An Imaginary Life
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Themes
All Themes Suffering and Personal Growth Language, Perception, and Nature Frivolity vs. Practicality Childhood, Fate, and Identity
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Ovid The Child Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man Ryzak’s Mother / The Old Woman Ryzak’s Daughter-in-Law / The Young Woman Lullo / Ryzak’s Grandson
Symbols
All Symbols The True Language The Gods The River Ister Ovid’s Garden
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An Imaginary Life

by

David Malouf
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Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man Character Analysis

Ryzak is the leader of Tomis who shares his dwelling with Ovid. The stern and powerful Ryzak makes Ovid feel weak by comparison. Although Ovid initially thinks that Ryzak will eventually execute him, since he is technically Ovid’s captor, he grows to see Ryzak as the closest friend he has ever had. Ryzak teaches Ovid skills like how to ride a horse without a saddle and how to honor the dead, and his stories reveal the way the villagers’ language shapes their perception of the world around them. Although Ryzak does not understand Ovid’s interest in the Child, Ryzak helps bring the boy back to Tomis and protects him from the old woman (Ryzak’s mother), who is immediately hostile toward the Child. However, when the Child comes down with a fever that passes to Ryzak’s grandson Lullo, all of the villagers (including Ryzak) suspects that the Child brought a demon with him into Tomis. After Lullo recovers, Ryzak is stricken with a mysterious illness that causes him to spasm and growl like an animal. The old woman finds teeth marks on Ryzak’s wrist which she claims proves that a demon entered his body. After Ryzak falls into a coma, the elders of the village beat him to death so that his spirit will leave his body in a violent state, and thus be more difficult for other demons to take control of.

Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man Quotes in An Imaginary Life

The An Imaginary Life quotes below are all either spoken by Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man or refer to Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Suffering and Personal Growth Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

My life has been so frivolous. Brought up to believe in my own nerves, in restlessness, variety, change; educated entirely out of books, living always in a state of soft security, able to pamper myself, to drift about in a cloud of tender feelings, and with comfortable notions of my own intelligence, sociability, kindness, good breeding; moved by nothing I couldn’t give a name to, believing in nothing I couldn’t see.

Related Characters: Ovid (speaker), Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man
Related Symbols: The Gods
Suffering and Personal Growth Theme Icon
Frivolity vs. Practicality Theme Icon
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:

The old man’s stories are fabulous beyond anything I have retold from the Greeks; but savage, a form of extravagant play that explains nothing, but speaks straight out of the nightmare landscape of this place and my dream journeys across it […] I begin to see briefly, in snatches, how this old man, my friend, might see the world. It is astonishing. Bare, cruel, terrible, comic.

Related Characters: Ovid (speaker), Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man
Language, Perception, and Nature Theme Icon
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
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Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man Quotes in An Imaginary Life

The An Imaginary Life quotes below are all either spoken by Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man or refer to Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Suffering and Personal Growth Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

My life has been so frivolous. Brought up to believe in my own nerves, in restlessness, variety, change; educated entirely out of books, living always in a state of soft security, able to pamper myself, to drift about in a cloud of tender feelings, and with comfortable notions of my own intelligence, sociability, kindness, good breeding; moved by nothing I couldn’t give a name to, believing in nothing I couldn’t see.

Related Characters: Ovid (speaker), Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man
Related Symbols: The Gods
Suffering and Personal Growth Theme Icon
Frivolity vs. Practicality Theme Icon
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:

The old man’s stories are fabulous beyond anything I have retold from the Greeks; but savage, a form of extravagant play that explains nothing, but speaks straight out of the nightmare landscape of this place and my dream journeys across it […] I begin to see briefly, in snatches, how this old man, my friend, might see the world. It is astonishing. Bare, cruel, terrible, comic.

Related Characters: Ovid (speaker), Ryzak / The Headman / The Old Man
Language, Perception, and Nature Theme Icon
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
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