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Chapter 32
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Autobiography of Red, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Creativity
Communication and Mystery
Time
Self and World
Summary
Analysis
Later that day, Geryon joins Herakles and his companion, Ancash, at Café Mitwelt. Herakles tells Geryon that he and Ancash are traveling throughout South America to record volcanoes for a documentary about Emily Dickinson. Ancash hands Geryon a tape recorder and headphones, explaining that it’s Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Geryon hears something like “a hoarse animal spraying pain from the back of its throat.” Geryon thinks the sound is “hot as a color inside.” Herakles explains that they were there during monsoon season, and the volcanic ash and rain were mixing in the air. There are gunshots, too, since the government had to send in the army to convince people to evacuate.
It’s symbolic that Geryon convenes with Herakles and Ancash at Café Mitwelt: its name reflects Geryon’s desire for intimacy with others, which Herakles hadn’t been able to fulfill. Perhaps Geryon’s decision to take them there implies that he is still interested in Herakles. The documentary about Emily Dickinson recalls the epigraph that precedes the novel, which is Dickinson’s poem #1748. This poem explores many of the novel’s main themes, including the default state of mystery and unknowing that underlies human existence.
Themes
Geryon listens as Ancash narrates the recorded sounds, explaining how the air is so hot “it burns the wings off of birds.” The word “wings” makes Geryon and Herakles stare straight into each other’s eyes. Ancash continues to narrate as the tape recorder plays the sounds of a tsunami hitting a beach in Japan. However, Geryon takes the earphones off and gets up to leave. He has a hard time taking his eyes off Herakles. Herakles tells him they’re staying at the City Hotel and that he should call. Geryon says okay and leaves the café.
Herakles has seen Geryon in intimate situations and knows about his wings. Ancash unknowingly strikes a chord that appears to reawaken the passion that once existed between Herakles and Geryon by mentioning a secret that the two of them know. It’s interesting that Geryon is unable to tell Herakles much of what goes on in his inside world, yet the thing that binds them, a secret thing, is something Geryon can’t help and is ashamed of—his wings, a symptom of his monstrosity. This hints at the idea that we don’t have control over what connects us to other people.
Themes
