The Autobiography of Red Literary Elements

Novel in Verse

A fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean

The novel follows Geryon, a winged and monstrous-looking boy who falls in love with Herakles, a young man from Hades. It is written in the third person, past tense, until the last chapters of Autobiography of Red: A Romance, XXXIX – XLVII, which are written in third-person present tense.

Wistful, lyrical, romantic, introspective

The protagonist is Geryon. Different characters fit the role of antagonist throughout. The first antagonist is Geryon’s abusive older brother. Later on, Herakles and Ancash at times antagonize Geryon’s fragile heart, though Herakles and Ancash are also friends and allies to Geryon. Herakles has a greater capacity to hurt Geryon than Ancash because he matters more to Geryon, and has a more callous personality than Ancash.

The major conflict is between Geryon and the obstacles he has to overcome in life: his brother, his heartbreak over Herakles, his skewed self-perception, and his loneliness.

A mid-way climax in the story is when Herakles breaks off the relationship between him and Geryon, though Geryon is deeply in love. Later, the story reaches another climax when Geryon and Herakles accidentally run into each other in Buenos Aires, changing the course of Geryon’s journey. The final climax of the story comes in the penultimate chapter, when after years of self-deprivation, Geryon finally allows himself to fly.

The autobiography that Geryon writes as a child foreshadows his own death at the hands of Herakles (37-8).

Herakles’ comment on Geryon’s street art, “All your designs are about captivity, it depresses me,” (55) foreshadows Herakles eventually breaking up their relationship because he wants Geryon to be free (74).

When Geryon is visiting Herakles’ family in Hades as a young man, Herakles’ grandmother talks about her memories in Buenos Aires, Argentina (58-61). This early anecdotal mention of Buenos Aires primes us to expect that when Geryon goes to Buenos Aires many years later, after his and Herakles’ relationship has ended, somehow his visit will involve Herakles (which it does). Indeed, many aspects of Herakles’ grandmother’s anecdote—the German language, jokes, philosophy, and psychoanalysis—carry over into Geryon’s experiences in Buenos Aires. The passage on page 58 foreshadows much of the later content of the book.

Geryon often struggles for words when it comes to Herakles. After they’ve broken up, Herakles calls Geryon and asks him how he’s doing, what he’s up to, and all Geryon responds is “not much,” even though he felt as though “fire was closing off his lungs” (73).

When Ancash asks Geryon whether he was cold, Geryon replies, “Oh no just fine,” when “in fact he had never been so cold in his life” (121).

Autobiography of Red is rife with allusions to Greek mythology, as it is based on the story of Geryon and Herakles’ tenth labor, as recorded by the ancient poet Stesichoros in the poem Geryoneis. The Appendices A-C contain references to a story of Stesichoros’ blinding by Helen, and the mythos surrounding Helen’s role in the Trojan War. Allusions to the Modernist writer Gertrude Stein and painter Picasso are present in the section “Red Meat: What Difference Did Stesichoros Make?”

Geryon is continually described as "red" and "monstrous," and though his physical attributes are never clearly described, we know he conceals wings beneath his clothes. Volcanoes are one of the most potent images within Autobiography of Red, infecting the story’s metaphoric language and continually cropping up as a subject and setting. Related motifs include lava/magma, cracks, fissures, and cuts.

The autobiography that Geryon writes as a young boy includes his own death as if it had already happened (37).

When asked about Helen, Stesichoros insists that there “is no Helen” (149).

Carson sets up a parallel between Geryon and Ancash, Herakles’ first and second lovers. Both are gentle, reserved, loyal men who find Herakles’ brashness and callousness alienating at times. Geryon has wings, and Ancash is “a man as beautiful as a live feather” (112).

There is also the parallelism between Geryon’s two visits to different volcanoes with Herakles. After the first visit to the volcano on Hades, Geryon and Herakles break up. The story ends after the second visit to the volcano in Peru, when Herakles has just cheated on Ancash with Geryon, intimating that he and Ancash might break up after this second volcano visit.

“Four of the roses were on fire.
They stood up straight and pure on the stalk, gripping the dark like prophets
and howling colossal intimacies
from the back of their fused throats" (84).

“Roses came roaring across the garden at him…
the cries of the roses
being burned alive in the noonday sun” (84).

“What is it about burros? He says aloud. Guess they’re waiting to inherit the earth,
she answers him in English” (138).