Realistically, it seems as if everything in Carson’s Autobiography of Red deviates from conventional works of fiction and narrative in some way. While everything from the form, story and language are unconventional, Carson’s inventive characters allow her to reimagine a “Good vs Evil” narrative from the perspective of the “Evil”, those who are marginalized to the point that their experiences go unheard.
This interpretation of Carson’s use of inventive characters is based on an analysis of implicit meanings and metaphors throughout the novel. Carson doesn’t devote time to discuss Geryon’s homosexuality, sexual abuse, or feelings of heartbreak. To make this connection, one needs to look at Geryon from the perspective of contemporary society; he is not “evil”, but different. An outsider with red-wings that he hides from the world, rarely displaying them in an attempt to hide what makes him different from those who would demonize him for those differences.
Through Geryon, Carson takes a character historically known only as evil, different, and defeated, and reimagines them in the context of someone marginalized by society as different, wrong, or even evil. As such, Geryon hides the factors that marginalize him, the events that he feels others are unable to empathize with, and the differences that society would choose not to understand. Anne Carson uses Autobiography of Red to show that we demonize what we don’t understand, and gives a voice to the voiceless, showing that the stories that we don’t hear can change our conceptions of the people we misunderstand.