“And of clay, we are created” by Isabel Allende is a short story that tells the events of a volcanic eruption that led to a mudslide that killed twenty thousand people in Colombia. Isabel Allende is the narrator of the story who watches the incidences unfold from afar. The story portrays an emotional setting that shows the connection between victims on the verge of death and the people tasked with the responsibility to rescue them.
Rolf Carle and Azucena are the main characters in this tragic short story. The two characters are entangled in an emotional attachment as they undergo one of the most desperate moments in their lives. Carle and Azucena create an emotional connection after Carle makes upon his duty to save her life. Azucena was one of the victims trapped in mud after a mudslide buried her entire town. Carle is among the first reporters to arrive at the scene only to find hundreds of victims buried under the mudslide and a young girl fighting to rescue herself from a pool of mud that had trapped her lower body into the ground. The relationship of these two characters grows as the story develops and they eventually become deeply attached. Allende makes Carle the center of the story as the plot portrays his transformation linking his past experiences to the present situation that he faces. This notion is evident in the story where the narrator says, “Rolf had gone there on assignment, never suspecting that he would find fragments of his past, lost thirty years before”(Allende 264).
Carle is the first person to attempt to rescue Azucena. This notion portrays his courage and the will to put himself in danger to save others. As the story unfolds, readers realize that Carle is not as courageous as he appears. He got his courage from fighting past experiences using the adventure that he got from working behind the camera. In the story, the narrator says, “He became a reporter to keep his fears at bay” (Allende 264). Carle was a victim of torture during his childhood which made him grow with the fear of seeing other people suffer. The narrator says that Carle would hide with her sister Katharina under the long white tablecloth when he saw his father with a belt on his hand, ready to lash them (Allende, 264). Carle’s work as a journalist made him encounter many emotional and dangerous situations that built his courage. The narrator makes him the center of the story to portray his transformation from a child where he lived in fear to an adult where he is courageous.
The mudslide coverage made Carle discover many things about himself and elevated his understanding of other people. For instance, despite being around many women in the past, Carle realized he knows nothing about women when he did not know what to say to Azucena to boost her emotions. Carle admits to not knowing much about women in his statement, “I don’t know much about women” (Allende 262). He reflected on his encounters with all the women in his life and realized none taught him how to handle young girls. Carle also found out that it is impossible to escape one’s past. He opted to cover dangerous news events on war and dangerous disasters to escape the painful memories of his past. However, he was overwhelmed by emotions and cried on the second night with Azucena. He told Azucena that he was crying because he was hurt. Despite his courageous appearance from his work, he had to face his fears as his childhood experience were there to stay. The narrator makes him the center of the story as his discoveries create the atmosphere of the story.
The narrator uses Carle as the center of the story as she reveals another side of him that she did not know. She realized that Carle had many things that he did not share with her during their time together. The conversation between Carle and Azucena revived old memories about his childhood which he had not shared with anyone. She realized that her husband needed time to heal from a traumatic past to have a normal life. This notion is evident in the story where the narrator says, “I wait for you to complete the voyage into yourself, for the old wounds to heal. Then we shall walk hand in hand as before” (Allende 264).
The narrator makes Carle the center of the story as his childhood and adult life experiences are essential to the development of the plot. When reading the story, the audience gets curious about Carle’s childhood experiences and how they have affected his development as a grown person. He encounters a situation that involves a thirteen-year-old girl who triggers a revival of his memories. The memories help him to rediscover himself and also connect the three main characters in the story.
Conclusion
The experience of Azucena made the narrator focus on Carle as the center of the story. The narrator aimed to make the audience connect the past experiences of Carle to his present encounters. By achieving this, she presented the connection between the three main characters as the plot developed. The title of the story also makes Carle the center of the narration since he rediscovered himself after the mudslide incident.
Work Cited
Allende, Isabel. The Stories of Eva Luna. Simon and Schuster, 2016.