and the Child have suffered and survived and grown together, and are now fully committed to this new way of life. The river, and any chance to return to their lifestyles in Tomis, are long gone. For the Child, this transition into the wilderness seems to restore his spirit.
Themes
Ovid wonders who the Child truly is, whether he is the boy they found in the birchwoods or the same Child he knew during his own childhood. He wonders if the Child did not discover him in the midst of his exile, not the other way around. Ovid and the Child travel together in silence without using “formal” language, yet Ovid feels all the time they are constantly in dialogue, responding to the landscape around them as if their simple thoughts pass from one mind to the other. Ovid feels as if he is becoming “bodiless,” part of the landscape and the sky.
The story returns to its idea of an unstructured, universal language that connects all things. Ovid’s sense that he becomes “bodiless” suggests that, like the Child, he is letting go of his distinctive sense of self. Rather than separate himself from nature, he perceives himself as yet another element of nature. This unification with the natural world also seems to be a unification with the Child, since Ovid feels they can now pass unspoken thoughts back and forth between them.
Themes
Ovid feels that the earth is closer to him than it has ever been, even though he will soon leave it behind. He lies on the ground and stares at the roots of grass. Ovid smells the soil and intuitively knows what it is composed of, as if it is an extension of himself. He wonders if he will take root in his sleep and join the earth. The thought comforts Ovid. It will be his way to continue existing. Between his body and the earth, he finds “unity and commerce.” He is entering his own metamorphosis.
Ovid’s admiration of the roots of grass signify a complete transition away from his Latin manner of perceiving the world. In Latin, Ovid perceived himself as separate from the natural world and despised any nature that was not cultivated or touched. His new perception of himself as one with the environment suggests his growing understanding of the Child’s “true language” completely changes the way he sees himself, especially in relation to the natural world.
Themes
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The Child seems free in this wilderness, as if his being expands and he is “lighter.” He takes care of Ovid, foraging food and feeding him, just as Ovid once cared for the Child. Ovid no longer fears what damage he wrought on the Child by dragging him into the “world of men.” He can sense that the Child yearns to travel further, to press into the expanse of territory. Ovid wonders what gives the Child purpose. Despite the Child’s impatience, he exhibits a “tender kinship” that Ovid would never have thought possible. Looking at the Child, Ovid feels that the boy belongs to another world entirely—perhaps the villagers were right to believe the Child was a “foundling of the gods,” more than human.
Ovid’s recognition that the Child comes from another world indicates that he no longer believes human society is the best thing for the boy. This, too, represents a radical shift in Ovid’s perception of the world. Within his Latin framework, Ovid considered human civilization to be the most noble and pure thing imaginable, while untamed nature was reprehensible. Now, Ovid sees that untamed nature is beautiful and pure, while human civilization breeds corruption and sickness.
Themes
Ovid grows so weak that the Child must chew his food for him, breaking down the tough roots before feeding it to the old man. Ovid realizes one day that he has taken his last steps, though the Child doesn’t yet see it, and simply leaves him to forage as usual. Ovid imagines that he both “ascend[s]” and “lowers [him]self” into the gods’ hands, in the place he’d often dreamt about. Looking back, he considers that every event in his life has led him to “this place and no other.”
Although Ovid makes no mention of time anymore, his failing body suggests that he and the Child wander the grasslands for months. Ovid’s new perspective that he is one with the nature gives him comfort in the face of death. This suggests that by rediscovering the “true language” and relinquishing one’s sense of individual self, death no longer represents a final ending, but merely a transition into a new state of being.
Themes
Ovid looks back on his life and feels that he is simultaneously three years old and 60. In both places, the Child is present. Ovid watches him forage for snails in a stream, happy and content and “free.” Rather than call out to him, Ovid just watches the Child walk further and further away. He feels “unbearably happy,” three years old and 60 and six all at once. He states finally, “I am there.”
Again, the Child’s true nature as either a human boy or a mystical being is left pointedly unclear. Regardless, the Child becomes the new center of Ovid’s world and teaches him the “true language” that frees Ovid from his sense of self. This is particularly significant for Ovid, who lived most of his life frivolously and self-indulgently, the center of his own universe. Ovid’s happiness and sense of presence suggests that, having moved past that life, he finally feels fulfilled.
Themes
