 Seth finds it hard to understand the fact that the cartoonist he admires could give up a cartooning career and still find happiness in the last twenty years of his life ; he come to accept it after a visit to Kalo 's mother in a nursing home . He discovers that his Kalo collection may always remain incomplete — though the family once had a scrapbook filled with Kalo 's cartoons , they long ago threw it away . By the end of the story , Seth has found a mere eleven of them . When Kalo 's mother reveals Kalo 's contentment with his choice to give up cartooning , Seth must face the anxiety of his life choices and what a " good life " may mean to him . As a mother who has outlived her son yet does not mire herself in the past , Mrs Kalloway provides an unsentimental contrast to how Seth views and deals with the world . 
