Servants of the Map

After reading “Servants of the Map” I’m not sure of how I feel of Max as a character. At the beginning of the story he seemed like a likable man who was devoted to his wife. He was introverted and shy when in the presence of others, which made him likeable to me because he seemed like a decent person.

As his time spent in the mountains continued I could tell that he was beginning to break. I feel like the act of reading a letter from a loved one when you are so far away would make you miss them more. I have no idea how he was capable of reading so many from his wife, knowing that she may not receive the ones he was sending back to her. His experience in the mountains sounded awful. I would never want to be stuck in a cold environment with people I don’t know and with my family thousands of miles away.

My fondness of Max started fading when he met Dima. I understand that he was starved of affection and that he missed his wife terribly, but having an affair doesn’t solve that problem. If Max really missed his wife as much as he said he did then I don’t understand why he would run to the first woman that he sees that pays interest to him. It bothered me that he told his wife that the reason he stopped writing her was because he was “sick.” Lying about what he did isn’t going to help him out at all. Overall I wish I could see how the rest of Max’s life plays out. Does he ever return home? How would his relationship with his wife change? I can only guess that if he did ever return home the guilt of what he had done would eat away at him. He seems like a person who would confess their wrongdoings after an elapsed amount of time.