Summary:
The speaker of this novel is speaking in dual-narrative voice. The woman is from France and she is currently in her thirties but she reflects back to her teenage years. When the speaker was 15 years old, she was pretty and young looking. She was able to wear make-up and dress well. Now that she is dirty, she looks like like a 60 year old woman and she does not have any pretty dresses. She is super insecure about her image. She also told her mother she wanted to be a writer, but her mom thought it was a stupid idea. One day, she was on a native bus and met a Chinese man. He lives in Sadec, where the speaker lives and his family is from North China. They started meeting up. Every Thursday, he would pick her up at her high school and drive her back to the boarding school in his black car. One day, they were both over at his house. The speaker told him that she didn't want him to love her. He responded by saying he's lonely, horribly lonely because of the love her feels for her. They both went into the bedroom, undressed each other and enjoyed their time.. When they finished, they talked about their families. She had a father and younger brother who had died. She has an elder brother who steals from his mom, and servants and another brother who goes to school. They're poor. The Chinese man lives in a nice house that can afford clothes, expensive perfume, and nice cars. He's an only child, and his father died when he was young. The speaker and the Chinese man had been having an affair for a year and a half. They knew they couldn't have any future, so they never spoke of it. One evening, the speaker's family and the Chinese man went out to dinner. The family treated the man with no respect, didn't greet or said bye. He also paid for the dinner. The lover claims he doesn't mind how he is being treated because he loves her.
Quote:
"I know it's not clothes that make women beautiful or otherwise, nor beauty care, nor expensive creams, nor the distinction or costliness of their finery" (Duras 18).
Reaction:
The time period of this novel is before World War II. The speaker knows men didn't like women because of what they looked like. Women gave themselves up easily to men. While the speaker knows it doesn't matter on how women look, she's still insecure about her image and body. She doesn't give herself up to me, but she did give it to a Chinese man who she seemed to like very much.
