Rolf Carle

“And of clay are we created” is a heart-wrenching short story about a natural disaster that happened in Colombia written by Isabelle Allende. It follows a journalist, Rolf Carle, and a young girl called Azucena. Rolf Carle is the protagonist of the story. He goes through quite a lot in the story. Let’s start with what type of character he is. Rolf is both a round and dynamic character. He changes quite dramatically throughout the story. Rolf goes from an emotionally detached journalist to a dejected and crushed man that can be barely recognizable. This change is caused by his conflicts and is presented clearly all through the story. His internal conflict is him trying to forget his past and trying to fight his inner demons. The writer reveals to us in the story that Rolf had a horrific past.

He had an abusive father and was a survivor of the Holocaust.

The thing is that instead of dealing with his emotions and his past, he just pushed it to the back of his mind and wore an emotionless mask. This is proven in the story when the narrator said, “fear seemed to never touch him, although he confessed to me that he was not a courageous man…..” Although this all changes when he meets Azucena. The moment he first noticed her hand protruding from the mud it was as if his emotionless mask started to chip away. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of here…….I could hear his voice break.” As the days passed by the floodgates that had held back his past for such a long time began to open. He started to relive his most horrific memories that were stored at the back of his mind for so long. It was impossible for Rolf to flee from his past any longer, and the visual terror he had lived as a boy suddenly invaded him.” As Rolf’s emotional state surrendered to the pain of his past, the rescuer became the victim and his source of strength was Azucena. “Don’t cry. I don’t hurt anymore. I’m fine,” Azucena said. I’m not crying for

you. I’m crying for myself. I hurt all over.” replied Rolf. This pinpoints the moment when Rolf Carle finally accepted is past and fought his inner demons. We also have his external conflict which was finding a pump to save Azucena. He was very determined as shown here, “nothing can stop [Rolf]…nothing can shake is fortitude” and also in “[Rolf]…was determined to snatch [Azucena] from death.” His determination to save Azucena also showed the fact that he acted very fatherly towards her, “Rolf tried to sing Azucena to sleep.” However, all the trouble he went through was to no avail. Azucena died on her third day of being trapped, the same day the pump was sent to them. Her death took a great toll on Rolf. He grew distant and blamed himself for her death. According to the narrator, “…..we watch the videos of Azucena again; you study them intently, looking for something you could have done to save her, something you did not think of in time.” All in all, Ralf Carle is an amazingly written character that develops throughout the story.