Essay Questions

Deconstruct the stranger’s motive for burning Julian Carax’s books.

When Daniel probes why he collects Carax’s books, the stranger retorts: “The only thing that should be done with them, Daniel,” afterwards “He pulled a box of matches out of his pocket. He took one and struck it. The flame showed his face for the first time. My blood froze. He had no nose, lips, or eyelids. His face was nothing but a mask of black scarred skin, consumed by fire.” The stranger endorses censorship of Carax’s books; thus, would pay any price to possess them. Burning is an approach of censorship which guarantees that the books will not be traced ever. Perhaps, the stranger is aggrieved by the ideologies in Carax’s books; thus, resolves to annihilate them through burning. Moreover, his burned body personifies his proclivity for burning the texts for it is burnt.

What deductions can you make regarding Clara’s intercourse with Maestro Neri?

Daniel narrates, “Clara’s naked body lay stretched out on white sheets that shone like washed silk. Maestro Neri’s hands slid over her lips, her neck, and her breasts. Her white eyes looked up to the ceiling, her eyelids shuddering as the music teacher charged at her, entering her body between her pale and trembling thighs. The same hands that had read my face six years earlier in the gloom of the Ateneo now clutched the maestro’s sweat-glazed buttocks, the nails digging into them, as they guided him toward her with desperate, animal desire.” First, Clara does not value her friendship with Daniel since her sexual jaunt emerges on Daniel’s birthday. Had she cherished Daniel unreservedly, she would not have skipped his birthday celebrations for the sake of intercourse. Besides, the sex scene affirms that Clara is not the chaste girl who she playacts to be; Clara gives Daniel the notion that she is chaste, but indulges in premarital intercourse behind his back.

Explicate the irony in the phrase “Of course you can tell her”.

This is a rejoinder which Daniel’s father affirms when Daniel probes whether he could expose the secret about “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books” to his mother. The reply and enquiry are ironic considering that she is deceased. Nevertheless, Daniel and his father consider her to be existent; and they can share secrets with her without qualms about them being disclosed. Daniel’s mother’s carnal demise does not obliterate her spiritual presence in Daniel’s life.