Theodore Decker

THEODORE DECKER

Theodore "Theo" Decker narrates the novel as an adult. He is smart but academically unmotivated, and is troubled by the death of his mother and his theft of The Goldfinch after a bombing at the Met Museum. He meets Pippa at the Met and immediately falls in love with her. Theo struggles with his mother's death and his own identity, and moves to several homes after her death. He lives with the Barbours, his father, and Hobie, and is forced to constantly adjust to new surroundings. While living with his father in Las Vegas, he becomes friends with Boris, starts using drugs and committing petty crimes. After his father's death, he moves in with Hobie and becomes a partner in the shop, selling fake antiques to keep the shop open. After meeting Platt Barbour in the street, he becomes engaged to Kitsey Barbour, though he still loves Pippa. Theo also loves Boris, and when Boris tells him he stole the painting, Theo follows him to Amsterdam and tries to retrieve it. In a shootout over the painting, Theo kills a man and loses it again. Boris informs the authorities about the painting and is able to split the prize money with Theo. When Theo finally returns to New York, he must face his past wrongdoings, and goes on a roadtrip to buy back all of the fake antiques he sold. Theo also confronts his mother's death, and the guilt he carried with the painting, and the novel ends with his realization that life is worth living for art, and the magic of art and joy.The hero wears glasses, has blue eyes and dark hair. As an adult, he is tall and quite handsome.

Theo is an intelligent, imaginative young man, who frequently daydreams and imagines vivid, dramatic scenarios around himself and the people he sees. He can be stubborn and selfish at times, separated from any concrete adult supervision at a young age, but leans into care from adults he trusts like Mrs. Barbour and Hobie. He seems to have inherited parts of his father's addictive personality, much to his displeasure, as he developed substance abuse problems and an addiction to painkillers before he turned eighteen.

He has a specific sense of loyalty that ties him to people for life: his loyalty to his mother that left him permanently jaded toward his father, his loyalty to Boris that lead him to jealousy and irritation when Boris began seeing a steady girlfriend, and his loyalty to the Barbours that led him on the path of a strained engagement to Kitsey even after he discovered her infidelity.

Theo has a habit of holding on tightly to things that give him comfort, whether people or paintings. He can be possessive, jealous, and even obsessive about people and things he holds dear, for example Pippa, who he constantly longs for and fantasizes about.

Realism of the hero & conformity of the hero to the spirit of the time:

The characters in the novel are quite realistic. But we need to analyze the main character separately. It may seem unrealistic to see how much pain and misfortune he has to endure, as well as the whole story of the crimes and their simple solution at the end of the book.

Author's attitude towards the hero:

Since the narration is in the first person, we cannot find out the exact attitude of the author to the hero. We can assume that the author interprets his ideas, if not through Theo’s lips, then through his life path and his changes.