He has to accept thatOliver is not a static concept but an individual that is, at all times, constructing and re-constructing himself in new environments, new places and with new people. The Oliver heknew in Italy cannot possibly exist forever but just as Elio feared for Oliver to change when hearrived in B., he is still scared of seeing that change manifested in a new Oliver; it is an Oliverhe might have never known in the first place

This shows an awareness of the fact that people can change when they interact with differentpeople in different situations, but it also exemplifies how Elio tries to hold on to one versionof Oliver that is most likely unstable.

, but because I was not so sure our kiss hadconvinced me of anything about myself

his is like coming home, like cominghome after years away among Trojans and Lestrygonians, like cominghome to a place where everyone is like you, where people know, they justknow—coming home as when everything falls into place and you suddenlyrealize that for seventeen years all you’d been doing was fiddling with thewrong combination. Which was when I decided to convey without budging,without moving a single muscle in my body, that I’d be willing to yield ifyou pushed, that I’d already yielded, was yours, all yours, except that youwere suddenly gone and though it seemed too true to be a dream, yet I wasconvinced that all I wanted from that day onward was for you to do theexact same thing you’d done in my sleep.