Oliver’s Star of David Necklace is one of the first things Elio notices about him. As such, he quickly comes to see it as a representation of the ways in which they are bound to one another, since Elio himself is Jewish, too. Unlike Oliver, though, Elio struggles with his Jewish identity, coming from a family who describe themselves as “Jews of discretion.” As a result, Elio is shocked when he sees that Oliver wears a Star of David around his neck without tucking it into his shirt. “He was okay with being Jewish,” Elio writes. “He was okay with being himself, the way he was okay with his body, with his looks.” This self-confidence is remarkable to Elio because he can’t quite bring himself to embrace his own Jewishness or, for that matter, his sexual identity. Oliver, on the other hand, is at ease with who he is and, as such, doesn’t feel the need to hide his Star of David, which therefore comes to symbolize not only the connection he and Elio share, but also the self-possession and confidence he teaches Elio to embody.
The Star of David Necklace Quotes in Call Me By Your Name
I saw his star almost immediately during his first day with us. And from that moment on I knew that what mystified me and made me want to seek out his friendship, without ever hoping to find ways to dislike him, was larger than anything either of us could ever want from the other, larger and therefore better than his soul, my body, or earth itself. Staring at his neck with its star and telltale amulet was like staring at something timeless, ancestral, immortal in me, in him, in both of us, begging to be rekindled and brought back from its millenary sleep.
What baffled me was that he didn’t seem to care or notice that I wore one too. Just as he probably didn’t care or notice each time my eyes wandered along his bathing suit and tried to make out the contour of what made us brothers in the desert.
The Star of David Necklace Symbol Timeline in Call Me By Your Name
