The Making of an Artist
One of the primary questions this novel is asking concerns the formation of an artist: what kind of process must the aspiring artist undergo? What does an artistic life look like? How do you know when you have earned the title of artist? Even as a young child Duffield senses that an artistic impulse lay within him, that it is the only thing he is truly interested in; as the novel proceeds, he must navigate the murky path into becoming a real artist, which for him means getting to the deeper, salient truths in his paintings rather than earning commercial success and recognition.
Class
Class is explored in various ways throughout this novel. We first encounter class conflict when Mrs. Duffield must go to work at the Courtneys' house, exposing young Hurtle to their wealthy, cushioned life within which there is available time to spend on aesthetic interests. Seeing this ignites a desire in Hurtle to have access to that life, too, and equally puts pressure on his parents to give him up for adoption, as they need the money they offer, and believe that the Courtneys can give him a better life. Eventually Hurtle rejects the upper class life altogether, opting to instead live in squalor as all artists, he believes, must do.
People as Artistic Subjects
"Vivisection" becomes the catch-all term for this idea of dissecting people for art, for seeing something in them and then taking it to the canvas without regard for their actual lived experience. This is Duffield's whole game: everything he paints is drawn from one of the several people he encounters throughout his life, typically people with whom he has close and often intimate relationships. For him this is second-nature; he cannot find inspiration any other way. But there is enduring conflict with all of his subjects – namely the women he figuratively dismembers, Nance and Hero and Rhoda – about how cruel this kind of work is.
Being an Outsider
Hurtle is an outsider from the very beginning, a fate he is destined for with the selection of his odd, unfamiliar name at birth. His artistic proclivities set him apart from his family and the other kids; his upbringing means he cannot truly integrate with the Courtneys and their set. Then, for the rest of his life he lives as an eccentric recluse, a life he has chosen but that also feels, in a way, like the only possibility for him given that he yearns for solitude in order to work. It is this status as an outsider that allows him to work as he does: from his vantage point, he sees everything. And with his distance from the lives of others, he feels no remorse turning them into fodder for his art. Rhoda is also an outsider, but for different reasons than Duffield – while she grew up wealthy, her physical deformity has caused her to be cast off to the fringes of society.
Creation as a Religious Act
The merging of the artistic and religious interests in the novel occurs with the word "creation," designating both the act of making literal things, like paintings, and the making of the universe by God. In his moonlit conversation with Cutbush, the perverted grocer, Duffield also extends this reference to include conception. It is noteworthy that creation as conception is only mentioned in scenes of men masturbating; there is, apparently, no need for women in order to make life. In any case, Duffield conflates all kinds of creation with one another – there is a godliness to making art, and only through making art can one hope to reach far enough into God's light.
Eroticism
At the core of Duffield and his work is a tyrannical eroticism that cannot be restrained even when a personal or ethical code would encourage it. For Duffield, painting is an erotic act; particularly at the level of conception, when he is playing the role of voyeur, unearthing forms from the people and landscapes around him. At all stages of his life he is guided by an erotic impulse, forced to navigate sexual desires that both complement and interfere with his working life.
Spiritual Family
There are no happily contained nuclear family units in this novel. Instead White has written a variety of found families – found and bought, if considering the Courtneys or the Pavlossis. Though Mrs. Courtney's intentions in adopting Hurtle are not entirely pure, she undoubtedly comes to love him as though he is her biological son. Later in life, Duffield thinks of Kathy Volkov as his spiritual child, sure that they are cut from the same cloth. Of anyone in his life Duffield is closest to Rhoda, his step-sister; he cares much more for her than his biological sister Lena, for instance, whom he refuses to speak to during a coincidental run-in.
