Question

katharina, a sweet, retarded child who spent her life hiding, with the hope that her father would forget the disgrace of her having been born. with katharina, rolf crawled beneath the dining room table, and with her hid there under the long white tablecloth, two children forever embraced, alert to footsteps and voices. katharina’s scent melded with his own sweat, with aromas of cooking, garlic, soup, freshly baked bread, and the unexpected odor of putrescent clay. his sister’s hand in his, her frightened breathing, her silk hair against his cheek, the candid gaze of her eyes. katharina... katharina materialized before him, floating on the air like a flag, clothed in the white tablecloth, now a winding sheet, and at last he could weep for her death and for the guilt of having abandoned her. he understood then that all his exploits as a reporter, the feats that had won him such recognition and fame, were merely an attempt to keep his most ancient fears at bay, a stratagem for taking refuge behind a lens to test whether reality was more tolerable from that perspective. he took excessive risks as an exercise of courage, training by day to conquer the monsters that tormented him by night. but he had to come face to face with the moment of truth; he could not continue to escape his past. he was azucena; he was buried in the clayey mud; his terror was not the distant emotion of an almost forgotten childhood, it was a claw sunk in his throat. in the flush of 11. what is the conclusion rolf reaches with overcoming his fear and choosing to become a reporter?

Explanation:

Rolf realizes his career as a reporter, including his risky exploits and pursuit of fame, was just a strategy to avoid confronting his childhood guilt and fear over abandoning his sister Katharina. He understands he cannot escape his past, and his terror is still a present, visceral force rather than a distant memory.

Answer:

Rolf concludes that his career as a reporter, his famous exploits, and his risky acts were all just attempts to escape his childhood guilt and fear over abandoning his sister Katharina; he cannot run from his past, and his old terror is still a vivid, overwhelming feeling rather than a distant memory.