Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lincoln in the Bardo, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Unity
Transition and Impermanence
Vice and Virtue
Empathy and Equality
Loss
Summary
Analysis
Vollman and Bevins walk-skim across the grounds, taking note of the many “home-places” of souls who have long since moved on. Finally, they find Willie’s father sitting with his legs crossed in the grass, looking like “a sculpture on the theme of Loss.” Pausing and briefly considering that the Reverend would disapprove, they enter the man’s body. First, Vollman goes in, sitting in the same position as Willie’s father. “Bevins, come in! This is not to be missed,” he yells. Listening to his friend, Bevins follows Vollman. “And the three of us were one,” he says.
In this moment, Bevins and Vollman unite with President Lincoln, literally becoming “one” person. This is arguably the only tangible connection they can possibly have with the living world, since by inhabiting Lincoln they ultimately get to experience what it’s like to still be alive, even if only in a secondary way.
Themes
