Quotes From The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt, author of The Goldfinch, employs the value of a gift through the main character, Theo. Theo and his mother share a special relationship full of love, trust, and understanding. The gift of The Goldfinch painting symbolizes the love that Theo and his mother share. Although Theo stole this painting a did not receive it as a present, it was still a gift to him, considering the significance and meaning behind the painting. The Goldfinch begins with the story of Theo and the loss of his mother, which forced him to grow up quickly, accordingly, twisting the story into a coming-of-age novel. The painting is a symbol of strength and encouragement, but it also provides a sense of anxiety through the fact that he stole it from the museum

Because of his fear of prosecution, he has kept The Goldfinch painting hidden. This is one of the burdens that this gift has caused him considering that he is always paranoid that they will find out that he stole the painting. Theo’s life begins to look up because he is planning to marry Kitsey, Andy’s little sister; however, he becomes addicted to prescription medications. In order to save the shop from bankruptcy, Theo sells fake antiques, but one of the buyers, Lucius Reeve, attempts blackmail because he figured out that Theo was in the room with The Goldfinch during the explosion and Lucius believes that Theo was the one who stole the painting. This leads to Theo’s low point of the story and that is shown when he says, “It was better never to have been born – never to have wanted anything, never to have hoped for anything,” (Tartt 476). This shows how the gift of The Goldfinch painting led to a burden due to the anxiety and pressure that this

Boris reappears and Theo learns that he actually stole The Goldfinch from Theo and he has a copy so this burden that Theo has carried around for so long was unjustified. Theo turns his life around when he tells Pippa, he loves her after his relationship was ended with Kitsey. Boris attempts to return Theo’s painting with an insane plan that requires travelling to Amsterdam, hiring men to shoot the dealers, and stealing the painting back. All of this would have worked except that the agents hunted them down, one of the agents shoots Boris in the arm, Theo kills Boris’s shooter, and they still fail to secure the painting. This new burden is that due to the painting, the theft, past decisions, and the murder committed in self-defense leaving him inclined towards possibly committing suicide. Boris returns to Theo several days later and tells him that all was fine because he reported the situation to the police, they returned the painting to the museum, and Boris earned a large sum of reward money, which he shared with Theo. Eventually, he attempts to flourish in life and he reflects on his experiences by saying, “Furniture, like all living things, acquired marks and scars over the course of time. The effects of time, visible and invisible,” (Tartt 719). Finally, he realizes that he would not have had those experiences