Post 2 of Quarter 3

As I continue to read Life Class by Pat Barker our main character, Paul, transforms entirely through the coarse of less than a year. Life Class is a demanding novel showing how relationships can be deceptive and depicting a young man’s life through the use of art in the early 20th century. Paul, a young man studying art, is moving through the year, developing relationships as he goes along. In the novel he has developed a relationship with a woman named Teresa, a good friend of a woman he likes named Elinor. As their relationship progresses, Teresa tells Paul about her husband she has left that still follows her. When her husband, John, comes and attacks Paul and Teresa their relationship ands and with Teresa’s leave we understand the purpose that Teresa served in the novel. She was introduced into Paul’s life to give him ideas and introduce him into a different life, but also, as she leaves, bring a connection to his mom, a story which we have yet to learn. “Paul watched them to the end of the street… It was like the day they came and took his mother away, though he hadn’t witnessed that” (97). Finally this section of the book was used to show Paul the truth. In the beginning he was just a young man, with very little perspective and nothing to say, but as he grows and experiences, he learns and gains ideas as he begins to love. He has almost decided to give up on art after his instructor had said, “I don’t get any feeling that they are yours. You seem to have nothing to say” (37). Then, as Teresa rides away, he decides to paint for honesty, not quality, and he seems to finally grasp the concept of art and we see him move along.
Some arguable themes discussed in the novel seem to circle around the topics of; art, women, and the idea that everything can be stripped down to show true colors. Art challenges Paul like nothing else does and he just can’t seem to figure it out. It makes it worse that everyone surrounding him happens to excel at expression in certain forms. “These paintings were the fruit of a trip up north to seek out the same smoking terraces and looming ironworks that Paul had turned his back on every Sunday, cycling off into the countryside in search of Art” (53). As he looks at a friends’ paintings he is upset that these were the very things that he grew up with, that he failed to see the art in. Art supports the theme that people are essentially selfish as he cannot be happy for his friend but only jealous as he cannot do the same. The theme that women represent is that; what you can’t have you want more. “He felt a spasm of dislike that did nothing to lessen his desire” (77). As he is denied by Elinor he cannot stop liking her but instead likes her more. My final theme is that things can be disguised to be better than they are but when the illusion is gone, you are left with nothing but the truth. This is represented by love, and when Teresa leaves Paul and the love is gone he walks around her newly emptied apartment and sees the ugliness of it. “The glow he remembered had always been an illusion, created by lamps and a few brightly colored shawls and rugs. All the time, underneath, there’d been this cold squalor” (96).