The Goldfinch: Setting 1 key example

New York City is home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the terrorist attack that kills Audrey takes place; the antique shop Hobart and Blackwell, where Hobie takes Theo under his wing; and the Barbours' Park Avenue apartment, where Theo finds a temporary home and a second family. While the city is a constant reminder of his mother’s death, Theo still longs to be there, underneath the bright lights and the autumn leaves. In New York, he can still feel his mother’s spirit and the remnants of his old life. Theo admits that springtime still transports him right back inside the Met gallery full of corpses. But New York is Theo’s home through and through, the place to which he constantly returns.

Las Vegas is home to Larry, Xandra, and Popper. Along with Theo, they live on Desert End Road at the very edge of a new development, surrounded by empty houses. The too-vibrant opulence of the Strip, along with the too-empty openness of the desert, feels foreign to Theo. In Las Vegas, thousands of miles away from New York and the Barbours, Theo no longer feels any connection to his mother or his past life. The Las Vegas setting, however, is far less important to the story than the close friendship that Theo forms with Boris and the lifelong habits that he picks up there.

Finally, readers arrive back at the beginning of the story in Theo’s hotel room in Amsterdam. Here, Theo experiences his lowest moment: he tries to commit suicide. Overwhelmed by despair, guilt, and paranoia, Theo believes that only death will be able to provide relief. Theo locks himself in that hotel room for days on end, first getting high on heroin, then becoming deathly ill from the withdrawal, and finally surviving his botched suicide attempt.