English 015 - Americans Abroad
Repeated Imagination
Repeated Imagination
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Simon Parsons
While on the road to Paris and during the extended night at the observation post, the idea of Paul Berlin’s imagination appears repeatedly. Although the instances clearly show differences, they seem entwined as the novel builds upon itself. When Berlin is on guard at the post, he reflects deeply about his idea and the possibilities of his future. He wonders during the first post “about the immense powers of his own imagination,” (27) continuing to call his notion an “idea to develop, to tinker with and build and sustain” (27). On a side note, another continuous image recounted in this scene is that of the moon, compared to Cacciato himself while on the road. During the chapters taking place on “The Road to Paris,” the notion of imagination is merely reported as further description of the scene, and not looked at in depth: “They moved slowly…at the rear, Spec Four Paul Berlin, whose each step was an event of imagination” (30). In this subtle way, it is recontextualized in the scene while reawakening the reader to the idea.
Paul Berlin’s possibilities seem to be developed and tinkered with throughout this section. On page 59, while on the road, he toys with “the idea: a mix of new possibilities.” Then later, on page 75, when Lieutenant Corson orders that the Vietnamese girl must leave, Berlin admits that he has “no solutions. A lapse of imagination, so it simply happened.” Abruptly after this they go on to fall into the tunnel. Paul Berlin seems to be always in some subconscious, “fuzzy” (120) state apart from the real world and the repetition of imagination underlines this. When the Vietnamese girl asks Berlin what happens if they find Cacciato, he replies, “back to reality…If we catch him, then it’s back to the realms of reality” (114). So instead, during the observation post, he entertains “a million possibilities” (125).
Posted by on December 01, 2003 at 11:57 PM