The Wall

by Marlen Haushofer

hoped that I should never have to die.

There is, incidentally, another crucial question, the question of ammunition. I can last another year with what I have. With Lynx’s death, a lot less meat is needed.

Future jump?

another calf.

So she did have a first one

In fact I enjoy living in the forest now, and I’ll find it very difficult to leave it. But I shall come back, if I stay alive over on the other side of the wall.

My hands, always covered with blisters and calluses, had become my most important tools. I had taken off my rings ages ago. Who would decorate their tools with gold rings?

more like a tree than a person,

think today of the woman I once was, the woman with the little double chin, who tried very hard to look younger than her age, I feel little sympathy for her. But I shouldn’t like to judge her too harshly. After all, she never had the chance of consciously shaping her life.

I still hope someone will read this report.

trapped under a big green bell jar.

2nd bell jar reference

bell jar

Everything is alive, everything is working.

the ringing of bells.

Along the wall lay a mountain of trees, bushes and stones, piled up in a pyramid. So the wall wasn’t just invisible, it was also unbreakable,

Lynx was extremely friendly, he needed a lot of love and was very fond of people.

Writing is all that matters, and as there are no other conversations left, I have to keep the endless conversation with myself alive.

The barriers between animal and human come down very easily. We belong to a single great family, and if we are lonely and unhappy we gladly accept the friendship of our distant relations. They suffer as we do if pain is inflicted on them, and like myself they need food, warmth and a little tenderness.

anything to end. But if time exists only in my head, and I’m the last human being, it will end with my death. The thought cheers me. I may be in a position to murder time. The big net will tear and fall, with its sad contents, into oblivion. I’m owed some gratitude, but no one after my death will know I murdered time.