Bardamu and His Prison Life - Book Report/Review Example

Question: Bardamu and his Prison Life By Name Course Instructor Institution Location Date Introduction Bardamu, the main character of the book ‘Journey in the end of the night’ goes through a series of stages in his development from a soldier to a medical doctor and finally to a manager of an institute. His life is full of dilemma and perils and he has a mission of living in a better world full of justice and concern for others. He moves from one continent to another expecting to find a better life only to realize that an ideal world that he is looking for is actually an illusion. This article aims at clarifying how the author portrays Bardamu as a prisoner in his cocoon by trying to live differently from everyone else. Fighting the World war The narrator recounts his adventures from the First World War and what happens since then. He remembers sitting with his friend in a cafe watching a parade of soldiers who had been conscripted match recently (Romanillos 2013). The friend has an opinion that France is the best nation in the world, the idea that Bardamu object to strongly. Bardamu claims that the nationalism idea is unrealistic because, during the war, the low-class citizens who work in a risky way and more but they reap fewer benefits as compared to those in the upper class. The writer portrays Bardamu as a character that has a discontentment with the political system. Bardamu clearly indicates here that he is forced to live in a way he does not appreciate. Were it that he is given the freedom, he can change the regime such that there is equal payment for equal work done At age twenty, Bardamu is part of the French army (Romanillos 2013). He doesn't understand why Germans are shooting at him since he has been friends and polite to them. According to him, this situation is an indication of the world catching up some new sentiment that he does not want to take part. He gets curious about the motives of the feeling. He finally makes a plan to escape. Any soldier that quits the fight drops into a class of a coward. He asserts that the soldiers are a stark raving heroic madman with a desire to destroy everything in the two continents worries him. The war nightmares continue entirely of fear for attack and the back-breaking labour of moving supplies. At this stage, Bardamu appears not unwilling to side with the fighter, but with the requirement of the state that the soldiers must fight the Germans, he takes part in the fight. If he has a chance, he cannot and the situation makes him contemplate an escape. There is an uncertain chance of death as a result of moving messages from one post to another. Bardamu is sent to explore whether the Germans have captured the village of Noirceur as one of his missions. In the process of searching, he has a dream of escaping the assured death or capture by the enemy German soldiers. On his way, he meets a family mourning or their young son who had been stabbed by the German soldiers. Bardamu asks to buy a bottle of wine from them, and the mother forgets her grief to haggle the price. He continues with his mission and finds Norceur two hours after midnight. The village is calm and not scorched by flames from the gunfire. It is the time of war itself. Bardamu sees it controversial for the mother of the dead boy to be consoled by the next penny. It appears that the penny is more important than the boy such that the mother can stop immediately to bargain the price of a bottle of wine (Romanillos 2013). Life at the hospital in Paris Bardamu gets an admission to a hospital in Paris after getting wounded in the war. The choice of Paris hospital is due to the severity of the wounding he gets during the war. He has little or no clue about the wound, and he wins a medal. In France, people are getting organised to be recruited into the army and participate in the struggle (Romanillos 2013). A lovely American volunteer, a sexy twenty-three-year-old Lola, who has come to assist France during the war because of her intense admiration of France, creates interest in Bardamu. Bardamu is taken to the hospital for soldiers that have a psychological problem. The hospital staffs suspect the patients of lying about their illness and so they constantly scrutinize the men's behaviour. Even the gatekeeper who is well known by many for her generosity in giving sexual favours is known for snitching to the authorities. From the hospital men are, usually, sent to the war-fronts, shot for treason or put in a real insane asylum (Jackson 2001). . It is strange that the hospital staff can participate in forcing people to go to fight yet it receives many war victims at this time. The staffs appear to promote an increase in the number of patients yet they are supposed to decrease them by healing them. Lola visits him to question about his sanity and whether they will' cure him'. Bardamu tells her of non-existence of cure for the fear that makes her lose all respect for him. The narrator indicates here that Bardamu is in the hospital because of fear and not sickness. If he gets a chance, the battlefield is the last place he can opt to go. It is easy to conclude that Bardamu has imprisoned himself at the hospital for him to prevent dying in war (Romanillos 2013). Bardamu haphazardly unites with his former co-worker Voireuse to go to visit their old employer called Puter, a jeweller. He is with his wife at his workshop, and the woman is responsible for handling cash. The couple complains of how problematic the war has been to their business but after a long conversation, they conclude that it was for the benefit of the country. The puters' give five francs to the duo and send them on their way (Romanillos 2013).According to Bardamu; the behaviour of the businessman is paradoxical. He seems to hate the war but accepts it because the authorities side with it. Bardamu leaves for Africa Bardamu later gets a dismissal from the army and buys a ticket to go to Africa on a steamboat. With the notion that one can easily make a fortune in Africa, Bardamu fantasizes about trading his razor blades for a household of slaves and colourful birds. Just like in the world war, desperate conditions bring people out to their true natures; the heat makes their rottenness come to the light. Bardamu finds himself to be the only one who has paid for his fare. The rest of the people claim to be on a diplomatic or business mission on behalf of the country. All of them treat him with a lot of suspicion like a criminal. In this case, Bardamu is portrayed as a person who has trust for everyone around him only to realize that they are on different boats, and they are in different classes. He is just caught in a surprise when reality finds him off-guard such that he blames himself for creating a trust in them. Escape to Africa also shows that similar to France, Bardamu feels like prison, and that is the reason he is quitting the country. While still at Ft. Gono about to go to his new post in the bush, he observes how the dockworkers do their job. In order to work, the natives are driven with clubs and thus preserve their dignity while white workers work voluntarily with a hope of becoming rich and power. Bardamu's boss who is the director boasts of creating a peanut and rubber economy. The pride is driving the leader to swindle the company. Bardamu has ambition of falling sick and returning to hospital. The author portrays Bardamu to be weary of the mistreatment that people go through in the new refuge, Africa. Instead of better treatment, the natives are discriminated against at their home place, hardship and unfairness which he is escaping from. Bardamu makes a plot to overthrow the sitting manager, undertake inventory and restore order (Hand 1995). He proceeds deeper into the jungle and meets a gruff, bearded man in a hut standing precariously between two boulders. The scenery gives a clue of how terrible condition of the place is. They drink mud and eat canned casserole for the whole year. Bardamu thinks this is better than war. The wild animal sounds at night and the old man advises Bardamu to stuff his ears to avoid disturbance. The original residents help him make his way through the jungle where he contacts malaria (BookRags 2014). They take him to a mission hospital in san Tapeta town, delirious in bed wondering why the natives did not throw him into the river or eat him he realizes later that he has been sold to become an oarsman after recovery. Bardamu finds out that the new refuge that he had an expectation of better life has challenges, starting from cruelty of people to new disease, malaria. Bardamu’s life at New York Bardamu makes selfish comments about the New Yorkers; He claims that the men have monotonous, broad faces and the women too mean to buy from shops. Bardamu enters into a grand and comfortable hotel where he is assigned to a small space on the upper floor. Observing his neighbours, he notices that Americans look tired and do not speak to each other often. This is the unfriendliness that Bardamu encounters when he searches for freedom and happiness in New York (Matthews 1978). He does not like the place. He is in a new prison. Bardamu becomes broke and continues to reflect on the differences between the life of the rich person and the poor. According to Bardamu, the world around him is forbidding and hostile and can only be transformed if only he gets out of poverty. The transformation can make him free of the long agitation of needs that he is unable to fulfil. He goes to cheap cafeteria where he gets attracted to a smile of a waitress. He proposes to her for marriage and gets thrown out of the cafeteria. Back in his small room that night, he shouts at the uninterested people in the street, insulting, crying for help and saying all things he can't dare to say during daytime. In this case, Bardamu forcefully tries to create attention of the public, but no one is willing to listen to him. He is still in solitude, and there is nobody willing to listen to his troubles. The loneliness and lack of concern are the prisons he wants to do away with, but it appears impossible. After searching for a job in Detroit, Bardamu is hired by Ford. At Ford Bardamu is warned never to look clever because the plant only needs are monkeys, not men. The terrible work turns the men into machines (BookRags 2014). Men get into actions of whirling striking, clanking and calibrating. To refresh himself, Bardamu begins to frequent a brothel. Bardamu catches the interest of a prostitute by the name Molly, who plans to save him from the factory job and wandering ways. Molly purchases a suit for Bardamu and gives him support that can make him get a better job him. Thinking that she was encouraging him to stay with her, but it does not work out (BookRags 2014). Again Bardamu finds it strange that in the new job, there is no freedom of expression like in the prison. Though he prostitute tries to hold onto him, Bardamu still wants to go on with his search for an ideal. The life he is living appears like prison to him Bardamu returns to France Bardamu goes back to France, completes his medical studies and opens an office in a village called Garenne-Rancy. Rancy has untidy, less risk taking people who crush themselves daily into the streetcars for fear of losing their ordinary jobs. Being a doctor by profession, Bardamu explores the people with keen interest. With the new profession, Bardamu feels "closer to people, animals everything" makes a preparation to "push straight into the heart of things." Berdamu is the cheapest doctor in town, but few patients trickle into his new practice for service. Again he tries to create a better cocoon of cheap medication expecting people to be attracted only to find that it does not happen that way. Bardamu receives a request to attend to one of his most desperate, shameful cases in his medical career. A beautiful young woman is bleeding dangerously after having her third abortion (Brée, (1964). Bardamu admires her beauty and her shameless love for pleasure. The mother of the girl rants continuously about the family respect and repeatedly refuses to take the girl to a hospital where instant surgery could be performed to save her life. Bebert's aunt, the caretaker, wants to be paid for reporting to Bardamu these cases. Bardamu has, in fact, not even paid himself. Afterwards, Bardamu does not come to collect the balance of five francs from'' the unfortunate and wicked'', because a man who does so remains a beggar to his death. Bebert's nephew, of whom Bardamu is somewhat fond of, becomes a victim of typhoid fever. Consultation is made to several doctors, but it is Bardamu who finally wins the opportunity to charge the child. The entire region takes an interest, visiting, giving advice and cook Brussels sprouts to the aunt. Bardamu, with a genuine concern, tries his best to cure the child but fails. He then decides to visit Bioduret Institute in search for information over the case. He notices that the institute appears to him to be a combination of a maze of corridors with no people but mice jars, cigarette butts, animal corpses, beakers and smell of urine. Here Bardamu expresses a dislike for the laboratory equipment. Instead of being tidy and hygienic; it is one of the places full of dirty stuff that can be hazardous to people's health. He seems to living in his own world by having preference for a clean medical and research environment. People have a concern only for their troubles, and they try to relive them by falling in love. Bardamu is called to a carnival to treat a shot patient. Bardamu notes, dryly, which the shooting gallery has all the similar figures, in addition airplanes now - undeniably, humans are making progress. The children at the circus, he reflects, still think its "pure generosity that makes the adults show that. Perhaps the children are too young to notice the profit-making goals behind the smiles. Bardamu goes to treat the barmaid's kitchen wound, but he ends up meeting Robinson. Robinson informs him in about more details of the grandmother Henrouille murder plan (Solomon 1988). Robinson has started blackmailing the family. Bardamu wonders if he should try to persuade Robinson to drop the plan, or report him, but he ends up doing neither. Again Bardamu wants to show preference for an ideal world where one can not commit evil in order to get riches .Perhaps he is tired of fighting for the better world and that the reason of not reprimanding Robinson to drop the idea of death. The death of Robinson Robinson does little and complains more about how life is hard and particularly about Henrouille, his grandmother. Henrouille's energetic visits bring a lot of money to the business and Robinson, who, participates minimally in the business wants a bigger share (Céline 2006). Bardamu is disappointed in his Robinson's new, bourgeois attitudes because of thinking only of money, comfort and fame. If Berdamu were having the callous reasoning like Robinson, He would not have been disgusted by the new attitude of Robinson Bardamu goes back to Paris and courtesy of his friend Dr. Paraprine, finds a post working with magnetic wave therapy in an asylum for the miserable and insane patients. He concludes that only ways people express their innermost feelings is through war and insanity. The effort to avoid reverting to our true natures for decades is what exhausts us so much. Baryton, Bardamu's new boss does his best to keep their asylum modernized due to public demand. He buys the equipment cheaply at discount sales and second-hand shops. The monotony of running the asylum bores him, and he likes hearing stories of Bardamu. After many quiet months, the Bardamu is interrupted by news of Robinson murdering Grandma Henrouille and the man's sudden departure from Toulouse. Later Bardamu receives a visit from Robinson (Céline 2006). Robinson has recovered his sight and a claim to have come to Paris to look for a something to do to earn a living if possible at the Institute. Robinson wants admission as a lunatic to escape from some urgent trouble. Robins admits to killing Henrouille on the stairs since she provoked him and also because he and Madelon were to be the heirs of the business upon Henrouille's death (Solomon 1988). At the institute, Bardamu receives several threatening letters relating his friendship with Robinson. Bardamu lays suspicion on Madelon and begins her chances of the police or her. A local friend and a policeman, Gustave Mandamour mentions Madelon's stalking of the institute (Céline 2006).After knowing that Madelon is around, Robinson panics, but he does nothing about it. Any step that she might take frightens him. Finally, one Saturday after sunset, Madelon pays Bardamu a visit. Bardamu authoritatively orders her to leave because Robinson is sick alone, but she resists. A quarrel breaks between the three, one of the nurse's purposes a night at the carnival that Madelon rejects to join (Brée, 1964). Madelon shoots and kills Robinson after he declares her words of love meaningless in a taxi. Questions linger in Bardamus mind on whether Robinson had triggered the thought of killing in Madelon's mind. Maybe the shooting cannot occur by surrendering. Perhaps he is looking for a shortcut to a good life. Conclusion As Bardamu is looking for an ideal by changing careers and places residence, he is subjected to different evils of life to the extent that he decides to fight no more. He becomes a soldier out of illusion. The writer portrays Bardamu as a character that has a discontentment with the political system that cannot hold a dialogue and solve their problems professionally without resolving into war. He prefers leaving the job because he does not want to be part of the war evils. He goes to Africa to get a better life only to find that the natives are treated badly and there is malaria infestation (Murdoch 2012). Africa is not the place he wants to be so he proceeds to America. In America he finds people too unfriendly and having no concern for their neighbours. America becomes inhabitable and he leaves for France when he gets a job in a motor company. However, no worker is expected to express himself in the company. So the job in not part of his dreams .He decides to pursue a medical course to serve people. It becomes a surprise that even the patients he wants to treat at low costs discriminate him. Finally he becomes weary of searching for a better world and cannot even prevent his friend Robinson from killing (Blaylock 2005). The author clearly portrays Bardamu as a person who by circumstance finds himself in a world that he does not like but must stay, like a prisoner. References BookRags.com, (2014). Journey to the End of the Night Summary. Retrieved from http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-journey-to-the-end-of-the- night. Brée, G. (1964). The Post-Existentialist Novel. The South Central Bulletin.JSTOR 4-26. CÉLINE, L.-F. (2006). Journey to the end of the night. New York, New Directions. Blaylock, J. M. (2005). Revolt in Le passe simple by Driss Chraibi and Voyage au bout de la nuit by Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Eisenhower parkway, Proque Golsan, R. J. (1994). Drieu, Céline: French Fascism, Scapegoating, and the Price of Revelation. Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, 1(1), 172-183. Hand, S. (Ed.). (1995). Mapping the Other (Vol. 18, No. 2). Edinburgh University Press. Matthews, J. H. (1978). The inner dream: Céline as novelist. Syracuse University Press. Jackson, J. (2001). France: The dark years, 1940-1944. Oxford University Press. Jim-Murdoch, (2012). The Truth About Lies: Journey to the End of the Night. Retrieved from: http://jim-murdoch.blogspot.com/2012/11/journey-to-end-of-night.html LaSalle, A. (1994). BARDAMU AMERICAN-DREAM+ CELINE-CENSORSHIP AND PROSTITUTION. South Atlantic Quarterly, 93(2), 225-242. Sims, R. L. (1984). War and myth in the twentieth century: Drieu la Rochelle, Céline and Claude Simon. Neophilologus, 68(2), 179-191. Solomon, P. H. (1988). Night voyager: a reading of Céline. Birmingham, Ala, Summa Publications. Walker, D. M. (1967). Narrative, Thematic, And Symbolic Structures In Celine's Voyage Au Bout De La Nuit (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).University of British Columbia. Read More

In France, people are getting organised to be recruited into the army and participate in the struggle (Romanillos 2013). A lovely American volunteer, a sexy twenty-three-year-old Lola, who has come to assist France during the war because of her intense admiration of France, creates interest in Bardamu. Bardamu is taken to the hospital for soldiers that have a psychological problem. The hospital staffs suspect the patients of lying about their illness and so they constantly scrutinize the men's behaviour.

Even the gatekeeper who is well known by many for her generosity in giving sexual favours is known for snitching to the authorities. From the hospital men are, usually, sent to the war-fronts, shot for treason or put in a real insane asylum (Jackson 2001). . It is strange that the hospital staff can participate in forcing people to go to fight yet it receives many war victims at this time. The staffs appear to promote an increase in the number of patients yet they are supposed to decrease them by healing them.

Lola visits him to question about his sanity and whether they will' cure him'. Bardamu tells her of non-existence of cure for the fear that makes her lose all respect for him. The narrator indicates here that Bardamu is in the hospital because of fear and not sickness. If he gets a chance, the battlefield is the last place he can opt to go. It is easy to conclude that Bardamu has imprisoned himself at the hospital for him to prevent dying in war (Romanillos 2013). Bardamu haphazardly unites with his former co-worker Voireuse to go to visit their old employer called Puter, a jeweller.

He is with his wife at his workshop, and the woman is responsible for handling cash. The couple complains of how problematic the war has been to their business but after a long conversation, they conclude that it was for the benefit of the country. The puters' give five francs to the duo and send them on their way (Romanillos 2013).According to Bardamu; the behaviour of the businessman is paradoxical. He seems to hate the war but accepts it because the authorities side with it. Bardamu leaves for Africa Bardamu later gets a dismissal from the army and buys a ticket to go to Africa on a steamboat.

With the notion that one can easily make a fortune in Africa, Bardamu fantasizes about trading his razor blades for a household of slaves and colourful birds. Just like in the world war, desperate conditions bring people out to their true natures; the heat makes their rottenness come to the light. Bardamu finds himself to be the only one who has paid for his fare. The rest of the people claim to be on a diplomatic or business mission on behalf of the country. All of them treat him with a lot of suspicion like a criminal.

In this case, Bardamu is portrayed as a person who has trust for everyone around him only to realize that they are on different boats, and they are in different classes. He is just caught in a surprise when reality finds him off-guard such that he blames himself for creating a trust in them. Escape to Africa also shows that similar to France, Bardamu feels like prison, and that is the reason he is quitting the country. While still at Ft. Gono about to go to his new post in the bush, he observes how the dockworkers do their job.

In order to work, the natives are driven with clubs and thus preserve their dignity while white workers work voluntarily with a hope of becoming rich and power. Bardamu's boss who is the director boasts of creating a peanut and rubber economy. The pride is driving the leader to swindle the company. Bardamu has ambition of falling sick and returning to hospital. The author portrays Bardamu to be weary of the mistreatment that people go through in the new refuge, Africa. Instead of better treatment, the natives are discriminated against at their home place, hardship and unfairness which he is escaping from.

Bardamu makes a plot to overthrow the sitting manager, undertake inventory and restore order (Hand 1995).

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