Thursday, August 30, 2007

“War’s End”

Why does Paul go to Albert at the end?

Why does Paul decide this is the right time to kill himself? Will he do it?
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8 comments:

Erin said...

Paul goes to Albert at the end as a parallel to the story the old woman told about being a wartime nurse. She would push the beds together of soldiers who were going to die so they could talk and comfort each other. Paul thinks of himself and Albert as also having the kinship of being close to death.

Will he do it? Who knows? It's always possible that he'll stay with Albert until his death and then remain on with the old woman.

11:29 AM, August 30, 2007
Ben said...

I think perhaps the title is a clue that he really will go through with it.

2:17 PM, August 30, 2007
kc said...

I think that's a good assessment, Erin.

I found the story line rather contrived feeling — that he happens to bump into an old war nurse who recognizes him as a dying man.

I think he will kill himself. I didn't have any question about that. His life was over so long ago anyway. He had just basically become a ward of his wife, just like the kid was a ward of his grandmother. And I think the author is making the point — by so improbably thrusting these two together — that certain forms of mental illness are exactly like someone with a terminal disease. They are going to die as surely. They are every bit as doomed, and we shouldn't think about their having a "choice," as we tend to do with suicides.

2:18 PM, August 30, 2007
Erin said...

That's an interesting take.

I guess I thought it was possible that he wouldn't kill himself just because he had so easily gotten sidetracked from it in the first place. Although I suppose maybe he just wasn't in any hurry. And I think you're right about the title, Ben.

(I found the story kind of contrived, too.)

3:19 PM, August 30, 2007
Ben said...

I found the story line rather contrived feeling — that he happens to bump into an old war nurse who recognizes him as a dying man.

But did she recognize that? I thought she seemed oblivious to what was going on with him.

3:36 PM, August 30, 2007
kc said...

I don't think the point is whether SHE consciously recognized it. The point is that the author contrived to throw them together. He saw her in the diner first. They look at each other. Then he sees her again the next day. She magically comes along and basically interrupts his plan to kill himself. And she needs someone to entertain the dying kid, and he needs to feel the specter of death in that house. It's just all too "arranged" for my tastes.

5:45 PM, August 30, 2007
kc said...

I think we are supposed to believe that she just had "some feeling" about him, not that she necessarily knew what was going through his mind.

5:47 PM, August 30, 2007
Erin said...

Right. There was clearly some kind of mystical connection between them.

9:04 AM, August 31, 2007

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