Individuals will always seek redemption for the failures they have experienced in life. Throughout the course of their lives, most people are in a constant effort to redeem or correct their past failures. At a young age, society directs people towards a path of idealism and encrypts into the minds of the public that failures must be corrected. In Michael Winter’s Minister Without Portfolio, the quest for redemption, and the nature of that quest is revealed through the life and actions of Henry Hayward. Henry shows through the pursuit of a new career, after being fired from previous jobs, he can rebuild his life back to normal. Throughout the novel, Henry attempts to mend his past relationship with Nora, and when he is unable to rebuild a life…show more content… Henry first fails in his relationship with Nora when she kicks him out of the house and refuses to take him back. When faced with the obstacle of winning Nora back, Henry first attempts to beg Nora into letting him return, and tries to redeem himself by waiting for her everyday. When Henry is at her door he explains “It had taken a hundred days to have Nora agree to go out with him in the first place so he felt another campaign of a hundred days would convince her to let him return” (Winters, 12”. Henry feels as if he must win back Nora in order to restore his life, and he devotes his actions from then on to get her back. Henry is rejected many times by Nora, and is even told by her father and his friends to go on and live his life. However, these obstacles only further motivate Henry to redeem his relationship with her as he goes on to try and fulfil every request she had of him. Nora wanted Henry to get a better job and live a dangerous life, and so that is what Henry goes to do in order to redeem what he had failed to do in the past. To redeem himself to her, Henry goes to Afghanistan to live a dangerous life, and establishes a job there. However when he witnesses Tender Morris die Henry realizes he cannot redeem his relationship with Nora as all she caused for him is trouble ,“Well I lived a dangerous life!” (Winters, 47). After his failed relationship with Nora, Henry still feels a void in his life and still feels the need to redeem his failed love life so, “Henry quickly hooks up with Tender Morris’s girlfriend, Martha Groves” (Collison). Henry is desperate to reconnect and establish a relationship with another person, and since both him and Martha were grieving for Tender’s death they were able to relate to one another and subconsciously form a relationship together. Henry’s struggles in his past relationship with Nora, and the fact that he
