~And
of Clay Are We Created~
Isabel
Allende
(b.1942)
CHILE
Isabel
Allende was born in Peru in an upper-middle class Chilean family.
Allende and her family relocated to Venezuela in 1975 after a
political upheaval. She began to write The
House of the Spirits
(1985) as a way to capture the memories of her grandparents and
especially the important women of her family and earned international
fame through it. Her later fictions include Of
Love and Shadows (1986), Eva Luna (1988) and
The
Stories of Eva Luna (1991). She
is a practitioner of a unique narrative focus created by Latin
American writers, often termed as “magical realism”, in which
realistic events are interwoven with fantastic or incredible
elements. “Fantastic things happen in Latin America,” she has
said “- it's not that we make them up.”
Like
her fictional characters, Allende possesses the gift of reinvention,
and like them she carries within herself the powerful ghosts of the
past.
The
text of the story is given here:
NOTES
Meanings
of Difficult Words:
- Obstinately: stubbornly.
- Subterranean: underground.
- Avalanche: falling large mass, sudden rush of large quantity.
- Unfathomable: bottomless, abysmal.
- Telluric: earthly.
- Cataclysm: disaster, calamity.
- Putrefy: rot, decay.
- Mire: muck, quicksand, morass.
- Presentiments: intuitive feeling or foreboding about the future.
- Bedlam: chaotic situation.
- Tenacity: diligence, stubbornness.
- Equanimity: patience, calmness, levelheadedness.
- Fortitude: strength of mind, bravery.
- Desolate: barren, abandoned.
- Pandemonium: commotion, anarchy, bedlam.
- Commiserate: listen to woes of another, console.
- Accentuated: focusing attention on.
- Frenzy: uncontrolled state or situation, agitation.
- Cadavers: corpses, dead bodies.
- Wrest: snatch.
- Stupor: daze, unconsciousness, amazed.
- Torrent: heavy flow, cascade.
- Visceral: instinctive.
- Armoire: an ornate or antique cupboard/wardrobe.
Few
Important Lines:
- Geologists had set up their seismographs weeks before and knew that the mountain had awakened again. For some time they predicted that the heat of the eruption could detach the eternal ice from the slopes of the volcano, but no one heeded their warnings; they sounded like the tales of frightened old women.
- When I knew him better, I came to realize that his fictive distance seemed to protect him from his own emotions.
- He had completely forgotten the camera; he could not look at the girl through a lens any longer.
- He was Azucena; he was buried in the clayey mud; his terror was not the distant emotion of an almost forgotten childhood, it was a claw sunk in his throat.
- Rolf had wanted to console her, but it was Azucena who had given him consolation.
Important
Points:
Life
is very unpredictable, you can never tell what might happen.
The
story is more about Rolf than Azucena. A reporter going into the
field for an assignment should be courageous, calm and avoid panic.
The image of reporters is created larger than life when they are seen
on television amid the fighting and chaos or any calamity. They seem
to fear nothing, they seem unmoved by the various situations around
them. Rolf Carle was no different. But the only reason he took up
this job was to learn to be courageous and hide something from his
own self. These natural calamities and dangerous situations
strengthened him. It is ironic how Rolf took up this assignment to
keep his emotions and his horrifying past at bay, as usual, but this
profession instead of protecting him from his past took him by the
hand and showed him a mirror to his past. Everything reversed for
him. He was required to avoid any attachments or intimate interaction
with the victims of the avalanche but instead his heart turned to
Azucena. He was unable to maintain a distance from the scene. He
believed that helping her would be his contribution as an aid to the
people in this disaster. He became attached to Azucena. He had left
that professionalism behind and he turned into a simple man trying to
save a little girl's life.
The
cold-hearted journalists and reporters are shown in the story. All
they cared about was getting to the scene first simply in order to
become the first channel to record the massive destruction. They were
not there with the aim of helping the people. They wanted to be ahead
of each other in the mad race for fame and power. For the reporters
their fame is more important and above everything else. Rolf
initially came to the site for this same reason.
The
narrator is a lover of Rolf Carle and is very dedicated to him. She
noticed a change in Rolf through watching his footage. She loved him
a lot and always stood by him. She was impressed by him and cared for
him. She felt she could only show support to him by going to the
station and watching his videos. She wanted to feel what was
happening to him, what change was brewing in his heart and to stay
connected with him. Her futile attempts to reach out to him across
the massive distance left her frustrated and agitated. She wished to
let him know she was there for him at every moment and she was never
leaving his side. The station received unfiltered and raw footage
which she saw to feel somehow closer to him. She was fascinated by
his newly discovered emotional side. It is a first person narrative.
Rolf
Carle finally broke down and confronted his fears. All the while his
profession helped him hide his emotions, something that he did not
want the world let alone himself to see. He was escaping from his
past but this profession ended up revealing everything. He was able
to reconcile with his past. He finally let out his emotions and cried
for himself, he found an outlet, a catharsis for himself through
Azucena. Ironically, Rolf wanted to console Azucena's pain but it was
she who consoled him.
Rolf
felt like the little girl was his family. In the end he abandoned his
profession but the narrator is waiting for him to find himself
patiently. She wants him to return to life. The narrator is willng to
give everything for him but he did not realize her love for him.
Life
goes on. Nothing is permanent and human beings are transient. The
narrator, Rolf and Azucena were all helpless and limited by nature.
The narrator was limited by distance, Rolf was limited by resources,
and Azucena was limited by the fragility of her body and life. But it
is in human nature to get over the pain he has faced, time heals all
wounds. An accident or a death always brings your most inner self
outside. We all realize that we are very vulnerable. We have to
accept life the way it is and reconcile with our situation. The
reporter's larger than life image shattered in the end. We pity him
and sympathize with his lover because their intentions were good.
Human beings have to realize that life ends and we have to take as
much as we can from it.
The
title of the story suggests malleability of human beings, the ability
that we all have to transform and be transformed by the experiences
we endure throughout life. We can mold ourselves like clay.
Point
of view is handled in an unusual way in ‘‘And of Clay Are We
Created.’’ The narrator tells most of the story in the first
person, and yet most readers would say that she operates only on the
edges of the action—she is an observer more than she is an actor.
While it is common for a narrator to relate events she has witnessed,
rather than participated in, it is unusual to have a narrator who
reports what she has seen on television.
Further
links are given for more help in analysis:
http://davidhwiki.wetpaint.com/page/And+Of+Clay+We+Are+Created+(Group4)
Main
Themes:
- Human beings are powerless against nature.
- Human beings are fragile and impermanent.
- Nature can take back the lives it gave to humans.
- Memory and Reminiscence
Questions:
- Who is the central character of this story: Rolf Carle, Azucena or the narrator? How is Rolf Carle changed by his involvement with Azucena?
- What does the story suggest about the relationship between human tragedy or catastrophe and media reportage? Does the presence of the journalist Rolf Carle alter the situation in which Azucena is trapped? If so, how?
- Why does Azucena die, despite the sustained human efforts and technological assistance enlisted on her behalf? What does the story suggest about the relationships between a developing country's response to a natural disaster, the international media's response to it, and the human costs?
- What is the irony associated with Rolf Carle and Azucena? Explain the religious elements in the story.
- Why do you think the local population gave no heed to the warnings of the geologists before the eruption?
Credit-Muneeza Rafiq
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