French Literature: Maupassant's Mother sauvage - Essay Example

He uses this beauty to evoke a feeling of happiness in the reader, and sets a tone of anticipation of the “joyful events” ( ) to come. The story unfolds, and reaches its climax in death and destruction. This change in the expected direction of the plot is a very effective way of holding the reader’s interest and introducing an element of suspense into the narrative. The initial promise of happiness makes the ultimate bloodshed even more tragic to the reader. Maupassant skillfully uses this contrast to give his narrative a twist in the tale and heightens the effect of the horror which unfolds.

Maupassant also employs this contrast of beauty and gore to show that the evil of war lives in the hearts of man, and can take place even in the most beautiful of natural surroundings. The very same beautiful landscape, which symbolizes the happiness of peace, goes on to symbolize the terrible sorrow of war. The beautiful countryside retains its snow-covered loveliness, and shines “like a cloth of silver tinted with red” ( ), as the Sauvage cottage becomes the funeral pyre of the four Prussian soldiers, who are ruthlessly burnt alive by the mother in an act of vengeance for the death of her son.

Nature steadfastly retains her beauty. It is man who is capable of evil even in the midst of such loveliness. The reader becomes aware that the evil of war can unfold even in the most beautiful of natural surroundings.   3. This is not a story about the Franco-Prussian war or about war in general. So, what is the focus of the story? Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “Mother Sauvage,” does not focus on war. The theme of the story is a mother’s love for her son, and the human capacity for.

The essay French Literature: Maupassant's "Mother sauvage" dwells on such topics as symbolism, contrast of the bucolic beauty and the gore, the war in the short story of Guy de Maupassant. The writer very effectively portrays the destruction of war in his description of the Sauvage home. The cottage which was “neat, covered with vines, with chickens in front of the door,” before the war, becomes “a dead house, with its skeleton standing bare and sinister” at the end. All the lives which once dwelt within it – the Sauvage family and the four Prussian soldiers, are the casualties war.

The blackened stone, lying among the ruins, is all that remains to symbolize the death and destruction wrought by war. Maupassant also uses the blackened stone to show that it is the poor “who pay the most” in a war. “Mother Sauvage,” begins on a note of bucolic beauty. The writer is lyrical in his description of the countryside, with its woods and brooks, and flower-filled orchards. The initial promise of happiness makes the ultimate bloodshed even more tragic to the reader. Maupassant skillfully uses this contrast to give his narrative a twist in the tale and heightens the effect of the horror which unfolds.

Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “Mother Sauvage,” does not focus on war. The theme of the story is a mother’s love for her son, and the human capacity for vengeance. Maupassant shows how the cruelty of war can transform a mother into a killer of other women’s sons. This is the focus of the story.