Cycles and Civilization Theme Analysis

As Marco Polo describes cities, he pays close attention to cities that contain elements of both wonder and absolute horror. Not every place, he suggests, is entirely good—within every beautiful city, an element of darkness lurks, waiting to manifest itself. Especially in the latter half of the novel, when his cities seem to more closely mimic real ones, Calvino seems to suggest that the course of human history, as well as an individual’s experience of their comparatively short life, are cyclical. This cyclical nature, he suggests, is a natural part of not just the world that humans have physically built, but is also an intrinsic part of what it means to be human.

Invisible Cities draws out several cycles that repeat again and again in various cities. One of the cycles is, in a sense, the cycle of civilization itself: Marco Polo explains that in Eutropia, the city isn’t just one city—it’s a collection of multiple cities and, as its inhabitants become bored and staid, they collectively pack up and move to the next version of Eutropia, where they can find happiness and purpose for a while longer in a “new” locale, with new jobs and new spouses. This type of cycle repeats itself in other cities, offering insight into human nature in the process. People’s patterns of behavior in Eutropia suggest that it’s part of being human to desire something new and different, while the people in the city of Melania show that this desire is impossible to satisfy. In Melania, travelers return to find that conversations repeat again and again among different versions of the same people (there’s always a braggart soldier and an amorous daughter, for example, but the person acting as the soldier or the daughter changes over time). Considering these and other cities in which things repeat and cycle without end, Invisible Cities seems to propose that life is an endless cycle—even when people try to find something new, as in Eutropia, they’re still inevitably condemned to repeat the cycle for all time.

Especially in its cities connected to death and to the sky, Invisible Cities dives into the intertwined ideas of how people deal with their inevitable demise, and how they fit into the universe while they’re still alive. Again, however, Marco doesn’t indicate that any of those cities or their inhabitants come to positive, meaningful understandings—but through these two types of cities, the novel begins to question whether it’s possible to break the cycles. In both cases, the possibility of breaking any of the cycles is so horrific as to be almost inconceivable to the cities’ residents. In Laudomia, inhabitants have access to a version of the city that houses the dead, as well as a version that houses the unborn. Anxious residents turn to the dead or the unborn to try to make sense of their own lives instead of where their city may end up in the future, because, Marco suggests, contemplating humanity on a larger scale requires considering whether people will be around forever—and whether anything they’re doing is, if humans may not exist forever, actually meaningful. Meanwhile in Thekla, the city is constantly under construction—and when Marco or other travelers ask the builders when the city will be done, the builders anxiously imply that if they keep building, they’ll never be able to peak and then begin to decline. Through these two cities, the novel begins to suggest that, even if the cycles of humanity are constant, it’s possible that they will eventually cease to exist. The thought of human extinction is something universally disturbing for people who will, the novel shows, do nearly anything to ignore their own lack of importance.

As Marco’s descriptions of cities grow grimmer and grimier, Kublai Khan begins to share some of the qualities of those in Laudomia and Thekla. He laments that his empire is falling apart and becoming ill, and in his final conversation with Marco, he declares that “It is all useless, if the last landing place can only be the infernal city, and it is there that, in ever-narrowing circles, the current is drawing us.” Essentially, Kublai accepts at this point that he, his empire, and all of humanity are failing. However, Marco offers a remedy to Kublai’s existential crisis. He suggests first that “the inferno of the living” won’t ever actually come to pass—and if it does, people are already inhabiting it, unbeknownst to them. Instead of dwelling on humanity or civilization’s eventual decline, he proposes that people must either accept the inferno until it becomes background, or else dedicate themselves to looking for the beauty in the world, humanity, and its cycles. Though the cycles may be inevitable, Marco seems to suggest that it’s possible to make them bearable by focusing on and promoting the good and beautiful aspects of human life while it lasts.