The Lion and the Lamb

I think the quote Kendall chose to highlight by Madame Michaud is a very interesting one.  In it she says “we’re always the ones who are trampled!...We’re just sheep to the slaughter” (177).  It reminds me of one of our very first discussions about Suite Française when we discussed all the animal imagery.  Specifically it reminds me of the quote from page 4 when the narrator descibres the poor during the war: “Though the poor were just as afraid of the rich, and valued their lives just as much, they were more sheeplike…” (4).  Also on page 4, children are described as sleeping “peacefully…like little lambs” (4).  These are three separate instances of the poor being compared to sheep or lambs, and I think it is important to acknowledge the possible implications of such diction.  For me, sheep has an almost immediate biblical connotation.  In the Bible, Jesus is described as a lamb, and in the Old Testament there is the tradition of a lamb being sacrificed because it was the purest animal.  It is innocent and pure, as was Jesus, when He sacrificed himself for us.   In this respect, could Nemirovsky be trying to express a view that the poor really are the victims in this; they are the innocent bystanders to be sacrificed although they are not the ones making the decisions to be at war? 

If this is the case, what I appreciate the most about Nemirovsky’s comparison and implication is the transformation she depicts of Madame Michaud shortly after Madame Michaud compares herself to a sheep.  At the end of chapter 28, Madame Michaud “suddenly…got up and grabbed her hat from the mantelpiece” and said “Heaven helps those who help themselves.  Which is why I’m going to speak to Furières” (179).  In the biblical terms, Jesus is also described as a lion.  He is the lion and the lamb.  I think this quote represents how Nemirovsky wished to shed light on the fact that while the poor, and the Michauds, possessed a lamb side, there was also the lion in them that was ready to fight.