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Journey to the East
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Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
H.H. goes to Seilergraben many times and goes to Andreas’s apartment, 69a, but never rings. One day while on the porch at the apartment he hears happy whistling from an upstairs window and believes that it must be Leo. The whistling stops and a young man comes out of the front door a few moments later. It is Leo from the directory, but also Leo from the Journey to the East. H.H. follows Leo on his walk as he moves down the lane. After he follows Leo to a park, Leo sits on a bench and speaks to him, saying that it will rain. H.H. tells Leo that he used to be a musician and enjoyed playing the violin, which reminds Leo of King David and how he played the harp for Saul: “He was a much happier and better person when he was a musician” (70) he tells H.H. Then he says that life is nothing but a happy game and must be treated as such.
Leo walks away and H.H. chases him, asking if he has forgotten that they once knew each other in the League. Leo replies, “Well, what person really knows another or even himself? As for me, I am not one who understands people at all. I’m not interested in them. I don’t really know you, sir” (73). He tells H.H. he is still a member of the League and that he is still on the Journey to the East. A dog appears and Leo pets it while it growls at H.H. It wounds H.H. to see that Leo is friendlier with the dog than he is with him, a former traveling companion. They say good-bye and part, and H.H. is filled with sorrow.
He no longer believes that his attempt to tell the story of the Journey to the East has meaning, but it is a task that is “increasingly worthless and spiritless” (77). He can only see one reason to continue, and it is bring himself once again, through his writing, into contact with the League and its experiences.
When H.H. arrives home, he quickly writes twenty pages of “grievances, remorse and entreaty” (78) to Leo, and then continues. He writes all night and mails the pages to Leo in the morning.
Chapter 4 Analysis
H.H.’s visit with Leo during their walk takes the majority of the significance in this brief chapter. H.H. has visited Seilergraben and verified that the Leo from the phone book is the same Leo from the Journey. He does not treat H.H. unkindly, but does not seem interested in him or their shared history, if it was real to begin with. Leo claims that he does not understand people and does not know what it means to say that one person truly knows another. This is catastrophic to H.H.’s psyche. He feels that of all the people throughout his life, the only ones he ever truly knew were those who accompanied him on the Journey. Even when Leo reveals that he still considers himself to be on the Journey to the East, it does not comfort H.H., who no longer feels that he is on the Journey. This is something they cannot share, in his perception. H.H. believes himself to be completely alienated from the League.
The League and the Journey were what had given H.H.’s life meaning. Now that he is no longer in contact with them, he cannot see any point in continuing his work, and perhaps even his life. He sees his actions as “increasingly worthless and spiritless” (77). The dog’s reaction to him makes him feel further that he has been corrupted. The dog lavishes attention on Leo, as an animal capable of affection, but it wants nothing to do with H.H. The only hope H.H. can see is to continue writing about the League in the hopes that it will bring him back into contact with them.
When H.H. begins to write his letter to Leo, it is the first time the reader sees him write with certainty. He knows exactly what to do because he believes that he knows exactly what his grievances against the League are. When he mails the letter, he experiences a measure of peace. He knows that he has taken an important step and, whatever the results, he will learn something about the truth of the Journey and the League: either they existed and someone responds or they did not and he remains alone.
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