I found Bonjour Trisresse to be a fairly enjoyable novella. I really liked the way that I seemed to feel the emotions that I think the author meant to convey through the different parts of the text. I also really enjoyed the character development throughout the text, and felt that Sagan made it easy to fall into the shoes of each character he was speaking of.
Bonjour Tristesse, in my eyes is a novella that focuses on the father-daughter relationship that isn’t exactly sturdily built, and how it is affected by how both Raymond and Cecile choose to live their lives. The readers see character development in these characters, as well as Anne, Elsa and Cyril throughout the changes in relationship dynamic throughout the text.
I think a notable theme of this “coming of age” novella is the emotions felt by characters, such as loss of control, sadness, jealousy etc. and also the use of different types of relationships that help build the story. The emotions felt, largely by Cecile are almost always contingent on her father’s lifestyle and in this text, his love life. She seems very care free and living her best life while Raymond seems to be care-free towards her while he is seeing Elsa. However this changes when he begins his relationship with Anne. Cecile’s emotions begin to take a turn when she fears that the life she enjoys, with her un-strict father will cease to exist while he is seeing Anne.
In addition, the manipulation held and felt by these characters I feel is also an important theme to note. The loss of control that Cecile felt in terms of her relationship with her father led her to manipulate him into cheating on Anne, whom he felt a strong connection with and ultimately potentially being a main cause in her death. In addition, Elsa taking part in the plan also shows some heavy manipulative tendencies and immaturity through her emotions of jealousy.
While reading the text, I could not help but notice that there were parallels to last week’s reading of Agostino. I felt that the exploration of the theme of sexuality was so prominent in both novels, as well, felt it interesting that both authors explored the theme using the relationship with a parent to do so. Both novels displayed the troubles and emotions of coming of age and exploring sexuality and it’s difficulties through the relationship with a parent whom also seems to be developing in that part of their life
I agree, a lot of Cecile’s emotions and attitudes towards her relationships and life was reflective of what she’d adopted from her father. I wonder how she would’ve behaved differently if her father hadn’t been so cynical and nonmonogamous.