The Illusion of Seperateness by Simon Van Booy

The running theme that all of our choices and subsequent actions can have a wide ripple effect in life is a strong presence in The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy. Although there are many examples within this story, the French farmer Paul, chooses under great personal threat to help John. This unselfish choice likely saves John’s life; unknowingly Paul’s decision has an indirect, yet profound effect on many people. Paul’s simple nursing and support, despite his own significant loss is not lost on John. One aspect of the cascade created by Paul is when John who is faced with the possibility of killing a German soldier mired in dead bodies and filth, literally, merely rolls over. That German soldier known as A is a tender man on the wrong side of the war; later saves a baby. The child whom he saved later provides extraordinary tenderness at the end of Mr. Hugo’s life. The tender feathering of lives intertwined, even unspoken, as with John and Mr. Hugo’s only contact has a longstanding influence.

Following the crash of John’s B-24, he spends a long cold dawn alone, hiding at the edge of a field in France. When he awakens later, painting the stealth of his escape in his mind, he is literally grabbed by Paul (Van Booy 97). Paul a local farmer was seeking John, in hopes of offering help before the Germans had opportunity to find him. He had cleverly planned ahead to distract the German soldiers with fresh pheasant. Even the act of hiding John in a potato sack on his cart likely put him at risk for instant execution at the hands of the Germans. His solid and unquestioning support of John is not without risk. Paul shares that “people he had once trusted profiteering from others’ misery… he attended the public executions of his...

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... moment. His resolve in turn, saves A who then carries the ripple effect forward as well. When A saves the baby, ultimately giving it to the teenage girl a whole new cascade of events is created which ultimately creates the opportunity for his own comfort while dying. Sixty six years later, as A (now known as Mr. Hugo) lays dying, thousands of miles away from Paris where he last saw the baby something amazing happens. A good and gentle man, raised by a loving woman who had been handed a baby during the war and raised him as her own, cradles Mr. Hugo while he’s dying. He hums a song that he remembers from his very earliest childhood and Mr. Hugo passes away peacefully while hearing his favorite childhood lullaby that he has not sung in years.

Works Cited

Van Booy, Simon. The Illusion of Separateness. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2013. eBook.