The History of Love, Nicole Krauss

Résumé du document

The History of love is a novel written by Nicole Krauss and was published in 2006. First of all, this excerpt is astonishing as far as the figure of the narrator is concerned. As we do not know the novel and its plot, we will consider that the narrator is a masculine child feeling his first love sensations for a girl. This idea may be discarded owing to the fact that the author is a woman. However, it is not so incongruous that the author and narrator may be different, it often happens in literature. This extract is thus a first-person narrative written in the past tense, like in many narrative texts, especially when the narrator exposes his memories as it is the case here. Indeed, the reader finds the narrator in his school when he was a child and can see him meeting a girl at school. The interesting aspect of this novel lies in the fact that it begins like an ordinary dialogue between two children and slowly slips towards a fantastic meeting auguring a long series. This way, it allows us to discuss as to how this text represents a special kind of piece of life. That is why this special encounter in itself will be first studied. Then, as far as this meeting is described at the first persona, we can look into the changes in his viewpoint. To finish, it seems interesting to study love as a transcendent emotion.

Extraits

[...] I didn't do it, I said. When I Iooked at her eyes, I saw they were filled with tears. A feeling I didn't yet know was longing clenched in my stomach. I'm sorry, I whispered, I felt an urge to hug her, to kiss away the moth and the broken wing. She said nothing. Our eyes were locked in a stare. It was as if we shared a guilty secret. I'd seen her every day in school, and never felt anything particular for her before. [...]

[...] At this stage, we can wonder how this change of point of view translates a real and strong emotion. III/ Love : a transcendent emotion An emotion based upon flashes and uncertainty The emotion created by this encounter can be the reason why the narrator had such a reaction. In fact, it seems that the boy really sees her for the first time and that this vision has a great impact on him. Indeed, the narrator is not sure of what he saw: if my eyes had been given magnifying powers” and, at the same time, he strikingly and astonishingly became “conscious of her body” and of his owns. [...]

[...] This is extraordinarily shown here. What are also notable lies in the fact that a meeting based upon disagreement will stay in the child's memories all his life? Furthermore, if the major part of this extract deals with a boy's memories, in opposition with the female author, it could seem factice, deceiving as far as the excerpt really looks like an experienced episode. However, this is not so important; it really translates the beginning of an initiatory travel throughout life, love and sensations. [...]

[...] How she seemed to pull light and gravity to the place where she stood. I noticed, as I had never before, the way her toes pointed slightly inward. The dirt on her bares knees. The way her coat fit neatly across her narrow shoulders. As if my eyes had been given magnifying powers, I saw her more closely yet. The black beauty marks, like a fleck of ink above her lip. The pink, translucent shell of her ear. The blond down on her cheeks. Inch by inch she revealed herself to me. [...]

[...] Furthermore, the children do not agree about what to do with the moth (to keep or to free it?). This first disagreement shows that they have not the same personality and that they are not made for being friends, meant to each other. The hurting of the moth (preventing it from flying) and the girl's tears do not augur an optimistic continuation of their relationships. A rapprochement between two opposite children The boy thinks about trying to comfort her and to “resuscitate” the hurt moth. The only meant he finds to do that is to it. [...]