Symbolism In The Life Of Geryon

A wall’s symbolism of defense is a wide topic, and Moore’s explanation does not cover every aspect of the idea, nor should it, but there is an important duality to defense that he fails to mention. For example, one-third of the way through the novel, Geryon is staying with his love, Herakles, and is taking some time to nap and daydream when the “door hit the wall as Herakles kicked it open and entered carrying a tray… Room service, said Herakles looking around for a place to set the tray down./Geryon had moved all the furniture/up against the walls of the room” (Carson 60). Moore suggests that, in a symbolic sense, “the impenetrability of walls, in their defensive function…offer security and protection to those dwelling behind them,” which is true, but this definition does not include the dangerous manifestation that often comes with protection: imprisonment (Moore 311).

He has his defenses up against a world where he feels he does not belong, but that wall has been up for too long and the security he started with quickly turned to a self-inflicted prison sentence. For years, Geryon was confined within his own defenses, until Herakles figuratively, and in this case, literally, kicks down the barriers Geryon had painstakingly constructed over the years. The second mention of Geryon’s wall refers to a more active, although still psychological, defense mechanism. The physical act of pushing the furniture away can be an embodiment his mental fight to push the limits of his defenses. By meeting Herakles, Geryon realizes how lonely and trapped he is, but he is not a kick-down-the-door type. Instead, he methodically searches for a way out by testing every idea, and slowly rearranging his emotions, and with them, his furniture, until he is able to admit to himself, “Now I am a man in transition” (Carson