Reflection on J.K. Rowling’s “The Casual Vacancy”
By Imelda Carvaca Ferrer
Krystal Weedon is an unlikely hero. She is loud and promiscuous. But at the end of the story that J.K Rowling wrote, she emerged a heroine. The beauty of a soul shines through in the persons and things he/she seeks to fall in love with.
I was at the tapsilogan for breakfast and my tears were dribbling down my cheeks for a book character who managed to touch me in the end.
In real life, it is easy to dismiss another person’s life whose behaviour and manners are so different from ours. It is the different, the difficult, the unknown, the unfamiliar that scare us. But even the so-called ‘dregs of society’ have a humanity that we all possess.
The “Casual Vacancy” is not a neat fairy tale where the protagonists drive off into the sunset with love, love, love ballooning forth from them. The book is a jagged, bitter piece of writing that lays bare the dark, evil side of everyone.
We who are not junkies have so much going for us. Drug addiction is a fierce reality that blows up in our faces as they squat on our very noses.
The book also shows that being in a family is not a sure-fire way to know each family member that well. The ones closest to you, you may not know too well and that is a tragedy. J.K. Rowling’s book is not an easy read but in each character there is a flaw/flaws but in the long run each has said or done something to redeem them somehow.
It wrenched my sometimes indifferent heart to see things differently; do things differently. And as we are all flawed I found myself crying for the marginalized and most of all moved to pray for the downtrodden.
Sometimes the world is too much to bear and how possible can a heart hold the pain and not crumple, break, dissolve?
I turned the last page but the characters stayed with me and refused to be forgotten. I grieve for lives cut short, but their death served as lessons in themselves. My heart is heavy and the pain tugs at my heart.
The Tessa Walls, the Kay Bawdens allow a chink of light to shine through a tapestry so dark. Guidance counsellors, social workers, teachers, every one of us and even the very least of us can make a difference.
The Rey Ortegas, our preachers, our very own Bo Sanchez, even us servants of the Light of Jesus serve us light in a world so dark. I hope and I pray that we will never allow a day to pass by without us doing something, praying for good things and serving as examples that would make a positive dent in the world.