I dived into Proust’s Combray completely unaware of what to expect. The first thing that caught my attention was the language. It was very descriptive, thus allowing me to envision every room and meal as the narrator experienced it. Secondly, I noticed the stream of consciousness that the narrator seemed to be traveling along while narrating. What started in a room with an insight into the intricacies of sleep and wakefulness turned into a formative childhood memory. This form of writing intrigued me immensely because of how naturally it flowed. I almost did not notice the transition until I read about the narrator’s next idea!
I must confess that I did get a little bit confused when the narrator switched to talking about his childhood experience from his ideologies as an adult. However, once I picked up on the difference I was able to enjoy the innocence with which the child craved to be with his mother. As seen in the scene below, Proust’s description of the raw emotion of longing from a child’s perspective makes the scene more impactful and its sentiment that much deeper.
“But I implored her again: ‘Come say goodnight to me,’ terrified as I saw the light from my father’s candle already creeping up the wall, but also making use of his approach as a means of blackmail, in the hope that my mother, not wishing to find me here, as find me he must if she continued to refuse me, would give in and say: ‘Go back to your room. I will come.'”
I found this particularly significant because of how palpable and tangible the emotions were in this extract.
Additionally, the lecture touched upon many points that I did not consider while reading but added to the importance of the text upon considering them. One of these points is regarding the multiple perspectives we experience in the chapter, but only through the narrator’s eyes. We learn about M. Swann, the narrator’s great-aunt and grandmother, and how they all share a great number of opinions on varying societal issues. But once again, all of these thoughts are shrouded by the narrator’s perspective which as a child was solely focused on gaining his mother’s attention. Proust therefore sheds light on an important question worth considering: how do we perceive each character’s perspective differently when the narration is only through one person’s point of view?
Hence, as stated in the lecture, we only get to see a portion of what happened because of the gap which exists in relaying information. This drives us to make assumptions to fill in the spaces and to keep reading to see if what we thought was true. I feel like this text has prepared me for the other literature in this course because of its unique writing style and the type of reading it demands.
I look forward to reading more and discussing this text in class with everyone!
