The Black Prince Theme of Transformation

You don't have to be Optimus Prime or a team of Power Rangers to undergo a rad transformation when the situation calls for it. Just ask 58-year-old curmudgeon Bradley Pearson of The Black Prince. When he realizes that he has unexpectedly fallen in love with Julian Baffin, his whole world is turned upside down. Suddenly, he finds that he's a new man—someone with far more wisdom, depth, and insight than he ever had before. Not only that, but he feels as though he's been transformed as an artist, too. Talk about feeling some ch-ch-changes.

Questions About Transformation

  1. In The Black Prince, does Bradley Pearson describe his marriage to Christian as having changed or transformed him in any way?
  2. After Bradley falls in love with Julian Baffin in The Black Prince, how is he "transformed"? In other words, what specific characteristics of his own does he now see differently?
  3. Falling in love with Julian Baffin isn't the only transformative experience that Bradley Pearson undergoes in The Black Prince—being confined in a prison cell changes him, too. What transformation does Bradley experience in prison, and why does he value it so highly?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

In The Black Prince, Bradley Pearson describes his love affair with Julian Baffin as having been transformative. However, another relationship in Bradley's life is far more transformative than the one he shares with Julian, and that's the relationship that he develops with his "dear friend" and editor, P. Loxias.

Although certain characters seem to go on downward spirals throughout The Black Prince, on the whole, the novel suggests that spiritual transformation goes just one way. You either go from a lowly position to a lofty one, or it isn't spiritual transformation at all.