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 walks along the seawall and watches people before heading back to the roof. He wonders how best to photograph Lima but doesn’t have any ideas. He goes back out to walk, wandering along the seawall and down alleyways. He wanders to a park where some llamas are grazing on the sparse grass. He laments to the llamas about being a nobody. Geryon returns to the house. He looks through the front window at the 50 parrots diving and swooping through the air and thinks “a conscious waterfall” would be a good title for a photograph.
Geryon’s inability to photograph Lima reflects his feeling out of place there. He also feels symbolically out of time because reuniting with Herakles, someone from his past whom he thought was no longer in his life, has disoriented him, interrupting the trajectory he thought his life would follow. In this heightened state of isolation, the parrots are the living creatures Geryon relates to the most, though even them finds it hard to relate to, for these winged creatures, unlike Geryon, belong to a flock. They use their wings consciously and publicly and are not ashamed of them. Geryon’s hypothetical title, “a conscious waterfall,” reflects this freedom of the birds in flight.
Themes
Geryon returns to the roof. Ancash appears holding a blanket and notices Geryon shivering. He offers to teach him how to wrap himself in the blanket to stay warm during the cold winter night. As Ancash instructs Geryon to remove his overcoat, Herakles grins and asks if they’re trying to have fun without him. When Ancash explains that he’s trying to teach Geryon how to wrap himself in the blanket, Herakles suggests he knows other ways to stay warm. The mood becomes tense as Ancash moves toward Herakles and asks him to “let things be.” Annoyed, Herakles tells Ancash he’s going back into the house to smoke dope with Ancash’s mother.
Geryon doesn’t want to remove his coat because he’s afraid of what Ancash will say when he sees the wings he’s hiding underneath it. Ironically, Geryon’s fear of alienation and social rejection persuades him to reject the attempt at compassion implicit in Ancash’s moves to help him keep warm. This scene is also important in developing the tense mood that is growing among the three men, who are in an uncomfortable love triangle. Lastly, this passage further shows how Herakles rejects intimacy and introspection in the way he chooses to make a crude joke about Ancash coming on to Geryon instead of leaving the men alone to bond.
Themes
Ancash and Geryon remain on the roof. Once more, Geryon instructs Ancash to remove his coat, explaining that the blanket is made from wool and will insulate him if they wrap it properly. Geryon stops him, pleading with him to let him do it himself. Ancash grows annoyed, thinking Geryon is just being difficult. Ancash approaches Geryon and pulls down his overcoat, revealing Geryon’s red wings, which Ancash hasn’t seen before. Ancash runs his fingers along them, admiring them. “Yazcamac,” he whispers.
Ancash reacts differently to Geryon’s wings than Geryon had anticipated. The gentleness with which Ancash touches Geryon’s wings makes this a somewhat erotic moment. The opposite of what Geryon had thought would happen has happened: revealing his wings has actually brought him the connection he’d thought they would discourage.
Themes
Ancash orders Geryon to sit beside him and tells him about a mountain village north of Huaraz called Jucu. In Jucu, a volcanic region, they have odd beliefs. In ancient times, people worshipped the volcano as a god and sacrificed people by throwing them into the volcano. Those people that emerged alive were called Yazcol Yazcamac, or “the Ones Who Went and Saw and Came Back.” Anthropologists call them “eyewitnesses.” The way the eyewitnesses come back, explains Ancash, is with wings.
Geryon is receptive to Ancash’s touch because he finally feels seen. It’s a transformative moment for him. Furthermore, Ancash’s explanation about the Yazcol Yazcamac recasts Geryon’s wings from a source of shame to something with beautiful historical and cultural significance, and as a sign of strength and powerful rather than shame and monstrosity.
Themes
Get the entire Autobiography of Red LitChart as a printable PDF.
Herakles appears on the roof and informs him that they’re going to Huaraz tomorrow: Ancash’s mother wants to show him the town. They’ll stay there for the weekend. Suddenly, Herakles notices Geryon’s exposed wings and jokes about being “a master of monsters.” Geryon mumbles at him to stop. Herakles goes back into the house to call the rental agency. After he leaves, Ancash tells Geryon to be careful in Huaraz, since people there are always looking for eyewitnesses. Before Ancash goes downstairs, he smiles and tells Geryon he can sleep with him tonight, clarifying that he really does just mean sleep.
In what has become a pattern, Herakles emerges to interrupt this tender, affirming interaction between Ancash and Geryon. He further establishes himself as incapable of emotional vulnerability or introspection by lightening the mood. By claiming to be “a master of monsters,” he’s seemingly fetishizing Geryon’s wings and also relegating Geryon back to the position he has always believed he belongs in: a monster to be ogled at, ostracized, and shamed.
Themes
After Ancash leaves, Geryon stares at the Pacific Ocean, which looks red and gives off a feeling of “desire.” He looks at couples walking along the seawall and finds that he can’t envy them, since all he wants is to leave this place. He crawls into his sleeping bag and sleeps through the night.
Geryon’s desire to leave stands in stark contrast to the connection with Ancash he just experienced. Herakles crushes Geryon’s confidence. It’s clear that this is the way Herakles “slays” Geryon in Carson’s retelling of the myth: by beating him down, humiliating him, and rejecting him.
Themes
