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Chapter 42
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
This photograph depicts a guinea pig lying on a plate surrounded by cabbage and yams. The animal’s freshly cooked flesh sizzles. She stares at Geryon. Herakles, Ancash, Ancash’s mother, and the four soldiers who invited them to join them for lunch eat ravenously, but Geryon doesn’t have a single bite and can’t wait for the meal to end.
It’s interesting that Geryon doesn’t eat the guinea pig, since constant hunger is one of his defining characteristics. Geryon doesn’t eat the guinea pig because, like the burros from the previous chapter, he relates to her, feeling like a beast who is little use to other people beyond what they can use him for. He feels consumed by the outside world.
Themes
One of the soldiers tell Herakles that the town of Juco is built into the slope of Icchantikas, an active volcano. The locals bake bread in holes that form in the side of the volcano. Herakles doesn’t believe him, but Ancash’s mother says it’s true. When they get up to leave, everyone’s reflection is visible in the black eye of the guinea pig.
This poignant moment where everyone is reflected in the guinea pig’s black eye illustrates how the self is affirmed in how it is reflected back to us in the eyes of others. That Geryon chooses to photograph this scene shows that he is becoming more confident being among other people and seeing himself in their eyes. His inside and outside worlds are combining in the manner necessary for self-actualization.
Themes
