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Clay We Are Created

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Clay We Are Created
While many readers of the short story, “And of Clay We Are Created,” written by Isabel Allende, find their emotions draw towards Azucena, Rolf Carle’s presents an equally fascinating character. Allende focuses her story around Azucena, a young girl who is trapped in a layer of mud from a catastrophic, volcanic explosion, and cannot free herself. As Azucena suffers in the mud, numerous reporters ask her questions and broadcast her story to the world. Because of her situation mixed with media, the president makes a visit to Azucena, and he makes vague promises of help. However, no one seems to actually care about her plight, and, with the exception of Rolf Carle, no one makes any serious effort to save her. The reporters are only concerned with …show more content…
Rolf had previously decided to adopt this mentality in order to keep his emotion from interfering with his work. Allende describes that "the lens of the camera had a strange effect on him; it was as if it transported him to a different time from which he could watch events without actually participating in them" (Allende 47-48). To Rolf, the camera lens gave himself the opportunity to desensitize his mind to the events that were happening around him and to increase the distance between himself and his surroundings. Consequently, while Rolf physically appeared at a scene, his emotions stayed in another safe, secure place. In contrast to his usual approach, Rolf begins to attempt to free Azucena from the mud that enclosed her, after just a short time of filming. In his desperation to help to help Azucena from the mud, he stays with her through the night and consoles her in order to show her his determination to help her. The narrator remarks that “he is totally fatigued, with dark circles under his eyes and stubble on his chin. The narrator also says that this is “different from the fatigue of other adventures.” Allende shows the audience that this seemingly routine story transforms into a most demanding event, and it drained Rolf in every possible way: emotionally, physically, and

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