Praise of Suffering: Analytical Review of "And of Clay Are We Created"

7/27/2019 Praise of Suffering: Analytical Review of "And of Clay Are We Created"

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Praise of Suffering

Analytical Review on "And of Clay Are We Created"

Alireza S. Bandari

And of Clay Are We Created is a part of a collection by Isabel Allende called The

Stories of Eva Luna, the book published in 1985 and then translated from Spanish to English by

Margaret Sayers Pedenis. In the book, Eva is a narrator who takes us into the life of different

protagonist characters. She is like the 20th

centurys Scheherazade who, by her power of

creativity, tells stories of harsh realities and takes her audience deep down into each protagonist

to feel what they feel at the moment of events.

And of Clay Are We Created, as part ofthe collection, follows almost the same pattern.

The story is based on a real historical event, which happened in 1985. On November 14, the

Nevado Del Ruiz volcano erupted in the north-central part of Colombia. The heat of the

volcano melted the sheets of ice, which caused the formation of large mudflows in the valleys

and killed more than 20,000 people. When they could not recover the dead bodies, then

declared the entire zone a cemetery (Volcano erupts in..).

Historically, there was a girl that seems to have had almost the same condition as

Azucena. Her name was Omayra Sanchez, and she was buried in mud up to her armpits in the

rubble of her house and the bodies of her family (De Zapata & Sayers, 76).

"And of Clay Are We Created" begins with this line, They discovered the girls head

protruding from the mudpit (57). This is the beginning of a fight between life and death,

between nature and human, between avoidance and acceptance, and between love and fear.


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What the audience can expect from the first paragraph is a story about saving a life of a

thirteen year-old kid, but a few paragraphs later everything changes. The story continues with the

conflict between Rolf Carle and his memories, which he has been hiding for many years.

Allende, who has been called truly the Lady of Letters, takes her audience inside the event and

touches their minds and souls by combining words.

The use of that style of storytelling here is very ambiguous. On one hand the story is

about death. I chose stories of strong women, of marginal people, of violence, and death, and

loss, and love, and friendship, because thats what really has been important in my life (George,

We Are Big Idea.). Azucena dies, but there is a birth that comes from inside of Rolf Carle, the

reporter who puts together all his effort to save Azucenas life.

Allende (Eva) is describing a hopeless, dark and bitter scene, which is like a slap in the

audiences face. Then she starts to open the situation to the reader more with describing the

circumstance that the girl is involved in. Azucena, in the middle of the volcanic eruption, is

fighting for her life, and Carle suddenly decides to save her life, instead of doing his job as a

reporter. Time and the environmental conditions are against him. He tries every possible act that

can get the girl out of the situation, but it does not seem easy. She was also held by the bodies

of her brother and sisters clinging to her legs (59). Her brother and sisters are symbols of her

past that the author uses to attach the story to Carle.

Azucena is just an excuse to talk about 30 years of the missing life of Carl who had

always avoided facing it. Azucenas painful condition reminds Carle of his memories when he

was almost the same age as she is.

Carles memories are filled with mortification, fear and regret, like when he saw his

mother naked during the all those dark days of war in Europe, or being punished by his father


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because of misbehavior and having a retarded sister (61). Under the painful condition he has,

suddenly he is forced to think and face them rather than leaving them in the dark deep of his

mind. In a way, he has to deal with the past that he is scared of, even temporarily, although this

may affect his whole perspective of the future. On the other hand, this avoiding of the past has

affected the narrators relationship with Carle.

Its not unfair to say this is all about Carle and maybe is also about feelings that the

narrator has for him. In all those hours, which are going so fast, Azucena is calm and her main

concern is nobody told herI love you during all the short years of her life. I was there when

she told him that in all her thirteen years no boy had ever loved her and that it was a pity to live

this world without knowing love. Carle assured her that he loved her more than he could ever

love anyone, more than he loved his mother, more than his sister, more than all the women who

had slept in his arms, more than he loved me, his life companion, who would have given

anything to be trapped in that well in her place (62).

We are all buried in our own clay by something. This is the central idea that the author

has covered under all these emotional events. Carle is buried by his memories and he is afraid of

facing them, and the narrator is buried by her pity and painful love; she is watching Carle every

day and expecting to see that he is breaking the wall that he was hiding behind. His fear of

change never let her open up until the disaster happened, not only outside as a volcanic eruption,

but also inside of Carle.

He begins to observe, to remember to face with all the fear and humiliation, which he had

avoided facing. Then he changes. Fear of an unknown situation is gone for both Carle and Eva

and now they have to go through all these changes. You are back with me, but you are not the

same man (63).


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The story also is trying to show that despite the fact that people believe most of the time

that they left the past behind, the truth is they did not, and they carry all the past on their

shoulders for years and years until something happens, and then the past comes out as happened

to Carle.

This also describes the theme of the story. It does not matter how far a person goes or

how hard the individual tries; he/she cannot move on without dealing with his/her past. This

theme centers around the main character, which is Carle. All happenings are just some facts that

lead him to the painful past he had. He is the protagonist who fights to save Azucenas life and to

save himself from the pain that he has carried for many years. He is also a round character and

readers get the chance, through the story, to know a lot about him.

Carle is a successful reporter, originally from Austria, who seems to have no fear and is

thirsty with curiosity. It seems nothing could shake his fortitude or deter his curiosity (58).

Opposed to Carle, the antagonist, is time that here totally works against Carle. It seems time is

going so fast that all connections that Carle and his girlfriend, Eva, are making to save the girls

life are doomed to failure.

Characteristic of both the narrator and Azucena are flat and static. They do not change

during the story and there is not much information about them. All that has been described about

them are universals, and even their names are symbolic.

Azucena in English means Lily, and Lily means hope, faith, birth, remembrance, and

transitioning. Azucena is a symbol, a magic flower, which grows from the mud and dies after

three days. It is the flower that brings change, awareness and hope to the life of somebody who

loves her and believes her. The little girl obstinately clinging to life became the symbol of the

tragedy (57). This tragedy is not only the one that is caused by the volcanic eruption; the real


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The conflict of Carle versus himself comes from the past, which he avoids thinking

about. He could watch events without actually participating in them (58). This is the mask that

he made for himself many years ago because he was too afraid of facing reality, but here he

begins to see and this makes conflict between the character he became and the character he is

supposed to be. The real character of Carle, despite what the narrator describes, not only

participates, but also gets involved even emotionally.

In following the universality, which has been provided by the story, the narrator does not

give any specific date and location, which means the story, can happen anywhere. Even when it

comes to the authorities, there are no names, for example of the national television or of the

president of the republic that can lead us to any country.

And of Clay Are We Created finishes with hope. The narrator hopes the boyfriend will

come back someday from the hell (in the narrators perspective), which he has made for himself

after Azucena died. I wait for you to complete the voyage into yourself, for the old wounds to

heal (63). Although she knows the change that happened to Carle has closed already all of the

doors, and never can everything be as it was before. But anyway the story finishes when the

audience sees the first light of dawn, which here means hope for tomorrow; this hope always

exists and this is the reason every single person can continue life.

And at this moment in her story, Scheherazade saw the first light o f dawn, and discreetly

fell silent (Allende, The Stories of Eva Luna, 368).


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Works Cited

Allende, Isabel. "And of Clay Are We Created." Short Fiction: Classic and Contemporary. By

Charles H. Bohner and Lyman Grant. 6th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall,

2006. 57-63. Print.

Allende, Isabel.Eva Luna. New York: Knopf, 1988. Print.

Allende, Isabel. The Stories of Eva Luna. Trans. Margaret Sayers Peden. New York: Atheneum,

1991. Print.

Correas, De Zapata, Celia., and Margaret Sayers. Peden.Isabel Allende: Life and Spirits.

Houston, TX: Arte Pblico, 2002. Print.

George, Priya. "We Are Big Idea Hunters."Big Think. Big Think, 3 May 2010. Web. 09 June

2013.

Volcano erupts in Colombia and buries nearby towns. 2013.The History Channel website.

Web. 09 Jun 2013, 11:05.

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Praise of Suffering: Analytical Review of "And of Clay Are We Created"