66 pages • 2 hours read
Ismail KadareBroken April
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1978A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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BetaChapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Mark Ukacierra, an uneducated steward at the castle of Orosh, patrols the library in the early morning. He notes it’s nearly April. Mark is skeptical of the guests, Diana especially, feeling: “she had frightened him. By her expression he had understood at once that she had doubts about certain things that were being said around the table” (133). Mark laments the changing times. More and more, people are questioning the Kanun, and the money collected from blood feuds has notably decreased. Searching the archives in the castle, Mark consults The Blood Book, a long record of the killings across the High Plateau. Throughout 400 years of Albanian history, the number of killings has risen and fallen—because of plagues, wars, etc.—but the blood feuds always comes back, even after periods of decline.
Scanning the archives, Mark feels disgust toward any periodicals and writings critical of the Kanun. He wishes the writings would be banned and burned, but the ruler of the castle—referred to as the prince—is more lenient than Mark. Making matters worse, the prince has threatened to replace Mark with someone with a university education. Mark doesn’t confront the prince directly, but he tells himself, “Take on a steward of the blood who is educated, and when your little effeminate steward goes mad in his third week, then you’ll remember Mark Ukacierra” (149). Mark decides to tour the High Plateau. He plans to prepare a report on why the number of killings has dropped so significantly. He particularly looks forward to visiting the towers of refuge, where men who have killed stay to avoid death, isolated from the rest of the world. Mark respects these men even more than the interpreters of the Kanun, as the killers are the ones who allow the ancient customs to live on.
Aches and nausea torment Mark as he goes about his morning. He worries he’s afflicted with “blood-sickness.” Mark has never killed, but his work has enmeshed him in the history of countless deaths and the endless spilling of blood. The blood-sickness ailed him once before, seven years ago, but he combatted it with a trip to the mountains, healed by the thin air. He reasons that his illness might be something else entirely. Regardless, he hopes his sickness is temporary. As Mark mulls over his hopes and fears, the guests begin to stir and wake.
Chapter 4 Analysis
Chapter 4 is the only chapter not centered on Gjorg, Diana, and Bessian. Now at the midpoint of the novel, Kadare introduces a supporting character to continue developing the world of Broken April. Unlike the other main characters, Mark is a devout believer in the Kanun, so much so that he wishes to destroy writings that speak against it: “If it were up to Mark Ukacierra, he would have burnt those books long ago” (131).
Mark’s dedication to the Code serves as an intriguing contrast to the characters previously introduced. His perspective keeps the story from being overly simplistic and one-sided in its critique of the Kanun and the blood feuds. He presents a positive view of the Kanun, leaving the reader to choose which character to agree with. Mark doesn’t factor into the larger plot of the story, but he adds to the discussion. Furthermore, his anxiety over the declining number of blood feuds gives the world more intrigue. The Kanun and the people of the High Plateau are at a weak point. Mark’s quest for answers isn’t the plot of the story, but his mission is an example of what other characters are doing at the same time as Gjorg, Bessian, and Diana. While Gjorg deals with the cruelness of the Kanun, and Bessian and Diana observe its traditions, off screen, Mark tries to save it from falling apart. He might not move the story forward, but he makes it richer, expanding the world.
During this break from the larger story, Kadare uses Mark to continue developing his themes. Mark’s resentment of Diana and her disagreement with the Kanun’s conservative culture serves as another incident in which men disrespect Diana. That it comes from Mark’s own perspective further dramatizes Diana’s unjust treatment, as Mark does not give any indication of wanting to change his outlook. Mark’s blood-sickness, mentioned toward the end of the chapter, also adds to Kadare’s cautionary message about normalized violence. During his first bout of blood-sickness seven years prior, an old man helps diagnose Mark: “‘It doesn’t matter that you haven’t killed anyone. Your work is of such a nature that you have been stricken with blood-sickness” (154). Mark’s ailment, despite his exclusion from killing, imparts a message that when violence is normalized, even those who don’t practice it directly suffer. His physical pain helps show that everyone under the Kanun, even those tasked with preserving and enforcing it, will suffer from its violent traditions.
