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Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Remarkably Bright Creatures, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Grief and Memory
Loneliness and Companionship
Family
Closure and Healing
Summary
Analysis
Dr. Santiago removes Marcellus from his tank and sedates him in order to weigh him, luring him with scallops and collecting him in a bucket. When Marcellus first encountered the bucket—on his 33rd day of captivity—he was afraid. But over time, he’s grown used to the routine and even finds comfort in the sedation, enjoying the “total nothingness” it brings. Compared to the overwhelming “everything-ness” of daily life, the emptiness is sometimes welcome. Dr. Santiago says Marcellus weighs 60 pounds, up two pounds from last month, and he advises that Terry monitor Marcellus’s diet more closely.
Unbeknownst to Terry, Marcellus’s weight gain is the result of his nightly hunting around the aquarium—a reminder that the octopus is always one step ahead of the humans around him. But Marcellus’s yearning for stillness and “nothingness” reflects his increasing exhaustion, both physical and existential. At this stage in his captivity, surrender doesn’t seem as bad as it once did—in fact, it could be a relief.
Themes
