Now, this is also an instance where it is clear that Oliver is positioning himself differentlyto what Elio is used to with him in private. Oliver is the character that seems the mostambiguous in the novel, also because Elio tries to make sense of him and is repeatedly notsucceeding.
Oliver constantly positions himself differently, and is what sets Elio off edge, because Elio wants to see Oliver as one.
Or making fun of me. Or seeing through me.It stung me when he finally came out with it. Only someone who hadcompletely figured me out would have said it. “If not later, when?”
His "If not later, when?" offends Elio because it hints at his looking for a better moment to speak (to speak or to die) and their continuous delaying of approaching the matter at hand by speaking, maybe because speaking will change something between them, because speaking means something.
In this case, Oliver himself is picking at his own scab, as he always says "Later!" Him saying this to Elio is ironic because the two of them are both delaying admitting their true feeling and Oliver is telling Elio to hurry up and confront him, even when all signs say he doesn't want to.
I always tried to keep him within my field of vision. I never let him driftaway from me except when he wasn’t with me. And when he wasn’t withme, I didn’t much care what he did so long as he remained the exact sameperson with others as he was with me. Don’t let him be someone else whenhe’s away. Don’t let him be someone I’ve never seen before. Don’t let himhave a life other than the life I know he has with us, with me
Perhaps this goes to show how he sees Oliver as himself. Thus proving his hypothesis on the "Twisted Skein of Desire" where to be and to have are the same things, but on opposite sides of the river.
And his insecurity blooming from not knowing who Oliver is when he's gone reflects his insecurity in not fully defining himself. It shows his immaturity and instability
that part of his body that must have been fairer than the rest because it neverapricated—and near it, if I dared to bite that far, his apricock
The skin motif comes up once again, where he appreciates and obsesses over the parts of Oliver that haven't been exposed, that haven't been shown, the multi-dimensionality of Oliver (?). Specifically, he fantasises about biting into the apricot, which he compares to Oliver's ass. This connects a desire for intimacy and a selfish (?) knowledge of the other regarding the dimensions of their identity. "Apricate" is to sunbathe.
soles, of his throat, of the bottom of his forearms, which hadn’t really beenexposed to much sun. Almost a light pink, as glistening and smooth as theunderside of a lizard’s belly. Private, chaste, unfledged, like a blush on anathlete’s face or an instance of dawn on a stormy night. It told me thingsabout him I never knew to ask
Motif of skin introduced in CMBYN, where Oliver's duality of skin, tanned, and pink and untouched represents the multidimensionality of identity, and the contradictions that exist within him -- which is what fascinates Elio. The coexistence of both contradictions in such a beautiful, whole, masterpiece who has affinities leaping out of him is enlightening for Elio. Elio may see Oliver as an Elio who he wishes to mature into.
I could grow to like him, though. From rounded chin to rounded heel.Then, within days, I would learn to hate him.
Does this foreshadow the duality and complexity of their relationship? Because there is a period of time when Elio is in an internal conflict with his desire and lack of desire for Oliver.
he threw me a very large one, saying, “Yours,”
He is giving himself to Elio much like he partook in enjoying himself via. the Apricot juice, because perhaps he sees himself in Elio, and thus can share himself with the other?
He had never had apricotjuice in his life. She stood facing him with her salver flat against her apron,trying to make out his reaction as he quaffed it down. He said nothing atfirst. Then, probably without thinking, he smacked his lips.
He just downed a glass of his own fluid, and enjoyed it... Does this mean love and sexual desire is a desire targeted at loving oneself?
What struck me was not just his amazing gift for reading people, forrummaging inside them and digging out the precise configuration of theirpersonality, but his ability to intuit things in exactly the way I myself mighthave intuited them. This, in the end, was what drew me to him with acompulsion that overrode desire or friendship or the allurements of acommon religion.
Evidence that religion, sexuality, and all the shallow ideas of romance is not enough to define their relationship -- it is their similar intuition, and his amazing gift for reading people. Also.. this is like Sammy!!!
I had put reading last on my list, thinking that, with the willful, brazenattitude he’d displayed so far, reading would figure last on his.
An assumption, like many others (such as the bathing suit situation) about Oliver's identity that is quickly refuted, because identities never make sense. A person as a whole cannot be summarized in rules or statements or if.. then.. conditions.