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Throughout the novel, Embon passes through various stages: a spoiled brat, a child prodigy, an enthusiast university student, a sick recluse, and a freedom fighter. The narrator's words reflect the unbelievable changes in his personality: "From a sickly and frail mama's boy emerged a young man of resolution and determination." (loc. 2365) Do you think his transformation is realistically portrayed?

Haha. The emergence of Embon did seem too sudden, a little too fluid and fairytale like. But it seemed like an almost natural progression of growth to me, the way growth should be in ideal circumstances. So I'd call it ideal, maybe not realistic but ideal. We needed a sort of hero and we got one.

Dee_Robert wrote: ↑02 Jan 2021, 03:21 Haha. The emergence of Embon did seem too sudden, a little too fluid and fairytale like. But it seemed like an almost natural progression of growth to me, the way growth should be in ideal circumstances. So I'd call it ideal, maybe not realistic but ideal. We needed a sort of hero and we got one.

Maybe more of an anti-hero. He always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but somehow manages to emerge more or less unscathed from all sorts of otherwise perilous situations. Even his arrest and interrogation seem like a hoax. Life is like this, though. In the end, I guess his experiences may have a dose of realism, after all.

I felt that his transformation was "about time." He needed to grow up, but in some ways he didn't. He ran from one responsibility to another, without accepting responsibility for all things. So, in some ways he stayed the spoiled brat and only did what he wanted to do.

I feel that Embon is an intriguing character. He undergoes metamorphosis throughout stages in his life. At the end of the book, I felt that fate had something more extraordinary in store for him. This, I believe, is propelled by the loss he suffered and the associations he forged throughout his life. It seems all these was molding and preparing him to be among the frontline against the oppressive regime.

I found Embon to be a fairly honest character. I think he definitely had some growing up to do, but I felt like it all happened rather quickly. One day, he is a "mama's boy" and the next, he's a political revolutionary. I think some of the aspects of the book seemed a little incredulous. One example of this is that Embon didn't end up going with Hain and the general because he was feeling ill and that trip, as we know, was very ill-fated. He also is released from prison right on the brink of his death. All this is to say that I felt like his character was written very conveniently.

I said this in another post, but I think it's worth repeating that Embon seems to form very close attachments and then cling to those attachments with all his might. At first, he clung to his friends in college, then to his mother, then to his friends again, and eventually to his country. I think a lot of this has to do with his need to please others. He seems to "go with the flow," so to speak.

I did not really see it as a radical transformation. I felt as he matured the other aspects of his personality and character that he always had became more pronounced. In his teenage years he was respectful, kinds, smart and respected; all virtues that point to a freedom fighting disposition. He had moods, I feel. But he was generally a good guy who wanted people to be treated fairly. It wasn't so much of a transformation but an awakening sides of his character and personality that lay dormant if not in the right environment

Yes. Perhaps too good to be true, but I believe it's possible to happen in real life. We can't have the activists we have today if this story isn't anywhere near to what is happening in real life.

I liked that the author transformed him but it wasn't 100%. He still liked some of his aristocratic ways of life because it was all he knew. He did recognize when he became dependent on Duman again when he visited him at the university. It is a process and he continued to go through that process throught the book.

I think it is well written, he was influenced by his peers to become the revolutionary. It would make sense that it would be sudden.

I do. What I think is a bit underdeveloped are his motives. It is clear that the struggle must not have been easy when he was born into utmost luxury. But we never know, for example, how he passed from a brat that kicked elderly servants to a perfectly decent young man.

Embon's transformation isn't a sudden change. Had it been he went from being a spoilt brat directly to being a freedom activist then that would appear rushed. He had to experience some hardship in Japan and this gradually morphed him into the Embon he finally became.

cristinaro wrote: ↑02 Jan 2021, 05:59

Dee_Robert wrote: ↑02 Jan 2021, 03:21 Haha. The emergence of Embon did seem too sudden, a little too fluid and fairytale like. But it seemed like an almost natural progression of growth to me, the way growth should be in ideal circumstances. So I'd call it ideal, maybe not realistic but ideal. We needed a sort of hero and we got one.

Maybe more of an anti-hero. He always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but somehow manages to emerge more or less unscathed from all sorts of otherwise perilous situations. Even his arrest and interrogation seem like a hoax. Life is like this, though. In the end, I guess his experiences may have a dose of realism, after all.

His experiences were the major contributing factors to the Embon he finally became. It would have been a hoax if his maltreatments and ill-fortunes were absent when he became the activist Embon that he got to be.

I strongly believe that in real life people don't really change, they are who they are. Sometimes, shocking event can trigger a major change, but this is very rare. The author tried to emphasize the change by exaggerating a bit the two different sides of Embon. I think we should see it as a poetical license, even if the transformation is not very believable.

I felt that Embon probably changed during each step of his life, like most of us do. I think once he was at the university, the real transformation probably began. However, he was younger than most of the students, so he was probably deeply influenced by his friends and became more like them. It would be interesting to see how his final transformation at the end of the book affected his life.