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
After work, Varya visits Gertie at her assisted living facility. In the months following Daniel’s death, Gertie stayed with Mira in Kingston, but in May 2007 Mira came home and found Gertie collapsed in the garden. Soon Mira discovered that Gertie could stand on her own, and later doctors labeled the incident a stroke. Varya was furious that Gertie hadn’t called for help, but Varya realized that Gertie thought she was dying and probably wanted to die. After the incident, Gertie experienced complications and became easily confused, so Varya found an assisted living facility in California, where Gertie has lived for two years.
Gertie’s incident underscores why Varya’s research on aging is so important to her. The point of her work is to ensure that people have a better life in their old age. Gertie’s perspective, however, is slightly different. Just because she can live longer doesn’t necessarily mean that the end of her life will be meaningful or satisfying, particularly after losing three of her four children.
Themes
In the beginning Gertie hated the facility, but after taking anti-depressants, her mood improved and she made new friends. In the present, Varya still doesn’t like the home very much. Gertie’s friends respond with shock and pity when they hear that Varya is childless and unmarried, and they show little interest in her research.
Gertie’s friends’ judgements imply that having a partner and children is one of the things that provides a person with meaning in life. Yet for Varya, her work has always been the source of her meaning and her intended legacy.
Themes
Varya brings Gertie a book of poems, dill pickles, and a vase of lilies. Gertie also asks to see a picture of Frida, though Varya is technically not supposed to share photographs of her research. But Gertie is so excited by photos and videos of Frida that she can’t stop. Still, Varya comforts herself with knowing that the videos she shows are old, recycled ones. Gertie doesn’t remember the old videos, and Frida isn’t as happy as she used to be. As she watches, Gertie asks why Varya keeps Frida in a cage.
The fact that Varya uses her work as a replacement for meaningful relationships with a partner or children is made explicit here. While Varya isn’t able to show Gertie any pictures of grandchildren, she instead shows her pictures of the monkey that she is helping to raise in her study at the Drake.
Themes
