WildCityWoman wrote:Sorry folks - I talked too much, I know.
No, no. Keep it up.
I agree that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and long sentences and paragraphs that go on forever can make getting the point difficult. This can make reading more of a challenge, but sometimes the rewards are worth it.
Barrabas got to to free when Uncle Marco died, did he then have to be die in order for Estaban to claim his place in Clara's life? She was close to Uncle Marco and then she loved Barrabas. I don't know that she loved Estaban in the conventional way, but she stayed committed to him and she obviously cared about him in many way
Estaban is such an interesting character. I agree with your assessment of some of his positive qualities that we do have to admire. His other side, his self-centeredness, his inability to judge his own actions, or see his own actions in an objective view, makes him, at times, detestable. The narration movement from third person to first person helps us to be more sympathetic by realizing how biased his views of his own actions are. Even in the end, when he appears to grow as a person, his main worries are about himself, how he is treated, and what he stands to lose.