Who is Qwfwq?

Thesis: In Italo Calvino's short stories, Qwfwq is a creature that struggles to find true love but ends in failure.

In "The Aquatic Uncle", Qwfwq plays the character of a fish-lizard that is able to live in both land and water but he chooses to live on land instead. During his time on land, he falls in love with someone of the same species named Lll. Except, Lll is much more adapt to land rather than water. They were great friends and spent time with each other constantly: "Lll and I spent our days together, chasing each other... We ventured into zones of the inferior where no print marked the dry and crusty" (Calvino 74). Qwfwq wanted to be with her forever and live a happy life. They journeyed to where Lll's home is. Qwfwq would even follow Lll all the way till where Qwfwq has never seen before. He had traveled far beyond from the muddy area where Qwfwq had always lived. If Qwfwq had not loved Lll, he would not have gone beyond his comfort zone. This course of love eventually turned Qwfwq to even do more things out of his boundaries as well.

Later on in "The Aquatic Uncle", Qwfwq brings Lll to meet his uncle, Nba-Nga to get a blessing for his marriage. Unfortunately, Nba-Nga doesn't do so as a result and tries to talk to Lll about living in the water. During this event, this makes Lll have many thoughts affecting her life. Lll begins to ignore Qwfwq, making him afraid that he had begin to lose her. He tries to get her back by impressing her with his abilities: "Had I lost her? Suspecting this, I hastened to woo her back. I took to performing all sorts of feats. Unfortunately when I did something brave, she wasn't there to see me..." (Calvino 80). Here, Qwfwq tries to make Lll come back to him so that nothing would go wrong in the relationship. Like in the previous paragraph, Qwfwq had also gone out of his boundaries because he loved her so deeply. He was willing to risk his own life doing dangerous stunts for her. Sadly, she had not seen any of what Qwfwq had done just for her. She was too deep in thoughts in her mind rather to pay attention to him. In the entire time that she was thinking, Qwfwq should have been comforting her and asking her why she was so depressed. Qwfwq cost his relationship just by the mistake of resorting to the wrong actions at the wrong time. Like "The Aquatic Uncle", the Qwfwq in "The Dinosaurs" also falls in love with another creature but ends in failure due to his mistakes.

In "The Dinosaurs", Qwfwq is the only remaining dinosaur during the Cretaceous period. His entire ancestry was wiped out by a new set of creatures in which they call themselves "the New Ones". In this story, Qwfwq falls in love with a girl named Fern-Flower. Fern-Flower is a New One that constantly dreams nightmares about dinosaurs. Everyday, she tells her nightmares to Qwfwq and he tries to understand her attitude towards dinosaurs. Then one day, When Fern-Flower gets a nightmare that a Dinosaur was being mistreated, Qwfwq tries to comfort her: "This dream furnished me with a new key to the understanding of Fern-Flower's attitude towards me... The revelation so moved me that I threw myself at her feet, tears in my eyes and said 'No, No, Fern-Flower. It's not the way you believe; you're better than any Dinosaur, a hundred times better, and I feel so inferior to you..." (Calvino 104). In this quote, Qwfwq is dramatic and deeply loves Fern-Flower. Qwfwq feels sad that she was sad and tries to comfort her by poring all of his emotions. He even reveals his true identity. But all of that was just a waste. This was all to sudden and he had misinterpreted the situation. He indeed, had only made it worse. It had created a feeling of uneasiness between both of them (Calvino 105). Like "The Aquatic Uncle", he had used the wrong judgment to decide on what to do during the situation. He ruined his own love life.  

Note*: The first two body paragraphs were originally one paragraph. The second paragraph I did not split because the length of it is fine to leave it alone as one single paragraph. This separation idea was suggested by Mr. Sutherland.