“The little goldfinch, pinned to his perch, looked out at me with his black button eye. He seemed to say: You see? You see what happens? You keep me and you lose everything else. But I could not give him up. Not even then.”
: The physical intimacy is often intertwined with their substance abuse. As noted by reviewers from the New York Times , Tartt explores how "art may addict, but art also saves us". On page 300, however, it is the human connection that acts as a drug, providing a "sharp gasp" that allows Theo to "forget about everything".
By the time you reach page 300, the lush, Dickensian atmosphere of New York has been replaced by the "dead-end" energy of a foreclosed housing development. Theo’s move to Las Vegas to live with his estranged, gambling father and his father’s girlfriend, Xandra, marks a descent into a moral and physical wilderness.