Summary and Analysis
Chapter 10
This chapter's rather static account of Homer's simple life at home repeats and intensifies already established themes. We learn that Homer is forty years old and that the Romola Martin incident was almost the only interruption in his robot-like life. Once more we see that his hands have a life of their own, a life which he, seemingly, won't let become conscious. As he sits in his dingy backyard, he refuses to turn from an ugly view of his garage to a more attractive scene of nature; in his backyard, there lives a lizard, and Homer is fascinated by it. When the lizard pursues flies, Homer's attention fixes on it. His staring at the camouflaged skin of the lizard resembles the staring of the Hollywood street people.
Always, Homer sympathizes with the flies, for unconsciously he associates them with himself as victims; significantly, he never thinks of interfering to save them from the lizard. He accepts their fate, just as he has passively accepted his own situation. Having quieted his memories of the past, Homer is ready to become a victim.