Dear American Airlines

I am going to talk about the very end of the book in this blog post. The book ends with the story of Walenty, the man in the book he is translating. In this part of the story, Walenty is watching a little boy in a cafe. Talking about the boy's mother, he says, "She dragged him beside her chair where she swatted him on the rump with enough force to make Walenty wince, spitting fierce words at the boy Walenty was unable to understand save one: father. Stricken, the boy lay on the floor crying while the mother, eating small bites from a bread roll ignored him" (179). I winced when I read this part of the passage because I could just imagine the small boy being scared and hurt by his mom. Being yelled at or even scolded by parents hurts, especially to a little kid. Then, at the end of the passage, Walenty is boarding a train, and he talks about the little boy again. He sees the mother and the father hugging. He says, "Far below them the boy was clawing at his fathers legs, trying to climb his way into the embrace, and as the train rocked forward Walenty saw the father raise his right arm as if to- but that was all. The stationmaster's office blocked the view and in an instant there was nothing left to see. Walenty sank down into his seat and closed his eyes. There was no Free State of Triste and there never could be" (180). This was the very end of the book. I think what this is saying is how even though the place of Triste was freed by the war, it could never truly be free because of all the corruption and because of people's individual struggles. I think that this is a very powerful message, showing how everywhere, somebody is trapped and constrained through something, whether it be abuse, or family problems, or work.

I thought this was a very interesting end to the book. I was a little surprised that Mile's ended the book with the story of Walenty and not the main character Benny. To me, this shows how much symbolism was put into the story that Benny was translating, and how it was not just a story, but something that told all about his life. I guess that by ending the story shown how everybody is trapped within their own struggles also really demonstrates how Benny is trapped in his own life and hardships that arose. I think that by writing this book, Benny is freeing himself of some of his built up anger and problems. The end of his part of the book says, "Dear American Airlines, I'm not leaving. I apologize for all your time but I've changed my mind. You can keep your money after all" (178). I think that this shows a huge shift in Benny's character. In the first part of the book he is "demanding" his money back, and now he does not care about it. Even though throughout the book Benny was sitting in an airport, I think that the story made him realize new things about life, and how he can be a new person.