There Are No Saints

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, sexual violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and cursing.

Sculptures function as a symbol throughout There Are No Saints, embodying the novel’s central exploration of Art as Creation and Destruction. Cole’s sculptures represent his ability to transform violence and death into objects of beauty, most notably through Fragile Ego, crafted from Carl Danvers’s bones and sold for $750,000. Cole’s sculpture literalizes the novel’s argument that artistic creation requires destruction; he cannot make art without first destroying life. The symbol’s meaning shifts through context and perception: Gallery visitors admire the piece’s aesthetic beauty, while Cole revels in its macabre origins, remarking, “The fact Danvers’s bones will be displayed in the lobby of a tech firm gives me even greater pleasure than removing his irritating existence from my life” (33). For Cole, the very dichotomy between the work’s appearance and its reality is a source of delight, both because it demonstrates his perceived superiority and because it encapsulates his aesthetic sensibilities. However, Cole’s unfinished pieces, which he views as “aborted fetuses […] abandoned by their creator because they died in the womb” (221), suggest that even his artistic vision has limits; some “dead” material simply remains dead.