The first forty pages of this novel move very slowly. Bufalino spends a lot of time on description of a prison and of the characters in the novel. Though this is good for our understanding of the text, it gets a little boring when aall we hear is description with no action and no excitement. His thorough description of each character left me with a lot of necessary information for understanding out main characters. The main characters all took part in conducting a massacre of some sort, we do not know of what yet, and they were captured. After appealing before a court, these men were punished to be sent to the guillotine to be decapitated on the same date.
The baron was worthy of Bufalino's first description. The baron's full name was Conrad Infagù, though he was known to close friends as Didymus. Bufalion writes, "To all appearances of a gentle character, beneath the surface he is prone to the most monstrous and inquitious designs." (Bufalino 9). This quote shows that the Baron seems like a very nice person in the beginning but on the inside he is very dark and mysterious. I'm sure this aspect of him will be developed further into the novel.
The next character that Bufalino described was the poet. This poet's full name is unknown as he is only known as Saglimbeni. In the first senc\tence of his description he is said to be mysterious and the unknown full name shows that characteristic. When Bufalino tries to tell the background of this man, all he says is that some people think he is from somewhere and others from somewhere else, even his profession is uncertain. Bufalino writes that he has a "suave and copius way with words." He also says that the man is skilled at persuading people into wrongdoing. This, in my prediction, determines that he will turn out for the worse at the end.
The soldier was next. His full name is Agesilaos Delgi Incerti. He was raised as an orphan because his unknown mother, after having him in bastard birth, decided to leave him at a convent. As he grew up he was seen to be destined for the church, but when he was sixteen he decided to get up and leave. He ran off to the military where he proclaimed he was a little older, so he could fight, and also under a new name. He is said to be moody and has a short temper. This will affect the way things play out because with his short temper we never know what will happen.
The last to be described is the student. He name is Narcissus Lucifora. This name caught my attention when i first read it. After some research I found that in Greek mythology, Narcissus was a man who fell in love with his own reflection in a lake. He fell into the lake and drowned. If this name is symbolic, then this shows us that the student is a conceited man and doesn't care much for others. Lucifora, his last name, has to be a connection to the fallen angel, Lucifer, who we all know as satan. This tells us that he has bad intentions and had the potential to be good but turned out bad. Aside from his name, Bufalino tells us that he is outspoken. If he does not conceal some of his oppinions than he will end up offending one of his comrades and lose the respect of others.
The main conflict in the novel is that a man that is called God the Father leads these four men on missions that go against the law and the government. This man is unknown to the police, but they see a way to get it out of the four men they have in custody. They offer to the four men their lives in return for the name. They say that if just one of them tells them the name, then they all will go free. First reactions of the prisoners told us that they weren't interested, but with an entire night to think about it, no one knows what will happen. I was surprised that the rate that the novel progresses is so slow, I though it would move more quickly. I predict that one mant will give the name, and they all will go free. But that will not be the end of the story, the four men will realize there is a traitor amongst them and then they will seek out to find who the traitor is.
No comments:
Post a Comment