Reality, Reflection, And Redemption In The Thief Lord

In this passage from The Thief Lord, Cornelia Funke employs this image of Casa Massimo and its reflection on the canal below as a representation of the novel as a whole. Here, Hornet and her friends have just learned that their friend Scipio is not an orphan and master thief, as he has led them to believe, but a wealthy boy living with his father. Funke uses this image of Scipio’s home and its reflection as a concrete universal to embody the universal human longing for acceptance. In addition, Funke uses ambiguity and metaphor regarding the literal and figurative tension between light and dark, as well as narrative tension regarding the text’s interplay between story and reality, to bring one universal meaning to the surface of the text: that acceptance and family are only attainable through trust and honesty.

In “New Criticism,” Lois Tyson suggests that ambiguity is key to a New Critical examination of a text because it generates multiple interpretations of an image, event, or word (Tyson 140). So too does this passage offer multiple interpretations of the “light in some of the windows” of Casa Massimo, as well as the opposing “gray, dark day” outside. This ambiguity complicates the image in several ways. The light in the windows betrays Scipio’s privilege against the perpetual “gray, dark day” in which his orphaned friends exist, but the light also represents the illumination of Scipio’s truth after deceiving his friends for so long, while the gloom outside embodies the literal dark cloud hanging over the heads of Hornet and her friends as they grapple with the realization that Scipio has duped them. Scipio is not only illuminated here, but exposed – he does not volunteer the truth of his identity so much as it is forced from him. With his true self thrust into the light, he is forced to confront that he may have lost his only friends through this admission, represented in the text as the gray, dark afternoon outside. However, the lights in the Massimo house further function as a metaphor for hope and loyalty – the Scipio in Casa Massimo is not entirely different from the version of Scipio his friends trust, and his loyalty to them has not died simply because they have discovered his true identity. Although Hornet, and the others are presently in a moment of gray dark as they come to terms with Scipio’s identity, the lights in the house are still on, and, therefore, reparation of that trust is still possible in the future. This is reinforced by the acknowledgement that it is still “early in the afternoon” – there is still time for redemption before the metaphorical night falls completely.The reflection of the Massimo mansion in the canal represents the duality of Scipio’ssituation – reality looming above and its recreation falling below.

The reflection of the Massimo mansion in the canal makes the house seem even more intimidatingly large and mockingly grandiose as Scipio struggles with the enormity of what he has done. As this reflection is created by water, a substance that takes the shape of its vessel, this functions as a deeper reading of the way Scipio manipulates his image to fit the persona he wants to inhabit. Tyson states that to create tension, “the text’s opposing tendencies are held in equilibrium by working together to make a stable and coherent meaning” (Tyson 140). Here, Scipio’s true identity struggles for equilibrium against the narrative of the Thief Lord as he is forced to admit his friends that the hero he created for them was just a lie. The house itself represents Scipio the boy, while the reflection of the house represents the identity Scipio has created for himself. The house is stable, static, while the reflection of the house and its grandeur on the water will be distorted by any disturbance of the water’s surface. As such, the identity Scipio has created as the Thief Lord is a distorted version of his true reality – he does steal, but from his home, and he fancies himself an orphan, but because his father does not pay attention to him. This tension serves to underscore the opposition of Scipio’s identities – the real boy and the Thief Lord façade – as Scipio is forced to recognize that if he wants to win back his friends’ trust and acceptance, he must move forward as the honest version of himself, rather than the embellished one.

The canal that separates Hornet from Casa Massimo (and, therefore, Scipio) works to resolve this tension by acting as a metaphorical bridge in addition to a literal divider. The canal creates a visible, tangible rift between Scipio and his friends, but a canal is crossable. However, to physically cross the canal is to disturb and destroy the reflection of Casa Massimo, and, thus, destroy Scipio’s fabricated self. This metaphor also engages with the New Critical element of paradox (Tyson 138-139): Scipio must leave the Thief Lord behind if he is to redeem himself from his lies and regain the trust, acceptance, and family he sought when creating his false persona in the first place.

The opportunity for redemption, acceptance, and trust is critical in a novel that is at its core about family and, more specifically, the idea that family may not mean the home into which one was born, but the people one chooses. In this passage, as it functions as a microcosm of the novel, Funke uses ambiguity and metaphor exploring the literal and figurative tension between light and dark, as well as the narrative tension between Scipio’s two identities, to establish again and again that even in the gray dark of afternoon, there is still a chance at light if one is willing to step forward honestly to try to make amends.