The Goldfinch

Vibrant color, primarily those situated around Pippa, continues to figure as a motif in these chapters. Now that she is back in Theo’s life again, Pippa acts as an object of desire and excitement. Theo feels a charge surrounding her when they reconnect in Hobie’s house. On the first morning at breakfast, Theo describes her: “Bright red hair; green wool hat; the shock of seeing her in broad daylight was a dash of cold water” (378). Here, Pippa’s color is electric and symbolizes the intense way she affects Theo. He also notes the “rosy-pink raised line of scar tissue” (383). This pink scar tissue hearkens back to the initial event that brought them together and forces Theo back to that crucial time. Furthermore, Pippa makes Theo a “spiked, kelly-green origami” frog (382). By giving him a vibrantly colored gift, it is as if she is transferring some of her energy to him through the paper. Thus, the vibrant colors surrounding Pippa point to the way in which she entrances and consumes Theo’s desire.

Theo himself undergoes significant character shifts in this section. After the loss of Boris and Larry, Theo must once again transfer his affections. Pippa takes an immediate front seat in his psyche. Even when Theo is sick, “[d]ay and night, my delirium had been colored with an awareness of her in the house, recurring energy surges of happiness at the sound of her voice in the hallway, her footsteps” (388). In reaction to his immediate loss, Pippa fills a void for him. Over time, Theo transfers his attention and affections to Hobie. The two become very close and work side by side in Hobie’s workshop. They bond on the level of character as well as craft as Theo learns from Hobie. When they are out, Theo notes that “[i]t thrilled me, deplorably, when people mistook Hobie for my parent” (400). In this way, Hobie starts to fill the parent void left by Audrey and, to a lesser extent, Larry.

Despite his connection to Hobie, Theo contends with extreme guilt and anxiety over the painting. It consumes him, and he “existed in a low-grade fog of internal clangor: starting every time someone came to the door; jumping as if scalded when the phone rang” (420). It is almost impossible for Theo to get any relief, so much so that he completely disconnects from his new academic environment: “I could do what I had to do. I’d done it before: gone blank, pushed forward” (410). Here, the presence of The Goldfinch in Theo’s life represents yet another trauma. It is an isolating force, making it necessary for Theo to yet again be secretive and detach from his surrounding environment.

Moreover, the tension of order and chaos yet again comes into play. After Larry’s death, Theo learns from Mr. Bracegirdle that he could in fact have withdrawn money from his account. He notes that “an alternate future was flashing through my mind: Mr. Silver paid, Dad in a bathrobe checking the sports scores on his BlackBerry, me in Spirsetskaya’s class with Boris lazing across the aisle from me” (385). Here, Theo considers the way in which circumstances could have played out if one thing had gone differently. He also questions whether Larry thought Theo was trying to sabotage him: “Did he think I’d stiffed him on purpose? That I wanted him to die?” (393). Though Theo could not have changed the circumstances at the time, he nonetheless questions his role in the whole scenario. All of this makes Theo feel very powerless and confused about the chaotic nature of the world. He intuits that he could have done more but does not know how that would have looked.