The second part of the book calms down on the international conflict, but the personal anger grows between soldier and host. As Kurt enters the house of Madeline and Benoit, he interests Madeline in his worldly knowledge. This angers Benoit who realizes that Madeline might not truly love him after all, and the soldier visiting is just an outlet of her interests in a more exciting, or at least different life. The differences in attitude towards the soldiers I have already mentioned, however this section lead me to take this difference in acceptance to another level, one that may be applied to daily life.
I have noticed that the author will describe a scene in third person, focusing on the action, then suddenly switch to a few lines of commentary that give an idea toward the theme the author is trying to prove. While this writing style has been present throughout the whole novel, the way the author uses it to enhance the mood of these chapters really brought forth its expertise to light. An example of this kind of quote usage is towards the end of the 11th chapter when there is a debate about the Germans occupying their town. One argues, “They’re human, like us,” but is confronted with the rebuttal, “Yes, but my poor girl, when people say ‘a German,’ of course they know he’s just a man, but what they mean to say, what is so terrible, is that he’s killed Frenchmen, that they’re holding our relatives prisoner, that they’re starving us…”(276). The use of this quote shows the reader the struggle that was verbal as well as mental regarding the soldiers, and brings the struggle closer to home as it is no longer in the omnipotent 3rd person and is rather in a more believable spoken conflict. I find this passage interesting because with only lightly considering the situation, one can’t make judgments. With looking at the people in the village it is easy to think they should hate their captors, but we must look at it the other way, and realize the captors are just humans as well. This may apply to several situations on a scale not a grandiose as war. When encountering a problem person, or someone you have a conflict with, one must think of the situation they are facing, and not be to fast to judge. While their will always be bad people in our world, some are forced into an action that hurts others, an action they themselves would not like to take.
Nemirovsky, Irene. “Suite Francaise”. New York: Random House, 2006.
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1 comment:
Wow, great analysis. Your paragraph about the author's particular writing style was very observant. That seems like a good method to use to present a theme in a story - maybe you could even consider it while writing your short story. Also, the quote you picked to demonstrate what you were talking about was a good choice.
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