Summary

The writer spends his day walking among the poor people, collecting what is owed to him from the government, then walking back home before he spends part of his evening looking out his window over his neighborhood. He steels himself to dredge up some feelings of compassion for the people he meets in the world as he sits down with the intention of writing a great epic book.

Analysis

In this chapter, it appears that the narrator and the writer of the novel are the same person. It appears that the epic book he intends to write at the end of the chapter is this book. He is obviously trying to make sense of his life after the war and his imprisonment in the concentration camp. He walks through the poorer parts of town trying to find some sympathy for the...