Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Immortalists, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fate vs. Choice
Family and Shared History
Obsession
Death, Meaning, and Legacy
Surviving vs. Living
Magic, Religion, Dance, and Possibility
Summary
Analysis
When Varya enters the lab to feed the monkeys, most of them are excited by her arrival and scramble for the feeders. But one monkey named Frida doesn’t eat, even though Varya knows that Frida is hungry. The monkey simply barks at Varya. Varya heads into her office. As she takes off her mask, shield, scrubs, gloves, hair and shoe covers, she informs her coworker, Annie, that Frida is still on a hunger strike. Varya then scrubs her hands three times. Annie says that Frida unsettles her.
The opening of Varya’s section of the book establishes her obsession with cleanliness through her rigorous handwashing and the amount of equipment that she wears. Varya’s obsession has been foreshadowed from the very first chapter when she noted that she washed her hands thoroughly every day after school.
Themes
Afterward, Varya goes to meet with a journalist named Luke in the lab’s public marmoset exhibit. As she greets him, she assures him that the marmosets’ piercing calls are just communication—though she knows that their whistling noises are calls of distress. She also notes that Luke looks very young—in his mid-twenties. He puts out his hand, and when Varya shakes it, she thinks that she’ll have to wash her right hand later. Varya takes Luke on a tour of the building, the Drake Institute for Research on Aging. Varya is 10 years into a 20-year study, about which Luke is writing a piece for The San Francisco Chronicle. He’ll be at the Institute for the week.
Varya’s first exchange with Luke continues to establish her obsession with cleanliness, as she can’t even stand shaking another person’s hand without making sure to wash her own hand later. Additionally, Varya’s lie here illustrates that she understands that monkeys are not as happy in captivity, even when she later tries to justify their captivity in believing that it allows the monkeys to live longer. The monkeys are a metaphor for the idea that simply surviving for a long time doesn’t necessarily provide a person with a better life.
Themes
Varya guides Luke into the atrium of the Drake and they sit at a café. As she sits, only her lower back touches the back of the chair. Varya remembers when, as a child, she propped a dirty foot on the ceiling and left a dark imprint on the paint. That night, Varya was so worried about the tiny particles of dirt drifting down over her that she stayed awake all night to make sure the particles didn’t fall on her.
The novel again reinforces Varya’s obsession with cleanliness. Varya isn’t just cautious about dirt and germs—they are literally anxiety-inducing. Varya is so obsessed that she even loses sleep or shifts her behaviors (like her sitting posture) in order to avoid germs.
Themes
Varya tells Luke about her research on longevity, which aims to increase the quality of late life. Luke points out that some people think a human life is long enough, and that potential issues of increasing lifespan include food shortages, overpopulation, and disease. She counters his point, asking if they shouldn’t treat HIV or if they should cut off access to health care for the elderly. She says her research’s goal is to reduce human suffering.
Varya’s research mimics her primary concern in life: living a long time. The fact that she mentions HIV—the virus that causes AIDS—relates her research back to Simon. She hopes to provide people with better, longer lives, because Simon did not benefit from scientific research when he contracted AIDS. She hopes that she can make a difference for someone in the future.
Themes
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