This week’s reading was a bit difficult for me to fully understand the message around the story. For my blog post this week, I decided to focus in on the message surrounding the authors desire for affection from his mother, and memories.
A big theme for the story was the idea of memories. Proust touches on many memories pertaining to his childhood, with emphasis on his time spent in Combray. A reoccuring theme in the story that really stuck out to me was his desire to gain attention and affection from his mother. He describes his anxieties surrounding his bedtime, as it was unclear to him whether he would receive a bedtime kiss from his mother- something that brought great importance to him. I believe this desire for attention and affection grew from the lack of it he received daily in his household. He seems to long for the intimate moments he can share with his mother- a place where he feels comfortable showing vulnerability, especially when it comes to emotion. He relies heavily on his mother for attention as his father seems to believe that he can deal with his anxieties himself, without always relying on his mother. I feel that heightened Proust’s anxieties even more as he felt he did not always have someone to turn to in times of stress, which eventually builds up those feelings more and more until he is unable to hold them in any longer.
Another core memory Proust touches on is the madeleine and tea that brought him back to his childhood in Combray. He describes the taste of the madeleine bringing him back. I found his description of how the madeleine brought him back to his childhood interesting because he has seen these madeleines many times throughout the years, but it is not until he tastes one that he is brought back in time. He emphasizes on how senses such as taste and smell stick with you throughout your life “like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping…” Which I think is an interesting view he has on his own recollection of memories. However, unlike his memories about his anxieties surrounding affection from his mother, the madeleine brought him joyful memories that he was able to reminisce on his time spent in Combray.
Throughout this reading, I wondered if everyone or almost everyone would be able to recall a certain scent or flavor that brings them back to a certain time in their past.
Hi，Sophia！In fact, in the process of reading, I often can’t keep up with the author’s ideas while reading, so I have to go back to a few paragraphs to re-read and understand what the author wants to express, which also leads to a few short paragraphs. Pages also occasionally take me a long time to read. However, when it is on the same trajectory as the author’s thoughts, there will indeed be a feeling of looking back at the past with the author and resonating. I am also impressed by the section you mentioned about making flower tea. After reading the author’s words, it seems that I can really taste the fragrance of flower tea, see the scene of pink flower tea blooming in the teacup, and feel the same with the author. A peaceful atmosphere. The author’s point of view on Madeleine’s feelings that you brought up also got me thinking.
Xiang Li
Hi Sophia, thanks for your post! Although the language Proust used was relatively complicated, I think he shaped his inner thoughts as well as his wander between consciousness and unconsciousness in a highly effective manner. This can be proved through his detailed psychoanalytic discussions on how he lost his sleep, and his noteworthy attachment to his family members, including his mother. You made an especially key point about Proust’s anxiety against his surrounding environments. In my perspective, his melancholic personality was a significant contributing factor to it. This personality remained as he drank tea with Madeleine, a long time after his childhood.
Hello Sophia, thank you for your post. I totally agree that Proust’s reading seemed difficult to fully understand, especially because we are so conventionally used to finding an “overarching meaning” from books. In this conventional perspective, which predominated me going into this book, it’s just so hard to realize the “significance” of the book, or the “meaning” of the book. However, as I read through the book, I started to realize that the meaning of the book didn’t necessarily come from the contents of the book; in fact, the meaning of the book (at least in my interpretation) came from Proust’s style of writing and his way of thinking. Proust seems to have a style that goes against this “conventional style”. It took a while for me to develop this thought, however it made the book more memorable for me once I figured it out.