Summary
Theo spends the days leading up to Christmas in a daze, mostly watching television and sleeping. He sees his father on an old television show, and immediately notices how similar they look. He often thinks of his father, and recalls their conversations.
He is too afraid to pay for anything with his card, and tries to think of a way to dispose of his bloodied clothing, though he has nothing to weigh the clothes down to throw them in the river, and he doesn't want to throw them in the trash in case he is spotted. He also knows that his crimes stretch outside of art theft, and include murder, something he tries to justify to himself by saying that all people are insignificant compared to a great work like The Goldfinch, and that his murder was an act of God. He reads Dutch newspapers daily, barely stringing the words together but trying to see if a warrant is out for his arrest. He hasn't heard from Boris since they left each other on the bridge, but Boris still has his passport, and Theo decides to travel to Paris to apply for a new passport before returning home.
On Christmas Day, Theo takes the soiled clothing and throws it into a random trash can, heading to the Centraal Station to board a train. When he tries to buy a ticket to Paris, the cashier turns him away because he doesn't have a passport. He calls the American consulate in order to apply for a passport, but they tell him he must file a police report, and won't be able to get the passport for at least ten working days after applying.
In his hotel room, Theo contemplates turning himself in for murder and killing himself. He starts to write letters to Hobie, Mrs. Barbour, Kitsey, and Pippa, explaining his suicide. But when he tries to write a letter to Hobie, he realizes it isn't legible, and starts to think about famous suicides, and how only 2% of overdoses are successful, something he experienced himself when he overdosed in Hobie's bathroom. As he starts to get dressed for his death, he throws up, and sits in front of the trash can.
As a kid, Theo would often think of his mother right before going to sleep, hoping she would show up in his dreams, though she never did. But that night, he finally sees her in his dream, standing behind him and looking in a mirror. When he wakes up, he realizes his suicide attempt didn't work, and he decides to give himself up to the police.
Before he can phone the consulate, Boris shows up. Boris wants to celebrate Christmas with Theo, and asks him to drink with him and Gyuri. Theo is upset at Boris and asks for his passport and the painting, but instead of the painting, Boris hands him thousands of dollars.
Boris tells Theo that he is giving Theo reward money, after giving a tip to the police about the location of the painting. When the police track down Sascha and the painting, Sascha ends up in jail, and Boris receives money for The Goldfinch and several other paintings they find in Sascha's apartment. He gives a cut of the money to Theo, and asks Theo to come to Antwerp with him to celebrate.
Two nights later, Theo boards a plan and arrives at Hobie's apartment. Hobie greets Theo coldly, and doesn't mention the gift Theo got him. Instead, Hobie tells Theo it was inappropriate for him to give Pippa such an expensive necklace. He also tells Theo that Lucius Reeve visited him and showed him all the pieces Theo fraudulently sold. Theo explains the story of the painting and how he received the reward money, and tells Hobie that he'll leave if Hobie wants him to. Hobie tells him that the joy of art is in seeing something that can change you, and that there are many things that can rule a person's fate, and that good can come from strange circumstances.
Theo spends the following year traveling and buying back the fakes he sold. Pippa returns the necklace Theo gave her, and tells him that she loves him too, but that their experiences could drag them both down, even though they can also comfort each other. Theo realizes that Pippa is like a morphine lollipop to him. He maintains a relationship with the Barbours that is almost familial, but unofficially breaks off his engagement with Kitsey. Theo also realizes that even if life is a tragedy, and it is better to never be born, there can be joy in the process of living, and he seeks to exist in the gray area between the tragedy, and the small moments of joy that punctuate it.
Analysis
Theo is plagued by memories of his father, and realizes how much they have started to resemble one another, both in physical appearance and in actions. Theo's guilt overwhelms him again, a persistent cycle in his life, and he tries to end his life but fails. That night, he dreams of his mother, and the dream introduced at the outset of the novel is repeated, as Theo is finally able to see his mother in a mirror. As she stands behind him, he sees that his conception of her is a reflection of his own thoughts, his own beliefs, and he has framed her in his mind in a specific way, a way that has shaped him.
In the morning, Boris finally returns, bringing with him a significant amount of money. Theo is at a crossroads, because he can choose to continue the patterns his dad established, or he can attempt to repair his past mistakes and move forward with his life. Boris also tries to repair his past wrongs, as he shares the prize money he receives after turning the painting in to the authorities. Tartt leads the reader to a happy resolution for the painting, but also indicates that past wounds are not as easy to repair, and that they both have to address the other parts of their life that they neglected because of the painting.
When Theo returns to New York, Hobie confronts him about the present he left for Pippa and the counterfeit business. Theo thinks he is going to lose Hobie, but instead Hobie explains how important Theo is to him, and tells him that Welty specifically visited the Met to see The Goldfinch. Hobie sees the painting as a fateful object, an object that is meant to connect them all and bring them together, even if fate also took several of their loved ones away.
By agreeing to buy back all of the furniture, Theo starts to redeem himself, and spends a year traveling across the US in order to track down the counterfeit furniture. Theo also breaks off his engagement with Kitsey, and realizes that he used his feelings for Pippa as a morphine lollipop, a bandage to cover his emotions and the pain of his past. When he realizes this, he is also able to move forward with his life, and continue without his obsession and the lies he constructed.
The novel ends with Theo recognizing that life is not an "awesome, rewarding treat" (957). Life is extremely painful, especially for him, but he lives it to try and find art and love and happiness, the things that happen when the realities of life and the human perception of life meet, and the mind can create the things that he finds are worth living for. This space is "a middle zone, a rainbow edge" that makes life tolerable, and that life is worth experiencing even if it is painful and can be cruel (961). He explains that the painting is immortal, and can carry the love and the history of generations of people who cared for it amidst the transience of life.
