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
The narrative returns to three and a half years earlier, days after Daniel’s death. Mira shows Varya the picture of the fortune teller and asks why Daniel pursued her. When Varya tells her the story of the woman, Mira is stunned that something that happened so long ago could have such a profound effect on the Gold siblings.
Mira’s shock reinforces the idea that each of the Gold children became obsessed with what the fortune teller had told them. In Simon’s case, he wanted to take advantage of the short life he had; in Klara’s case, she wanted to prove that magic was real; and in Daniel’s, he wanted to prove that the fortune teller was wrong. But in each case, these obsessive thoughts led to their demise.
Themes
That night, Varya sits in Daniel’s chair. She had lied about going to Amsterdam over Thanksgiving—she was just too anxious about being there on Daniel’s predicted death date to visit. She was worried that she would feel responsible if something bad happened. She had felt this way for a long time, pulling away from her siblings so as not to cause them harm. Varya sees a note next to Daniel’s computer with the words “Our language is our strength” and “thoughts have wings.”
Like her siblings, Varya’s obsession is borne of what the fortune teller told her. This information not only led her to become obsessed with staying clean (so as to ensure her predicted date would come true), but also to remove herself from her siblings’ lives in the hopes that it would protect them. This explains much of the distance that her siblings—particularly Daniel—felt from her over the years. She didn’t want to be the cause of their deaths, but by pulling away she only ruined her relationships with them.
Themes
When Varya was in graduate school, she saw a therapist and tried to explain that if she didn’t feel something was clean, she worried that something bad would happen. She was always anxious, but after the visit to the fortune teller, she felt the prophecy work inside her like a “virus” and saw it do the same in her siblings. She felt that avoiding cracks in the sidewalk could prevent something bad from happening to Klara. Once, she yelled at Simon for blowing out three of her birthday candles, because she thought that if she didn’t do it, something awful would happen to him.
This passage shows Varya’s understanding that the prophecy caused her and her siblings to change their behavior. In Varya’s case, she became obsessed with the idea of protecting herself and her siblings. The fact that her thoughts are so illogical—avoiding cracks on the sidewalk will not protect Klara from death—illustrates how much power those thoughts have over her and how they overtake her actions.
Themes
At age 30, Varya was diagnosed with OCD. Years later, a different therapist asked what she was afraid of. She replied cancer, climate change, dying in a car crash, causing a car crash, dirt, insects—the list went on and on. But she admitted that this really masked her fear of losing the people she loved. The therapist pointed out that she’d already been through so much loss, but Varya acknowledged that with this loss she also lost parts of herself, like bravery and desire.
Varya’s formal diagnosis with OCD—obsessive compulsive disorder—is clinical proof of the fact that Varya’s thoughts are very powerful. She is so plagued by the idea that she might lose the people she loves that she has to undergo all of these cleaning rituals as a result of her obsession.
Themes
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Varya hadn’t always been without desire: when she was 27, she had an affair with one of her graduate school professors. A few months later, she realized that she was pregnant. She was terrified, knowing that a baby would make her feel too vulnerable. She made an appointment at Planned Parenthood for an abortion. She wanted to relieve herself of something that caused her so much fear and anxiety.
Varya’s obsessive thoughts are so harmful that she even cuts out what could have been a truly meaningful part of her life. The fear borne of the fortune teller’s prediction has become so great that Varya chooses to give up every significant relationship in her life.
Themes
Varya knows that her rituals are simply a trick to tell herself that she’s warding off harm, but still, she can’t help but do them. The narration returns to May 2007, six months after Daniel’s death. Mira tells Varya that Eddie O’Donoghue was cleared of any wrongdoing. Varya doesn’t cry. She knows that what killed Daniel was not a bullet but the human mind—the fact that “thoughts have wings.”
Varya acknowledges that her behaviors can’t actually protect her and those around her, illustrating how her obsession goes beyond her own understanding of logic. By repeating Daniel’s proverb, “thoughts have wings,” Varya understands that both her and her brother’s lives have been ruined by their obsessive minds.
Themes
