Chapter 15 Cont.

True to all the foreboding signs, Fidelis continues to decline in health. "The tiredness was bewildering--it had come upon him gradually and now it was beyond his control...When Franz had come home only to fade from life in bewildered anger, part of Fidelis had gone out raging with him" (Erdrich 377). All of the events of his life for the past ten years have been slowly but surely draining him of energy and the will to live. He has lost two of his sons, experienced many heartbreaking events, and continued to abuse his body to show his strength in the face of them; but as life was becoming too much to handle, his body was similarly showing signs of distress and wear. Suddenly, not a moment after stepping foot on American soil, he collapses, slowly watching everything around him fade, listening to soft music playing in the background, seeing Delphine's face blurring in front of him, ready to take care of him as she had been since the beginning. I thought it was interesting that he compares himself dying with being led to the slaughter, and whoever took care of him at the end was "carrying out death's chores." Yet, he is also hearing a familiar sound of music around him; two things that were always the most important things in his life: his love of music and his profession. It is the way he found himself when he was alive and now he will be led out of this world in the only way that is fitting to him.