woman reads into the waiter’s reproachful look, and projects her own guilt upon this stranger. Instead of staying on her chosen path, she takes this stranger’s look as a sign from fate and walks away. While Princip was later said to be a national hero, he died a lonely death in prison after wasting away for three years. The protagonist ponders this historical fact, knowing that if she stays with the professor she would be blamed for the early demise of his marriage. Although “World War I would have had to have started sooner or later” (148), the young woman struggles with Princip’s actions, wondering if love of one’s country can justify the deaths of 40 million people. The question that plagued her was whether the love of a man can justify the death of a marriage. Was the young woman willing to make that leap? The change is evident here when the woman debates the decision Princip made. “Should he have taken his cue from fate, and just sat and finished his coffee, and gone home to his mother?” (150). The marriage can be used as a comparison for a country, and in “IND AFF or Out of Love in Sarajevo” Weldon uses these two institutions to illustrate how choices made by individuals can change the fate of a nation or the life of a marriage, but only if they are already filled with turmoil and discontent. A contented, satisfied people will not be propelled into a war with the death of one man, as a marriage will not fail simply because a pretty face tempts a spouse. The young woman is faced with a moral decision, should she be “the shot that lit the spark that fired the timber that started the war” (148). In the end, she cannot have that on her conscience, and realizes that “a bit later or a bit sooner…might have made the difference” (148). Throughout the story, the nameless student changes and grows, influenced by the setting of the story....
