Or had he? He’d been a rebellion leader, and then an ill-prepared king, then a bad one, in his story. Did it count? Were those memories any fainter, less accurate, less painful, for having happened between pages he could no longer return to? Just because something—supposedly—didn’t really happen didn’t make it less real.
seeing some familiar themes here. consistent throughout the book: characters being confronted with who they are supposed to be, questioning it and their static, preset, notions of who they are. then, they challenge that by trying to understand who they are in the context of others. somewhere in the middle is who they actually are in the present. though, they are constantly changing and evolving, because so is the environment they are in and the people around them.
I like this part very much because it speaks to this type of reflection in a simple yet profound way. Hero is “static” because he, supposedly, is a book character who’s story is already determined. he was already written. his personality is what is in the pages he belongs to. or is it? I find this questioning kinda brilliant because it really shows the struggle Hero has been going through in trying to deal with the notion that he might no longer belong in the pages he originated from. Once you detach yourself from the environment that birthed and nurtured you, who are you? what are you going to become now that you no longer have those structures to carry you through, to write your story for you?
