This read had me quite puzzled at times, it seems we cannot get a simple love story in our class. WHERE IS THE ROMANCE?!?!
Starting off being 15 and a half, Duras is a baby, she’s vulnerable to the world around her. As she’s on the ferry, she notices the limousine and it’s occupant, the man. After his proposition to drive her wherever she needs to go to Saigon, she gets into his car and his driver transfers the luggage. She states how she won’t need to take the bus anymore, instead being able to be driven everywhere in style. This relationship immediately dawns on me that she’s being exploited but Duras writes it as she understands the circumstance but has become a woman of the world. In a way as the video states, she’s understanding of the line that she’s crossed with her participation.
As the relationship continues, it quickly evolves intimately. As we read, we see that her family is extremely poor, with each family member living out of the home and fending for their own food. This is why in a way, she seeks out the man’s security which he offers her. The relationship flips in moments when the narrator explains that the man is being exploited while the little girl is the looker. The man’s age is mentioned, he is 12 years older than her, while she is 15.5 he is 27. The man doesn’t have the resolve to love her beyond their hidden romance and take her in opposition to his father. He’s reliant on his father’s money but invested in her halfway.
Insanely, as the man takes the girl and her family to dinner, her brothers do not speak to him, instead engulfing themselves in food. They all treat the man as the older brother does, not even speaking to him nor caring of what he has to say. The man pays for the food. In front of her elder brother, the man ceases to exist as a lover to her “In my elder brother’s presence he ceases to be my lover. He doesn’t cease to exist, but he’s no longer anything to me.” p. 56. He becomes shame embodied as a man. They all order Martells and Perrier. The relationship at home is strained, as we see how the mother is fascinated with her elder son, giving him praise and glory for being strong and violent, while she looks down on the weak. She compares her eldest son to her brothers, farmers in Northern France, and he has her attention to himself. The youngest brother, Paulo, dies, and the girl is on her own, tearing herself away from the dysfunctional family and in her mind having her older brother die as well. There is a lot going on, and I feel the girl seeks to escape her situation, forever or even for a short while. Much later, her older brother dies as well, but it doesn’t seem to affect her much at all, since she wrote him off once her younger brother passed.
To the class, I wonder, how would the girl’s behaviour been different had her family been less toxic and terrifying? Would she have gotten into the limousine? It almost seems to me that her lack of security put her into a position of further vulnerability whereas the man offered that security through his “bottomless pockets”.
” They all order Martells and Perrier. ” As with many other novels, we can also begin to unravel this story by examining habit. In this particular context, what relevance do certain forms of socialization have? What weight does a colonial dynamic carry? To what extent can appearances be maintained, and where does the weight of reality shatter the regularity of habit? Which codes still govern, and which are being distorted?
I agree with you that the girl’s behaviour would be different if her family is less toxic and terrifying. And I think instead of romance relationship, this book is more about family. Both of the girl and the Chinese guy’s family are toxic, shaping them into different kinds of people. The girl would like to prove to her mother that she was right. And the Chinese guy is completely manipulated by his family heritage. The affair they are having is the media for them to rebel.
Love this title because I completely agree. And toxic and terrifying is a great description for her family. I think maybe she had to look for love and stuff elsewhere and her situation definitely pushed her into a worse state
“it seems we cannot get a simple love story in our class. WHERE IS THE ROMANCE?!?!”
Sorry! 🙁
There’s some romance coming up in Money to Burn, but I fear you won’t find that any more satisfactory, either…
I don’t believe that she would’ve gotten in the limousine had it not been for her dismal family and financial situation. She was honestly out of choices, constantly struggling, so she had to grasp onto the first rope out of there – and despite knowing they couldn’t last forever, she made do with what she had.
Hi there,
I like how you spoke about the narrator’s household influencing how she made decisions, since it makes me contemplate whether she fell into that relationship because of how she was trying to run away from the control she experienced within her family.
Hello!
That’s such an interesting question! I think that if her family was in a well off state and she didn’t need to live in poverty, she may have not approached the lover. I say may because I think her perceptions of getting rich may differ from her family. She may want more and if the lover can provide that so be it. But on the other hand, I also feel that if she had a loving and safe environment, the reason she reached out the lover will definitely not be for money. Maybe curiosity? Maybe it won’t go anywhere and she’d have never gotten into the limousine in the first place. For some reason I feel the lover would somehow exist in her world regardless? For what reason, I’m not so sure.