Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
I have a different perspective of the romance between Abel and Rima. I did not see it as a sexual conquest or that he wanted to possess her like material goods. I thought that it was very much on a spiritual level. She was the last survivor of a lost white race and was at one with nature uncorrupted by civilization. I thought that he held Rima up as more of a supernatural myth and idolized her innocence and perfection. I thought the descriptions of his passions for her used a lot of religious imagery to support that idea. His desires to me read more like typical lovers who want to embrace and kiss and have tender words rather than more base feelings. He is frustrated that Rima does not understand this new feeling of love and is unable to return these same types of gestures to him, even to communicate honestly and openly in a language that isn't her bird-speak. In the end, after her death, his thoughts of her approach sainthood as seen in the dedication in retrieving her bones/ashes and creating an urn and at the prominence of her memorialized remains in his house in the current times. When he returns to civilization he dedicates himself to living his life in a way that would honor the goodness of Rima's memory and spirit.
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Funny how it reads so differently to each of us!
By the time he was fashioning what ended up being the futile urn, I thought he had lost his mind.
Though I did feel like the manner of her death would have been an excellent symbol for the destruction of the environment in a newer book.