The novel begins in New York City. The protagonist and title character, Walter Faber, has been waiting with his mistress, Ivy, for his plane to take off. The plane has been delayed by snow for three hours. On the plane Walter is having trouble sleeping. He is nervous about flying and disturbed by the presence of the man next to him, an inconspicuous German on his way to Guatemala for business. Walter is also relieved that the plane is finally taking off, because he cannot wait to get away from Ivy. Recently Ivy has been trying to convince Walter that they should get married, even though Ivy is already married to a man who loves her. Walter has no intention of ever marrying Ivy.

During the first leg of the flight, the German tries to make conversation with Walter, and Walter tries to ignore him. During the layover in Houston, Texas, Walter realizes that the German disturbs him because he reminds him of an old friend, Joachim, whom Walter has not seen in twenty years. When the plane is ready for boarding, Walter is in the washroom. His stomach has recently been causing him pain, which is worrying him. For a moment he passes out, and when he wakes up he is staring into the face of the washroom attendant, a large, black woman. She is happy that he has recovered, and he feels a strange affection for her and for the care that she is expressing. He tries to say thank you, but she does not understand him. Walter passively decides not to get back on the plane. He waits for an incredibly long time while the desk pages him over and over again. He finally thinks he has heard his plane depart, but as soon as he goes to alter his travel arrangements, he runs directly into his air hostess, who pulls him back onto the plane.

Back in the air, Walter suddenly feels more amicable towards the German. He learns that his neighbor is traveling to a plantation in Guatemala owned by a German company, where they are growing tobacco to make a world-class German cigar. The German needs to investigate, because his brother has been there for several months and they have not been able to get in touch with him. The German is very worried about his brother. Walter falls asleep and has a strange dream in which all of his teeth fall out. When he wakes, he realizes one of the plane's four engines has just stopped. The air hostess and pilot try to act reassuringly, insisting they will easily make it to an airport in Mexico, but after a second engine goes out they make a crash landing in the Sierra Madre desert.

At this point the narrative shifts into the future. Walter looks back on the events so far and, as a technologist, he puts forth an argument that chance rather than fate is responsible for the course of human lives. He specifically argues that without the plane crash he would never have seen Hanna again or learned that he was a father. Sabeth also would still be alive. He makes a technical argument trying to explain why people misinterpret coincidence as fate.

Back in the present, Walter and the other passengers are stuck in the desert for four days and three nights. Walter and the German, Herbert, pass the time by playing chess in the shade of the wing. At night, Walter ruminates about the ways his being a technologist affects his view of the world. He believes that people in general let their emotions and their imaginations influence the way they see the world around them. For example, many people would find their isolation among the cliffs and shadows frightening, but Walter can only rationally see the relationship between the cliffs and the shadows, and he recognizes that the only real danger of isolation is starvation.

Walter discovers that Herbert is actually Joachim's brother and that Joachim is the man on the Guatemalan plantation. When the first helicopter arrives, it takes only the mail, and everyone frantically writes letters to send to family and friends. Walter writes a letter to Ivy, reiterating that their relationship is over.

Walter questions Herbert about Hanna. Herbert tells him that she is alive and that during World War II she emigrated for Paris. Walter considers his past relationship with Hanna, and he remembers clearly that he did not marry her only because he was not making enough money to support her--and because she did not actually want to marry him.

Analysis

The first section of the novel serves primarily to introduce the character of the protagonist, Walter Faber, and to establish many of the themes that will play important roles in the rest of the novel. In one sense, this section is isolated from the rest of the book, because it is the most disconnected from the main conflict of the novel--Walter meeting and becoming romantically involved with his own daughter. On the other hand, as Walter points out several times, if Walter had never gotten on that plane in New York, the rest of the story would never have happened. This conflict introduces one of Frisch's principal themes, the idea that coincidence rather than fate controls the direction of a person's life. Walter Faber believes that being seated next to Herbert, Joachim's brother, was a coincidence, not fate. The distinction between coincidence and fate is not obvious; yet, coincidence seems to have room for choice, since Walter believes that his own choices affect what happens to him.

The possible precedence of the randomness of events over choice becomes clear when Walter is not able to carry out his choices. Despite all his efforts to avoid getting back on the plane, Walter is carried along by circumstance and ultimately obeys the air hostess out of his desire to do what is socially appropriate. Walter is unable to actively choose not to reboard the plane. When his hiding is unsuccessful, he allows a different choice to be made for him. In fact, his will is so easily swayed by events that when the plane crashes, he does not even express anger that the air hostess forced him back on the plane.

The second theme introduced in this section is the idea of technological omnipotence, the idea that in the modern world technology can control everything. Walter works for UNESCO, an arm of the United Nations whose mission is to encourage the free spread of technology and ideas throughout the world, especially between developed and developing countries. A founding principle of UNESCO was that the spread of ideas would ultimately lead to greater understanding between peoples--and, hopefully, world peace. Walter emphasizes that being a technologist guides the way that he views the world. He believes he sees things more clearly than other people, and he believes that technology has taught him to see the world more rationally. Again, this section foreshadows that his idea will be in tension with actual events, because the airplane (representing technology) proves to be unreliable and crashes.

When the first helicopter arrives, it seems dehumanized, like an independent agent without a human pilot. It mechanistically takes the mail, not the human passengers. This scene stresses the dangerous loss of the human in technology. Rather than taking comfort in the mail helicopter, everyone rushes to write letters, reaching out for human contact beyond the helicopter. Walter, for his part, uses his portable typewriter and inserts a sheet of carbon paper, because he prefers his human contact mediated by the latest technology.

This first section also introduces the reader to a narrative device that will be used throughout the novel: Frisch establishes temporal disconnections by moving the story around in time. Walter will frequently interject thoughts from the future or memories of the past without a clear transition. This technique serves two important purposes. First, it emphasizes that the ideas and internal developments of the story are more important than the events. Very few things actually happen in the story, but Walter returns to each of them multiple times and in different ways. In the first interjection, Walter is hinting at the ultimate action of the book, mentioning Hanna and Sabeth without explaining who they are or why they are important. In some sense he is simply foreshadowing their importance so that the reader will continue to focus on their names. But in another sense, Walter is slowly removing the suspense from the reader's experience of the novel. Walter does not want the reader to be surprised by what is to come; he wants the reader to focus on how things develop. Frisch also uses this technique to emphasize that Walter is narrating these events, which lends a fictionality even within the realities of the novel--this is Walter's story of what happened, not an objectively narrated truth.

In Mexico City, Walter makes an impulsive decision to delay his business trip and accompany Herbert to Guatemala to see Joachim. After an extremely strenuous journey, during which Walter regrets his decision several times, Walter and Herbert reach the town nearest to the plantation. They are still several days' drive from the plantation, but they discover that it seems absolutely impossible to acquire a jeep in order to get there. For several days Walter and Herbert seem completely overcome by this obstacle. They do nothing but lie in hammocks, drink beer, sweat, and take showers. They finally acquire a vehicle after explaining their dilemma to Marcel, a musician from Boston, who is exploring the Mayan ruins on his vacation. Marcel wants to see the ruins in Guatemala, and he arranges to borrow the town's only jeep, a land rover owned by their inn-keeper, for an astronomical rate.

The narrative abruptly transitions to prewar Switzerland, when Hanna and Walter were having a relationship. Walter remembers an incident where he almost had to marry Hanna in order to allow her to stay in the country. He remembers being relieved that it turned out to be unnecessary, but he also remembers deciding that if Hanna were ever going to have to leave the country, he would certainly marry her. Then, Walter was offered a tremendously good job in Baghdad, and at almost the same time, Hanna discovered she was pregnant. While Walter acknowledges that he was not enthusiastic about the news, he believes it was Hanna's decision that they should not get married.

The narrative returns to Walter, Herbert and Marcel. The drive of seventy miles from Palenque to the plantation is extremely difficult due to the complete lack of any road. Zopilotes, carrion birds, hover around them, a constant reminder of the possibility of death. Walter and Marcel argue about whether technology is a positive force in third-world countries. Marcel argues that it destroys the Indian soul; Walter privately thinks that the Mayan ruins are vaguely pathetic, impressive only in their demonstration of the futility of a society without "technology." Finally, Walter accuses Marcel of being a communist, but Marcel denies it. Just as they are about to turn back, having run out of water, they discover the tracks of another vehicle.

When they reach the tobacco plantation, they immediately learn that Joachim is dead. Weeks before, he locked himself in his hut and hanged himself with a wire. The Indians have not disturbed the body. Walter photographs the body; they take him down and bury him. Later, Walter realizes that they should have burned his body, for in the jungle, nothing stays buried. Herbert insists on staying and taking over Joachim's position. Walter and Marcel try to change his mind, but he is obstinate. Before they leave, Walter overhauls Joachim's jeep, so that Herbert will at least have the means of leaving someday.

From a future time, Walter speculates about why Hanna and Joachim married and why Hanna never told Walter she had borne him a child. When Walter had left for Baghdad, he believed that Hanna was going to Joachim to have an abortion.

Analysis

This section continues exploring the idea of technological omnipotence. Walter suffers both physically and mentally from the lack of contemporary technology on their travels. When the train leaves them in Palenque, Walter feels "as though at the end of the world, or at least the end of civilization. While exploring the Mayan ruins, Walter cannot see the beauty in their hieroglyphs or the wonder of their achievements. He is amused by the fact that Marcel gives up his vacations to examine the relics of a dead civilization. Walter entirely believes that because "they never evolved a technology . . . [they] were there condemned to decline and disappear." Marcel in turn argues that "the technologist was the final guise of the white missionary, industrialization was the last gospel of a dying race and living standards a substitute for a purpose in living."

Frisch is challenging the idea of technological omnipotence, by demonstrating that Walter, who is dependent on technology, is the weakest member of the group when modern technology is removed. Frisch is beginning to suggest that Walter's technology, rather than improving one's experiences of the world, is actually a tool for hiding from experience and for separating oneself from the world. When forced to engage in unmediated experience, Walter is completely overcome.

In Palenque, Walter and Herbert seem suspended in time; they cannot remember why they have come, and when they do, they cannot see any way to overcome the obstacles to action. There are obvious parallels between Walter's and Herbert's stay in Palenque and the Lotus-Eaters episode in Homer's Odyssey. Walter narrates:

For five days we were suspended in Palenque. We were suspended in hammocks, with beer within reach all the time, sweating as though sweating was our purpose in life, incapable of coming to any decision, quite contented actually.... We lay suspended in our hammocks, and drank, so that we could sweat better, and I could think what we really wanted.

Similarly, after Odysseus's crew had partaken of the lotus flowers, they were unable to remember their homes or why they wanted to leave. They thought only of the lotus flowers and of ceasing to strive for anything. Just as Odysseus was able to avoid the lotus flowers and work to return to his homeland, Herbert is able to overcome their ennui and search for his brother. Though Herbert finds it difficult and almost hopeless, if Herbert were in the same state as Walter, Marcel would never have discovered their problem and found a solution for them.

Marcel is Walter's opposite. He admires the Mayans because they saw their life as totally separate from technological achievements--every two hundred fifty years they burned everything they possessed and started over. Sometimes they would abandon their cities, move fifty or a hundred miles, and begin again, solely for religious reasons. It is clearly ironic that Marcel, who is hardly at all dependent on technology, is the only one who is able to acquire the necessary technology for them to continue their journey.

Ancient civilizations including the Mayans and the Greeks are mentioned throughout the novel. Frisch emphasizes the frequent belief in fate and the gods and the reliance on religion to improve people's lives. Walter will be exposed to these ideas repeatedly throughout the novel. Marcel studies art to understand a civilization through his human reaction to that art, while Walter focuses on a different kind of universality, believing (along with UNESCO) that the spread of technology and other forms of concrete knowledge is what will lead to greater understanding.

Though it is not emphasized in this section, this section continues to explore the idea of choice versus fate. Several times Walter determines that he will turn back from the journey. Each time he continues anyway, uncertain of why he is doing so. More and more it seems as if Walter is getting caught up in a path that he cannot escape.

This section also introduces the ideas of guilt and innocence, not in legal terms but in terms of personal morality. Whenever Walter thinks about a possible error in his life, he carefully presents the case, weighs the evidence, and tries to determine whether or not he has done something wrong. In this case, Walter considers whether he had somehow wronged Hanna by not marrying her and staying to be father of her child. Here Frisch once again emphasizes that this narrative is not an objective truth but is rather Walter's account of events. In presenting the facts of his past, Walter has already ruled himself innocent of many negative acts. Though he does seem to wish to reexamine them, without any other perspectives or any new evidence Walter has no choice but to come to the same conclusions at which he originally arrived--notably, he did not marry Hanna, because she did not want to marry him. In his recollection, Hanna must have had an abortion because they both had recognized that it was the best thing to do.

After leaving Herbert, Walter goes straight to Venezuela to complete his business. But he learns that the turbines he was supposed to have assembled are not ready, so he returns to New York. Ivy meets Walter at the airport and acts as though their relationship is intact. Throughout the evening, Ivy tries to make up with him, and Walter tries to get Ivy to leave. Each time they fight, Ivy successfully seduces him, making him hate her even more. Finally, Walter realizes he cannot stay in New York another week as planned. He immediately makes arrangements to leave for Paris the next day by boat. He invites friends over to prevent being alone with Ivy any longer, and he passes the night in a drunken, confused haze. The next day Ivy takes him to the boat.

As Walter waits in line to get his meal assignment, he sees Sabeth for the first time. He notices her reddish-blond ponytail swinging just in front of his face. He passes the time imagining what she looks like. Then he goes down to his cabin and meets his bunkmate, Lajser Lewin, an agriculturist from Israel. Walter is curious about Sabeth, and as he explores the boat, he keeps passing by the ping-pong table where she is playing with a young man. She does not notice him, even when she almost runs into him while chasing a ball.

The narrative switches to a future time. Walter asks himself why he needs to prove he did not know Sabeth was his daughter at the time. It was obviously pure chance that brought them together, but that does not change the fact that he has destroyed her life.

Back on the boat, Sabeth and Walter slowly establish a relationship of some kind. They are not friends, but they are more than acquaintances. Walter talks to her about technology, cybernetics, and Maxwell's demon. He is impressed by how quickly she understands his work. Walter constantly denies that he is attracted to her, insisting that he is merely interested in her as a person. Walter also acknowledges that he is bored. He is not used to having so little to do. Walter speaks to many people on the ship, and he is careful never to talk to Sabeth unless he actually has something to say to her. He never wants to bore her. Walter is pleased when, one morning, Sabeth sits at his table at breakfast. She joins a conversation several other people are having about the Louvre, and Walter confesses he has never been there, though he has been to Paris many times. Sabeth is horrified but amused. Walter becomes more and more irritated at the conversation, and Sabeth tries to turn the conversation to "his robots."

Walter thinks about why Sabeth reminds him of Hanna. He decides that any young girl would probably remind him of Hanna--they do not look alike, and he has no reason to believe they are connected, though they do speak the same form of High German. Walter thinks a lot about Hanna. He imagines what she looks like now, comparing her to the other older women on board. He decides she is more beautiful and more lovable then any of them. But then he reminds himself it has been twenty years, and he really has no idea what she looks like. Then he sees Sabeth, and once again her gestures remind him of Hanna, but he refuses to lend the idea any credence.

Sabeth becomes very seasick, and Walter and her ping-pong partner jostle over who will take care of her. They spend an awkward half hour in her room, each trying to be more helpful, and then they leave together. Walter does not want to leave the young man, because he does not want him to go back to Sabeth's room. After they separate, he immediately brings Sabeth some sea-sickness pills. She takes them but will not let him come in again. He wonders if she has slept with the young man. He realizes how little he knows about her--she spent a year at Yale on scholarship, and now she is going home to her mother in Athens. She teases Walter that she will become an air hostess so that she can travel, and she wants to hitchhike from Paris to Rome.

Walter spends a lot of time playing chess with Mr. Lewin, while Sabeth passes the time reading. At one point he tells Sabeth generally what happened to Joachim, but he never mentions Joachim's name. He has drunk too much, and he becomes upset. Sabeth wants to help him to his room. Later he thinks about how just mentioning Joachim's name would have prevented the rest of the events from occurring.

The day before the ship lands at Le Havre, Walter and Sabeth get into an argument when he tries to film her with his camera. She tells him she does not like that he is always watching her, and suddenly the strains in their relationship become unavoidable. Walter tries to diffuse the tension by asking Sabeth to come see the ship's engines with him, as she has requested earlier. But during their tour, Walter lifts her off a ladder by the waist, and once again they are reminded of how much older he is.

The next night there is a dance. It is also Walter's fiftieth birthday, but he has not told anyone. He and Mr. Lewin get drunk, while Sabeth dances with a number of men. Walter's stomach has been hurting him again, and he decides he must see a doctor in Paris. Mr. Lewin dances with Sabeth, and Walter goes up on deck. Sabeth comes up, worried that Walter is lonely. He gives her his jacket, and they discuss the constellations. Walter almost tells her it is his birthday, but instead he asks her to promise not to become an air hostess. He also asks her to allow him to pay her fare to Rome. Sabeth teases him, and he gives her a lecture about his feelings about women. He insists that he likes living alone, and that after three weeks he would feel about any woman as he feels about Ivy.

As Sabeth dances again, Walter grows melancholy. Sabeth sits down at the table, and Walter asks her if she will marry him. Sabeth cannot tell if he is joking. Mr. Lewin comes by the table, and when he leaves, Sabeth asks if he was joking. He kisses her forehead and her eyelids and then realizes she is crying. He cannot kiss her again, and the conversation ends. The ship docks, and everyone departs. Walter sees Sabeth only across a crowd--once as she is carrying her luggage towards customs, and once as she departs.

Analysis

Walter's return to New York and to Ivy introduces a new theme: an individual's desire to overcome isolation. Walter thought that he had made it clear to Ivy that their relationship is over, but he seems unwilling to cut himself off from her completely. Just as when Walter chose to write her a letter reminding her of the end of their relationship, while everyone around him was writing to affirm connections to friends and family, now Walter allows Ivy to meet him at the airport and see him home, only to remind himself why he does not wish to see her anymore. The reader again must question Walter's interpretation of events, because despite his account, it becomes clear that Ivy has planned a romantic welcome for him. Throughout the evening, as Walter and Ivy enact a series of separations and reunions, it becomes clear that as much as Walter dislikes Ivy, he still craves the companionship that she offers him. To cut himself off from her, since he cannot send her away, Walter invites more people to the apartment.

In an effort to escape Ivy, Walter books himself a passage on a ship to Paris, rather than waiting to fly a week later. Ironically, in having Walter take a ship to Paris, Frisch is creating a situation where Walter cannot rely on his efforts to distance himself from human interaction. To pass the time, Walter must rely on his relationships with those around him. Perhaps because of this isolation, perhaps solely because of his relationship with Sabeth, Walter begins to question his own affinity for isolation. This internal conflict reaches its climax when Walter asks Sabeth to marry him. Whether or not he is serious, this request suggests that Walter has begun to doubt the success of his previous lifestyle to the extent that he is willing to try living another way.

One of the most important aspects of this section is the reintroduction of and emphasis on a previously discussed theme, art vs. technology. First introduced at the Mayan ruins, this theme is now established as one of the major themes of the novel. In this section Walter goes into great detail about his work. In his first real conversation with Sabeth, he tells her about "navigation, radar, the curvature of the earth, electricity, entropy." Later, Walter realizes that he is "talking like a teacher." As Walter teaches Sabeth about cybernetics, he unwittingly reveals elements of his own emotional life, making his vulnerabilities clear to Sabeth and to the reader. He rhapsodizes about the beauty of the calculating machine, which

feels no fear and no hope, which only disturb, it has no wishes with regard to the result, it operates according to the pure logic of probability. For this reason, I assert that the robot perceives more accurately than man, it knows more about the future.

In earlier discussions about the Mayan ruins, Frisch seemed to portray ancient cultures as representative of anti-technology, the idea of a civilization that viewed progress as something distinct from technological development. Now, it becomes clear that the deeper opposition to technology is art. Walter is confronting not just his reliance on technology, but also his inability to appreciate art. When Walter listens while Sabeth, Mr. Lewin, and a few others discuss the Louvre, he is not only jealous of Sabeth's attention, but he is also irritated by the reminder of a divide between himself and persons who do appreciate art. Walter admits that he has never been to the Louvre, in order to demonstrate the unimportance he finds in their area of interest; his refusal to contribute should be interpreted as a rational choice which has produced, in the minds of those who appreciate art, a significant human lack.

Walter's interjections from the future continue to evince his struggle with the cause of the upcoming tragedy. Walter insists, "We might just as well have passed one another by. What was providence to do with it? Everything might have turned out quite differently." At the same time Walter continues to act out of impulse, rather than reason. When he first sees Sabeth, she reminds him of Hanna, but he rationalizes the similarity by deciding that any woman of that age would remind him of Hanna. Despite Walter's belief in the power of coincidence, and despite his insistence that unlikely events can happen, he chooses to believe that Sabeth and Hanna share no connection. Walter refuses to believe in fate, but he also refuses to accept the fact that his own choices and misjudgments played a significant role in what happened.

In Paris, Walter meets with his business associate Williams and tells him about what happened with Joachim and why his business was delayed. Williams looks concerned and keeps asking Walter if he would like to take a vacation. Walter is so disturbed by the meeting that he embarrasses himself at a restaurant by ordering red wine with fish. The waiter clearly thinks he has no manners, and Walter wants to explain that he had only forgotten what he ordered, but he cannot.

For no reason, Walter begins thinking of his first sexual experience. It was with the wife of a teacher. The teacher used to invite him to his house on the weekends to read proofs of the new edition of his textbook. Walter was saving up for a motorbike. Walter remembers being slightly disgusted by the woman's passion for him. She died of consumption later that summer. Walter was always terrified by the idea that his teacher would find out. He had forced himself to visit the woman's grave.

The next day Walter goes to the Louvre for an hour, but there is no sign of Sabeth. He goes every day after that until he manages to run into her. He takes her to have coffee. Walter wants to see her again, but he does not know what to say. Finally, he asks her as a favor to buy him tickets to the opera that night. He adds offhandedly that she is welcome to join him. She happily accepts. On the way out of the restaurant, he almost walks into his old teacher, Professor O. He is shocked by the coincidence as well as by the deathly appearance of the old man. His teacher invites him to have a drink with him, but Walter awkwardly makes excuses. At the conference, Walter tells Williams he would like to take a vacation after all. Williams offers to lend him his car.

Once again switching to the future, Walter reflects on the issue of abortion. He considers the evils of overpopulation, high infant mortality rates, and the desirability of population control. He decides that those who wish to reject abortion might as well reject all technology and set humanity back a thousand years.

Walter and Sabeth drive through Italy together. Walter is happy, but he is frustrated at Sabeth's need to stop everywhere and visit museums, monasteries, and monuments. He does not understand her obsessive need to see art. While Sabeth makes her pilgrimages, Walter sits in piazzas drinking campari. He thinks about their relationship. His mind often drifts back to their first night together in Avignon, but he does not elaborate, and they continue to stay in separate hotel rooms. Walter no longer seriously considers marriage. One afternoon, Walter forces himself to accompany Sabeth to a monastery to look at the artwork. He makes a tremendous effort to engage with the artwork, and for a while he is able to become interested intellectually. Sabeth's interest, however, is too much for him, and he becomes bored once again.

At dinner one night, Sabeth talks about her mother. Walter decides he probably would not like her very much, so he does not ask Sabeth any questions. The woman strikes him as too intellectual to be attractive. A few days later they visit the Via Appia and lie on a tomb in the shade. Walter thinks that Sabeth no longer reminds him of Hanna and again thinks about the night at Avignon. Then, Walter asks Sabeth what her mother's name is. At that moment Sabeth notices a busload of tourists getting out of the bus a hundred yards away. She is extremely irritated and does not answer Walter's question. When she quiets down again, Walter repeats the question. Sabeth tells him it is Hanna. She stands up again, not noticing the effect of her words on Walter. He begins questioning her about her mother, until she realizes that he must have known her. Sabeth is not particularly disturbed by this news, but Walter is shaken. He does not think Sabeth could possibly be his daughter, but he knows their relationship must end. Anyway, he is supposed to leave in two days. He remembers Hanna and their agreement that she would go to Joachim.

Walter asks Sabeth if he was the first man she slept with. She tells him that she once had a lover at Yale, and she slept with the young man on the boat. He had wanted to marry her. Sabeth suddenly seems embarrassed, as if this were the wrong answer. He avoids discussing the issue further. Sabeth mentions they have not seen Joachim in years and do not even know if he is alive. As they drive, Walter calculates in his mind until he is absolutely positive Sabeth is not his daughter.

That night in Rome, after they separate for the night, Sabeth comes to Walter's room, crying. She is afraid that Walter thinks badly of her, and he reassures her. She falls asleep on the bed, and he lies next to her, fully dressed, unable to sleep.

Again in the future, Walter tries to see exactly what he did wrong. He truly believes that he never forced their relationship. It was Sabeth who kissed him that night in Avignon during the lunar eclipse, and it was Sabeth who came to his room that night.

The narrative moves abruptly forward in time. It is a June 3rd in Athens, Walter wakes up in a strange room. He realizes Hanna is there. She is crying. When he wakes again, she notices him. They speak as if nothing strange is happening, and Hanna tells Walter that the doctor does not think the snake was an adder. She pours him a cup of tea. She asks him how long he has been in Greece and how far it had gone with her child. Walter avoids her questions.

In his mind Walter goes over what had happened. He heard Sabeth scream, and she was unconscious when he reached her. He saw the bite above her breast. He sucked at the wound to remove the venom, picked her up, and ran. He ran down the road barefoot on the hot tar. A cart appeared and began to carry them toward Athens. The donkey was incredibly slow, and the driver did not seem to understand Walter's demand to hurry. The driver stopped at a well. Furious and confused, Walter picked Sabeth up and began to run again. He realized he must stop--he could not run to Athens. Then, a truck came by. Walter had left his wallet on the beach, but he gave the driver his Omega watch to take them to Athens. Twice the driver prevented them from switching to a faster vehicle, as if afraid he would have to give back the watch. It took him forever to find the hospital in Athens.

The doctor explains that the snake was a viper, not an adder, and that Walter had done the right thing. At first he talked only to Hanna, but Hanna explained that Walter was her friend. The doctor tells them that snakes are not generally as poisonous as people think. Walter finds his statistics very reassuring. Walter wants to see Sabeth before he leaves, yet Hanna does not leave them alone together.

Analysis

The majority of the book's action takes place in this sequence. The novel up to this point was primarily establishing the background, and after this point it will continue to work out the consequences. Very little else will happen in the novel. One cause of this sequence is the temporal disjunction of the novel. This temporal disjunction and the recursive style of writing emphasize that Walter's perception and understanding have changed over time. When Walter learns that Sabeth is Hanna's daughter, he must rethink his past relationship with Hanna. Even before he acknowledges that Sabeth is his daughter, the fact of her relationship to Hanna alters the way that Walter thinks about her.

This section also begins to realize the Freudian pattern in the novel. The reader now understands that this is the story of a man who sleeps with his daughter without knowing she is his daughter. The exchange of mother and daughter from the Oedipal archetype has the effect of updating it (in the ancient Greek account, Oedipus married his mother without knowing it). Walter, however, does not gain kingly power from his mistake but gains mainly, at least at first, a satisfying belief in his attractiveness and masculinity.

As the reader realizes what Walter has done, the reader also becomes more aware of Walter's fear of death. Walter is incredibly annoyed by Williams's worry about the way he looks; Walter thinks that he actually looks better then ever--after all, he has just taken a relaxing cruise. Walter's irritation comes from his fear that Williams is perceiving the approach of old age and death. When Walter runs into his old professor, he fixates on how old and how sick the man looks. He cannot carry on a conversation with him, because he sees the professor's face as a death mask. This coincidence should remind the reader of Walter's obsession with guilt--or with proving his innocence. Running into his professor is even more of a coincidence, because this is the very professor whose wife seduced Walter (the experience he apparently had recently been recalling). In another Oedipal-Freudian turn, it is an open question whether Professor O. truly looked so ill, or whether Walter is subconsciously wishing his teacher dead so that Walter will no longer have to feel guilty about sleeping with his wife.

Further guilt begins to intrude on Walter's relationship with Sabeth. When Walter finds out that Hanna is Sabeth's mother, he feels two kinds of guilt. One kind arises simply from his previous relationship with Hanna. The other kind arises from his possible relationship to Sabeth. Walter easily deals with the second kind by convincing himself mathematically that he could not be Sabeth's father. Walter has more difficulty doing away with the first kind, which has affected him for a longer time. He attempts to mitigate this guilt by transferring some of it to Sabeth. By forcing her to admit that he is not the first man she slept with, he makes Sabeth feel guilty. But this inadequate manner of establishing his own innocence falls apart as soon as Hanna asks Walter how far he went romantically with her (their) daughter.

Finally, the narrative continues to chip away at Walter's dependence on technology and to question his lack of appreciation for other human creations. Walter goes to the Louvre only to look for Sabeth, and he tries to appear like someone who enjoys art solely to make a connection with Sabeth. He uses the same trick when he suggests going to the opera. Walter only goes to the opera because he knows that Sabeth will want to go. As they travel together, Walter makes less of an effort to conceal his dislike for such things. Still, when he fears that his lack of appreciation for art is having an effect on the way that Sabeth views him ("Sabeth, out of pure spite I believe, went all over the monastery. ... I didn't know what a young girl like that might think. Was I her chauffeur?"), he makes a real attempt to share an artistic experience with her. Despite his effort, however, Walter cannot feel any real affinity for the art. Walter's failure suggests that he has not been able to establish a real, truthful connection with Sabeth.

One possible literary interpretation of Sabeth's snake bite is the idea that Sabeth belongs to the classical world of ancient myth and art, and that the snake is a divine sign that she does not belong in Walter's world. This idea is underscored by Walter's inability to gain access to the technology he needs to help her. First, they ride in a cart, then in a very slow truck. Even Walter's bribe of his watch (note the gift of a timepiece in exchange for time in life) has no effect or even a restraining effect on their slow, steady process. The point of the undependability of technology will be made even more harshly near the end of the novel.

At Hanna's invitation, Walter returns home with her. Hanna immediately questions him about her daughter: how did they meet? why does he call her Sabeth? In return, Walter asks her why she named her daughter Elisabeth. She replies that Elisabeth's father had chosen it. She asks him if he has ever seen Joachim again, but Walter decides he cannot tell her tonight about Joachim's death. Now that Hanna is standing in front of him, Walter almost believes that nothing ever happened between him and Sabeth. Several times that night Hanna tells Walter that he is not Sabeth's father. They talk about old times. They argue; Hanna lectures him about the uselessness of men, and he tells her she is behaving like a hen. Hanna becomes very upset when he says this. Walter is surprised that Hanna seems so superstitious about Sabeth's accident. She does not take any comfort in learning that only about six percent of adder bites are fatal. Hanna keeps trying to get him to talk about his relationship with Sabeth, and Walter finally tells her about Joachim instead. After hearing the story, Hanna suggests they both go to bed.

Before they separate, Walter admits that he has slept with Sabeth. Hanna says practically nothing and leaves him in Sabeth's room. Walter looks around Sabeth's room. He tries to wash Sabeth's blood out of his shirt, but it is ruined. Then, just as he is trying to sleep, he realizes he can hear Hanna sobbing. He goes to her door and tries to get her to let him in. She is crying so hard that finally he breaks open the door with a poker. Hanna screams at him to get away from her.

In bed, Walter remembers that twenty-four hours earlier, he and Sabeth were sitting and waiting for the sun to rise near Corinth. They had not been able to get a room at a hotel, so they had decided to find a fig tree to sleep under. This took longer than expected, until it was far too cold to think about sleeping. They walked and walked, playing a game where they took turns making similes about everything they saw and heard. Sabeth was quicker and more creative, but occasionally Walter scored a point as well. Walter thinks that he will never forget how happy Sabeth was that morning, and he will never forget how she sang.

When Walter wakes up, Hanna is not there. When she returns she tells him that she had wanted to be alone with her daughter--he must not be offended. Walter wants to see Sabeth. Walter tries to get Hanna to talk to him, but she avoids him. He takes his head in her hands and looks at her; Hanna struggles. Suddenly he kisses her. Hanna curses him.

They buy Walter a new shirt and then pick up a car from the Institute where Hanna works. They drive to pick up Walter's coat and shoes, mostly for the sake of his passport. Walter's jacket and shirt are untouched. Walter realizes everything looks exactly the same as it did the day before, only Hanna is there instead of Sabeth.

Walter thinks about the accident. He had been swimming and was fifty yards from shore when he heard Sabeth scream. Before he had gotten in the water, he had tried to wake Sabeth, and he had covered her shoulders so she would not get sunburned. Walter swam back as quickly as he could, but as he got out of the water, Sabeth backed away from him, suddenly stepping off of the embankment, falling about six feet and striking her head. Walter was mostly worried about her fall until he noticed the bite on her breast. He put on his trousers and shirt, picked her up, and began to run.

Walter tells Hanna exactly what happened. Hanna tells him that Sabeth really is his child. Walter feels as though he already knew. They begin walking back to the car. He wants to know why she hid the fact from him. She only says that she is married and that Elsbeth loves him. He tells her he will get a transfer and will move to Athens, and they all will live together. She laughs at his suggestion. He grabs her, and she tells him not to touch her. Still, Walter thinks that he must move to Athens, certain that something can be worked out. In Athens, Walter buys some flowers.

At the hospital, the deaconess enters, and they see her face. Then the doctor comes in and tells Hanna in Greek that Sabeth died an hour before. Walter sees her and thinks she is asleep. Hanna strikes at him. They later learn that their daughter's death was caused by an undiagnosed fracture to the back of her skull that could have been fixed with a relatively simple operation.

A notation in the book reads: "The narrative thus far was written by Walter in Caracas, Venezuela, between June 21st and July 8th."

Analysis

Frisch uses temporal disconnection to very good effect in this section of the novel. Walter's repeated flashbacks to Sabeth's accident allow the reader to share Walter's experience as he slowly comes to terms with what happened to Sabeth. Walter's trauma feels real to us in that it constantly intrudes upon the narrative. Breaking up the new narrative events also disorients the reader in a way that reflects Walter's disorientation. Both Walter and the reader must quickly transition between past and present--caught up in a devastating moment, but also transfixed by present events.

At the beginning of this section, Walter's experience of Sabeth's accident leaves him feeling innocent of blame. He recognizes, and the doctor validates, that he did all of the right things to save her. In some ways this event actually diminishes Walter's feelings of guilt about his earlier crime. Accidentally sleeping with his daughter no longer seems real or possible while Walter is afraid that she might die of a snake bite.

In trying to reconnect with Hanna, Walter is attempting to rewrite his narrative in a manner typical of Frisch's protagonists. Walter actually believes that he can move to Athens and make a family with Hanna and Sabeth, a proper family where he would assume his place as Sabeth's father rather than her lover.

Walter is making one final attempt to convince himself that he can still control the outcome of his actions with his own choices. Notwithstanding that, Hanna represents the perspective of fate rather than coincidence. As someone who studies the ancient Greeks, and as Sabeth's mother, she represents the idea that Walter has committed a crime against nature and is now being punished. Seeing such a possibility, Hanna wants Walter to accept responsibility for his behavior. At the end of the section, when Walter and Hanna learn that Sabeth died because of Walter's inability to clearly communicate her accident to her doctors, Walter must recognize that he is ultimately blameworthy for Sabeth's death.

At this point in the novel, Walter is still relying on technology and "clear judgment" to guide his actions. Walter did not recognize that he needed to fully communicate his experience of Sabeth's accident to another human being in order to save her. Earlier in the novel, Walter argued that computers make better decisions than humans because their feelings do not influence the outcome. In this case, Walter's feelings should have saved Sabeth. His love for her, and his need to help her, should have pressured him to communicate the fact that she fell after being bitten by the snake. Instead, Walter allowed his guilt to be stifled by favorable statistics.

Walter tells Hanna everything about Sabeth's injury not because he thinks she needs to know exactly what happened (though if Walter had told her earlier, it would probably have saved Sabeth's life) but because he recognizes her right to know. Only after Walter truly acknowledges Hanna's role as Sabeth's mother does Hanna acknowledge Walter's role in Sabeth's life. One might view this information as Hanna's attempt to punish Walter, but it might be interpreted instead as a sign of Hanna's trust. For a moment both Walter and Hanna are responsible for protecting Sabeth from the consequences of what she has done. When they learn of Sabeth's death, for a moment at least, Walter and Hanna are united in the grief of parents.

Though Walter's behavior with Hanna suggests that he is stuck in the same patterns, Walter's surfacing memories of Sabeth reveal the seeds of fundamental change. The simile game that Walter plays with Sabeth on their last night together reveals a transformation in Walter's viewpoint. While stranded in the Sierra Madre desert, Walter claimed that he was unable to look at the world around him and see anything but concrete reality. That night with Sabeth, Walter not only tries but also succeeds in looking at the world as a piece of art to be interpreted. Walter is slower and less creative than Sabeth; nonetheless, he succeeds at seeing black rocks as "coals," hearing "wind in the dry grass" as "tearing silk" and seeing the sea as "a sheet of aluminum." No longer a simple argument between "art" and "technology," Homo Faber seems now to be engaging the question about the degree to which Walter should look at the world around him as full of things to be made use of versus things to appreciate and enjoy.

The narrative takes a significant jump ahead. Walter is in a hospital in Athens. The date is July 19th. Walter is writing the narrative by hand, because they have taken away his typewriter (it is rest time). He is annoyed at having to write by hand. Walter writes that it is very hot and that Hanna visits him daily but never sits down. She also visits the grave daily. Walter wonders how he can make it up to her. He is a little afraid she is going mad. Sabeth died six weeks ago today.

The narrative returns to June 8th. Walter has just arrived back in New York from Athens. He is at Williams's usual Saturday-night party. He has told no one that his daughter died, or even that he had a daughter. He is drinking too much. Suddenly everyone is talking about Italian art, and once again Walter feels left out. Walter is staying in a hotel, since he cannot get the keys to his apartment. Ivy has not dropped them off as she said she would. When he arrived from the airport he could not get in. He went on a sightseeing boat, then to the movies, just to pass the time. In the hotel he rang his own number several times, but no one picked up. Then he went to the party.

When he leaves he is very drunk, and on his way across Times Square, he stops at a phone booth and again dials his own number. This time, someone picks up, but Walter cannot make the person understand that this is his phone number. The man says he has never heard of Walter Faber and hangs up. Walter does not know what to do, so he finally hangs up, too.

The narrative shifts back to the hospital. Walter is thinking about his operation and whether it will cure him. He is comforted by the positive statistics, but not as comforted as when Sabeth was in this same hospital. He is glad that he is in Athens, where he can talk to Hanna. He wants her to talk to him, but she still does not. He decides he could not have cancer, or else they would have operated right away.

On June 9th, Walter had flown to Caracas. The turbines he was supposed to assemble were finally ready. His stomach was bothering him very much. He took a side trip to see Herbert. Everything made him nostalgic, for everything was the same. He wished that it were still two months ago and that nothing else had ever happened. Herbert was extremely surprised, even suspicious, to see him. He thought that Walter had been sent to fetch him back. Walter mended Herbert's glasses. Walter had brought Herbert gasoline--but Herbert laughed at him. He had not even started the car since Walter left. The engine was in disarray from the heat and humidity, and Walter spent the rest of his visit painstakingly fixing the car. Herbert did not seem to care.

Back in the hospital, Hanna and Walter have had a fight about technology. Hanna thinks that technology means distancing oneself from experiencing the world. Walter does not understand Hanna's point. Then Hanna tells him that the real problem with the technologist (such as himself) is that he tries to live without death. That was the problem with Walter's relationship with Sabeth. He tried to pretend there was no such thing as age. Hanna points out that one cannot do away with age by marrying one's child.

On June 20th, Walter arrived in Caracas. He started to supervise the assembly, and he kept going as long as possible, but then his stomach trouble became very bad. He sent a telegram to Athens, but it went unanswered. Walter tried to write Hanna several letters, but he realized he had no idea where she was.

Back in the hospital, the deaconess has brought Walter a mirror. He is horrified by how he looks. He is so old, so sickly. He decides he could not possibly have looked like this two months before. Still, as he looks longer at himself he grows used to himself. He decides he really does not look so different--but after the operation, he will have to do something about his teeth. Walter writes a postscript in his diary, noting that his old teacher is dead. Then he writes another, telling himself that he simply needs fresh air and exercise.

Analysis

Walter's confusion about his identity reaches a climax in this section. He feels more distant than ever from Williams and his other friends, because they do not know that Walter's life has completely changed. Now he is a father whose daughter has died. Walter is further thrown off kilter by his inability to get into his apartment. Though he makes a tremendous effort to go on with his life as if nothing were different (for example, he goes by the Chinese laundry that he uses for his shirts, and they recognize him and give him three shirts he had left there), Walter is physically being prevented from reassuming his old life. Walter's identity crisis reaches its climax when he calls what he thinks is his apartment and someone else picks up, claiming never to have heard of "Walter Faber." Even though Walter can think of logical explanations, he finds no comfort in them.

Despite the obstacles, Walter continues to try to rewrite his narrative by reliving through the literary narrative the events that led to his meeting Sabeth. Walter continues to deny the reality of Sabeth's death by reenacting the cycle of events in such a way that he neither meets Sabeth nor falls in love with her nor causes her death. Walter likewise needs to return to Venezuela to complete the project that he was unable to complete on his last trip. Furthermore, Walter chooses to repeat his visit to the plantation on the way. Walter clearly hopes to convince Herbert to leave the plantation and return to Germany, as if he is trying to save Herbert from repeating Joachim's ending. Though his actions are hollow--Walter canot meet Sabeth again, first of all because she is dead--Walter's actions at least partially affirm the idea that Walter could have made different choices in the past, and therefore he could have avoided his tragic fate. Walter does not find it easy to give up a worldview he has long taken comfort in and depended upon.

For the same reason, Walter insists on repairing Herbert's jeep so that he has the means of leaving the plantation. Despite repeated experiences of technology proving inadequate or breaking down, Walter is still invested in the necessity of technology. One might even argue that Walter sees technology as providing the very choices that allow human beings to escape the dictates of fate. Even so, Walter's actions demonstrate some growth. Walter does not repair the car simply because he takes comfort in properly functioning technology; he sincerely wishes to help Herbert. His use of technology is motivated by his feelings of connection to Herbert. This connection is limited in that he is completely unable to understand that Herbert might have found a kind of happiness in a place with so little modern technology.

Another important theme in this section of the novel is the growing importance of Walter's fear of death. Hanna focuses the reader's attention on this underlying theme when she points out that Walter could not have escaped death by marrying his child. One begins to wonder whether Walter's Professor really looked so terrible--was he actually about to die, or is Walter just waiting for him to die so that his own guilt for sleeping with that man's dying wife will be extinguished? Now that he is himself afraid of dying, Walter looks in a mirror and sees an old man. He convinces himself that he looks fine in order to convince himself that he will not die.

Walter stops in Cuba to change planes on July 9th. He chooses Cuba only because he wishes to avoid New York. He stays for four days, doing nothing but looking at the city. Walter continually walks around the city. The things he notices include yellow birds, shoeshine boys everywhere, pimps trying to sell their wares, and everyone being happy. Walter has his shoes cleaned; he resolves to live differently; he buys two boxes of cigars. He is irritated that everyone keeps thinking he is an American merely because he is white. Everything is like a dream. He notices the foods and the colors. Everything seems different. He finds himself attracted to women.

In a bar, a young man insists on buying him a drink because he has just become a father. He asks Walter how many children he has, and Walter replies that he has five sons. That night there is a storm, and Walter sits and watches it. He is incredibly happy. He feels an inexpressible anger at America and at the American way of life. He sings. He thinks bitter things about those people, those Americans, yet he recognizes that he is living off their money, and it is their money that is bringing him these new pleasures. He is a little in love with the seven-year-old boy who polishes his shoes. Walter thinks about Americans, about their dependence on medicine, and about their false happiness. He wishes he could live over again. He writes a letter to Hanna.

The next day Walter goes to a beach, and it reminds him of Greece. He swims and he cries. He writes a letter to Dick. He thinks about what America has to offer: the best gadgets, a global highway, the denial of death. Later he hires a boat. Everywhere around him he suddenly sees Americans and hates them. He writes a letter to Marcel, telling him he was right. On the boat he tears up the letters to Marcel and Dick.

Back in the city, Walter is exhausted. He hails a taxi and laughs when he realizes that the driver picking him up has two prostitutes already in the back seat. He takes them to dinner. That night he begins having terrible stomach pains. He is haunted by a fear of stomach cancer--otherwise he is happy. He finally types his UNESCO report about the turbines. He sleeps, eats oysters, and smokes more cigars. He has a conversation with a prostitute. Walter realizes he cannot speak enough Spanish to have a real conversation. Juana is eighteen, has never left Cuba, and her life's goal is to get to New York. During the week she is a packer--she is only a fille de joie (a prostitute) on the weekends. He tells Juana about his daughter who died, about their travels together, about the snake, about his future. He tells her he will marry Hanna. He wants Juana to tell him whether snakes can be guided by gods or by demons. Juana has no answer for him. Walter leaves when Juana's brother, also her pimp, shows up to meet her. It is his last night.

Walter still feels happy, for no particular cause. He knows that he will never forget Havana. For hours on end he rocks and sings as the winds blow. On his last walk the next morning, a pimp strolls with him, and Walter tells him how much he loves Havana. The pimp comments that Walter seems very happy. When he departs, Walter smokes one last cigar and decides that he is not going to film anything any more, because when you look at the film the thing is gone.

Analysis

In this section, the conflict between art and technology comes to a head in that Walter repudiates the way he lived in the past. The argument was weak in the first place; Walter did not make a strong argument for technology any more than Marcel, Sabeth or Hanna made a strong argument for art. Art and technology essentially become associated with two different kinds of worldviews. The old Walter looked at the world as something to be made use of--he was interested in the way that objects and places could be manipulated to improve life. Later in the novel, first with Sabeth and then moreso in Cuba, Walter begins to look on the world as something that can be enjoyed. Others now observe that he seems happy.

Walter's narrative undergoes a tremendous change in this section. Before, Walter merely referred to the surroundings. He talked about filming a sunset, or appreciating a landscape. Now, Walter describes the sights in all of their beauty and complexity. When Walter saw Hanna, she was simply a "blond ponytail," "black jeans," "plain wooden beads." Contrast this description with Walter's vision of a "Spanish Negress" in Havana: she "sticks her tongue out at me because I am admiring her, her pink tongue in her brown face, I laugh and say hello--she laughs too, showing her white teeth in the red flower of her lips (if one may put it like that) and her eyes." When Walter looked at Sabeth he did so secretly; when she caught him staring or filming, she often became angry. Now, Walter is able to admire openly, to admit desire and thus to purge himself of his shame.

Walter's ability to appreciate the beauty of Havana helps him confront the mistakes he has made and the damage he has done to people he cares about. In Havana, Walter begins to mourn Sabeth's death and to allow himself to hope for a reconciliation of some kind with Hanna. Only by confronting the reality of Sabeth's death is Walter able to envision the possibility of forgiveness. This emotional recovery is undermined, however, by his physical breakdown. Walter's fear of death begins to play a more important role in the novel; it becomes clear that Walter's refusal to take his physical pains seriously may have a catastrophic result. Once again, the reader must question how much of what Walter says and does he actually believes. If Walter had such faith in technology, why did he ignore medical symptoms and be led by the fear of seeing a doctor? One might respond by arguing that Walter sees human death as the only obstacle technology has not and will not be able to conquer. The death of Sabeth has been a key to his new appreciation for emotion and art. Therein also lies the reason for his longtime admiration for robots: robots do not need to be guided by their emotions, because no matter what robots "decide," they need never die.

While in Havana, Walter actively rejects the way that he has lived his life to this point. Interestingly, this rejection is not so much bound up with technology as with his idea of America. It begins with Walter growing angry at the fact that everyone thinks he is American simply because he is white. It continues with Walter's observation of Americans around him and his sudden distaste for the obsession with money, success and "newness" that he thinks are what define American habits. While some critics argue that this part of Homo Faber is intended to be an indictment of America and the American way of life, most critics suggest that this is an overstatement of Frisch's intentions. Readers must remember that the critique is made by Walter, an unreliable observer. Walter's condemnation of American people is most extreme in his letters to Dick and Marcel--but he tears these letters up because he feels that he has been carried away by an idea. Walter also recognizes that American money has supported him, and American money even paid for this trip. One also should note that Walter does not yet match this rejection with any kind of positive action. Walter has decided to try to live differently, but he does not really know how he wants to live or where he should begin.

Walter does not necessarily let go of his love of technology, but he has begun to recognize that happiness comes from unmediated human experience, and he is coming around to the idea that human experience that is in some way diluted or even debased by the use of technology. He decides not to film things anymore because it seems unnatural to have something exist on film that no longer exists in life, or perhaps because the film image is only a shallow representation of a real being or experience. Though Walter does not consciously go this far, onenight see Walter as choosing to interact directly with the world around him, rather than hiding behind his camera and his numbers.

Back in the hospital, Hanna has come to see Walter, and this time she is wearing white. She says that it is too hot outside for black. Walter thinks that she is being thoughtful, trying not to remind him of the possibility of death.

In a postscript, Walter writes that Hanna has told him that as a child her younger brother beat her at wrestling, and she swore she would never love a man, being furious that God had made them stronger than women. Hanna told him how important it had been to her to be better than all the boys. She also told him about an old man with whom she spent a lot of time as a child and young woman. He was much older than she, fifty or sixty, and he was blind. She used to guide him. Walter asked her about the birth of their child. She told him it was an easy birth and that Joachim acted like a real father. Walter also learned that his mother knew about Sabeth, and that Hanna and his mother had corresponded for years. Hanna goes back to talking about Armin. She explains that it was Armin who made her interested in ancient Greece. They had a plan to run away together to Greece as soon as Hanna was of age. Hanna doesn't know how Armin really felt, but she tells Walter she was completely serious. When Hanna was with Walter, she still spent time with Armin, and Walter actually remembers seeing him with Hanna, though at the time he had no idea who Armin was. Armin died on a ship that probably was sunk by a German submarine.

The narrative suddenly moves back to Walter's journey just before entering the hospital. After leaving Cuba, he flies to Düsseldorf, Germany. He feels a duty to visit Herbert's company and tell them what happened to Joachim and Herbert. He explains that he has some films with evidence of Joachim's death. When he arrives, he realizes that they have written off the plantation, and they are only humoring him. He feels he must go through with it. It is the first time that Walter has seen the films. Many of them are not labeled. He slowly becomes embarrassed at the number of films they must get through before he finds the right one--there are so many pictures of sunsets. He also cannot get the focus correct. It is almost impossible to see Joachim clearly. He cannot find the reel that shows Herbert at the plantation on his most recent visit. Instead, they keep putting on reels of Greece, until finally, there is Sabeth. Walter does not stop the film, though the operator comments several times that this cannot be Guatemala. For a few minutes it is as if Walter is reliving his entire journey with Sabeth, only this time knowing how short it will be.

When Walter is sitting in the dining car on his way to Zurich, he cannot remember leaving the building. He wonders what they thought of him. He just got up and walked out, leaving the films behind. He wishes he had never existed. He looks at the dining forks and wonders, why not let his head fall upon them in order to be rid of his eyes?

Back in the hospital, Walter is writing about how just after Sabeth's death, he had no idea where Hanna was or what she did. Now, Walter does not understand how Hanna can bear to see him. Her hair has grown whiter. Hanna's only reaction that Walter understood was when she beat him with her fists at Sabeth's deathbed.

Again, the narrative transitions to Walter's journey. Walter has decided to stop in Zurich on his way back to Paris. Walter hasn't been to his native city for decades. He has nothing to do there, and Williams is expecting him in Paris. Almost immediately he runs into his old professor, the same man who saw him with Sabeth in Paris. He now looks even worse, even closer to death. This time, Walter has coffee with him, but Walter cannot think of anything to say. One of the waiters recognizes Walter and tells him he has not changed. Professor O. comments that it is a pity Walter never finished his dissertation on Maxwell's demon. He asks Walter how his daughter is. Walter asks how he knew she was his daughter, and Professor O. replies that he just assumed she was. That same day Walter leaves Zurich. It is a very smooth flight. Walter looks out the window, watching everything go by. He begins to play the simile game with himself, thinking of what Sabeth would have compared things to, until he runs out of similes. In Milan, he cables to Hanna. In Rome he cables Williams, giving him his notice. He flies to Corinth. The flight is intensely interesting; he feels as if he is flying for the first time. Hanna meets him at the airport. She is wearing black. Walter has no luggage besides his briefcase, his typewriter, a coat, and a hat.

For a moment the narrative transitions back to the hospital. It is the day before Walter's operation. Now, the narrative and Walter's diary have finally met in time. Walter thinks that he has only seen Sabeth's grave once. It is very hot; flowers wither in half a day.

The rest of the narrative consists of diary entries. On the evening before his operation, Walter writes that they have taken away his typewriter. Hanna has been to see him. At midnight, he still cannot sleep. He is terribly afraid that he has stomach cancer, but that they will not tell him for fear he will commit suicide. He refuses to tell them that the pains are worse than ever. He realizes that he wants to live, no matter how little time he has left. He believes that he is not alone, since Hanna is his friend. At 3 a.m. he writes a letter to Hanna. He makes arrangements in case of his death: he wants all of his reports, letters, and notebooks destroyed. He realizes that all he wants is to be alive.

Walter writes that earlier that night Hanna had finally told him what she did after Sabeth's death. She immediately wanted to leave Greece. She felt she could not stay there under the circumstances. She sold all of her things, rented out her flat, quit her job, and got on a boat. At the last minute she changed her mind and got off the boat. Unfortunately, the Institute had already given her job to her former assistant. For the present she was serving as a tour guide. It was pure chance that she had gotten Walter's cable.

At 6 a.m. Walter writes another letter to Hanna. At 6:45 he thinks about why Joachim hanged himself. Hanna keeps asking him what he thinks. That night Hanna had also told him that as soon as he left for Baghdad, she decided to have their child. She let Joachim think that he had talked her into it, but the truth was that she was happy to have a fatherless child who would belong to her alone. Differences arose between them when Joachim could no longer stand to have absolutely no say in how Sabeth was being raised. Joachim hoped more and more for a child that would also belong to him. Then Joachim found out Hanna had had herself sterilized. He volunteered for the German army, though he had already been exempted from service. From that point on, Hanna sacrificed everything for her child. Now, she asks herself why she felt the need to shut everyone else out. Walter tried to apologize to Hanna for his behavior when Sabeth was in the hospital, but she kept trying to apologize to him instead, asking if he could forgive her. Walter thinks that Hanna will never leave Athens--will never leave the grave of her child. He understands why she gave up her apartment. Hanna could barely let Sabeth go away for half a year, but even Hanna could not have foreseen that in leaving her mother, Sabeth would meet her father, who would "destroy her life."

At 8:45 Walter writes his last entry, simply that "They're coming."

Analysis

The last section of the novel is the most confused in terms of the order of events versus the order of narration. While Walter is clearly trying to come to terms with the possibility of his own death, the reader is also offered a mediated view of Hanna as she begins to forgive Walter and herself. A good example of this kind of double-narration is when Hanna comes to see Walter for the first time wearing white instead of black. Walter believes that Hanna is being kind to him in that she does not want to remind him of death. In addition, the putting off of black symbolically means that the period of formal mourning is at an end. The reader can interpret both Walter's belief and Hanna's personal motives from the same ambiguous text.

When Hanna tells Walter about Armin, Walter does not consciously recognize that Hanna is attempting to communicate her forgiveness. Walter simply marvels at how little he knew about Hanna's life, yet Hanna is clearly explaining to Walter that she does not blame him for his relationship with Sabeth. Hanna participated in and even benefited from a similar relationship when she was a girl. These relationships are both natural and unnatural.

The narrative's transition to the past suggests that while Hanna might be at peace, Walter clearly is not. Walter felt that he must inform someone official about Joachim's death, because he wants someone official to absolve him of guilt. The film reels are evidence of Walter's innocence. But seeing the reels forces him to think about a much worse crime that he cannot be absolved of; he subconsciously wants to see Sabeth and to convict himself of a far more terrible crime. Walter's self-condemnation is symbolized by his use of Oedipal imagery to convey the depth of his despair. On the train, Walter imagines putting out his own eyes, which is Oedipus's exact reaction to his discovery that he had slept with his mother and killed his father. At this point Walter still believes that he is guilty of Sabeth's death and that he deserves to be despised and punished for it. He does not understand why Hanna is being so kind to him now, because he believes that attacking him, as she did just after they discovered Sabeth's death, is the only logical response to his crime.

The next few episodes reveal Walter's passage from active guilt to acceptance. The most influential moment comes when Walter once again runs into Professor O., this time in Zurich. Professor O. casually mentions Sabeth, who he assumed is Walter's daughter. Having someone else treat him as a father helps Walter begin to see himself as Sabeth's father.

As Walter's narrative catches up with itself, Hanna continues to open up to Walter. Her willingness to share her grief with him and to acknowledge his own pain helps Walter move past his guilt and begin the process of mourning.

At the end of the novel Walter demonstrates real, substantial change. Now when they take away Walter's typewriter he continues to write. He writes personal letters, not just reports, and he faces death head-on by preparing for it. Most importantly, Walter demonstrates his newfound ability to find happiness in even the smallest of blessings. He knows that he may well die, despite favorable statistics. He recognizes that he cannot wipe away the mistakes of his past; he is not going to marry Hanna and pretend that he has never hurt her. He believes that Hanna is his friend and that he is not going to die alone, and these two small things help him cling to his life despite all of his mistakes.

The book ends without revealing to the reader whether Walter Faber lives or dies. This choice suggests that ultimately Homo Faber is not a morality tale with a simple focus on guilt or innocence. Instead, Homo Faber presents an argument for valuing life, accepting one's mistakes, and learning from the past.

• Biography of Max Frisch
• About Homo Faber
• Character List
• Major Themes
• Glossary of Terms
• Short Summary
• Full Summary and Analysis
• Summary and Analysis of "First Stop" to "Mexico City"
• Summary and Analysis of "Mexico City" to "Venezuela"
• Summary and Analysis of "Venezuela" to "Paris"
• Summary and Analysis of "Paris" to "Hanna's Home"
• Summary and Analysis of "Hanna's Home" to "Second Stop"
• Summary and Analysis of "Second Stop" to "Cuba"
• Summary and Analysis of "Cuba" to "Hanna in White"
• Summary and Analysis of "Hanna in White" to "The End"
• Related Links on Homo Faber
• Suggested Essay Questions
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources
• Purchase Homo Faber and Other Works
• Test Yourself! Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! Quiz 2
• Test Yourself! Quiz 3
• Test Yourself! Quiz 4
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• Test Yourself! Quiz 6
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