CliffsNotes on Tartt's the Goldfinch by Abigail Wheetley

Author:Abigail Wheetley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HMH Books

Analysis

Theo exercises active judgement in this chapter, identifying and considering what is safe and what is not safe for him personally. He analyzes the motivations and actions of adults rather than blindly accepting their authority and actions at face value. For example, when Hobie paternally places his hand on Theo’s shoulder during one of Theo’s visits, Theo recognizes Hobie’s action as one that creates safety and security for Theo. Hobie, a survivor of abuse at the hands of his father, is no stranger to the imperfections of adults or the vulnerability of children. However, Hobie is unable to protect either Pippa or Theo from the blood relatives who take them away from the safety and happiness that they feel in Hobie’s presence. Theo learns that what he personally feels is good for him and what the law dictates is good for him ​—​in this case, that his father, not Mrs. Barbour or Hobie, is “good” for him ​—​are not always the same thing.

Theo also begins to recognize and analyze what is and is not within his control. He cannot save Pippa from being sent away or keep himself in a household where he is happy and cared for. He cannot protect his mother’s belongings from the greedy, prying hands of his father and Xandra. Nonetheless, he can keep the painting safe, defend his mother’s memory, and comfort Pippa as she struggles to understand her fate. Theo’s handle on reality, on the forces at work in his life, is his greatest asset when it comes to the necessary task of his surviving the situations that he has ​—​and will continue to ​—​experience.

Pippa and Theo form a bond due to their shared issues as a result of the bombing. She, however, is not as self-aware as Theo is: Her psychological injuries limit her from critically engaging with adults and assessing her personal situation, which Theo is able to do. Pippa, alone in a bedroom, confused and in a haze of narcotics, represents Theo’s own vulnerability. Theo is able to protect himself to an extent, but in truth he is more like Pippa than he realizes; he is more painfully aware of his surroundings and all of the potential dangers they entail. As she yearns for clarity, he recognizes the value in her oblivion. The kiss they share, one that is flavored with her morphine lollipop, begins a bond that Theo is never able to shake. The kiss is a true moment of affection, an attempt to make something unthinkable pleasant, and brings them together in a place between unrealized adulthood and the innocence of childhood.

Theo’s feelings about his father are mixed and distant. He flashes back briefly to scenes of his parents fighting; these memories, like Theo’s unspoken responses to his father’s remarks about his mother, are placed in italics. Like the parentheticals earlier, this stylistic choice is significant because it creates a different form of information delivery. Theo has thoughts, ideas, and opinions, but they are not yet fully formed or self-analyzed; they remain private to him, not verbally expressed to the other characters.

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