Analysis Of The Palace Thieves By Ethan Canin

“The Palace Thief” by Ethan Canin delves into the mind of Hundert, a history teacher at a prestigious private school. As a teacher of children who come from wealthy families and are likely to be future patricians, he is well aware of the impact they may have on the world in their adulthood. However, Hundert's ideas and beliefs of leaving an impact on his students consume his life leaving him unable to grasp the present and the harsh reality until late in his life. Hundert is stuck on the idea of making an impact on history and the minds of his students, even in the very beginning of his career, as shown with his interaction with Senator Bell, A student named Sedgewick's father. In response to Hundert saying “it is his job to mold his students”,

His life revolved around history and teaching, and when this is absent, Hundert is dwindled down to nothing. When Sedgewick approaches him to hold a second competition, he expects change out of him once again, and is “flattered” when he “desired the chance to claim his intellectual honor” (183). Before the competition takes place, Hundert characterizes his former students by the remnants of their boyhood in his class rather than the grown men they are in the present, suggesting that he is still suck in the past even after his career has ended. However, during the competition, Hundert seems to take a different approach to Sedgewick. “It does not happen as often as one might think than an unintelligent boy becomes an intelligent man... yet Sedgewick Bell seemed to have done just that... There is no one I like more of course, than the man who is moved by the mere fact of history” (192). Hundert is hopeful that he indeed successfully “molded” Sedgewick and impacted him so greatly that he was inspired to change his level of intelligence. Hundert of all people should know that history repeats itself, and Hundert catches Sedgewick cheating at the competition forty-one years later. Hundert then begins to grasp the reality of the situation. “Why was I surprised? I should not have been... he was blindly ignorant of history and therefore did not fear his role in it. Of course it was the culmination I should

“I also seemed to become part of the very delusion he had foisted on those around him.... I would always hope to change them” (200). When Deepak, a former student, visits, Hundert seems to long for a personal relationship with him. “Still, I wanted desperately for him to ask me something more” (204). Hundert had never let go of wanting to have an impact on his students and change them, and when he realizes he had failed to impact Sedgewick in a positive and personal way, only being used for lies and personal gain, he searches for that in Deepak. Hundert's relationships with Sedgewick, Deepak, and even Senator Bell remain fairly the same throughout the story, because Hundert remained unchanged all of his life. He could not let go of his beliefs and he let them consume him. Finally, he realizes that people do not change, and moves on from the past. “A man's character is his character. Nonetheless, it was startling, every now and then when I looked over to see the sunlight falling across his bowed head, to see that Deepak Mehta, the quietest of my boys, was now an old man” (205). To Hundert, this may have been the ultimate failure, considering he devoted his entire life to making an impact on his boys, but then to see they have grown old, means he had grown even older, and not achieved this life goal of his. Students did not feel they had a personal