Body and Soul (Themes)

Themes

Appearances and Reality

The illusion of the public image versus the reality of private life is a prominent theme that appears throughout the novel. Weisfeld appears to be an ordinary, unassuming music store owner. Beneath the surface, however, he is an extremely talented composer whose career was cut short by the traumatic events of World War II in Poland. He is a man who has achieved much, suffered much, and experienced more than most people ever will.

The Fisks are another example of the power of appearances. To the outside world, they seem to live a charmed life: wealthy, happy pillars of the community. Inside, however, they are torn apart by incest, mental illness, and deceit. Their admirers do not see the darkness that lurks just behind the façade.

Claude himself is not all that he seems to be. His African heritage is a secret kept from him so that he can compete in the music world without the burden of racial stereotypes. He is also sterile, even though in every other way he is a healthy young man. In another sense, the depth of Claude's feeling for music belies the fact that he is emotionally shallow in all other aspects.

Fathers and Sons

The epigram before Body and Soul reads: "That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it." Taken from Goethe's Faust, this quote is Conroy's way of telling the reader what the book is about. Claude's musical gift comes from his father, and he pursues the mysteries of music as fiercely as he would pursue the real man. Whether he realizes it or not, Claude spends much of his life searching for his father — perhaps not the actual man, but someone to replace him, someone to fill the hole in Claude's life. He finds others in his life to replace his father, namely Weisfeld, Al, and Fredericks. His father represents to him everything he does not have: a normal childhood, a past, the thing he cannot be himself. It is this one relationship, or the lack thereof, that keeps him from having a successful relationship with anyone else.

Salvation Through Meaningful Life's Work

All of the characters in Body and Soul have some sort of obstacle to overcome. Most find the strength and the means to persevere through their life's work. For Claude it is his music that sustains him, for he can lose himself and his problems for hours in the midst of playing the piano. Catherine rebuilds her life through her passion for medieval history, finding meaning and contentment in her studies. Weisfeld also rebuilds his life after the Holocaust through music, owning the music store and teaching Claude. They find a path that makes them happy.

For those without a path, however, the prospects are dismal. Lady has loads of ambition, but no way to channel it into anything useful. So she meanders from project to project, desperately looking for something "real." Peter Fisk is also a victim of a passionless life. He has the skills to play the violin, but there is no love for the beauty of the music. There is an emptiness in him that consumes him to the point that he cannot live with it anymore. Emma also tries to find some meaning in her life, but by joining the Communist Party she only manages to create more upheaval. All the characters are searching for salvation, and the key in this novel is finding one's life's work.

Loneliness and Isolation

At the end of the first chapter, Claude is watching the crowd celebrate V-E day in the streets near his home. "Claude realized that all these strangers were caught up in something together, that an unseen force had wiped out all differences between them and made them one. They were joined, and as he clung tighter to the lamppost he felt his own tears starting because he felt entirely alone, entirely apart, and knew that nothing could happen to change it."

Through twenty-one more chapters, the reader waits to see if maybe there is something that could happen to change this poor little boy's loneliness and isolation. But Claude's talent continues to isolate him from ordinary people who can never know what it is to be so gifted. Although Claude does develop friendships and a comfortable relationship with the mother whose neglect started his life in loneliness and isolation, he does not ever really stretch beyond his self-centered world. That is why his marriage to Lady fails, and why Catherine will not marry him. Claude does not become one with others because he is one with music. Music is the soul he finds when he learns how to go beyond the "wall," and so with music he is complete.

The theme of loneliness and isolation carries over to many others in the novel. Mr. Weisfeld remains alone after he loses his family in the war, and he isolates his past from the rest of his life by never inviting anyone into his apartment. Peter Fisk is kept apart from a normal life by the needs of his mother and the shame of his family's sins. Lady keeps Claude at a distance and does not include him in any of her decisions, not even to discuss starting a family. Catherine chooses to isolate herself from her family by living abroad, alone with her child. Emma is set apart by her size, by being a single mother, and by being a female taxi driver in a time when all of these features make her unusual. Until Al comes along, she uses beer, communism, and obsessive behavior to fill her life. It is sad that she cannot find fulfillment in mothering Claude, but instead continues the pattern of loneliness and isolation in his life.