Intelligent Risk Taking The Character of Esther
to adapt to many different people and situations is proven by the number of people who know her.
In the journey of finding Esther, the narrator meets Mikhail who once was Esther’s translator when she went to Kazakhstan. “Mikhail insisted: I had to meet
the beggars; they were part of his life and part of Esther’s life too.” 161. The conversations of other people and the things they say about Esther can give clues
of her character Murphy 167. The conversation between the beggars and the narrator below shows that the beggars know Esther well and that she is adaptable.
“So you’re the husband of the journalist?” “Are you Esther’s husband?” asks a female beggar, wide-eyed; she is
dressed garishly, in a green hat and a purple coat. I don’t know what to say.
“Why hasn’t she been back here?” ask someone else. “I hope she isn’t dead. She was always going to such dangerous places. I often told her she
shouldn’t. Look what she gave me” And she shows me a scrap of bloodstained fabric, part of the dead soldier’s
shirt. “No, she’s not dead,” I say. “But I’m surprised to hear that she used to
come here.” 166.
Esther makes friends with people from a lower economic background though she is a wife of a famous novelist. She can adapt to people who have
different background from her. Surprisingly, the doctor who treats the narrator when he gets an accident knows Ether as well. Esther also makes friends with
people who have a different educational background and profession from her. “…A brush with death always helps us to live our lives better; that’s what
your wife told me when she gave me a bit of bloodstained fabric, which I always carry with me, even though, as a doctor, I see death, close to, every
day.” “Did she say why she gave you the cloth?” 190.
From here, the narrator knows that Esther makes relationships with many different people. All of them have a piece of cloth from Esther, which she says is
given by a soldier before he died in a war. She is able to build relationships with people from different backgrounds and they all accept her.