The Relationships In Peter Hoeg's Portrait Of The Avant-Garde

Relationships are a reflection of one’s self and one’s personal values. In Peter Hoeg’s Portrait of the Avant-Garde the protagonist, Simon, exerts control over all aspects of his life. He desperately relies on power and control, traits that are caused by his inner narcissism and egoism. The power he feels when he influences peoples’ lives is what drives him to be a fascist. Simon largely controls Nina, and when his control slips the true traits of his character are revealed. He is not self-involved because he is a fascist, but instead he uses fascism to implement his personal desire to have unquestioned control. Peter Hoeg uses Simon and Ninas’ relationship to explore what drives Simon to fascism. Simon’s fascism stems from craving the attention

Without the constant attention and affection he experiences in Copenhagen due to his celebrity, he is left miserable and yearning to return home. The shift in location reflects the shift in Nina and Simons’ relationship and in Simon’s mindset. No one recognizes Simon in Nina’s homeland and this deeply disturbs him. Peter Hoeg uses Nina’s homeland to showcase Simon’s character flaws; “In his unaccustomed role as listener to a story with a central character other than himself and as spectator to a day-to-day life in which he figured as a welcome but anonymous guest, Simon noticed that there was something wrong with the vision of the people around him. Their life, he now saw, lacked perspective.”(320) Simon is egocentric man who fails to realize that there are other methods of thinking. As opposed to learning about their culture Simon merely dismisses it as wrong because it does not line up with his school of thought. He fails to realize that the world is does not revolve around him, and because of this he does not consider other’s