The Sacrifice Becomes the God

One sentence — and the whole theology of this story is in the open. For years Simon lived as a sacrifice in both senses: the one who is tormented, and the one who is offered up. The god rejected the offering — and the annihilated self saves itself the last way available: it takes the empty throne itself. Psychologists call this a grandiose defense: when being nothing is unbearable, the psyche leaps into omnipotence, skipping the step of “ordinary person”.

Notice how the script is rewritten: “now he will be the one begging”, and the new picture settles “evenly and coolly” — without the heat of the first. The heat was about love; the coolness is about power. This is the final stage of the mutation: a longing for closeness that was denied the right to exist, reforged into a will to own. From this point the story cannot turn back — and the chapter honestly closes the door behind itself.