Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse, tells the story of Cécile, a privileged bourgeoise  who spends her life in relative luxury. For Cécile, freedom means spending her days doing anything she wants without responsibly and the attention of her father. In this life of carefree luxury, Cécile is ignorant and selfish, viewing things simply as her and her father as important and everyone else as insignificant. In page 8. Cécile sets the theme for the rest of the novel and establishes the starting point for her personal growth as a mature human adult. She mentions how to her looks and appearances are more important to her than any meaning spirituality, she forgoes a formal education, because she deludes herself into thinking that it is unnecessary due to her father’s wealth and position in society. This carefree attitude to education and personal growth in general, is what proves to be her undoing, as she fails actually learn anything from her mistakes until she experiences genuine “sorrow” over her actions which she only realizes later on has hurt her and those closest to her.

On appearance, Cécile’s protectiveness towards her father seems to be in the interest of maintaining the freedom and luxury that she currently enjoys. When Anne comes into her father’s life, Cécile initially treats her respectfully, if not amicably, however she quickly sours when she notices the impact that Anne has had on her father and the very possibility that her father might have a deeper connection to Anne compared to his previous lovers. Instead of recognizing the positive influence and real happiness that Anne provides for her father, Cécile instead chooses to see Anne as a threat to her father’s love and attention for herself. We can see here that Cécile is feeling isolated as she feels that Anne has become her rival and we can see how much of a self-centered and naïve person Cécile truly is in the way in she chooses to scheme against Anne and her father instead of being open to her father about the way she feels. Cyril, follows Cécile’s plan not out of loyalty, but out of fear that she will become resentful towards him if he does not, it is only when he starts to recognize that Cécile’s actions are going against her well being and of everyone else involved, does Cyril leave her. The climax of the novel is only reached when Cécile shows any real maturity and is regretful over how her actions have led to her father’s depression and the loss of Cyril. Only when she has lost everyone in her life, does Cécile learn how to truly empathize with others and how ultimately objects are worth less than inter-personal relationships.