Suffering and Personal Growth Theme Analysis

David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life gives a fictional account of the Roman poet Ovid—a historical figure notorious for being the Roman Empire’s most irreverent public personality—after he is exiled for his indecent poems. Though most of the details of the real-life Ovid’s exile are lost to history, Malouf imagines what may have become of the infamous, hedonistic poet in his last years. In Malouf’s story, Ovid is exiled to the tiny village of Tomis, a humble settlement beyond the reaches of Roman civilization beset by long, brutal winters and constant raids from other tribes. Ovid eventually settles into his new home, but his relationship with the Child, a feral boy he finds in the forest—and whom the villagers believe carries a demon—forces him into exile once again. Despite Ovid’s constant pains, his journey and hardships radically transform his character, demonstrating how difficult experiences can become the catalyst for personal growth.

Ovid initially hates his exile and the hard lifestyle it demands, demonstrating that challenging circumstances might not immediately appear as an opportunity for personal development. After Ovid’s poetry and philosophy rile Emperor Augustus, Augustus banishes Ovid from Roman territory and sends him to live in Tomis, far beyond the edges of Roman society. The emperor places Ovid under the care of the village headman, Ryzak. Ryzak lets Ovid live with him, though Ovid suspects Ryzak may someday kill him to conclude his punishment. Ovid finds Tomis desolate and primitive, and considers the villagers to be “barbarians.” He thinks the landscape is “empty” and barren, without life or human sophistication, and describes his first year as “terrible beyond description.” He does not understand the villagers’ language, which he thinks sounds “barbarous and guttural,” and so becomes socially isolated as well. Ovid’s only hope is that the Emperor will reverse his decision. Ovid writes letters to his attorney in Rome asking for mercy, indicating that his sole hope is that life will return to the way it once was. Nothing comes of these pleas. Ovid’s pain and bitterness thus initially demonstrate how a suffering person may be overcome by their hardships and not immediately see opportunity for growth.

However, over several years, Ovid’s difficult life in Tomis strengthens his character and helps him to appreciate other people and the land that they live in, demonstrating that hardship can develop and refine a person’s character. Although Ovid scorned military service and duty for all of his life in Rome, the constant threat of raiders against Tomis’s small population force Ovid to drill and practice fighting with the other men. His body and resolve grow stronger. He begins to almost enjoy the lifestyle, and thinks, “What a very different self has begun to emerge in me,” indicating that the physical hardships, though they bring some pain, also make Ovid more resilient over the course of several years. Although Ovid initially looks down on the villagers as “relatively savage,” after years of living together, he comes to regard Ryzak as “the closest friend I have ever had” and thinks it “strange that I have had to leave my own people to find him.” This is particularly significant since Ryzak embodies duty and discipline, values that Ovid once detested. Ovid’s new appreciation for Ryzak suggests that the hardship of living amid a different culture makes Ovid develop an ability to understand and appreciate all types of people—particularly those who challenge him to grow as an individual. Ovid even learns to appreciate the subtle beauty of nature. Though he once detested the barren landscape around Tomis, after several years he states, “I have even begun to find my eye delighted by the simple forms of this place, the narrower range of colors,” indicating that years of exile in a relatively barren environment have taught him to appreciate the subtlety of nature. Ovid’s deeper appreciation for work, for other people, and for subtle beauty all suggest that hardship can develop one’s personal character.

In Ovid’s reflections on his sufferings, he ultimately argues that hardships are the catalyst of personal transformation—opportunities that are essential for human growth and development, even though they bring pain with them.  When the villagers become convinced that the Child carries a demonic spirit, the threat of violence forces Ovid to take him and flee north into the wilderness, beyond human society. Although Ovid once again must leave his home—since that is what Tomis becomes for him—he does not mourn the loss, but looks forward to the opportunity for new growth and challenge. As they trudge away from the village together, Ovid reflects, “What else should our lives be but a continual series of beginnings, of settings out into the unknown, pushing off into the edges of consciousness into the mystery of what we have not yet become.” Rather than dread oncoming hardships, Ovid’s reflection suggests that one should lean into them, recognizing them as opportunities to further grow and develop one’s character. Ovid argues that such challenges and subsequent growth are the essence of life. Ovid is eventually forced to flee Tomis when the villagers’ superstition toward the Child manifests in violence. Although Ovid is an old man at this point, he asks, “What else is death but the refusal any longer to grow and suffer change?” Ovid’s peaceful disposition and acceptance of hardship toward his final years—which will inevitably end in death during this second exile, without home or shelter—suggests that a life without suffering, and thus growth, is not a life worth living any longer.

Ovid’s transition from a poet devoted to leisure and comfort to an old man leaning into pain and hardship marks a complete reversal of his core values, which reiterates how suffering can be a powerful catalyst for personal growth, rather than a meaningless hardship.