Duras Day II

"If I were you I'd let it go on growing, let its shadow grow a little every year on the walls of the room that is called--wrongly, I believe--yours." (pg87)

Chauvin says this to Anne when they are discussing the tree outside of her bedroom. With this sentence he shows that he understands Anne's feelings of displacement and restlessness. He knows what she is feeling, whether she has admitted it to herself yet or not. He knows that she does not feel at home in the house with her husband and that she doesn't truly want to be there. That's why he says the tree doesn't matter because it's not really where she's meant to be.

"I don't know any more than you do. Talk to me." (pg 87)

Chauvin repeats this phrase or something along the lines of it several times during their conversation. It is usually right after Anne has asked him a question about the couple involved in the murder. He says he doesn't know anymore than she does yet he creates answers which are completely made up, merely conjecture. Anne is interested in the circumstances of the murder and the emotions the couple experienced to bring them to that point. But Chauvin is more interested in hearing Anne talk about herself and her house, which he is very familiar with. At times it seems like the conversation about the murder is just an excuse for them to meet and talk.

"The night, fatigue, and childhood made him cling to her, his mother, and they walked on together." (pg 91)

This quote shows the boy as a child, reliant on his mother. However throughout the story, Anne does not assume a very maternal position. She undoubtedly loves her son, but she treats him more as a companion than a son. She also says that she wishes he were grown up already, and I think that is because of how she already treats him like an adult at times. In fact, there are several instances where the boy seems to assume the role of parent more than Anne does. When she is in the bar, the boy returns several times to check that she is still there and she doesn't pay any attention to him. The boy is more protective of her than she seems to be of him.

Duras Day I

The dynamic between Anne and her son is odd because it seems to change drastically from the first chapter at the piano lesson to the second chapter at the bar.
During the piano lesson, the boy is treated more like an object that needs to be molded into the form his mother wants him to be. She wants him to learn piano because she thinks the music is beautiful, not because he enjoys it. And instead of defending him when the piano teacher is cruel to him, she agrees and says how difficult he is, when really he isn't being difficult so much as unresponsive. He doesn't throw fits or argue, he just refrains from giving the adults what they want, which is ultimately to treat him like something other than a child.
Later the next day at the bar, Anne suddenly seems like a loving, protective mother. She talks about how she always brings her son for a walk. However her real motivation for coming is her curiosity about the murder and she lets him wander away from her.
Her fascination with the murder is somewhat strange to me and it seems that there is something more to the story that we as readers don't know yet. When she is talking to the man it says that she "lies" about knowing about the murder. This may be a further attempt to conceal her curiosity which she may think is indecent, or there may be something more to it.

Sous le Sable

Web Therapy is hilarious.

I saw the traumatic event in the movie as being somewhat displaced. One would think that it would be at the beginning when Jean goes missing and it is implied that he is dead. While Marie is clearly stricken by this we do not see her grieve or really react in any way. She goes home and goes back to her life. She is in denial and won't accept that he is dead because that makes it easier for her to deal with the pain. As long as there was no solid evidence that he was dead, she was able to pretend that everything was fine and he was still around.

The truly traumatic event, for Marie, comes when she asks to see the distorted body they find in the fisherman's net. The visual effect traumatizes Marie, partially because of it's horrific nature but also because it is evidence that Jean is truly dead. Although she cannot recognize his face, it is more than likely that by looking at the body she had to realize that it was him. The body destroys her defense mechanism because she can't deny it anymore. And yet she does. When she sees the swimming trunks and watch, she claims that the watch is not his so this cannot possibly be her husbands body. In all likelihood it is his watch and now she is blatantly lying to herself about the situation. Whether or not she admits it, she knows now that he is really dead and this is when she finally breaks down.