Response Journal to the novel The Cashier by Gabrielle Roy - Essay Example

About a World Facing the Vestiges of War Alexandre Chenevert, the lead character in the novel The Cashier, seems to be enveloped within his own world. This synthesis is achieved while reading the novel, wherein the sentences stating his thoughts brewed from one structure to another. An incoherence that is set in a time where people are distraught by war is the main theme of the novel, and this has been characterized with clarity. It can be said that during the time when people have seen the vestiges of war, they continue to live even after it has passed.

The manifestation of war is not only physically present with the number of deaths; it is also evident in the psychological realm of the mind. People begin to anticipate and this anticipation, when added with a sprinkling of skepticism, results to overreaction. Overreaction is more than what Alexandre displayed. Even when he is supposed to be having a normal life, though not one that is grandeur, he reminds himself of the worse facets of life and disregards that he still lives and breathes. For him life is a constant reminder of how everyone in the world must be prepared in war.

In fact, he has been informed through encyclopedias that the global community each has their own take on war and the armaments that go with it. Although this thought does not comfort him, he believes that everyone must feel the same—that everyone should have be prepared for the changes of life. The actor has the habit of spending most of his moments thinking about the most trivial things and then instantly shifts to another course that is entirely different. The randomness of his take on the things that are happening all over the world is a manifestation of the mantra that he believes has happened to him.

As time goes by, life has taken the best of him. “During his life he had lost a great number of things, and almost always the best things – first his youth, and then his health, and now his sleep (Roy, 1954).” Obviously, this included his sanity. Although it cannot be said that he is becoming insane, it can be concluded that his inability to focus on a specific matter without drifting to another stream of thoughts completely unrelated marks the beginning of his insanity. His thoughts begin with trivial, common thoughts characteristic of someone who lacks enough sleep and is distraught by how life has shown its cruel side.

He has been under the roughest conditions, without decent clothes to live by and a partner who cannot think about important things. Indeed some of his thoughts are very profound, considering that he is thinking about the resolution of war and its impending forthcoming; yet, some of his thoughts are also foolhardy and are far-fetched. He is anticipating changes, and the stress that is evident in his lack of sleep appears to have made him an unhappy man. All his ministrations about how life should be and how it should have been have given him fatigue, as shown in his psychological dilemmas.

References:Roy, Gabrielle. (1955). The Cashier. Retrieved March 11, 2010 from http://enotes.comRoy, Gabrielle and Marie-Claire Blais. (1990). The Cashier. Canada: Barnes and Nobles.