Stypula 1

Harrison Stypula

Dr. Laura Patterson

SEL 312

12/7/22

Existentialism in the Lemon Grove: Absurd Existence in Russell’s “Vampires in the Lemon

Grove”

In “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” Karen Russell throws the reader into a setting of

magical realism with her two vampire protagonists, Magreb and Clyde. Their calm and tranquil

living space of an Italian lemon grove becomes the center of their story, which spans hundreds of

years’ worth of time together. The grove itself at first serves as a location where the pair can find

solace in their eternal lives after years of searching for meaning, but eventually becomes the

source of their own misery as neither can fully live up to the authentic selves they wish to be. By

looking at these characters from an existentialist point of view they become nearly perfect

examples of how the human experience and perspective on life can become skewed in two

varying existential directions, both with their own positive and negative attributes to them. It is

here that we can see the character Clyde take on an absurdist viewpoint of life and his wife

Magreb, unwilling to accept the banality he has grown used to, follows a more traditional view

that life without constant experience becomes meaningless, and feels compelled to continue her

search for experiences to find meaning. Further, it is possible to find a deeper understanding of

acts of bad faith in their rapidly dividing philosophies by examining division between modernist

and post-modernist acceptance of the world, and how these techniques are represented in the

story itself.
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The most notable development between Clyde and Magreb while staying in the lemon

grove is how they find themselves torn in the act of bad faith, the process of denying oneself

what is truly desired (Upstone 101). While they are in the lemon grove both protagonists are

faced with a denial of their true freedom and are faced with the uncertainty that comes with

living forever in the close bonds of marriage. The very acts both are performing are lies to

themselves and each other about the personas they have put on. Clyde in a constant state of

trying to find a better or new version of himself to impress Magreb with acts such as trying out

new Italian names, and Magreb pretending that she still is satisfied with the lemon grove, as well

as her relationship with Clyde (Russell 363-364). For Magreb her decision to leave the lemon

grove is halted by Clyde’s stubbornness and for Clyde in turn his desire to stay and be satisfied

with the lemons is threatened as well.

The possibility of life having no true meaning and being futile drives Clyde, perhaps

unconsciously, to find solace in the one place where he has ever known true satisfaction despite

his knowledge that it doesn’t get better or change regardless what he does. Magreb on the other

hand, seems to be pushing to find the bigger and better things in life rather than succumbing to

the idea that life holds no meaning, which Clyde is holding her back from doing. Like Sisyphus

pushing his rock up a mountain fully knowing it’s pointless (Upstone 104), Magreb has come to

the realization that the lemons they found satisfaction in for so long do nothing and refuses to

accept this as being all there can be. Clyde’s pushing question to her of “Why can’t you just be

grateful? Why can’t you be happy and admit defeat?” (Russell 365) screams of absurdist

thinking, as he has fully come to accept that what they have is all they can expect at best.

Magreb’s denial of defeat acts as bad faith towards Clyde, as does his flaunting of nihilism and

pointlessness to her in return. Acting as if there is nothing left in the world to find hope in
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becomes as hopeless of an act as Magreb attempting to push Clyde out of his acceptance of the

very same, both working as countering forces to each other.

With this acceptance from Clyde of futility, there’s also a sense of modernist despair in

the collapse of his reality. Looking at the story with this extension, there is symbolism of the

breakdown between modernist and post-modernist ideas, with the acceptance that there is more

than one thing that provides meaning to them as vampires. Magreb accepts that there is more

than just the one “truth” while Clyde falls into despair over the idea the lemons which long since

satiated them are no longer effective. It seems that Magreb long before fell into the same sense of

fear and dread that Clyde has, when she says she “wanted to sleep for a while,” and was “tired of

this century,” (Russell 362). It seems that much like the rest of their lives, Magreb has been a

step ahead of Clyde in his life as a vampire, always needing to catch him up on the myths of their

kind that he lived in fear of. It just so happens this last fear which he has succumb to is enough of

one to separate them.

This divide between them relates similarly to the post-modernist and modernist

characteristics of the story structure itself. It obviously has a non-linear timeline and is a work of

magical realism, but is also self-aware, a metafiction on the divide between modernist and post-

modernist beliefs about the state of the world. By describing characters who grapple with finding

their truth and freedom along with it, they are representing the realistic struggle between a

modernist despair and a post-modernist acceptance of uncertainty and lack of singular truth, with

Magreb having accepted this and Clyde still in denial. In turn, by looking at the characters from

an existentialist point of view, their positions are mirrored but also reversed. With an acceptance

of the absurd, Clyde finds relative peace in the truth that the lemons may still work and becomes
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subjected to bad faith by forcing himself to believe it. Magreb on the other hand is the one in

denial of Clyde’s perspective, believing that more can be found in life beyond his horizons.

Looking to Clyde as a character specifically, if we examine him in light of the concept of

the “superhuman” (Upstone 99) we can see the irony in his life that drives him to a state of

confusion and despair when he kills Fila and returns back to the feral vampire he was at the start

of his undead life (Russell 367). The symbolism of vampires in the story is indicative of the

concept of the “superhuman” and the idea that with immorality this would be the ideal form of

the “superhuman” who can manipulate their lives for eternity. At least it would make sense for

them to be this way. The irony, for Clyde in particular, comes from how even within the freedom

associated with immortality the simple pleasures of life and supernatural powers, such as turning

into a bat, can still be lost.

When Magreb returns from the “long sleep” she goes to out of tiredness, Clyde finds

himself changed, saying “I can’t shudder myself out of this old man’s body. I can’t fly

anymore,” he is succumbing to the futility that he believes is his existence with his wife (Russell

362). This persona of an old Italian man, lost with the humanity he was enjoying with Magreb,

becomes a performance that slowly breaks as the story progresses. Just prior to Magreb

confronting him about the truth that the lemons no longer satisfy them, he describes himself

getting lost to the monster he was before meeting his wife. “Last night I went on a rampage,” he

describes, losing himself after the seventh lemon he consumes that just doesn’t fix his hunger

like it used to (Russell 363). Already at this point his weakened state induced due to bad faith is

driving him back to the original persona he took on as a young vampire. It is an act not unlike the

concept of gender performativity described by Judith Butler (Upstone 157), and by looking at

Clyde in a similar sense he is participating in another kind of performativity, one in which he is

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behaving in a way that he believes is good for his marriage, and what he needs to fit in with

whatever society he lives in. He has been conditioned in a manner of speaking by Magreb to not

drink blood and to find sustenance in the lemons instead, and in return strongly takes this to

heart. Her act of removing that comforting place he has within the idea of sanctuary in the lemon

grove, confronting him with the harsh truth, is what drives him to shirk his behavior as an elderly

man to return to what he was before meeting his wife. It leaves open the possibility too that he

does so to subconsciously force her to save him from himself once again.

In looking at “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” the text clearly shows characteristics of

metafiction, giving voice to the division between modernism and post-modernism through the

use of two immortal figures at odds. Further there is exists the irony that a “superhuman” being

can lose all their freedom, despite being immortal. This irony is displayed in the pair losing their

freedom due to lack of authenticity to themselves, from Clyde in the performativity he is

engaged in and the acts of bad faith both engage in, to themselves and each other. They both take

individual responses to the absurdity of their insatiable craving, Magreb choosing to find another

solution now that the lemons don’t work, and Clyde by succumbing and accepting it, in the end

resulting in his own undoing in his relationship and immortal life.

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Works Cited

Russell, Karen. "Vampires in the Lemon Grove." 2014. 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology, edited

by Beverly Lawn and Joanne Diaz, Bedford / St. Martin's, 2021, pp. 355-69.

Upstone, Sara. Literary Theory: A Complete Introduction. John Murray Learning, 2017.