Theme of Art

One of the themes of the novel was “art”. Why was art and painting such a dominant theme? Dickie was a painter and enjoyed creating new works of art daily. Tom became fascinated with art as well. One of the stories Tom made up was that Dickie had traveled to Rome to meet with a well known artist. I think artwork may have been important to the novel because art is a creative form of expressing oneself. Throughout the entire novel, Tom is disappointed with the way he lives his life and is not happy with himself as a person. He is constantly trying to express himself in a new way; as Dickie. Dickie’s identity crisis parallels the freedom of expression through art.