The main character of my book is an ex-poet who became a translator and throughout the book he is translating the story of Walenty, a German soldier.
"He lay back on the stones and let the blood flow out of him. He thought he should pray but couldn't bring himself to make the words. Instead he thought of the makowiec his mother used to make for dessert on rare special days when he was a boy. Expecting the end, he consoled himself with visions of poppyseed cake. Later, in the field hospital, his mind creamy with morphine, Walenty had been unsure what disturbed him more: his lost limb and the shrapnel holes in his forehead, or that the only crumbs of life that he found to cling to, when dying on the battlefield, were cake crumbs" (49). I don't exactly know why I like this passage so much, but for some reason it really stood out to me and was very memorable. I think that because he though of something as simple as cake during his death shows how Walenty, being a soldier, must have been expecting it. Instead of running through his life in his mind as he lay there on the battlefield, he focused on a good memory of his mother and his childhood and something before his innocence got torn away through war. Even though the pain must have been overwhelming, Walenty didn't appear as if in pain. He appeared as if in peace. I think that is also what he is saying with the cake crumbs- when everything is chaos and hurt there is always something happy and good to hold on to. I also think that this passage reflects the way of life of a soldier. The losing of a leg was not what he focused on most, because everywhere he looked people were losing legs and arms and lives. Walenty didn't want to focus on something that was now so common to him. Instead he wanted to remember what he could about something other then death.
4 comments:
I think that you're perfectly right about how the cake crumbs are a memory of the soldier's past innocence as a boy. I think that it was a memory that he could take comfort in, and that's why he thought of that instead of prayers. Praying before dying wouldn't have been too comforting.
I would definitely agree with your analysis. Him thinking back to the good, innocent childhood memory instead of any regrets or mistakes he has made shows that in war you really get a perspective on life. Witnessing death and pain all around you really makes you realize what is truly important.
It seems really interesting that this book starts out with a man sitting in an airport writing a letter to the airlines and turns into a book that develops characters and a plot enough to be a good read. It's interesting how the author gets all the way from a letter to the airlines to a battle scene.
I remember seeing a movie (I can't recall which now) that said that the last thing that a man thought of before he died wasn't everlasting life or what he was going to miss, it was his mother. It is quite possible that the movie that this came from was a comedy, a work of fiction, or even a parody, but I think that the point that it makes is very valid.
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