Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Autobiography of Red, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Creativity
Communication and Mystery
Time
Self and World
Summary
Analysis
Geryon is in his hotel room developing photographs. He has long asked the question, “What is time made of?” and asks it to many people he encounters. Geryon thinks about the yellowbeard’s answer yesterday, about time being “an abstraction,” and it bothers him. Just then, Geryon looks at the wall clock and sees that it’s almost 6:00.
That Geryon continues to mull over the question of what time is made of while he develops photographs points to the connection between time, photography, and control. It semes likely that capturing fleeting moments by photographing them makes Geryon feel more in control of time’s passage and his experiences.
Themes
Geryon accompanies the yellowbeard and the other philosophers to a bar 10 minutes later. The yellowbeard proudly leads the pack. At the bar, Geryon talks with another philosopher named Lazer. Lazer and Geryon discuss God, doubt, and skepticism. Lazer offers Geryon some of his olives and talks about his four-year-old daughter. He explains how children make a person “see distances.” He recalls writing in his journal as his daughter stood next to him, drawing pictures. They were outside, surrounded by acacia trees. He saw the shadow of a bird flit past, which made him ruminate how he is on one side of a hill, making his descent, while he watches his daughter start her own climb.
Lazer’s observation that children make people “see distances” establishes a connection between time, distance, and mortality. Lazer’s example of seeing himself making a descent down a hill as his daughter ascends the other side shows how the psychological distance that separates people in time can be conveyed symbolically through physical distance. This is in line with what Geryon tries to do with photography: manipulate distance to show a way to quantify or illustrate time and, in so doing, control and understand it.
Themes
Lazer gets up to leave and tells Geryon he has enjoyed their conversation. Geryon remains behind and listens to the other philosophers talk. Hearing their conversations and political jokes makes him grin broadly. Then, just as Geryon realizes he’s starving, a platter of sandwiches appears, which he decides is a “miracle.” Geryon professes himself to be a “philosopher of sandwiches,” of “things good on the inside.”
Geryon’s constant hunger symbolizes his hunger for a fulfilled interpersonal life and human connection. His remark about being a “philosopher of sandwiches” simultaneously points to this hunger for connection and his personal quest for self-fulfillment—for “things [that are] good on the inside.”
Themes
Back at his hotel room that night, Geryon takes a black-and-white photograph of himself naked and in the fetal position, his wings spread wide across the bed. “No Tail!” he titles it.
Geryon’s bold decision to spread his wings across the bed suggests that his meaningful conversation with Lazer has instilled in him a new level of confidence and self-recognition. Counterintuitively, it takes directing his attention outward, toward a social life with others, to better understand and accept his inner life.
Themes
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