Content Warning: The source material for this study guide contains references to suicidal ideation and uses an outdated, offensive term to refer to Roma people. This language has been preserved only in quotation.

“Today, on this island, a miracle happened: summer came ahead of time.”

This first line of the novella seems ordinary enough—an unexpected change in the weather. However, the narrator’s use of the word “miraculous” indicates that either the warm weather is not a natural event or that the narrator is unreliable. This event creates a mysterious tone early on; later, it is revealed that Morel’s projections cause increased heat.

“I have the uncomfortable sensation that this paper is changing into a will. If I must resign myself to that, I shall try to make statements that can be verified so that no one, knowing that I was accused of duplicity, will doubt that they condemned me unjustly.”

Though the narrator despairs about his chances of survival, he is committed to making his diary a methodical document of his experiences on the island. He initially plans to write about the injustices he has faced that caused him to become a fugitive, but the strangeness of the intruders’ arrival shifts his focus.

“I believe we lose immortality because we have not conquered our opposition to death; we keep insisting on the primary, rudimentary idea: that the whole body should be kept alive. We should seek to preserve only the part that has to do with consciousness.”

The narrator was working on a research project about immortality before his trial. He asserts that fear of bodily death interferes with progress in the field of preserving consciousness, introducing the theme of Defining Consciousness and Life. Ironically, he develops a strong physical attraction for a woman who exists only as a limited consciousness.