Important Details of Life and Work of Marguerite Duras - Term Paper Example

Marguerite Duras Important details of her life and work Marguerite Duras grew up in a very poor family background. She wasa French girl, and lost her father at a young age, leaving her mother to take care of the three children. The extreme poverty situation that the family went through is later reflected in Marguerites life and work. She meets a Chinese merchant and they engage in an affair, due to the hardships in her life. In her novel, Marguerite has reported that she was beaten up by her mother and older brother during the time that she started the affair with the Chinese merchant. After moving to French, Marguerite studied political sciences and later law. Marguerite became an active member of the French communist party, after completing her studies. She worked for the French government in the late 1930s, where she represented the colony on Indochina. Marguerite also worked for the Vichy government, in an office that supplied papers to publishers. At the same time, she was a French resistant. Her desire for authorship encouraged her to write many novels, interviews, films, short fictions and essays including her bestselling novel, The Lover. Her command of dialogue was one of the attributes admired about her. Marguerite is considered as an important writer and a film director because her novels brought out her literature manner that had beautiful prose style. Her sentences are short, with reduced dialogue and the scenes in her films are brief and surreal. This makes it very easy to capture the important issues and messages passed through her novels and films. Marguerite’s novels and films are also important and useful because they express what she went through as a poor child, and this represents other teenage girls going through the same difficulties. She is considered as an important political activist because of her writings about politics during the World War II. She made people aware of what was going on, by writing about the Germans and Nazism where she wrote that the war was sympathetic towards the French collaborators. Being a member of the Communist party after the war, Marguerite was able to notice the identity between the French Communist and French collaborators. She writes that both were accomplices to a murderous foreign power. She writes “And I, two years after the war, I was a member of the Communist Party. The parallel is complete and absolute. The two things are the same, the same pity, the same call for help, the same lack of judgment, the same superstition, if you like, that consists in believing in a political solution to the personal problem.” Existentialism Existentialism is a term that was made popular in the 19th to 20th century by philosophers who believed that philosophical thinking starts from an individual mind and belief, mostly expressed by feeling and acting. The Existentialism movement was started by Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus. Sartre’s novels and films demonstrate how people were forced to fight for their freedom and/or doomed if they rebelled or refused to act. Novels of Spain and China written by Existentialists during the civil wars analyze people’s reactions and efforts with political and historical forces. Marguerite was also associated with the movement, because she also wrote about similar issues like the founders of the movement. Her books and films show how individuals struggled for freedom, and she has also expressed her understanding of the human feelings. The main ideas in the Existentialism movement were the conditions of human existence. The founders of the existentialism focused mainly on human feelings, actions, thoughts, responsibilities and the individual value of life. Existentialism brings out the idea that philosophical thinking begins with the value of life itself and the state of the mind. Philosophers of existentialism gave a priority to issues they believed were subjective like, religion and beliefs, feelings and human state, and emotions like regret, guilt, pain, and freedom. In addition, they discussed matters of science, knowledge, language and politics. How Marguerite was influenced by Indochina Marguerite was greatly influenced by growing up in Indochina. After the death of her father, her family was left under poor conditions, especially after her mother made an investment that didn’t work as planned. As a young girl, Marguerite was faced with very difficult situations that motivated her to work very hard later in life. Her work as a writer and film maker is reflected on her family background in Indochina. She met her Chinese lover in Indochina, a man who would help her through her difficult times, and raise her chances to fulfil her dreams of conquering poverty. Most of her work was influenced by Indochina, especially being a French colony. Living in Indochina influenced her to study law and political science, after which she joined the French government. Her education helped her to understand politics and justice, some of the matters she has written about. Section two The lover is an autobiographical novel set in Indochina, during the 1930s, when Indochina was a French colony. It is about a young teenage girl, Marguerite, who engages herself in an affair with a Chinese merchant, due to her poverty condition. The novel illustrates how Marguerite grew up in Indochina, which was a French colony, and the events that led to her getting involved with an elderly lover. After completing her studies, the novel shows how she joined the French government and even became a member of the French Communist, where she takes time to learn and identify the relationship between the French communist and French collaborators. Indochina is the place that most of the ideas and events in the novel, The Lover, are extracted and demonstrated. Marguerite sees herself as a young woman, who is an existential rebel figure, living in an absurd world. This explains that Duras was a rebel against the political system in Indochina, and was willing to fight for freedom and justice. Seeing herself as a rebel figure meant that Marguerite was willing to actively lead other people with her interest to rebel and fight against the murderous foreign power. Marguerite reflects the ideas of existentialism by expressing her feelings and thoughts about the government, colonization and other political structures. She is involved with knowledgeable people like her merchant lover, who expand her thinking capacity as explained in her novel, The Lover. An absurd world is a term used to describe a world that is silent and ignorant to human needs. It is a world that seems so meaningless and impossible, especially because of the difficulties encountered. An absurd world makes it impossible for the human mind to find any meaning and value of life. The absurd world and existentialism are related and both situations have their origin in the 19th century, during the civil wars. The philosophers of the 19th century founded existentialism to approach the absurd situations encountered by the human. It was the philosophical thinking that the way to conquer the absurd worlds was to develop existentialism. In her novel, The Lover, Marguerite writes that if she has to live an authentic life, a life that will be true to her, she must take risks. Such risks include the affair with her Chinese lover, which exposed her to so many speculations and judgments, including being called a prostitute. Rebelling was also another risk she had to take so she could live a meaningful life. She also writes that to live life fully, she must break boundaries. The love affair between her and the Chinese merchant had broken social, ethnical, age, and racial boundaries. However, Marguerite believed that by accepting to be in that love affair, she would live a better life as opposed to the absurd world she lived in. Marguerite believed that the value and meaning of life had to come from within her. Through her education, she learnt so many things about politics, mathematics and law. She also read a lot of books, where she derived ideas and knowledge about authorship and other life teachings. Duras believed that learning involved observing the environment and experiences of the outside world. During her stay in Indochina and France, she was very observant of the issues happening around, mostly those that affected her. She was keen on matters of justice, colonization and education. It is through reading and observation that Marguerite believes she would live life fully. . However, she believes that writing will help forget most of the past difficulties and mistakes. “When its in a book I dont think itll hurt any more ...exist anymore. One of the things writing does is wipe things out. Replace them.” Marguerite writes that her world was absurd because she grew up in poor conditions and no matter how hard they tried, life was not getting any better. This would often remind her that she was supposed to find a better life. She writes, “It’s not that you have to achieve anything, it’s that you have to get away from where you are.” Her relationship with the white colonial society of Indochina was distant, because she was excluded from the society. She spent her childhood days with the Vietnamese, rather than the French children. This made her more of a Vietnamese than French. Her family was not in a good situation, because her mother was a poor single parent, so they were faced with a lot of difficulties. There were ties and barriers to the Asian community in Indochina, which was founded on white domination. Marguerite describes French Indochina as an extreme racist and hierarchic society. The French and Asians had conflicts because of their different races. However, she breaks this colonial law by getting involved in a love affair with a Chinese merchant. The strict separation of the two ethnic communities did not stop her from living her life the way she believed was satisfying, despite being considered a prostitute. Marguerite was a student in Saigon, in a boarding school where she was exposed to a lot of things that were too early for her age. Being in a boarding school with very little supervision, she started wearing make-up too early. This situation allowed her to make very bad choices which exposed her to so much adult pain at a very early age. She writes that though she is a very young woman, her mind is contemplating prostitution. This shows a great level of rebellion towards religion, moral values and discipline. She would wear her mother’s tight rust colored silk dress, with gold lame high heels, and a floppy man’s hat. This dressing got her spotted by the Chinese millionaire. Her provocative dressing attracted the rich man towards her, an action which reflects her rebellion to the laws of the society, and even her own age. Marguerite’s novel brings out the fact that she must become a rebel out of necessity. Her poverty levels lead her into disobeying the rules of the society since she has to survive, and her only way of fighting poverty is accepting to be the lover of an elderly Chinese man. She becomes rebel by crossing the barriers of race and age. Her openness to taking risks and her determination to live life fully at all costs are connected to her decision to become a writer. The difficult situations she has been through motivated her to become a writer and address such issues to the world. As a writer, Marguerite believes that she will have a better meaning and value for life. She writes, “I want to write. Ive already told my mother: Thats what I want to do-write. No answer the first time. Then she asks, Write what? I say, Books, novels. Shes against it, its not worthy, and it’s not real work, its nonsense. Later she said a childish idea.” Her success as a student and that she is more mature, stronger and determined than most young women of her age, show that she is very motivated to fighting the absurd world she has lived in. Section three Marguerite and the Chinese lover met in Saigon, the capital city, where she was a student in a boarding school. Being under very little supervision, she would wear very provocative clothes and make-up, to attract men. During that time, she was actually contemplating prostitution. The Chinese lover got attracted to her, although initially he did not know her motives. There were several motives for it, one being the need for intimacy. Their relationship begins from her first act of intercourse, after which she becomes sexually experienced. Both Marguerite and her lover are in need of intimacy. It starts with the Chinese man, who is obsessed with her. Marguerite’s mother also encouraged her so much to go on with the love affair, because she wanted Duras to grow into adulthood fast and reduce her family burden. In this case, the second motive was economic difference between Duras and the Chinese lover. The motive of physical attraction is seen when the Chinese merchant get attracted to Duras, from her dressing and make-up. She dressed in a provocative manner, until the Chinese man was so much into her. Duras had another motive of being a rebel and breaking the racial differences and conflict by having an affair with a Chinese man. The main idea of the novel and the film is to show how Duras is able to fight so many challenges, and yet fulfills her dreams, and the fact that together with her lover, they are able to overcome so many difficulties. What begins as a rebellious act by both Duras and her Chinese lover, for a variety of reasons, is fuelled by erotic passion and intense sexual experiences which lead to genuine emotions and affection of love despite the denials and fears. They conquer the various conflicts that emerge given the differences of ages, cultural, and racial backgrounds, which actually add to the intensity of the relationship. The most important stages of the love relationship begin with Dura’s first sexual experience. She later learns to work and play with her body, and make it her instrument to play with and give him the pleasure of love making. They move on to making love daily, and this moves her form a child to an adult with all the skills and variations, power and secrets involved with the sexual pleasure. These events mean so much to her lover, that he becomes so obsessed with her. Both the author and film director make it clear that all of intensity and confusion eventually results in a genuine or authentic love relationship that Duras and her Chinese lover never forget. Final conclusion The similarity between the film and the novel is that both drive the same ideas, on the same point of view. The film and the novel contain the same story and derive information from the same location and setting. Both reflect the stages and events of Marguerite’s love affair with the Chinese merchant, including her inner feelings and family background. The film and the novel approach issues with the same attitude and passion. The difference between the film and the novel is that the novel is more detailed and longer than the film. The film is simply a person’s interpretation of the book, and some elements have been changed, left out or exaggerated. The film does not exactly illustrate every event in the book, because the novel is too large to be covered in a different medium. The writer uses words while the film-maker uses pictures and scenes. In the novel, scenes are described, while in the film, scenes are depicted. The reason for the differences is because of the time difference, and the medium of interpretation is also different from the original. In conclusion, both the film maker and the writer show that it is possible for love to grow and overcome all fears and challenges. They also make it clear that any barriers created by the laws of the society can be broken, and change is possible if the human mind is willing to act. Marguerite did not allow fear and beliefs of the society to stop her from achieving her dreams and falling in love. Work cited Marguerite Duras, The Lover.1984. Jean Jacque Arnaud’s, The Lover, 1992. Read More