Free Custom «Absolute Friends» Essay Paper

Introduction

The novel titled the "Absolute Friends" by John Le Carre's theÿnarrator / novelist of the story Mr. Le Carre's highlights on the lives of two great friends; it is from the friendship that exists between these two friends that he is able to derive a name for his novel the "Absolute Friends". And the novel revolves around the lives of these two friends (Characters); namely Ted Edward Mundy who is a student activist, a British spy and naive individual and his friend His Absolute friend Sasha who was his class mate and a very close friend when he left Britain for Germany, Berlin for further studies after being rejected by his longtime girlfriend Ilse.

The novel also highlights on the life of Ted Edward Mundy known as Mundy who is a British born in Pakistan, Mundy becomes skilled in speaking the German language. And during his teenage life he falls in love with Ilse who is madly in love with and hopes to marry and make her as his wife. However, all his plans are not to be as because Ilse rejects him. This makes him angry with himself and opts to go to Berlin, Germany to complete his education that was in the 1960s when there was the increasing tension over the division of the Germany this was a heating conflict between the West and East Germany.

Mundy joins a university that is in the West Germany that was in the 1960s at the height of the cold war. While at the university he becomes the student anarchist for the students aligned to the West Germany and in the process of these revolts he becomes a close friend of Sasha, who is a student rebel of the West Germany revolution and son of an East German Lutheran Pastor and a middle aged double agent. As a result, and in the revolt Mundy is arrested and tortured by the German police and eventually deported to Britain because he was involved in an anti -government activity. It is from his deportation he failed in the duties that he was undertaking in Britain, this failure in life includes the duty of being a journalist, a teacher of the English preparatory school and a tour guide.
Later on in the novel the two Absolute Friends meets again; this is when Sasha who is Mundy's friend meet while in Britain. Sasha meets Mundy when he is in his line of duty as a tour guide.

In turn, Sasha asks for a private meeting with Mundy and discusses on some of the issues that relate to the intelligence and performance of the British and the United States of America invasion in Iraq. Sasha organizes for the private meeting with Dimitry and in there secret meeting Dimitry asks for Mundy's help in settling and publishing his ideas. The ideas contained confidential information that were against the proposed reasons that were aired by the United Kingdom and United States of America on their reasons for attacking Iraq. Sasha also wanted Mundy to help him in smuggling firearms (M- 16). In the process of their activities they were killed by the American military and thus tagged as terrorists who were aligned and associated with the Al-Qaeda terrorist group. This was because the America Military knew that they would be in a point of exposing their intended interests of their reasons of attacking the Iraq. Other than that the main reason which was there possession of weapons of mass destruction.

How does Ted Mundy and Sasha trying to break loose from their parentage and their backgrounds? These two individual "Absolute Friends" Ted Mundy and Sasha are individuals from completely different family and ancestral backgrounds and this is clearly being expressed in the novel "Absolute Friends" by John Le Carre's. This is when he highlights on the different nationality and family background of the two good friends. In addition, the narrator indicates that these two individuals have got a bad family background that is really disturbing to them thus opting or forcing them to run away from the real situation and seek for a new way of life for themselves. This is what to some point makes them more attracted to each other this is because they feel that they are more attached to each other as they share the same family backgrounds.

In the novel Mundy and Sasha are trying to escape from their parentage in different ways. For the case of Mundy its clearly seen in the novel just after he was deported from Germany because he was involved in the university revolution. He was rendered a useless individual in the British community this is because he couldn't be able to perform any duty successfully. This was because he failed at some point or another in his life; some of the failures that included his college, reporter, novelist, businessman, and radio presenter. These failures were major threats to his life thus he was forced to opt to become a secret double agent a task that he performed successfully.

Sasha who is the absolute friend of Mundy is highly trying to change his background that was destroyed after the university revolt they indulged in while at the university and thus he wasn't successful in his professional life. This is because he was kicked out from the university because of his participation in the revolution. Thus he had to look for other avenues that would enable him to fulfill his long time dreams and this includes his active participation in the political and economic sectors. This is because he was against the West Germany protests and was chased out of university thus making him hate the policies of the western countries. As a result, he becomes a spy for his country as he wouldn't be able to complete his university.

Mundy is also trying to pull away from his family background; this is when he tries to look into the way in which his mother passed on (died). This can be seen from his activities aimed at unearthing the possible causes of his mothers death; but in real sense his mother died when he was being born through a birth complication that made he bleed to death when giving birth. Her death left him in a very hostile environment that was harsh and was very complicated and confusing to him. In fact, he had no proper guidance that would ensure that he was well raised as he was a British citizen living in Pakistan.

Mundy was also trying to change his background when he realized that he would not be in a position of marrying the love of his life his long time girlfriend Isle, this frustration resulted to him relocating to Berlin Germany and it was this relocation that resulted to a sudden change on his life, and in the process he was able to meet his Absolute friend Sasha who was the one that transformed his life completely as they were close to each other as they believed the they come from the same background with the same ideology.
Mundy is trying to break loose from his parentage is when he decides to get married to Zara who was a Turkish ex-prostitute and decides to be friend her to the extent of them starting a family, and in the process he decides to live with her as her wife and Mustafa her son as his own son, this was as a result of his failure in securing the woman of his dream (Ilse) and also because he couldn't perform his professional duties effectively. Therefore he wanted to avoid living the kind of life that his darken father lived this guilt pushed him to get married because he never wanted to be a failure like his father.

Sasha on the hand tries to leave his background this is when he is expelled from the University for participating in the west Germany revolution and in that process he was chased from Germany and opted to join the East Germany in order to do what he wouldn't be able to fulfill his ambitions as an activists he therefore opted to be a spy for the opposing side of the thus making him a spy as his father and calling upon his absolute friend to join him in the activity.

Mundy on the other hand was a son of an alcoholic British Major in the Pakistani army, who lost his wife during the birth of his son (Mundy). His father's anti -social and excessive alcoholic behaviors was the real cause of him to transform himself and become a very different individual like his father. He therefore opted to be involved sin activities like student activists and protested against the west Germany government as a way of improving his ego. He was subsequently expelled and deported from Germany and he became a very useless in his daily chores. He was eventually invited by his friend Sasha to join the spy group and he succeeded in his activities as a spy; by this he was able to be what he wanted to be since his childhood days. However, he faced his death when Americans killed him together with his friend Sasha for being involved in terrorist acts eventually making his death.

Effects of the two men's fathers have had on there lives, as well as the "burden of the past" that they have inherited.
Mundy's father was an alcoholic and throughout his entire stay with Mundy; he kept very vital information from Mundy. This was about the death of Mundy's mother, as he only kept this information from Mundy and in no occasion did he tell him (Mundy) of the real reasons and cause of his mother's death. This made him to feel more and more guilty and responsible for his mother's death. Due to this secretive nature of his father he opted to get hold of the nature of becoming secretive in his activities and he eventually became a secret agent that participated as a double secret agent for the East Germany Secret Service and the British Secret Service. He was able to perform this duty perfectly as an inheritance from his drunken father, who refused to tell him the true cause of his mother's death till the day he died.

Sasha on the other hand was the son of an East German Lutheran Pastor and a middle aged double agent of the British Secret Service and East Germany Secret Agent; in this case he was able to be the perfect role model of Sasha. Thus his father's activities and alignment to the East Germany was a great contribution to his rivalry and active participation in the university revolts that resulted to the expulsion of him and Mundy from the university. This is because he saw the attitude that's his father had towards the West Germany individuals thus expulsion from the university. His ideas that were against the American policies and that made him become a spy for the East Germany who were against the policies of the West Germany. They made him eventually became a spy for the East Germans and he and his friend Mundy were ultimately killed for his activities as spies by the United States of America military. This was because they were seen as a threat to the America people and termed to be terrorists linked with the Al Qaeda as they had very confidential information and deals which were seen by the American military as a threat to the security of the country (America).