Summary

In Chapter 4, the narrator talks more about how his mother forced him to take Musa’s place. Even though they were too big for him, she made him wear Musa’s clothes. He was not allowed to be out of her sight and was strictly forbidden to go near the beach. In his mother’s mind it was the water that was the culprit in Musa’s death because it had taken his body away. When he was sick his mother watched over his body. If he hurt himself his mother acted as if it had been Musa whom he had allowed to get hurt. From this behavior, Harun explains that he has learned to feel guilty about being alive, a guilt that still bothers him now.

Harun describes himself and his mother as appearing an odd couple when she took him with her...