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
In January 1980, Klara helps Simon and Robert move into their new apartment. After she leaves, Simon and Robert kiss, happy to have a place to themselves. Simon rises through the ranks at Corps and becomes a full company member. Klara returns to the dentist’s office, working as a receptionist in the day and a restaurant hostess at night. She keeps every bit of savings for her show.
While Simon is able to take advantage of his life in the short term, Klara works to be able to do the same. Like Simon, rather than putting savings toward a distant future, she tries to ensure that she can follow her dreams of becoming a professional magician in the near future.
Themes
On Sundays, Klara and Simon have dinner together, and she shows him a picture of Klara Sr. in a burlesque show. She says that Klara Sr. arrived at Ellis Island in 1913 from Hungary as an orphan. She married Otto Gorski, a Wild West Rider with Barnum and Bailey. She shows Simon the photo of Klara Sr. suspended from a rope by her teeth, which she called the Jaws of Life. Klara explains that she’s training herself to perform the feat, which she says was not a trick—she just hung on.
Klara reaffirms her connection to her late grandmother due to their shared name and interests. Klara’s desire to model her tricks after her grandmother illustrates the power of family bonds even among members who never knew each other. Klara also intends to continue on the legacy of her grandmother’s work by recreating her feats. Lastly, the fact that the Jaws of Life didn’t have a “trick” encapsulates Klara’s philosophy of magic—that it’s a way of enlarging a person’s notion of what’s possible, not an act of deception.
Themes
Klara goes on to say that Otto was killed in a riding accident in 1936, and Klara Sr. moved back to New York with Gertie. In 1941, she performed the Jaws of Life in Times Square, but she fell and died. Klara knows that Gertie, who was six at the time, doesn’t like to talk about it. Simon is worried that Klara wants to perform the Jaws of Life. Klara says she’s not going to die—she refuses to. Simon points out that everyone who lives says that. He then asks what her act is called; she replies, “the Immortalist.”
Klara’s connection to her grandmother suggests that she might have a similar fate. In addition, Klara naming her act “The Immortalist” illustrates that she is concerned with her legacy, implying that her act and her name live on after her death.
Themes
Simon feels like his happiness is too good to last. By the summer after next, he’ll be 20, and the fortune teller’s predicted date is getting closer. In the winter, Simon has a starring role in The Myth of Icarus: he plays Icarus, while Robert is the sun. When he performs, Simon “soars” in a pair of large wings made of wax and feathers. He is relieved when Robert removes his wings in the piece, even though this means that Icarus will die. When Robert carries him to center stage at the end of the piece, he whispers that he loves Robert. Robert sets him down on the stage and covers him with the wings. They spend the next two years in easy bliss, growing comfortable in their relationship.
The Myth of Icarus is an allegory for Simon’s relationships with men. Like Icarus, Simon wants to fly higher and higher, excited at the prospect of finding pleasure and the freedom to do what he wants. And yet, the story foreshadows that this is exactly what proves to be his downfall. Whether or not Simon’s fate is sealed when the fortune teller predicted his death, his choices—like Icarus’ choices—lead to his death. Robert covering Simon with the wings to represent Icarus’s death foreshadows Simon’s own fate.
Themes
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