The White Castle finale

The final chapters of The White Castle was wrought with ambiguity and confusion, however following discussions in class, I realized that this is exactly as the author (whoever this may be) wished the book to finish. It is in my opinion that the story was intended to leave the reader in a nebulous state in which they are required to formulate an opinion on their own.

The constant reference of fog throughout the first and final chapters is meant to disguise or cloak the identities of the Hoja and the Italian. "We exchanged clothes... then he left the tent and was gone. I watched him slowly disappear in the silent fog." (pg. 145) This is the moment in which we lose the identities of both main characters leaving the reader to discover the lost identities without the aid of text.

Another supporting claim to the idea of self-realization came via the conversation with the traveler who asked the new "Hoja" of his knowledge of Italy. It was in this conversation on page 154 that Evliya announced his thoughts concerning discovery through experience. Evliya "had spent his whole life traveling, searching for stories down roads that never came to an end." (pg. 154) This sounds very similar to the predicament that readers such as ourselves encounter while reading this book. We have to search within a book that exists without a clear ending for the answer concerning the identities of these characters.