One of the scenes that struck me the most in the reading for tomorrow's class was the conversation that occurred between Bruno and Lucile, which we witness through the eyes and ears of a young girl. The omniscient narrator to which we have become accustomed in "Dolce" quickly becomes restricted to one, rather distracted point of view. Bruno and Lucile enter the garden on page 296, the spring images of flowers and bumblebees seem to imply that some happy romantic scene will follow. That, however, is not the case.
Instead of feeding our basal desires for a cheesy romance novel scene, Némirovsky takes a truly unique approach and lets us into the mind of an as of yet unfamiliar character to us. This young girl has the honesty and incomprehension characteristic of her age. She is frank, describes simply what she sees as she sees it, and makes it very clear what interests or bores her. She can interpret their various emotions of nervousness and confusion, but with only snippets of their conversation, we are kept at a distance from their romance. We may not be satisfied without a Pride and Prejudice-esque ending, but we can interpret and predict what happened.
I found myself wanting more out of this scene. I was intrigued and wanted so badly to hear every detail of the conversation between "the German and the lady," but when it came to a close, I respected Némirovsky's decision to write it in this way. It was as if she was giving the characters privacy to handle the emotions that they could not process. There is a stereotype that women enjoy romantic comedies, and Némirovsky seems to battle this idea, hold us to a higher standard, and show us what really matters. The romance is something that will exist throughout time, but the conflict and the tension, those emotions that are so clear even to a little girl under a tree, distracted by the nature surrounding her, the setting of World War II is unique here. Némirovsky forces us to acknowledge that setting, that it is more important than a vague timeless romantic connection, and that it is the conflict, the parts of their relationship that don't work that help us to better understand this wartime.
I love the way you seized on the little girl's perspective and how Nemirovsky keeps readers at arm's length. Note however two typos: 2nd Para: "our basal desires" (?!)
ReplyDelete3rd Para, line 2: "As if she was" should be "were." (Rare use of subjunctive in English). Comme si elle etait (imparfait en fr).