The Last White Man: A Novel

Content Warning: This guide discusses racism, suicide, substance use disorder, and violence.

The face in the mirror is a foundational scene early in the novel when Anders discovers that he has changed overnight. Also published as an excerpt from the novel in the May 16, 2022 edition of The New Yorker, the mirror is a richly layered symbol with philosophical and literary connotations. Post-structuralist and philosopher Jacques Lacan argues that humans pass through stages in their lives, from the Realist stage of the infant to the Imaginary or Mirror stage of the toddler, which is the realm of images, consciousness, self-awareness and the ego. This is the stage when the individual becomes dependent on things outside the self, such as language, other people and external objects. When Anders sees the face in the mirror (after first seeing it on his phone), his overwhelming reaction is one of  murderous rage. The mirror stage is the moment of recognition as an “I”—yet for Anders, that “I” has been stripped of its privilege of whiteness and has become the race of the degenerate Other, a concept often found in psychology and philosophy to describe those marginalized by a society. Anders wants to murder this image that has robbed him of his identity and his privilege.