The Goldfinch: Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Theo Decker has locked himself in his hotel in Amsterdam for a week, too scared to go out or even make a phone call. He left New York in a rush, not thinking to bring any warm clothes even though it is Christmastime. He has been smoking cigarettes and drinking vodka, and he feels that he knows the room as well as a prisoner knows his cell. Early each morning he creeps downstairs to get the newspapers, but he cannot read Dutch, so he doesn’t understand them. He has a cold, and his fever produces extremely vivid dreams. He sees his mother (Audrey) or finds himself inside Hobie’s shop. Seeing Audrey makes him euphoric, but she always remains out of reach.

Theo thinks his life “would have turned out better if [Audrey] had lived.” Yet she died when he was young, and he has never met anyone who loved him like that again. When she died, he lost “the daily commonplace happiness” that existed before. When she first moved to New York from Kansas as a young woman, she worked as a model. She was a beautiful, enchanting woman, who attracted attention wherever she went. Theo states plainly that “Her death was my fault.” She died 14 years ago, on April 10th. It was in New York, on what seemed like an ordinary day.

Theo and Audrey stand outside their apartment building on 57th Street while Audrey’s favorite doorman, Goldie, hails them a cab. When Goldie comments that they aren’t getting the train as usual, Audrey unconvincingly says they have some “errands” to do. Theo is 13 and has been suspended from school. He isn’t exactly sure why he’s been suspended, but he thinks it’s because a teacher saw him standing with his friend, Tom Cable, while Tom smoked a cigarette on school property. Audrey hates smoking because her parents both died of smoking-related causes.

However, Theo has been having other problems at school, too. Ever since his father (Larry) abandoned him and Audrey, Theo’s teachers have been giving him extensions and other special allowances, which has ironically led him to fall behind on work. Now, because Audrey has had to take the morning off work anyway, she’s suggested that she and Theo go to breakfast before their meeting with the school. While Audrey and Goldie chat about the weather, Theo worries that he is going to lose his scholarship. He is worried that his teacher has found out that he and Tom have been wandering into people’s empty vacation homes in the Hamptons, taking beer, Xbox games, and $5 and $10 bills.

In the cab, Theo wonders if he’s going to be sent to jail. He notices that Audrey looks pale, and tells the driver they’ll get out. Theo suggests they go sit in the park. Suddenly, Audrey stops still, looking intensely in the distance. She tells Theo she just experienced a “time warp,” and that every time she finds herself in this spot she remembers the moment she got off the bus from Kansas at 18. She recalls how amazed she was by the city at the time, particularly this part of Central Park, which was so unlike her own neighborhood, the Lower East Side. Suddenly, rain starts to pour, and Theo and Audrey run into the Metropolitan Museum of Art for shelter.  

After Audrey arrived in New York, she was scouted and began modelling, which allowed her to save up enough money to get a BA in art history at NYU. She was in the middle of her master’s degree when she met Larry and dropped out before finishing. Now, she suggests that she and Theo “poke around” the Met while waiting for the rain to stop. Theo is reluctant because he is hungry and wants breakfast, but he agrees. He and Audrey discuss whether she should buy an art book as a birthday present for the Art Director of the advertising firm where she works. 

Audrey explains that the exhibition on Dutch Golden Age Masters is huge, but that there are a few pieces she especially wants to see. Theo is at first unenthusiastic about the idea of seeing these paintings, but once they are inside the exhibition, he becomes entranced by them. Audrey explains that the Dutch invented the microscope and paid extraordinary attention to detail. She also notes that they included details in paintings that served as reminders of the fleeting, transient nature of life. When they get to Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson, she gives a long, in-depth analysis.

Suddenly, Theo sees a skinny, red-haired girl in the crowd carrying a flute case. The way that the girl looks at Theo enthralls him. The girl is with a white-haired man who walks with a limp, and yet is still somehow “elegant.” Audrey is now discussing what she describes as “the first painting I ever really loved.” Its painter, Carel Fabritius, was Rembrandt’s student and Vermeer’s teacher. Fabritius was killed and his studio destroyed in a gunpowder factory explosion. He was very famous, but only a handful of his paintings survived. Now, this painting, The Goldfinch, is the only one that still exists.

Audrey observes that while death is inevitable, the loss of “things” is tragic. Theo, meanwhile, can’t take his eyes off the red-haired girl. Audrey interrupts his thoughts by announcing that she’s going to go down to the shop to find a present for her colleague. However, she then says that she’s going to look at Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson one last time, and Theo agrees to meet her in the shop. Theo wants to use this opportunity to talk to the girl, although he doesn’t know if he’ll have the courage. Suddenly, a museum guard runs across the room, carrying something. Another guard follows, screaming. There is a gigantic explosion, and Theo loses consciousness.

When Theo wakes up, an alarm is ringing and everything is covered in dust. His body aches, and he struggles to gain a sense of his surroundings. He moves through the debris, encountering objects like a signal-less phone and a bottle of water. He then sees an old man whose body seems mangled. Theo picks up the bottle of water, which is hot, drinks some, and then brings the rest to the old man. The old man (Welty) gently removes some glass from Theo’s forehead and gives him a reassuring pat. Theo helps him drink, and the man feebly mentions the name Pippa, indicating he wants to find her.

Welty speaks nonsensically, implying that he has known Theo for a long time. He mentions composers and auditions and asks if Theo is a student at the Lycée, but Theo explains that his school is on the West Side. Suddenly, Welty becomes distressed, and urges Theo to take something. Picking it up, Theo realizes it is the painting of the bird (The Goldfinch). He goes to show it to Audrey, and then realizes she isn’t there, or that only one part of her is there, the “invisible” part. Theo tries to give Welty the painting, but Welty somewhat aggressively insists that Theo take it with him. 

Welty has a coughing fit, and blood bubbles at his nose. Theo assures him that he will take the painting, and Welty tells him to wrap it in newspaper and “pack it at the very bottom of the trunk.” As they talk, Theo himself comes to believe that Welty is an old friend or relative. Welty takes off a ring and tries to give it to Theo, who tries to refuse it. The man says, “Hobart and Blackwell,” and instructs Theo to “ring the green bell” and “tell Hobie to get out of the store.” Then he begins struggling to breathe. Theo gives him a few drops of water, but at this point he collapses and stops breathing.

Theo stands up, covered in Welty’s blood. Walking away, he stumbles past objects and bodies that he can’t properly see. He walks into a gallery room and feels relief, until he realizes that he is the only one standing; everyone else in the room is “lying down.” He looks down at the bodies on the floor, some of which have parts missing. He checks each of them, but none is Audrey. Then without realizing what has happened, Theo finds himself running through the museum. It quickly occurs to him that he is lost. He finds a steel door and, with difficulty, pushes through it. It leads to a long corridor dotted with offices of staff members.

Theo feels increasingly nervous about the fact that he hasn’t seen a living person—not even a police officer or fireman. He runs toward a drinking fountain and rinses some of the blood off his body. Finally, he sees an emergency exit door and stumbles out into Central Park, where he hears the roar of dozens of sirens. Theo ducks under the yellow police tape and into the thick crowd of people standing outside the Met. Theo tries to tell some ambulance workers that there are still people inside the museum, but someone mentions that there is another bomb. At that moment, a cop grabs Theo and yells at him, telling him to get away from the building. 

Theo darts away, and sees Hazmat officers blasting an undetonated bomb with a water cannon. When they safely dispose of it, a cheer erupts. Police continue pushing the crowd east, away from the Met. The scene is chaotic; some people are trying to get cell service, others are trying to get back to the museum, and some are simply standing still in shock. Theo realizes it will be impossible to find Audrey, and decides he will meet her at home. He feels confident that she was not hurt, as she’d been far away from the part of the museum where the explosion happened. Still, he feels shocked that she left the Met without him.