@shmerdloff Could you please explain how this quote pertains to this discussion? I'm confused.

In the book (and film which departed somewhat from the book) Sophie was a Holocaust survivor, Nathan had a serious mental illness ( probably co-occurring substance use disorder and bipolar disorder although Styron wrote that the diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia) and the narrator of the story is "Stingo" who is an aspiring writer. Stingo is the one who finds the double suicide of Sophie and Nathan and comes to understand that the suffering for some people is unendurable.

I cried throughout and especially at the end of the book. Although I knew the ending of the film I was sobbing so much I couldn't leave the theatre.

Sophie's Choice is a tragic story however Stingo who eventually returns home to the South has matured from the naive writer to a person who has suffered and come to understand the suffering of others.