In Combray, Marcel Proust uses the novel to narrate the childhood and everyday life of the narrator through a third person perspective. To help with his story, Proust uses imagery that any person can relate to, the use of states of being such as lucidity, pain, fatigue, joy and other stimuli help to clearly express what the narrator and other characters in Combray and Swann’s Way are experiencing. This use of descriptive stimuli help to create a clear visual image in the audience’s head, however it can also make the make certain passages in the text difficult to fully comprehend as there are many ways to interpret what the narrator or even a certain character is experiencing. For example, when the narrator is experiencing his insomniac episode, he never expresses that he is experiencing a joyous feeling or one of pain, perhaps he does not even know himself. However, this neutrality when it comes to describing human existence, can allow the audience to sympathize and indeed see themselves in Proust’s work.

Combray. the first half of Proust’s Swann’s Way, is the story of the narrator and his complex relationship with the past. The narrator appears to want to return to his youth and the feeling of freedom of responsibility and the simplicity of his childhood. Many of the objects and surroundings told in Combray are put in direct contrast with the objects and surroundings that he experienced in his past. This makes sense when you learn of the narrator’s present life in society, in his life the narrator is treated with either indifference or outright hostility. Francoise and Swann treat the narrator without much attention and see him as not even having the same dignity as another human, but as a piece of scenery. Compared to the popular and respectable Swann, the narrator receives little praise from his social circle. While the narrator expresses genuine care and sympathy for Francoise, she sees him as only a way to get closer to Swann and to become more accepted in bourgeoise society.

Overall, I found that Proust’s writing flows from scene to scene and I enjoyed his style of writing, in third person narration and found it to be entertaining. When reading Proust, you can clearly see what the characters’ motivations are and what kind of people they are and what actions to expect from them later in the story. Although, Proust is easy to understand, he leaves many elements left behind as he tries to quickly explain the setting and atmosphere of his story, this works in In search of lost time as these forgotten details get explained more in depth in his later stories comprise in this collection.