A Deeper Look: Dream and Reality: The story begins with a dream of Ovid where he sees the child and is communicating with the child in an unknown language. Ovid is old now and now we see a role reversal the responsibility shifts and the child looks after Ovid till he breathes his last in the lap of mother Nature. On the death of Ryzak, Ovid realizes that his and the child’s lives are at risk and they escape into the woods. Now, the natives are sure about the devil and in a frenzied state kill Ryzak. After a short while, Lullo recovers only to find Ryzak in an epileptic state. Now, even Ryzak’s suspiscions are aroused. Ryzak’s grandson, Lullo starts having convulsions and the blame inevitably falls on the child. In the meantime, a strange co-incidence occurs. It is only Ryzak’s daughter-in-law who helps the child to get cured. Once, the child has convulsions and the superstitious natives believe that the child is a devil and is shortly going to turn himself into a werewolf. Ryzak’s old mother and the shaman prove to be enemies of Ovid because of the child. Somehow, Ovid manages to get the consent of Ryzak and the child stays with him. After a few years, his desire is fulfilled, but now the natives are against the idea of keeping the child among them as they fear that the child is a werewolf. Ovid finds an unknown bond between the child and himself and is determined to bring the child with him. On an annual deer-hunting expedition, Ovid and Ryzak get to see a wild boy brought up amidst Nature in the woods. In course of time, he becomes close to Ryzak, the village headman. Initially, he feels out of place but as time passes by, he becomes a part of their tribe, trying to learn their language and helping them in their communal chores. He starts living with these natives in a place called Tomis, an outpost of the Roman empire, between the Danube and the Black Sea. Ovid, who is in exile comes into contact with the barbaric world as against the civilized Roman society in which he lived. It is this fact or the ‘absence of this fact’ as Malouf himself puts it, which is exploited and explored by Malouf. Ovid, the famous Roman poet of the Augustan era was exiled for reasons unknown and died mysteriously. The story is based entirely on the romantic imagination of the novelist. An Imaginary Life is a story written by David Malouf.

David malouf an imaginary life analysis