Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse gives the readers an outlook on the confused, impulsive life of a teenage girl. It brought me back to the heights of racing emotions and unending overthinking streaks which I thought I had left behind in my prime teen years.
Cécile seems to have her life very laid back and easy-going as her father’s status and wealth allow her to fulfill all her wishes. She has a close relationship with her father that is embued with love and support, which is why there seem to be no secrets between both of them in the realities of the lives they lead. Her father is well aware of her relationship with Cyril and she has also grown up seeing her father not make any active choices to hide his casual lifestyle where he engages with many women, some of whom “became a member of our household (fortunately only temporarily!)” (pg. 21). She seems quite comfortable with the consistency of her life, so when Anne announces their decision to marry, she seems shaken. But, in true teenage fashion, she conceals her true emotions for a while by keeping her inner emotions within herself and plastering a smile for the happy couple. That doesn’t last too long as she starts scheming on her own to disrupt their plans. I found this very alarming and quite disheartening because it didn’t make sense to me how she could purposely take such a drastic action to cause harm to her loved one, that too her parent. Her only parent. Her thought process may have been laid out but it’s evident that her indecisiveness led her to take very wrong steps and with that mindset of hers where she feels entitled to do whatever she wants to, there was no doubt that she would follow through with whatever she could justify.
This book too was a rollercoaster, making me think of how much things could have been better if only her upbringing had been different than what she had with her “chill dad”. A little bit of discipline could have gone a long way in developing her maturity, especially making her aware that her actions do have consequences on the people around her and she cannot stay in the ‘personal fable’ mindset that she is in. If you were to change one thing about her life in order to make her a more emotionally and intellectually mature person, what would you change?
ashvi ivan
February 15, 2022 — 3:13 pm
Hey! You have very intriguing ideas about the book. It is interesting to think about how her upbringing could have changed the outcome. I think this is mentioned quite a few times in the book about how she is at an age where she is malleable and she could turn into a whole different person under the guidance of Anne.
What I find interesting is her visible fight within her mind to either submit to Anne and live out life how she envisions to be intelligent or rather remain the same as she has been raised.
I think she could gain maturity with time and experience. She is in a lot of ways experimenting with a lot of things. She realizes that she is able to control older adults by emotionally manipulating them when she realizes there is something she wants to defend. She subsequently realizes the outcomes that this emotional manipulation can have after the tragedy that occurs. Her learning had some heavy consequences but nonetheless, they acted as lessons for her.
Diya Mann
February 15, 2022 — 9:55 pm
Hi Vidushi!
I enjoyed reading your post! I agree that if Cécile upbringing had been different and she had learned to put importance and value in certain things, she would have better acted with maturity and empathy towards Anne and her father’s relationship.
noor
February 16, 2022 — 4:51 pm
Hi Vidushi,
I agree that this was a rollercoaster read! It is not something I would recommend to friends or teenagers, even if that was the only novel lying around. One can describe her father as “cuckold” because he places no restrictions on her nor himself. It is interesting that it took France a bloody revolution and basically doing away with the church in order to ‘liberate’ their people. But seeing what is currently happening in France with respect to minorities, can one really call this liberation?
To answer your question, since this is written by a teen, I would not change anything except for the hyped up tragic ending. Anne did not seem that emotionally invested in the relationship so I found it strange that she would take her own life as a result.
nier zhang
February 16, 2022 — 8:31 pm
It’s a really interesting question. I wish I could change all the possibility to save Ann’s life. I think Cecile’s inner world doesn’t look like her out side fulfil with joy, even she stays with her father. When a person has not been cared for for a long time, when a person comes out to regulate those inappropriate behaviours, he may instinctively avoid this kind of care and be unwilling to change. I wish Ann could show up earlier, she might influence Cecile.
brianna christos
February 20, 2022 — 2:12 pm
Hi Vidushi, I really enjoyed reading your analysis of Bonjour Tristesse. I especially liked how you found the character’s tendencies as a teen to be relatable and how you connected that to Cecile’s character development. To address your question, I think that had Cecile been brought up differently, and raised with different values she might have been less selfish and more mature in her actions towards Anne.