Affair

Compared to all the books Ive read, reading the End of the Affair was honestly a
different experience for me. The manner in which it is written imitates the voice of a mind
unfiltered. It is not often, at least for my sake, for a book to show thoughts and feelings
as raw as this. Thoughts such as how the things we experience in life strongly move how
we believe in a higher power. To get started, Ill be clear about the texts that Im going to
relate to the novel: Hick, Marcel. Bendrixs experience throughout the novel was whipped
with suffering, and we ask the same questions he asks to himself. Why does this have to
happen? What did he do to deserve this? Of course, one could say that his suffering was
the consequence of the wrongness of their affair, but it is much too shallow a reason for
it to satisfy any of us.
Before all the events happened to him, Bendrix was once a strong non-believer
of a higher power. At this point, we have to note that not believing a higher power is not
wrong. We may not know how strong is his belief that everything just is, but as seen in
the novel, things change him as they go. We find Bendrix attempting to live the life of the
absurd. In his EXPERIENCES with Sarah, we see the human making the most out of
what is happening to him at the moment. He asks Sarah for an assurance to stay with
him for a lifetime, believing that this will further nurture that condition of his life. In his
eyes, Sarah being around makes his life more meaningful. Everything must be all right.
If we love enough. For Bendrix, making the most out of life meant loving as much as
one can. And thats what he did as his personal project. Romantic. Believing that the
love between him and Sarah can defeat a marriage. And its not even a legitimate
marriage. It was a marriage done through registry office. Add to that the fact that the
person trying to overcome it does not want to recognize the rules of any religion, moreso
the rules of a marriage. Thats why in many instances he questions Sarahs rationality.
The rules of her religion do not make sense to him, and the rules that he lives by dont
make sense to her. Its a clash of two interpretations of life, attempting to make the other
same to what he is familiar with. Also seen in Bendrixs nature is his unique sense of
morality, a morality that seems right to him, but a kind of morality that clashes with the
people who see things differently; Sarah, Henry, Parkis, and Crompton to name a few.
Henry, for example, finds the idea of Bendrix being on the pursuit of Sarahs lover is too

ridiculous, because of all the people that should be doing what Bendrix is doing, it should
be Henry.