Letters to the Editor
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Baby Death Fixation and False Epiphany
I think Petrarch is close to dead on about Tony's motivation for killing Christopher. That issue of the child seat, the implications that Christopher is irresponsible and would endanger his child -- that is what weighed most heavily on Tony in the seconds after the accident and then the days following Christopher's death. His awkward repetition of the story to various mourners was an attempt to explain himself. I don't think, however, that he saw the babyseat and killed Christopher because he viewed him as a failed patriarch. I think he killed Christopher because on some level Tony feels himself to be that endangered child. The connection to Livia's constant threats about killing her children really ties it together: in the moments after the accident, Tony's suspicion that Chris was a threat had the added emotional resonance of his experiences as a frightened child who was literally threatened by everyone he might have loved. Chris wasn't his metaphorical son at that moment -- he was a stand-in for every adult who frightened and disappointed Tony when he was a helpless child. This also speaks to how ultimately helpless Tony feels himself to be even as an adult.
Also, I would not assume, just because Tony shouted "I get it" while on Peyote, that he actually had some type of spiritual epiphany. He undoubtedly knows that this is what one is supposed to do while tripping in the desert, and just as he had to put on the "long face" to act normal at Chris' wake, he got his God on for the duration of his hallucinogenic trip. He was going through the motions just as much with the Peyote as ever. More "comfortably numb" than existentially inspired.