Redemption

“There is a way to be good again.”

Ali finally decides to contact Amir who now is living in California for about twenty years after moving there with his father. During the conversation they discussed many things like the good times that they all had twenty years earlier in Kabul, but it wasn’t only the good news that was being discussed during this conversation Ali had finally told Amir that he was seriously ill and that he didn’t have to long to live. During the phone call Amir was told that “There is a way to be good again.” After hanging up the phone Amir had no clue what Ali was talking about and this why Amir had decided to revisit and travel back to Kabul. But what He didn’t know was what he was getting into, and that this would end up changing his life.

Nothing But a Winner

But coming close wasn't the same as winning, was it? ... He had won because winners won and everyone else just went home.

In this quote we see both winner and loser being mentioned. As a child Amir really looked up to his father and wished that he could be exactly like him, but there was only one problem Amir and his father never had time to themselves as Amir always felt ignores and hated by his father. His father was considered a winner by everyone who knew him, and Amir felt that the only way that he could win over his father was by competing in a completion and beat all the competitors just as his father had done as a child. Amir felt that coming close to a victory wasn’t enough that he actually had to win to be able to be treated as he wished.

Not Friends. But Brothers

“There was brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could not break.”

This quote taken from the book “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini shows us that there is a strong relationship between two boys that is represented as brotherhood. This quote said by Ali who is a servant in Amir’s home is reminding both his son and Amir that they were raised together as brothers although having different mothers. Not only are they like brothers but their friendship is like no other letting nothing come between the two. This quote is being told to the two boys so that they never forget what they actually mean to each other and that their bond isn’t just a friendship but a brotherhood.

It's a Chokecherry Tree

"After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk. That's what they came in there for. Held me down and took it. I told Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldn't speak but her eyes rolled out tears. Them boys found out I told on em. Schoolteacher made one open up my back, and when it was closed it made a tree. It grows there still." pg 19-20

Sethe is beaten by Schoolteacher's two nephews. They leave a scar on her back in the shape of a tree which reminds her in the present day about all the bad memories and terrible things that happened while being a slave at Sweet Home. This tree on her back represents the pain of her past which is constantly following her. The emotional and physical scars caused by Schoolteacher continually plague Sethe, who, before Beloved returned was engaged in a constant battle with keeping those memories at bay, for the good of herself, and the good of Denver.

Did Sethe Do the Right Thing?

"And if she thought anything, it was No. No. Nono. Nonono. Simple. She just flew. Collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful and carried, pushed, dragged, them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them. Over there. Outside this place, where they would be safe." pg 192

Sethe was concerned about her children's safety and she figured by trying to kill them she was doing the right thing so they wouldn't have to be slaves once they grew up. She wanted the best for her children and she knew if they were to live they wouldn't have been safe. This is significant because the murder of her daughter in the 1800s was looked at as an act of self defense rather than an illegal thing to do. Although Paul D disagrees with Sethe's decisions, she knows that as a mother she did the right thing for her children, in order to protect them.

Is Beloved Back?

"A fully dressed woman walked out of the water. She barely gained the dry bank of the stream before she sat down and leaned against a mulberry tree. All day and all night she sat there, her head resting on the trunk in a position abandoned enough to crack the brim in her straw hat. Everything hurt but her lungs most of all. Sopping wet and breathing shallow she spent those hours trying to negotiate the weight of her eyelids." pg 60

After Paul D scares the ghost off from the house at 124, this is the first time Beloved has been mentioned. However, now she is a human being rather than a spiritual figure. Beloved being "sopping wet" symbolizes the rebirth of her character like when a baby is delivered from its mother's womb. If Sethe's daughter, Beloved, would have been alive she would have been nineteen years old just like the young lady lying against the stump in front of the house. It is later believed in the story that the human figure of Beloved is actually Sethe's deceased daughter coming back to life.

The Unlived Life

“This is the revenge of the unlived life, Ramsay. Suddenly it makes a fool of you. Here you are, twice-born, and nearer your death than your birth, and you have still to make a real life.” (Pg. 216-217)

This is a quote from Liesl, who is Paul Dempster’s assistant. This is a significant part in Dunstan’s life story, as the truth of his life is revealed. Liesl opens Dunstan’s eyes by telling him that he has not truly lived his life. Liesl also explains to Dunstan that his role is “Fifth Business…because he is the odd man out.” Dunstan really takes this thought into consideration as later on in the book, he refers to himself as Fifth Business. I feel this talk with Liesl changed Dunstan’s perspective on life because he goes back to Canada and tells Mrs. Dempster about seeing her son, something he was not willing to do before. He also seems to describe his life differently from that point on. This quote also reiterates the theme of being “twice-born.” This theme appears throughout the novel, as Dunstan, Paul Dempster and Percy Boyd Staunton are all “twice-born” in the sense that they receive new names. Along with their new name each of their lives change as well.

Thank Goodness!

“The next day I made inquiries as to how I could be appointed the guardian of Mary Dempster...I experienced a remarkable rising in my spirits, which I can only attribute to the relief of guilt.” (Pg. 152)

At this point in the novel, Mrs. Dempster’s aunt has died and Dunstan is given permission to be the guardian of Mrs. Dempster, as set out in the will. This is an important time in Dunstan’s life as he feels a sense of relief from the guilt associated with Mrs. Dempster. He feels that restitution for the trouble he caused will be made if he becomes Mrs. Dempster’s guardian and caretaker. The relief of guilt is significant because for his whole life, Dunstan has not be able to forgive himself for what happened to Mrs. Dempster, but now he is finally able to try to put it behind him. Dunstan also feels that if he takes this duty of caring for Mrs. Dempster, she “would be (his) saint.” This further brings up the theme of saints and hagiology. Dunstan is still unsure whether she is a true saint or not but it entices him to study hagiology more in-depth.

Forced Goodness or the Choice of Goodness

“It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good. And when I say that you I realize how self contradictory that sounds. I know I shall have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?”

This passage is spoken by a Chaplain just before the Ludovico Treatment as they call it, that Alex is about to undergo which is a physiologically imposed behavioural modification that is supposed to transform Alex ridding him of the capability of performing evil deeds. The central question in the passage is a question posed, really, throughout the story and its a philosophical one: is an evil human being with free will preferable to a good individual without it? The idea of free will we must understand really includes the option to be bad. The chaplain feels that good acts have no value if performed without free will and he wonders if forced goodwill is actually more wicked than evil.

The Source of Evil

“They don’t go into the cause of goodness, so why of the other shop? Badness is of the self, the one, the you or me, and that self is made by old Bog or God and is his great pride and radosty (joy). But the not-self cannot have the bad, meaning they of the government and the judges and the schools cannot allow the bad because they cannot allow the self. And is not our modern history, my brothers, the story of brave malenky (little) selves fighting these big machines?”

This passage summarizes Alex's response to what the source of wicked behaviour is. It’s quite interesting how he defends wickedness claiming that there is no answer to what the source of it is, as evil is a natural part of man and is as inexplicable as goodness. He believes that evil, just like goodness is a choice that each individual has. He says that the soul of each person is God’s greatest creation and when the government deprives someone of choice and free will they are in essence depriving the individual of his soul. This passage is actually rare in terms of its lacking of many Russian slang words which are usually in place a couple times in a sentence.

Guilty or not?

“I was perfectly sure you see, that the birth of Paul Dempster, so small, so feeble and troublesome, was my fault...I was of the damned.” Pg. 16-17

Guilt is one of the main themes in Fifth Business, and is first introduced through this quote. Dunstan feels that he has done something terrible wrong and is the reason for all the trouble the Dempsters went through. He feels that it was his fault the snowball hit Mrs. Dempster, causing Paul’s early birth and Mrs. Dempster’s “insanity”. Dunstan suffers throughout the entire story as he constantly thinks back and relates to this incident. Dunstan looks after Mrs. Dempster through visiting her and putting her in an old age home, until the day she dies. This is proof of the guilt Dunstan has on his shoulders and how he copes with it. The words “I was of the damned” relate the spiritual theme in the novel. The feeling of being “damned” could possibly be a reason for his adventures to Europe in search of different saints.

I LIED

I would like to apologise for lying during my publishers pitch. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I did not tell the whole truth. While the reasons to read this novel are to avoid the preventable hardships Hagar faced because of her personal flaws, because the first person account is very interesting, and because it makes you think about what you will be like when you get to that stage of the game, I do not recommend that you read this novel anytime soon.

I found the novel quite hard to connect with because the protagonist, Hagar Shipley, is a very annoying character. In the novel, she has only herself because her hubris and intense personality push others away. As the reader, I felt the same effect - it felt like she was isolating herself even from me. I felt no emotional connection to her, and sadly but truthfully, I did not really care what happened to her. While this is an interesting concept, it made it very hard for me to keep reading the novel. There were times where I thought I was going to put it down for good and simply pick a different book because I was so sick of her. Instead, I adopted a bit of her stubbornness and fought back against the toils of Margaret Laurence's classic novel.

I made it to the end only to discover that the last line is literally, "And then-". While I know this was meant to be dramatic, I was left with a feeling that I would label as a mixture of disbelief and sarcastic joy. Perhaps this novel would be better understood by someone older than I, who could better relate to the situations and characters in the novel and get more out of it than I did. On the other hand, maybe I am just an ignorant seventeen-year-old with bad literary taste and an under-appreciation for this 'timeless classic'. Who knows?

Snowden's impact

“It was easy to read the message in his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden’s secret. Drop him out a window and he’ll fall. Set fire to him and he’ll burn. Bury him and he’ll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden’s secret. Ripeness was all.” (pg. 440)

This is the deepest passage in the entire text from Yossarian in relation to the entire book. This is said when we find out about how his close friend and comrade Snowden died in his arm after being hit with flak on one of their flying missions. As Snowden’s body is oozing out on Yossarian, Yossarian gives his all to save his friends life as opposed to worrying about saving his own and escaping. As this is occurring he realizes and gains a deeper understanding of what life is worth. As he reminisces about his friend’s death close to the ending of the entire book, we get a look into Yossarian’s sense of fears from death as well as his fragility towards preservation of his life and others. He realizes to himself that without a soul or passion to live and experience, the body of man is useless and dispensable. This can be associated to the common soldier in his camp who may be throwing his body into combat without a spirit to truly live and simply locking himself into the war camp. Through the line, “ripeness was all”, we can see the motivation and spirit to survive as opposed to waste away, which in Yossarian’s case is occurring the war. By understanding this secret from Snowden, it is unarguable that this is the final piece of motivation that he needs to cling onto, in order to live for himself and not for the army.

The Catch

“Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.” (pg. 46)

This is the first time where Catch-22 is first mentioned with a description of its rules or law. Catch-22 is referred to many times later on throughout the entire book but in many different contexts other than that mentioned in this quote. As the meaning is described here, the reader immediately gets a sense of the lax and “unofficial” military environment and rules that everything occurs in. A rule such as this would obviously not be in order in modern time war camps. Going on through the book however, you realize that this catch is nothing but a paradoxical law, meaning that it is absurd and stupid but is actually accepted and taken into account by the wartime soldiers/characters we meet. However this mention of catch-22 to the main character Yossarian is specifically important as he has a different initial response to the law as opposed to his opinions on the catch later on. At this point when it is first referred to, it seems to Yossarian as a persuasive and logical law. He is very intrigued at the ingenuity of the idea and respects it. However going on, we realize that this catch is associated to many different aspects of the war, and it is nothing but a trap of words that begins to be used as an excuse in many dangerous and unnecessary situations...