A Complicated Kindness Reader Response
Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. It has always had a bad press. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things. In Miriam Toews A Complicated Kindness the theme of tolerance is well presented by literary techniques and by the characters as well. Nomi Nickle, the protagonist, who goes through tolerance in her everyday life. Nomi has to tolerate with the ridiculous rules they have in East Village. “Before the purges occurred and the Mouth took over everything and closed the bar and the bus depot and the pool hall and swimming pool and forced all the teachers to follow an oddball curriculum that had nothing to do with the standard provincial guideline,”(Toews, pg 13) . In this quote you can see that the life in East Village is very boring since every activity is shut down by Nomi’s uncle, The Mouth aka Hans. The people in the town have to tolerate with his power. I can totally relate to Nomi in this situation because many times in our life we have to follow rules and orders whether if I like it or not. Nomi and the people are put in a tough situation because they don’t want to rebel against the rules, but they still want be a good citizen and want to go to heaven and that's why they tolerate theses rules. Tolerance is an important theme in this novel and it even plays a great role in our lives