The Book of Grotesque Imagery Blog

THEMES: fear of death, age doesn’t determine youthfulness

IMAGERY: bed, windows, trees, smoker, youth, age, pregnancy

CONNECTION TO THEME: The bed in the story represent the writer’s reflection in the story.

TEST: The bed in The Book of The Grotesque represents the place where the writer can let his mind unwind and have thoughts race through his head. Page 21 tells us that the writer was a smoker and was concerned about his heart. On page 22, “The idea had got to his mind that he would some time die unexpectedly and always when he got into bed he thought of that.” This goes back on page 21, where it tells us that he had some difficulty getting into bed, the place where his thoughts were let out and he thought about death, something he feared. The bed is also the place where he lets his mind dream, until he gets out of bed and begins to write again. “It made him more alive, there in that bed, than any other time” (Page 22). This shows the pleasure that he had sitting in bed by letting his mind go and just think.

CONNECTION TO THEME: The windows in the story represent the writer’s connection to the outside world.

TEST: The writer is very cut off from the world, as all he does is stay inside and write, waiting to pass away. The want the writer desires to have the bed closer to the windows shows the writer’s want to be closer to the outside world. One might also view the windows as the writer’s connection to youthfulness and being reborn. “The windows of the house in which he lived were high and he wanted to look at the trees when he awoke in the morning” (page 21). Trees represent rebirth and growing up. On page 22, he talks about the youth growing inside of him, and makes many other connections to his youth as well as others’ youth. The writer wants the bed, where the youth grows inside of him, to be up next to the window, where the youth is happening right outside the window in the form of trees.