Loss

Walt’s life story is marked by many instances of loss, and much of the narrative is built around the ways in which Walt responds to these occurrences. Even before the narrative itself begins, Walt’s backstory is based in loss, as he is an orphan being raised by an unloving aunt and uncle. Walt, having little to keep him in his home of St. Louis, leaves with Master Yehudi and begins to become acquainted with more abstract forms of loss through Yehudi’s training regimen. Yehudi says to Walt at one point during the long training process, “You have to leave a part of yourself behind before you can attain the full magnitude of your gift” (93). Walt undergoes many ordeals in this training, from being buried alive to having part of a finger removed to being kept in stultifying rural environments, but Walt begins to...