44 pages • 1 hour read
Chloe BenjaminThe Immortalists
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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The Power of Fate
Fate is a central theme of the novel—each character negotiates with this concept in his or her own way. It is both a constructive and destructive element, urging characters towards self-actualization and destruction.
In terms of self-actualization, the predictions cause Simon and Klara to take huge risks. Simon recalls the time in Bruna’s apartment, saying, “He remembers the cards he chose—four spades, all of them black—and the hideous shock of the date she gave him” (97). However, he does not let the fear stop him. Instead, the prediction spurs him to take action, leaving home as a teenager and becoming an artist. Without Bruna’s urging, Simon would not have had the courage to move. Similarly, Bruna’s prediction piques Klara’s interest in magic, something she has great skill in. Without being revealed to this form of expression, Klara might never have pursued her dream of becoming a magician and might have instead led an unfulfilling life.
Along with the potential for self-actualization comes that for self-destruction. When he is living with Robert, Simon feels as if everything is too perfect—his flourishing career and relationship. At this point, Simon begins to have unprotected sex, threatening his relationship and his own life. The knowledge that he would die soon makes him act recklessly, as if hastening the prediction into actuality. Similarly, the threat of fate makes Varya essentially starve herself. She is so afraid of how it will work on her that she shuts herself off from the world, refusing to engage lest she get hurt again. She notes of her belief in fate or magical thinking that “On some days, she doesn’t think it’s absurd to believe that a thought can make something come true” (295).
The author does not take a rigid stance on the issue of fate. On the one hand, fate could play a role in the characters’ lives; on the other, free will could entirely dictate life. As Gertie says, “Nobody picks their life. I sure didn’t […] Here’s what happens: you make choices, and then they make choices. Your choices make choices” (64). When Daniel decides to pursue Bruna, he says, “It is, for him, an act of faith. Faith not in God, but in his own agency. Faith not in fate, but in choice. He would live. He will live. Faith in life” (258). For him, the important thing is to take action. The element of choice is certainly key, and the degree to which fate plays a role in life remains ambiguous.
Repression
Repression is another key theme in The Immortalists. It acts as a divisive factor, keeping family members alienated from each other. As they remain isolated, they are more susceptible to destruction. Secrecy has always existed in the Gold’s household. As immigrants and Holocaust survivors, there is much that Gertie and Saul do not talk about. They want their children to be free of the past and move forward in their lives. However, this element of repression creates tension and heightens the power of the secret. For example, there is secrecy surrounding Gertie’s parents, and “Like dogs, they smelled the mystery that surrounded this pair, the whiff of intrigue and shame, and they nosed their way to the chest of drawers where Gertie keeps her underclothes” (9). Klara becomes obsessed with her grandmother, a magician who died while performing the Jaws of Life illusion.
This tendency towards repression affects the Golds into their adulthoods. For example, Simon’s homosexuality remains a secret from everyone except Klara. He is not comfortable sharing this element of his identity with the rest of his family, which causes a rift between them. The culture at large is still not accepting of homosexuality, but Simon finds a community in San Francisco. There is also a great deal of fear surrounding AIDS, a little-understood disease ravaging the gay male population. This type of fear and repression causes Simon to engage in dangerous behavior: “Cruising Golden Gate Park in the early hours of the morning, fucking strangers in Speedway Meadows or the public restrooms at Forty-First and JFK. Hand jobs in the back row of the Castro Theatre while Little Orphan Annie sings onscreen” (92-93). The novel posits the question that, if he could be more open about his sexuality, would he have engaged in this behavior?
Guarding Simon’s secret further separates Klara from her family, and she asks, “How had she become a person who hadn’t seen her family in years?” (118). Guarding this one secret leads Klara to keep even more from her family: “the knocks, and the fact that Simon’s death aligned with his prophecy” (142). It is as if she holds the burden of this knowledge to herself because she has been conditioned to live this way. Her mental health deteriorates, which results in her suicide. The novel suggests that if the Golds had been more open with each other, they would have saved each other much trauma and heartache.
Racial Divides and Interconnection
The theme of racism as it relates to privilege and victimhood is included within The Immortalists. The Gold family is Jewish, part of an ethnic group that suffered during the Holocaust. Even though they were not alive during the Holocaust, the Gold children suffer from this inherited trauma. There is a secrecy and lack of trust that affects them throughout their lives.
As they Golds grow older, they become involved with people of color. In the American political landscape, people of color do not have it easy. Dating Robert, an African-American man, opens Simon’s eyes to a previously hidden perspective and experience. Robert tells him, “You want the right to be as careless as any other white guy—any straight one. But you’re not any other white guy. And that’s why this place is so dangerous: because it lets you forget that” (89). Here, Robert is doubly “other”—both gay and African-American. He shows Simon that, even though he is gay, he retains his privilege as a white man.
Raj’s character also introduces issues of race. Klara “watched her mother take inventory of Raj’s dark skin and work boots, his secular slouch” (133). Even though Gertie belongs to an ethnic group persecuted during the Holocaust, she is still capable of judging another person for being “other”—for having a different skin color. Years later, Raj suggests that Daniel should update his feelings of victimhood; as a white man, he still enjoys many more privileges than Raj.
In a sense, every character in this novel experiences persecution. Even Bruna Costello and her family are Romani, another group persecuted during the Holocaust. Daniel learns that the Romani originated in India and fled West to escape religious persecution (231). Thus, The Immortalists draws a connection among its characters through trauma. And yet, the text demonstrates, the shared experience of persecution does not always engender empathy and connectedness.
