Summary
Cristian tries to regain Liliana's trust but fails. He reports again to the agent, trying to make a connection using their shared interest in soccer. The agent notes this attempt in his report, though his facade flickers momentarily. Agent Paddle Hands presses Cristian about Mr. Van Dorn and Dan's romantic relationships and interest in Romanian women. Cristian leaves the meeting confused and angry, as he is still unsure if Bunu will receive his promised medicine.
In the apartment, Cristian offers to help the Harvard researcher move her mother to a more comfortable room. She offers Cristian Kent cigarettes as a token of appreciation, which he refuses. The researcher then weeps, worrying that she will not be able to secure a dignified burial for her mother. Cristian asks if people in America understand the dangerous conditions and oppression in Romania, and she responds that the United States is too focused on East and West Germany to care about Romania.
Bunu trades the Kent cigarettes meant for his medical treatment to repair the radio, allowing the family to listen to Radio Free Europe reports about nearby Soviet nations gaining their independence. Cristian hears that star gymnast, Nadia Comăneci, defected to the United States and suspects Mr. Van Dorn helped her. He then formulates a plan to present Mr. Van Dorn with his notebook of thoughts and observations, disguised as an anonymous manuscript entitled Screaming Whispers: A Romanian Teenager in Bucharest.
Cristian accompanies Dan to the library again, where he learns that the Berlin Wall has fallen and Mr. Van Dorn will remain in Romania over Christmas. When Cristian tries to return the Bruce Springsteen article to Dan, because it will "could cause more trouble than the dollar," Dan is confused, claiming he did not give Cristian the dollar. Cristian returns home, where he finds "burning taper candles" and a "six-foot wooden cross, hauled from a nearby church" outside of the apartment building, indicating that someone died. He initially assumes Mrs. Drucan, the mother of the Harvard researcher, died. However, he quickly realizes that Bunu is the one dead, beaten to death for no clear reason. Cristian's mother shows him Bunu's dead body and warns that Bunu's brutal death is "what happens to philosophers."
The family holds a days-long funeral for Bunu, following Romanian traditions. Liliana and her brother attend, and Liliana speaks to Cristian, though she does not rekindle their relationship. Luca also approaches Cristian to discuss their feud, which Luca believes is over Liliana. Cristian accuses Luca of informing on him and smashes a chair into the wall. The Harvard researcher comforts Cristian, telling him that the regime is "sick," not him. A report following this scene reveals that Liliana eavesdropped on Luca and Cristian's conversation, and the Harvard researcher is considered a "target." Cristian then finds a note from Bunu that suggests he knew the Securiate would kill him. He encourages Cristian to stick to his principles and continue to listen to Radio Free Europe.
Analysis
The text uses a series of extremely short chapters, some only a single paragraph, to convey news of Eastern European nations like Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Hungary gaining their independence from the Soviet Union. The quick succession of these concise chapters simulates the domino effect of the fall of the Soviet Union and gives the impression of Romania being "left behind." As the chapters contain no additional details about Cristian's life, they convey how all-consuming following the news was for Cristian and his family.
The text frequently uses metaphors to convey abstract political and social concepts. These metaphors capture the themes of memory and isolation and silence while simultaneously characterizing Cristian as a thoughtful future writer. For example, while listening to the news updates about the fall of the Soviet Union, Cristian wonders if Romania is "the last ring holding the Iron Curtain." The "Iron Curtain" was the invisible political, social, and geographic divide between the Soviet Union and the Western world. The metaphor "Iron Curtain" emphasizes the Soviet Union's self-isolation from the rest of the world; the border separating the Soviet nations from Western nations was thin and superficial, like a curtain. However, by describing the curtain as "iron," the phrase emphasizes this boundary's impenetrability while simultaneously conjuring images of Soviet industrialization. When Cristian describes Romania as a rung holding up the Iron Curtain, he explains how the Soviet Union only maintained separation through unified isolation. As other nations gain independence, the entire fate of the Soviet Union rests on its most oppressed nations, such as Romania; without Romania, the entire "curtain" will fall, connecting the Soviet states with the rest of the world.
The text contrasts the impact of Cristian's notebook with the Eastern European guidebook he reads. Though the guidebook describes the oppression of Romanian people in great detail, the outside world knows little of the nation's struggles, as Nicolae Ceaușescu strictly controlled Romania's image. Cristian's notebook, by contrast, is less objective yet more factual. He integrates poetry, philosophy, and self-reflection into the writings he gives to Mr. Van Dorn. The text argues that indirect expression, whether through jokes, poems, or art, often contains more truth about a person's lived experience than simple facts and statistics. Cristian's notebook is compelling and powerful because it humanizes the Romanian struggle in a way the Romanian guidebook does not.
The text uses paradoxical language to convey the harsh reality the Romanian people experienced under Nicolae Ceaușescu. The primary example of this is Cristian's notebook, which he entitles Screaming Whispers: A Romanian Teenager In Bucharest. Whispering is an important motif throughout the text; characters exchange ideas and express feelings through whispers to avoid being recorded by the bugging devices in their homes. This title conveys how Romanians like Cristian could not express their discontent and share their stories because surveillance and oppression made authenticity and trust dangerous. Cristian's notebook is itself a "screaming whisper," as he anonymously shares the disturbing reality of life in Bucharest, the details veiled through poetic language.
When Cristian sees Bunu's corpse, the text describes Bunu's body in graphic, unsettling detail to emphasize the dehumanizing nature of Bunu's murder. Cristian feels that the body on the bed is "not Bunu," as everything that made Bunu an individual, like his jokes and headstrong resistance, is stripped away in death. As Cristian grieves over his beloved grandfather, Cristian's mother cautions him against following in Bunu's revolutionary footsteps, claiming that "this is what happens to philosophers." By this statement, Cristian's mother means that entertaining anti-regime ideas is inherently dangerous and will result in violence or death. This sentiment is additionally meaningful, as Bunu believed the ability to think independently and feel deeply is the "essence of what it means to be human."
After Bunu's death, the neighborhood joins together to honor him and help Cristian's family grieve. They revive Romanian funerary traditions that the regime condemned as superstitious or illicit, like leaving a cross outside the apartment building or covering mirrors in the home. This group effort is ironic yet moving because "the regime wedged and pushed [Romanians] apart" with the threat of death and violence, yet Bunu's violent death "brought Romanians together." Despite fighting over food and supplies, Cristian's neighbors "cobbled together what food and drink they could spare to share." Earlier in the text, Cristian explained that reorganizing furniture in his apartment was dangerous, as the regime required all living spaces to be uniform. However, the neighbors shirk this rule for Bunu's funeral and "set up chairs that lined the hallway of our block's fourth floor." Though Crisitan and his neighbors fear death, they defy the regime when death does occur.
