Short Fiction: the Thematic Concerns in Maupassants - Term Paper Example

Jacqueline Reilly Dr. Howard Bruce Weiner English, Term Paper    May 15, Short Fiction Introduction The thematic concerns addressed in Maupassant’s short stories include war, adultery, murder and quiet pleasures of eating and drinking. Most of his stories were published during the Franco Prussian war in which he shows the effect of the war among the common people (Pierre 23). He emphasizes the exploitation of the poor by the rich, and how they adapted to living with the unfair bourgeois. The writer’s country, Normandy, has also influenced his works. Many stories are set here using local characters speaking the local dialect. His stories have an element of jolting twists of fate and the representation of injustices in general life (Hunter, 176). The Prisoners, by Guy De Maupassant The story takes place in the forest where old guard Long legs live with his wife and daughter. The Prussians, on the other hand, are patrolling the forest that is near the old town of Rethel. In their patrol duty, they come across the Long-legs forest home, tired and hungry. Amidst fear and uncertainty, Long-leg’s wife and daughter gives them a warm welcome, offers them delicious food, water and accommodation in his absentia. The fear in them drives them to long for his arrival to appear and protect them against these enemies. The French and Prussians have remained rivals for a long time. In the process of the wife and daughter playing their gracious roles, long leg arrives and is alerted about the Prussians presence. In a twinkling of the eye, long leg runs to town and summon the Rethels’ army freshmen. Monsieur Lavigne, the head, orders them to surround the house in an attempt to capture the Prussians. No killings are meant to take place at the time. The leader calls the Prussians to come out of the cellar peacefully but they relent. He orders the army to pipe in water into the cellar in an attempt of drowning them. As a result, the Prussians can no longer withstand the pressure of the pumped water; they surrender and agree to come out. They are then requested to submit their rifles, which they do, and the pumping is stopped. Monsieur Lavigne is crowned for capturing the most feared Prussian guard and Maloison; the fat beaker awarded a military medal for standing the wounds he got at the hands of the enemy. Together, the French army makes a triumphant entry into Rethel. In this piece, De Maupassant outlines the works of the anti-Prussians. It is remarkably well narrated with laughter evoking instances like the trapping of the soldiers in the cellar room. The narrative demonstrates high standards of writing and authenticity. The story is not frightening; rather, the reader tends to side with the Prussia soldiers who fall in the hands of friendly forest dwellers who turn to be betrayers. Under the grounds of humanity, it is cruel for a person to demonstrate kindness towards another while deep within himself, he knows that he is telling lies. The reader feels for the Prussian soldiers especially when they are drowned with piped water in the vent hole. Unlike many stories, this one does not end with suspense; instead it ends with the capture of Prussian soldiers. One is thrilled by the way in which the story raises tension, especially when the French army arrives. Tension creation is a element of a good story because it serves as an opener towards what will happen next. The dominant theme in this story is war - war between the French and the Germans. This is clearly visible when Berthine says ‘There comes the French soldiers," she stammered; " they are around two hundred. If they get us here they will burn the house. Please go down the cellar, and don’t make noise” (Maupassant4 38). . The Germans have no pity for them. Again the story displays some elements of irony. It is ironical for Berthine and her mother to treat the Prussians kindly yet it is a plan to trap them in the house. The intention is to make them captives of the French army. Berthine is longing for her father’s coming to go and call the French army when she says, “father will be tired tonight”. The tiredness will emerge from the efforts of running up and down to summon the French. Another thematic concern is the spirit of comradeship and solidarity. It is obvious how the soldiers are organized in their attacks against the enemy. The French advance guard is composed of ten men while the Prussian soldiers are six. Each group demonstrates cooperation in its operations; the French soldiers offer water pipes when they are asked to bring, they also respond to the attack and obeys the rule against murdering the Germans. Germans on the other hand, agree to surrender their rifles to the French soldiers (Maupassant, 115 & 213). A Family Affair by Guy De Maupassant The story is set in Paris and its suburbs. The main character, Monsieur Alfred Caravan is an old chief clerk in a government office; a job he has held for thirty years without promotion or recognition. Monsieur Caravan has lived the same life as a commuter and drudge with no hopes of improvement. His life in the office and the departmental duties are the only concerns in his life. He only talks about the office, promotion of his seniors and discrimination in the entire country. What he hates most are his superiors who have remained in the office contrary to his wish. He is dreading for the time they will withdraw for him to fill their positions. His best friend is Monsieur Chenet whom he highly addresses to as a doctor, although he doesn’t qualify for such a title. He shares all his joy and sorrows to him, and both attend social functions together. Monsieur Caravan is married to Madame Caravan, and they have two children, Marie-Louise and Phillip Auguste. Rosalie is the maid. Caravan’s mother lives with them, being taken care of by the wife and maid, receiving medical treatment from doctor Chenet. Caravan has great love for her mother who he believes will live forever. Madame Caravan is a caress woman, with poor taste of clothes and is generally unkempt. She concentrates on cleaning the house and controls her husband in terms of decision making. Caravan can not do anything without consulting his wife. The children are carelessly kept and one cannot distinguish them from street urchins. Caravan’s mother is such a sadist woman; she hates all people and hurls curses and insults upon them. In turn people hate her and scorns at her back when she passes along. Tragedy hits caravans family when his mother ‘dies’. Caravan is the most grieved person because he loved his mother dearly. He presents his misfortune to all people although nobody seems to be surprised. No one consoles him except doctor Chenet. He learns how indifferent people are. His wife also laments and sheds crocodile tears. Her concern is on the will that could be left by her mother in law. She then pushes Caravan to collect some property in the mother’s house at midnight. After some days everyone is surprised by the old woman’s resurrection, who inquires for the things taken from her house and claims that she heard everything that was going on. The people are alarmed, relatives coming for the mourning ceremony are shocked and death announcement papers are thrown away. The old lady decides to follow her daughter to go and live with her, as Caravan and his wife are left in awe. Thematic Concerns The whole story is satirical, comical, and full of hypocrisy and portrays suburban life. The story begins by showing the kind of people in the train. Low class women in the suburbs pretend to dress in fancy clothes to cover their poverty class while their husbands look tired from long working hours. All are said to assume worried faces from their poor lifestyles characterized by domestic challenges, demand for money and aborted hopes. To express their bleak future, the author states that, “They comprised of heavy women in bizarre costumes, of those shopkeepers wives from the suburbs, who made up for the distinguished looks which they did not possess by ill-assumed dignity; of men tired from office-work, with yellow faces, stooped shoulders, and with one shoulder higher than the other, from the burden of long working hours” (Maupassant2 123). Their uneasy and sad faces also spoke of domestic troubles, of the frequent need for cash, and disappointed hopes. For them, poverty is a norm and they habor no hopes of a better future. The story also addresses the division of society into the rich and the poor. Injustice is the order of the day. Monsieur Caravan has worked in a government office for thirty years with no promotion. His life has been dormant, living in the poor suburbs. Nothing had ever changed in his life for all those years, and nothing occupies his mind except the office, the possibility of rewards or promotion. He is concerned with the frequent employment of navy officials, and tinsmiths. He considered it unfair to employ such men in Paris who would rather be employed in the navy. People in this society lives in pretence. Women in the suburbs assume high dignity yet they are poor to the extent of lacking proper clothing. Madame Caravan presents herself as a very loving woman, even crying at her mother-in-law’s deathbed. Instead, she is an evil woman full of bitter desires. All she wants is material wealth that the mother could otherwise have bequeathed his son. She wakes up her husband in the middle of the night to get the clock and chest of drawers to prevent the sister from taking them. Dr Chenet on the other hand, fails cannot prove his professional ethics. He confirms the old woman’s death and when she resurrects, he asserts that he knew she would wake up. People’s hopes about their health lie on medical practitioners; it is an indifferent thing to commit such an action. The old woman is a pretender. She pretends to be dead and when she ‘resurrects’ she claims that she had been sleeping. The story is hilarious. It is funny how monsieur caravan confides in the wife and children. Office matters are discussed by all members of the family. The writer shows the poverty in caravan’s house by demonstrating his wife and children as dirty and ill mannered. He says’ She had never been beautiful, and now she had become ugly; in addition to that, she was short and slender, while her shoddy way of dressing herself hid her few feminine attractions, that may have been evident if she dressed nicely. Her skirts were always shapeless, and she constantly scratched herself any part of the body, irrespective of who was on the look out. Persistently, any person who saw her may have thought that she was afflicted with something like the itch. “Philippe-Auguste was an ugly, ill-kempt little brat, dirty from head to toe, with the face of an idiot, and Marie-Louise resembled her mother in speech and deeds” (Maupassant2 p. 11). It is amusing how monsieur bowed to his juniors and trembled at their presence. The author notes that, “When he entered the rooms of the officials, he trembled from head to toe, and this fear had made him behave in a bad manner in front of them, a kind of inferior presentation and shyness”. (Maupassant1 38). Comparison between the Two Stories Both stories present an ironic twist. The long leg families were uninterested in their provision of food, safety and accommodation to the Prussian soldiers. They turned out to be betrayers. The act is also a form of injustice. If they had acted on reasonable grounds, they could not muster the French army. In the story A Family Affair injustice is seen in employment. Monsieur Caravan has worked for thirty years with no reward or promotion. He has witnessed people secure employment in the very office that he works (Maupassant5 55). . His self esteem has lowered to the extent of bowing down to the chiefs. The contemporary society is characterized by such misdeeds that leave the poor distressed and failure to realize their full potential (Boynton, 208). In addition, both stories are satirical. They address social issues in a comical and less serious way. The betrayal of Prussian soldiers by the long leg family takes place in a forest setting to reduce the weight the story carries in addressing the act. On the same note, injustice, pretence and indifference towards others problems in the caravan story are told in a very entertaining way. Division of the society between the poor and the rich is seen where some people live in the suburbs while others live in better places. The suburb is characterized by poor living standards. Finally, both stories present war as a theme. In The Prisoners, there is conflict between the French and the Germans. In the caravan’s story, the war is between members of the family. Caravan’s wife wants the mother’s property to be theirs instead of being shared by all. In the contemporary society, such types of fights are witnessed in the fight for family land, houses and other resources. Yet again, both stories are set during the Franco Prussian war. Reilly Works cited Boynton, John. Literary Criticism, Fourth Edition, Boynton Publishers. Print. N.d. Maupassant1, Guy. Complete Short Stories Of Maupassant. Vol 1 of 2, Forgotten Books. Print. Maupassant2, Guy. The Entire Original Short Stories. Nu Vision Publications. Print. 1850-1893. Maupassant3, Guy. Original Short Stories, Part 5, Kesssinger Publishing. Print. N.d. Maupassant4, Guy. Selected Tales, Online Stories. Web. 15, May 2012. Maupassant5, Guy. The Complete Short Stories Of Guy De Maupassant Part Two, Kessinger Publishing. Print. N.d. Pierre, Bayard, Maupassant, juste avant Freud. Paris. Minuit. 1998. Print. Read More