Through the novel, "Suite Francaise," Irene Nemirovsky portrays a theme of war, which revolves around the basic idea that the true personality of humanity can be seen in desperate times trauma or disaster. It is during these periods of time that our true colours come out. We see this recurrent theme many times through the actions of the various characters. The novel, tracing the lives men, women, and children as they evacuate Paris during the Nazi invasion of the Second World War, throws the characters of this book into the midst of disaster, danger, and death. Each character, at some point, is faced with something that pushes them past their own limits. We see many examples of this throughout the first part of the book.
The first example of this is Madame Pericand. Madame Pericand, who is first introduced as a generous individual, gets angry at her daughters for sharing chocolate with hungry strangers when she realizes there may be a food shortage. Also, when they are bombed in Chapter 21, Madame Pericand forgets to save her father-in-law in her hurry to save her own life and her children.
Another example of this is Charles Langelet. Langelet, who is introduced as a respected, high-ranking man, devises a plan to steal the petrol of a gullible young couple in Chapter 22. Where this man was once seen as extremely moral and uncapable of steeping to such lows, his true colors now flourish.
As it is, Suite Francaise is skillful in its display of the many faucets of human nature that reveal themselves in times of danger and crisis. The above examples are only a few of the many that compose this novel. While many authors would have chosen a satirical approach to such instances, Nemirovsky, through her writing, shows sympathy towards these natural human responses, regardless of how far they stray from moral values and honorable guidelines. It is this unique manner which defines the lines of the theme of this novel: We cannot know people truly until they are put to the test.
I support your views. It would be difficult to remain calm in such a hysteric situation, however, I was still shocked when I discovered how selfish the characters actually are. It's sad how Pericand and Langelet forget how to be courteous and civilized and end up acting only to benefit themselves. They're all in the same boat and yet it's practically every man, woman and child for themselves.
ReplyDeleteonce again I fully agree with what you have said, after all i do live by this quote "it´s only when you´re tested that you truly discover who you are. And it´s only when you´re tested that you discover who you can be." and this novel definitely puts people to the test as shown from your examples. It doesn't really surprise me how people acted the way they did under this kind of pressure, at the end of the day it really is, as Eileen said in her comment "every man, woman, and child for themselves." its a survival instinct, its only nature, theres nothing we can do about it. I think under different circumstances the characters would've acted a bit differently but, it was a time of war vs. survival.
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