Hanya Yanagihara’s To Paradise is a masterpiece of our time because it is a novel of several faces. The novel's leading themes are colonization and racism in contemporary America. The novel also explores the historical aspects such as sexuality and pandemics and their impact on society. To Paradise novel has three interrelated sections.
The novel's first part is set in the 1890s in New York Squire. In this section, the author talks about a fictionalized New York mirrored with a dark history. For instance, the author focuses on the northeastern states breaking away from the rest of the USA, which predicts a civil war. In the first section, David Bingham is a heroic character, and he plays a vital role in the banking industry. Other characters introduced in this section are Nathaniel (David's grandfather), Edward, and Charles Griffins. David's grandfather lives in a magnificent house in Washington Square referred to as 'Free State) and acquiring independence. Same-sex relationships are evident in the city, and stigmatization is reducing significantly. David falls in love with Edward, but Griffins also have a crush on him.
The second part of To Paradise is divided into two sections, and this part recycles the characters from the first part. In the first section, David Bingham is introduced as a junior paralegal, and he is having a sexual affair with his boss, Griffins, a wealthy individual in the 1980s. In the mid of the 1980s, America is struck by a pandemic that put New York City under a cordon. The crisis is intense to the extent it denies the rich the luxury of enjoying opulence. The second section in this part talks about the US's dark history and the annexation of Hawaii.
The last part of the novel is set in the future between the years the 2070s and 2090s in Zone Eight. The narrator is Charlie, who survived the nastiest Bubonic plagues that swept the world in the 21st century. The reader learns that Charlie was a victim of the 2070 pandemic, but she survived after taking the experimental drug that destroyed half of her brain.
