Maestro (Goldsworthy, P.)

Maestro shows us that maturity is gained only through suffering. Discuss. Peter Goldsworthy’s Maestro focuses on the coming of age of Paul Crabbe, who slowly leaves his childhood innocence behind to enter the new world of adulthood. His pathway to maturity is described through a series of experiences, particularly with an old Viennese music teacher, Eduard Keller, or the ‘Maestro’. Near the end of the novel, where Paul is in his mid-twenties, he looks …

…to deal with to ensure personal growth and the attainment of self-knowledge through discovery. One of the things Paul seems to learn in the end is that there is tragedy, but there is also cause for celebration. Although the journey to self-knowledge is far more complicated than that, it shows us a definite link between suffering and maturity, and that we can overcome our youthful mistakes and and arrogance by reflecting back on our experiences.