Doom and condemnation
The imagery that defines the book is the imagery that Bauby expresses about his condition. He is paralyzed by a stroke so severely that he is unable to even move enough to communicate himself. The doctors do not even immediately realize that he is still perceiving reality. He is lucid, and his psychology is in tact; in fact he says his mind is sharper than ever as his brain words to try and solve an unsolvable medical issue. To his consciousness, the body has become an apocalyptic prison. He is condemned to perceive, but without being able to move or express himself.
Medical crisis and death
Although in his experience of reality, the stroke barely happened at all (he blacked out during the stroke and woke up already-paralyzed, without understanding what was happening or why his body would not move). The hospital and staff are part of the imagery of this book as he attempts various forms of therapy, to mixed avail. He only sees marginal improvements, but each one feels to him like a gift from the universe. He thinks often about the body, medicine, and death.
Community and identity
Beyond the concrete imageries of illness and paralysis, the book also treats the experience of human consciousness within community. He is now unable to participate in his community in the same ways that he used to. As a writer and editor, his identity is rooted in his ability to be understood and to construct precise language, but now his identity has no expression. As various people come to mind or visit him after the stroke, he reflects on what community means, and what it feels like to be isolated the way he is.
Language and meaning
As mentioned, this man was already a writer and editor. His relationship to life was oriented around saying words, writing words, reading words and editing them. In a way, his medical situation is like torture to him, because he loses his ability to make words. This gives an abstract imagery of language in his desires. As he gains language day by day, learning to communicate with a series of eye blinks, he realizes that he can now write a book about what it is like to be fully paralyzed, but still lucid.
