Still Life

Still Life emphasizes the ordinary as extraordinary. The very title of the novel refers to still life painting, which distills the minutia of everyday life into an emphasis on what’s special about the connections between the grand and the small. Thus, beauty can be found everywhere, even in small, seemingly meaningless things. The co-existence of beauty and ugliness is one of the ways this emphasis on beauty manifests in the novel. Though often perceived as juxtapositions, beauty and ugliness cannot exist in isolation. The two complement one another because one cannot understand and appreciate beauty without having experienced its opposite.

The first example of this is the presence of beauty in war-torn Italy. The beauty of the Italian countryside is paralleled with the beauty of Italy’s art pieces. The war threatens people’s lives and livelihoods, but it can’t destroy the natural beauty of Italy. Where there is violence and human destruction, there is also companionship, as is highlighted by the friendship between Darnley and Ulysses Temper and the quick connection that forms between Evelyn Skinner and Ulysses.

Another example of this co-existence is the unlikely presence of the cherry blossom tree in London.