I want to connect two passages where Geryon talks about a cage and a tank, relating the ideas of being trapped and being in captivity. In the first passage, Geryon responds to his brother’s question: “what’s your favorite weapon? Cage, said Geryon from behind his knees. / Cage? said his brother. / You idiot a cage isn’t a weapon. It has to do something to be a weapon. / Has to destroy the enemy” (Carson 33). Considering his brother’s insult and immediate dismissal of his response, it is no wonder Geryon feels trapped—in fact, he uses his knees as a physical barrier between himself and his brother. At first, I interpreted Geryon’s response, “cage,” to reflect how he feels trapped in his life, unable to escape his brother’s sexual and verbal abuse even in a space that is supposed to be safe (his own home). However, he was asked about his “favorite” weapon, which indicates that his response could be something he likes. For this reason, I wonder if he also sees the cage as a form of protection; as much as a cage keeps someone confined, it also keeps others from getting in. Maybe to him, the cage is a psychological space where he can escape his brother and aspects of his life that leave him feeling confused, hurt, or alone. What his brother misses, though, is that a cage does in fact “do something,” and it can “destroy the enemy.” It may not impose immediate physical violence like other weapons, but it works psychologically, causing someone to feel isolated and powerless. Moreover, confinement in a cage over an extended period would also be physically painful. So, for someone so young, Geryon picked an incredibly damaging weapon. Because Geryon has wings, the concept of a caged bird comes to mind as well. So even if the cage protects him on some level, it also confines him in a space he feels he does not belong—it grounds him so he cannot fly or escape.
In the second passage, the singer during the “Tango” chapter tells Geryon that beluga whales think about nothing when they are trapped in a tank: “But I look in their eyes and I see them thinking. / Nonsense. It is yourself you see—it’s guilt. / Guilt? Why would I be guilty about whales? Not my fault they’re in a tank. / Exactly. So why are you guilty—whose / tank are you in?” (Carson 103). Like with his brother, the singer immediately dismisses Geryon’s comment and tries to “correct” him, implying that Geryon must feel an affinity with the whales because he too feels trapped in a tank that he did not put himself in. While a tank is like a cage, I think the intentions behind them are different. Where a cage is often associated with punishment or confinement, a tank usually refers to some kind of display, or playing a role for someone/something else (e.g. whales in a tank for people to observe). So, Geryon at first sees his life as a cage that he built around himself (and events/people in his life likely participated in creating that cage more indirectly), but then Herakles’s influence places him in a tank over which he has no control. In a sense, he is forced into captivity, in more ways than one: the literal sense of being trapped, but also the emotional sense of being enchanted by or attached to Herakles. Either way, he is captivated by and expected to play the role of the unattached lover for Herakles.
Because we have been talking about perspective and partiality in class, I wonder if the cage and the tank are the same idea from different perspectives. Geryon feels a sense of agency as he navigates his life and his attachment to Herakles, but others see him as trapped in a relationship with an emotionally unavailable partner. That the singer labels Geryon’s feeling as “guilt” and not loneliness, or frustration at being misunderstood and denied agency, demonstrates that 1) Geryon may see himself as the problem, rather than Herakles leading him on or traumatic experiences impacting how he interacts with the world, and 2) others also see Geryon as the problem or the “other,” rather than recognizing their role in isolating him. Both, in turn, contribute to him seeing himself as a little red monster nobody understands. Moreover, because his perception of reality is real to him, it is thus real to the reader as well, as we experience the world through him. So, in a sense, he literally is our eyewitness, showing us the world from the perspective of the “other.”
I also wrote about how captivity played a part in Geryon’s life, and I really like your comparison between the tank and the cage. I always took the cage that he references when talking to his brother as a negative, something he has forced him into, but I like your take on that he uses it as a defense mechanism and calls it his “favorite.” I also think of part of his captivity is him rarely sharing his emotions with anyone, something that he has grown up doing because he had to hide what his brother was doing to him from his mother.
As you kind of touch on in your analysis, I think Geryon’s view of a cage as protection could be extended to relate to how he views himself as a monster. We see that from a young age Geryon defines himself by his supposed monstrosity and works to conceal his wings. Perhaps his interest in cages is yet another way to conceal this monstrosity from the world. By attempting to hide his monstrous aspects (by metaphorically locking them away) he theoretically protects himself from the judgement of the world, but he damages himself in the process by restricting his true nature.