I wonder, can we step back and ask if the narrator is a significantly better person at the end of The Incident? If we want him to be, he can be. But he may well be an unchanged man paying lip service, putting off his goodness until tomorrow instead of getting around to it today. There's a lot of motion at the end of the story that says h…
I wonder, can we step back and ask if the narrator is a significantly better person at the end of The Incident? If we want him to be, he can be. But he may well be an unchanged man paying lip service, putting off his goodness until tomorrow instead of getting around to it today. There's a lot of motion at the end of the story that says his journey isn't complete - he has hope and courage to be good one day. Not the same as attaining it. He tries. But, you know the quote, do or do not, there is no try. I'd vote that the author doesn't claim the narrator is a significantly better person. Just that he wishes he were. And that is his moral failing. I'm out on a limb, I know.
I wonder, can we step back and ask if the narrator is a significantly better person at the end of The Incident? If we want him to be, he can be. But he may well be an unchanged man paying lip service, putting off his goodness until tomorrow instead of getting around to it today. There's a lot of motion at the end of the story that says his journey isn't complete - he has hope and courage to be good one day. Not the same as attaining it. He tries. But, you know the quote, do or do not, there is no try. I'd vote that the author doesn't claim the narrator is a significantly better person. Just that he wishes he were. And that is his moral failing. I'm out on a limb, I know.