One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand
Themes
Identity
the remark about the nose that undoes the image Vitangelo had of himself (chapter I of Book I), the stranger he meets in a mirror in the street (chapter IV of Book I), the nameless body in the wardrobe mirror (chapter VII of Book I), the rule that man builds...
Appearance and Reality
the neighbor who greets you outwardly and despises you inwardly (chapter II of Book II), the cypresses that change meaning with mourning (chapter III of Book II), the empty words that each person fills with their own meaning (chapter IV of Book II), the peace...
Madness
the first madman's laugh before the mirror (chapter VII of Book I), the lucid awareness of madness (chapter II of Book IV), the royal road of madness (chapter IV of Book IV), the crowd's cry of «madman» (chapter VII of Book IV), the commitment Firbo proposes...
Loneliness and Isolation
the desire to be alone and the definition of solitude as being with a stranger (chapter III of Book I, chapter IV of Book I), the bitch in the empty lot to whom he confesses his fear of being looked at (chapter III of Book V), consciousness as the others...
Money and Wealth
the idleness that was his father's money (chapter II of Book III), the banker who is a usurer in the street (chapter V of Book III), the profession he cannot name (chapter VI of Book III), the money Vitangelo's father used to give Marco di Dio up to a point...
God and the Divine
the sense of God he keeps within and the house men build for feelings (chapter V of Book VII), the vital point that was God (chapter V of Book VII), the bishop who comes down on foot (chapter VI of Book VII), the God who wants to undo rather than build...