Carvaggio

Part 3 ~ Caravaggio

What is this section about?

There are 3 prisons who are painting the roof of the Kingsford Penitentiary. Patrick and Buck paint Caravaggio into the blue of the roof so that he can escape. Caravaggio escapes, steals new clothes and jumps onto a milk train making his way towards cottage country. He has a scar from the attack in jail where Patrick saves him (attack occurs because they were being racist calling him a ‘Wop’). Caravaggio flashes back to his first robbery where he breaks his ankle trying to steal a painting he hid in a mushroom factory where a lady named Gianetta helps him recover and enabled him to escape by dressing him as a woman. Caravaggio enters the cottage of a woman that he met on the lake and calls his wife (Ginanetta) letting her know that he is alright. After talking to the cottage owner, he returns to this brother-in-laws house and is reunited with Gianetta.

Significance of title, Caravaggio

Emphasis on the story of Caravaggio and how Caravaggio brings hope to Patrick and leaves an impression on him.

Characters:

Caravaggio, who is a painter/prisoner

Lewis, fellow prisoner

Buck, a fellow prisoner

Patrick

Gianetta, Caravaggio’s wife

Clara

Anne

Alfred

Setting:

Jail

Mushroom factory

Cottage by the river

Kingsford Penitentiary

Motifs:

Light v. dark

The use of dark imagery in the nightmare “black water” “He sees and feels no horizon.”

The use of light imagery to describe Anne “white creamy face”

“a man who thrived and worked in available light” page

“There was a darkness again and he yearned for light.” Giannetta has just left Caravaggio, he alludes to Giannetta being Caravaggio’s light.

Animals

“The animal from the nightmare bares its teeth.”

“Cocoon of dried paint” Pg 188. Metaphor for Caravaggio being a caterpillar, once escaped from the cocoon which is jail into the freedom of the outside world.

“Exotic creature” used to describe Caravaggio, showing he is an outside

 Caravaggio...