Free And of Clay Are We Created Essay Sample

Isabelle Allende’s story is a report about the correspondent who was covering the mudslide that devastated Chile in her short story, And of Clay We Are Created. In the story the author features the reporter who is involved with one particular victim sunken and trapped beneath the mud with only her head protruding from the ground.

The scene of the mudslide hit the international news thus attracting countless reporters and sympathizers who came to help the victims of the landslide. Rolf Carle is the reporter on focus to collect news for the television cameras about the cataclysm that buried more than twenty thousand people and unidentified animals. The setting environment is extremely hazardous with forests, rivers, roads and telecommunication systems swept away leaving behind a swampy wasteland.

Allende makes the reporter Rolf Carle the main character of the story in order to present the story from the perspective of the reporter who is more confident in collecting and analyzing the local news with an in-depth insight and zeal to tell the truth to the public. While most reporters arrived on cars struggling to gain entry to the wasteland, Carle was on the board of the television station’s helicopter together with the narrator thus achieving a better view of the estimated avalanche destruction unlike the ground based journalists. Equally, the narrator states that the reporter had a calm and wonderful voice that beckoned the public that knew him for over ten years as a presenter for reporting live news. Therefore, Allende choose the most experienced reporter through whose eyes to report the Chile incident since the reporter is more qualified to report a devastating events than Allende’s narrator.

The reporter is supposed to open eyes of the viewers to the story about Azucena who is the main victim of the avalanche. Carle’s personality was affected by the sight of Azucena when the girl sinks further into the mud after talking to the cameras, the reporter drops his equipment to work his way into the quagmire whereby he bravely removed some mud to releasing the victim to the waist.

Carle is a courageous young man who is ready to save Azucena. Carle initiates an effort to save Azucena by introducing the rope with which he helps to pull the victim out of the clay traps. However, the unreliable vigor to tie the rope beneath the shoulders of victim with an intention to pull her out was wasted since the rope seemed to hurt the girl more than the earth that buried her waist and feet beneath. Nevertheless, Carle is equally immodest in his saving methods in which he tries to bury himself beneath the mud while trying to locate the feet of the submerged Azucena but instead he “tried once or twice to dive toward her feet, but emerged frustrated, covered with mud, and spitting gravel”. The announcement that the water suction pump could be delayed for another day due to the lack of direct transport means has hurt the feelings of Carle who nevertheless reassured Azucena to remain calm while he helped her to drink coffee.

Emotional Displays of Carle

The author deliberately displays the emotional thoughts of Carle in the story to help the reader to gain deep understanding of the poignant tragedy of a young girl whose feet rested on her dead siblings’ bodies. Carle believed that girl would be rescued and therefore allows his mind to wonder as Allende reports that Carle thought about the quick recovery process and eventually how they would meet with the young girl; while he thought about presenting a gifts to her, “She's already too old for dolls, and I don't know what would please her; maybe a dress. I don't know much about women, he concluded, amused”. The author provides a detailed episode about emotional attachment between the reporter and the avalanche victim to enable the reader connect and identify with both the reporter and the victim from a personal point of view. The feelings of the reporter remain real and genuine unlike the narrator who is keen to observe the efforts of Carle and the response from Azucena.

Carle is quite brilliant in his dealings with his subjects since he is able to support Azucena emotionally with an intention of distracting her from the present environment. Furthermore, Carle is determined to help the girl to get out of the rubble that held her by using poles and other suction methods that failed.

The narrator reports that he was able only to interact with Azucena through the frustrations and determination that Carle had for the victims. The narrator insists that he was able only to gain empathy for the victim through interactions between Carle and Azucena, “The child's every suffering hurt me as it did him; I felt his frustration, his impotence”. Equally, the author focuses on Carle as the main character to dispense empathetic feeling through the National Television in order to gain national and international appeal to help the victims.

The reporter is used to derail the humanistic efforts by the nation to recover the girl from the mud. While Carle had already forgotten the camera and the journalistic questions as a formality to reporting, and instead concentrated on efforts to help Azucena out of the bewilderment, other reporters still remained stereotypical about their concern in which they were interested in reporting news and the progress of the calamity but none was concerned about the urgent need of a pump as Carle was. Therefore, Allende is a creative author who questions the credibility of journalistic ethics besides mere reporting of events, the author questions why the millions of reporters never got to find a pump to help Azucena out of the trap where she had to spend more days buried to a tomb alive.

In conclusion, the reporter was the best actor to present the emotions of the trapped victims while questioning the credibility of journalistic values in reporting such that instead of launching a campaign to gain access a water and mud pump, the journalists were interested in covering the story for the sake of news only. Similarly, the corporate firms like National Petroleum with enough financial credibility could have helped but lack of social commitment is the main theme presented by Allende throughout the story.

 

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