Maynard Character Analysis

A scholar who stayed in Elio’s house in B. two summers before Oliver came. Although nothing ever happened between them, Elio understands after his relationship with Oliver that he was attracted to Maynard, and that Maynard knew this. Before Maynard left B., he gave Elio an “antique postcard of Monet’s berm.” On the back, he wrote, “Think of me someday.” The first time Oliver and Elio speak on the phone after Rome, Oliver tells him he took something from his bedroom. Bounding upstairs, Elio sees that he stole the postcard. Years later, when Elio visits Oliver at the university in New England where he teaches, Oliver shows him the postcard, which he has framed and placed on the wall, though he has left the back open because he has given the postcard his own inscription: Cor cordium, “heart of hearts.”