The fall (Allegory)
The author describes the fall of a woman in black, who committed suicide – jumped from the bridge. This fall becomes allegorical to the protagonist’s “fall” from the height of his moral values and principles. First we see him “on the heights”: “I have never felt comfortable except in lofty places. Even in the details of daily life, I needed to feel above. I preferred the bus to the subway, open carriages to taxis, terraces to closed-in places. An enthusiast for sport planes in which one’s head is in the open, on boats I was the eternal pacer of the top deck. In the mountains I used to flee the deep valleys for the passes and plateaus; I was the man of the mesas at least.” We see that he always wanted to be as high as possible, and in his daily life – he wanted to take from his life the best. But these desires only made him falling in his principles, virtues, thus in the end of the story we see him old, ugly (as he says about himself) and ill man who is far from the “height” of life.
Duplicity (Motif)
The narrator always opposes his inner, true world with his appearance, his look in others’ eyes. His true attitude to people, to the world, in general, is arrogance, contempt; he thinks that he is better than others. But from outside he seems to be kind, charitable and clement man, who is always eager to help, support and give a piece of his loving heart to everybody.
Absurd (Motif)
In his stream of consciousness, the protagonist often gives attention to the absurdity of human existence. For example, he describes the following case: “I once knew a manufacturer who had a perfect wife, admired by all, and yet he deceived her. That man was literally furious to be in the wrong, to be blocked from receiving, or granting himself, a certificate of virtue. The more virtues his wife manifested, the more vexed he became. Eventually, living in the wrong became unbearable to him. What do you think he did then? He gave up deceiving her? Not at all. He killed her. That is how I entered into relations with him.” Also he says that his success in life was “authorized by some higher decree.” But the absurdity of this situation in the fact that he has no religion.
