The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Chapter 25-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

The Trustworthiness of Animals

One of Jonasson’s motifs is the inclusion of several loveable animals, each playing a pivotal role in advancing the storyline. Whether elephant, dog, or cat, each creature shares the characteristics of dependability, integrity, and affection. Their goodness inspires goodness in the humans responsible for their care. Indeed, the death of Molotov the cat at the paws of a fox creates the narrative’s greatest emotional upheaval for Allan.

Jonasson uses the trustworthiness of these animals as a contrast against which to reveal the paucity of human worthiness. Every person in the story, including Allan, is flawed in significant ways. Allan may seem the best of the bunch in terms of wisdom, achievement, and integrity. However, the story begins with Allan running away from people who want to honor him and then stealing a suitcase containing millions of crowns. Jonasson is not trying to say that the animals are perfect, only that they’re pure and consistent in their actions, whereas humans are all flawed and only relatively worthy.

Blending of Historical and Fictional Characters

From Francisco Franco, the dictator who ascended to power during the Spanish Civil War, to Ronald Reagan, the American President during the last days of the Cold War, Jonasson blends Allan’s story into actual historical events and individuals’ stories. He creates fictional characters—such as Yury Popov, the Russian physicist, and Ah Ming, Mao’s chef—to augment the narrative, making it more realistic and providing fodder for the humorous, absurdist events that repeatedly occur and challenging historical knowledge. For example, Jonasson invites speculation as to whether a bulletproof limousine really exploded in Tehran just before Winston Churchill’s 1948 visit, or if a Soviet spy named Claude Pennant was the trusted advisor to French Interior Minister Christian Fouchet. Jonasson uses this motif to breathe life into history by revealing the emotional motivations in the lives of 20th-century notables. He humanizes famous and infamous individuals, intentionally creating surprise: Harry Truman leans on Allan to fulfill a promise that Franklin Roosevelt made to Chiang Kai-shek; Mao convinces the North Koreans to spare Allan’s life because Allan saved Mao’s wife. Throughout the narrative, this motif conveys the notion that one can inadvertently impact history.

Coincidence

Jonasson often uses the motif of coincidence. Sometimes the coincidences involve so-called near misses, as when Allan’s friend Estabán is struck by the first mortar shell fired in the Spanish Civil War, while Allan, only 20 feet away, escapes without any physical injury. At other times, events involve luck, as when a massive pile of Sonya the elephant’s excrement happens to be sitting just behind the hapless Bucket, whom Allan tricks into falling backward into the dung—whereupon Sonya sits on him.

These coincidences all have two things in common. First, they bring good fortune to Allan and those in his favor. For example, only through amazing coincidence does Mao Zedong spare Allan’s life when the Russians and Koreans prepare to shoot him. In another instance, when Pike, armed and angry, positions his BMW across the road in the path of The Beauty’s bus, he misjudges the stopping distance of a bus containing a five-ton elephant; however, the severely injured Pike lives, thanks to the medical intervention of those he sought to kill, and he becomes part of their group.

The second commonality among the coincidental occurrences is that all contain an element of irony. For instance, one of the few valuable items Allan’s father sends from Russia to his wife and child in Sweden is a Fabergé egg worth thousands of dollars; an unscrupulous merchant cheats Allan’s unsuspecting mother, giving her a pittance for the egg, and sells it for a large profit with which he purchases one of the first cars in Flen, Sweden, Allan’s hometown. However, he happens to lose control while driving and swerves into the gravel pit where Allan is practicing detonating dynamite, whereupon the merchant and his expensive car explode in unintended recompense for his deceit.