Autobiography Of Red Geryon Summary

True Colors Francis Tan
As Carson mentions in her introduction, adjectives are “small imported mechanisms in charge of attaching everything in the world to its place in particularity” (Carson 4). Autobiography of Red is filled with colorful adjectives, but they are not simply innocent attributes to nouns. Carson literally paints Geryon’s life using colors to illustrate his emotions and give reference to the events in the original Greek myth. The colors help readers interpret the underlying meanings of the ambiguous descriptions of Geryon’s experiences, especially how Geryon experiences his ‘death’ and struggle between love and freedom. Carson’s
narrative represents reality in metaphor, where colors, in particular, are the essence of the autobiography.
“Geryon was a monster everything about him was red” (Carson 29) shows how Geryon is closely associated with the color red. In fact, the entire novel is imbued with inferences of red. From his wings, what he wears and eats, to his very own shadow, red defines him. It is interesting to see how the word ‘rose’ is constantly used as a verb in the autobiography, such as “Main Door rose before him” (Carson 24) and “Geryon rose slowly” (Carson 41), as it allows us to infer the color of the red flower. Geryon perceives his world as red, so even when he develops an ‘economy of sex’ with his brother, the act is referred as “voyaging into the rotten ruby of the night” (Carson 28). It is also not surprising to see that Geryon would use a tomato for the head of his sculpture (Carson 34). Moreover, as red is typically associated with anger and passion, we can infer that the color illustrates Geryon’s emotions. After being violated by his brother, he “lay very straight in the fantastic temperatures of the red pulse”, which shows that he is heated with anger and frustration about his disturbing childhood. When his mother returns home, “inside Geryon something burst into flame”, which we can interpret as his longing and strong emotions for his mother. Therefore, while red is Geryon’s identity, it also shows his emotions and attitude towards events in his life.
From color, we can interpret that Geryon is a volcano. There is a sentence describing lava “Color and fluidity vary with its temperature from dark red and hard to brilliant yellow and completely fluid” (Carson 48) which is crucial for readers to understand the purpose of color in the book. Lava is depicted as Geryon’s inside world, showing how he struggles for freedom. The dark red and hardness resembles his original self, motionless (Carson 24) and restrained by the tormenting events in his life; brilliant yellow and completely fluid resembles the state that he strives to be: flowing like liquid, having free will. Even though he wants free will, he is unable to prevent his own ‘death’ in the story, which brings us to the matter about his love for Herakles.
In the book, Herakles is associated with the color blue. One of Geryon’s photos has Herakles’ “naked back, long and bluish” (Carson 141), and while he and Geryon are romancing, “Herakles lies like a piece of torn silk in the heat of the blue” (Carson 54). It is also interesting to see how Carson then makes use of colors to show romance: when the two talk about sex, “something black and heavy dropped between them like a smell of velvet” (Carson 45). As velvet typically has a purplish color, this reference to the mixture of red and blue shows how Geryon and Herakles are together as one in love. In addition, the “cold green summer night” (Carson 46) is a time when Geryon is free from his abusive brother and family to see a volcano with Herakles, so green as a mixture of yellow and blue infers the love between an independent Geryon and Herakles.
In spite of this, Herakles is also associated with Geryon’s death. For some reason, Geryon knows about his impending death as he writes “Herakles came one day killed Geryon got the cattle” in his autobiography. Thus, the color black pops up constantly in the book as the symbol of death. There are many scenes which foreshadow Geryon’s death, such as “a big red butterfly went past riding on a little black one” (Carson 49). One night, Geryon wakes up in drenched sheets being unable to breathe and imagines being pounded like “a piece of weed against a hard black beach” (Carson 75). The reference to death becomes obvious in a description of Herakles painting: “After crossing out the white letters neatly with a bar of opaque black he encircled it in an airy red cloud of chancery script.” (Carson 55). By associating the color white with life, we see how Herakles ends Geryon’s life by bringing about death.
Instead of one single harpoon shot to the skull, Geryon actually dies a little every time Herakles rejects his love.
When Herakles asks Geryon to go home, the phrases “heart and lungs were in a black crust” and “sudden strong desire to go to sleep” (Carson 62), illustrate Geryon’s pain and aching for death. Furthermore, Geryon then gives an interesting description of volcanic rock: “Most volcanic rock is basalt. If it is dark and blocky that means very little silica in the composition. Very little silica in the composition, said Geryon as he climbed out.” (Carson 63)
Silica is actually a compound white in color. Geryon’s emphasis on the lack of silica lets us interpret that he has very little life left after being rejected.
In the autobiography, Geryon is particularly interested in the story of Lava Man, who defies death by surviving a volcanic eruption. He is described by Herakles grandmother:
“I am a drop of gold he would say I am molten matter returned from the core of earth to tell you interior things- Look! He would prick his thumb and press out ocher-colored drops that sizzled when they hit the plate- Volcanic blood!” (Carson
59)
Lava Man was once a criminal, but upon defying death he obtains his freedom to join circuses and makes a lot of money. This story reflects on Geryon because he also wishes to defy death and have freedom. After his rejection, Geryon returns home in a “red singlet with white letters” (Carson 68), which indicates that he has not given up on life. He then works at the library, where he is given a “pink slip” sees a “yellowing 5x7 index card” (Carson 72). The colors hint that Geryon is in fact filled with life and yellowing with freedom after his heartbreak, as he gradually resembles Lava Man. He then embarks on a journey to Buenos Aires, listening to yellowbeard’s class and taking joy in philosophical conversations with Lazer while munching “a delicious block of white bread filled with tomatoes and butter and salt” (Carson 97). Geryon even refers to Lazer as Lazarus, a man known for defying death. The change in color of Geryon’s surroundings are clear allusions that he is enjoying life as a man with freedom instead of being caged by his heartbreak and past, and this relates to him reading about the indigenous folk of Tierra del Fuego on the plane:
“The Yamana which means as a noun ‘people not animals’ or as a verb ‘to live, breathe, be happy, recover from sickness, become sane’.” (Carson 79)
The transition of colors continues when Geryon meets Herakles as “the stale black taste of leather filled his nose and lips” (Carson 107), and he faces his death once again.
Although Geryon has the freedom to leave Herakles once and for all, he is still conflicted about his feelings for Herakles. At one point Geryon allows Gladys to take over: “Herakles’ mouth came down on his and blackness sank through him” (Carson 119), then he illustrates how people had ‘little red flush marks on their cheeks’ (Carson 119) when they slept. The changes between red and yellow, black and white illustrate Geryon’s struggle between love and freedom with subtlety, which is the fundamental theme of the autobiography.
The story reaches a climax in the chapter “Car” with an outburst of colors when Geryon finally chooses to leave Lima and meets his death. Upon leaving Lima, it is as if he sees his younger self:
“Children in spotless uniforms with pointy white collars emerge from the cardboard houses and make their way along the edge of the highway laughing jumping holding their book bags high. Then Lima ended.” (Carson 132)
These images of children reference the young Geryon at school, who is “small, red and upright” and “gripping his new book bag tight” (Carson 25), as if he is bidding farewell to the boy filled with life. He then sees “green walls of sugarcane” but then “sugarcane ended” (Carson 132), which suggests how the love of the free-willed Geryon ends for Herakles. Nonetheless, he finally
sees flashes of light and darkness:
“It seemed that darkness had descended but then the car rounded a curve and the sky rushed open before them- bowl of gold where the last moments of sunset were exploding- then another curve and blackness snuffed out all.” (Carson 133)
Here one sees Geryon’s death through the changing colors. It seems that the dilemma between freedom and love ends as the blackness of death takes over. However, the colors make the scene so ambiguous that it may leave the reader uncertain about the facts of the autobiography. The usage of colors allows Geryon’s experiences to be described pictorially, which provides the reader not confirmation but an affective reality that allows the conditions for interpretation. The metaphorical use of color attunes to the senses and allow the reader to peer into Geryon’s heart and soul, which makes the autobiography more powerful than a story of facts.
The question is, does Geryon survive like Lava Man? In Stesichoros’ fragments, “The red world and corresponding red breezes went on Geryon did not” (Carson 14); yet upon reaching Huaraz, Geryon sees “one sudden angular fist of total snow” (Carson 134), where the color of snow hints at the possibility of life. Perhaps Geryon becomes immortal and frozen in time through his photographs; perhaps he does not.
At one point, Geryon “began to wonder about the noise that colors make” (Carson 84). This noise gives the autobiography power.