Geryon’s red wings symbolize his alienation and the freedom and self-affirmation he ultimately achieves through shared intimacy. Geryon is a red-winged monster growing up among normal humans, and he feels ashamed of his monstrosity. Because his wings, in particular, remind him of his otherness, he goes to great lengths to hide them, concealing them beneath an overcoat and refusing to fly. Throughout the novel, winged creatures function as stand-ins for Geryon, often conveying Geryon’s current state of mind. For example, when Herakles calls Geryon to tell him about a dream he had about Geryon resurrecting a drowned yellow bird, the subtext of Herakles’ dream is that Geryon will move beyond the heartbreak of their recent breakup and be restored through the freedom that the breakup affords them both. In another instance that also occurs after the breakup, Geryon captures a 15-minute exposure photograph of a fly drowning in a pail of water, symbolizing the despair he feels in the aftermath of the breakup and, more broadly, his inability to control his life.
By the end of the book, however, the very characteristic that once alienated Geryon becomes the thing that enables him to embrace his identity and achieve the shared intimacy he has long desired. After Geryon accidentally reveals his wings to Ancash in Peru, Geryon is surprised when Ancash reacts admiringly, likening Geryon and his wings to the “Yazcol Yazcamac” of indigenous Peruvian folklore, mythological creatures who use their wings to emerge unharmed and powerful from volcanoes. Later, Ancash urges Geryon to “use those wings,” a request that Geryon later fulfills by flying over the volcano in Jucu in a dual act of shared intimacy with Ancash and self-affirmation.
Wings Quotes in Autobiography of Red
I am a drop of gold he would say
I am molten matter returned from the core of earth to tell you interior things
Yellow? said Geryon and he was thinking Yellow! Yellow! Even in dreams
he doesn’t know me at all! Yellow!
It was not the fear of ridicule,
to which everyday life as a winged red person had accommodated Geryon early in life,
but this blank desertion of his own mind
that threw him into despair.
“…I will never know how you see red and you will never know how I see it.”
I’m a master of monsters aren’t I?
There is one thing I want from you.
Tell me.
Want to see you use those wings.
This is for Ancash, he calls to the earth diminishing below. This is a memory of our
beauty.
We are amazing beings,
Geryon is thinking. We are neighbors of fire.
And now time is rushing towards them
where they stand side by side with arms touching, immortality on their faces, night at their back.
Wings Symbol Timeline in Autobiography of Red
