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| Photo by Steve McCurry |
NOTE: Try to finish the second half of The Lover for Monday's class. If you need more time, no worries, since we'll still have a Comprehension Exam on Wednesday.
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: The narrator is obviously infatuated with her roommate,
Helene Lagonelle. She writes of her that she "worn out with desire"
for her, and that she "wants her to give herself where I give myself"
(74). Since she has clearly flouted so many of the taboos and social
conventions of her society, why doesn't she have a relationship with Helene?
What seems to stop her?
Q2: Why does colonial society seem to destroy young men as
readily as it discards young women? Why might men, in particularly, have a
difficult time finding a role in this society? Why might the older brother's
life be the rule, rather than the exception, in Indochine society?
Q3: The Narrator does something strange in the book,
conflating her stillborn child with her dead younger brother. Why does she do
this? Does the brother's death allow her to mourn her child properly (openly)?
How might this also relate to the Lover's desire of her being similar to his
desire for a child? (she says a few times that she became his child).
Q4: Finally, most importantly, does she love "the
Lover"? Is the book really about him, as its title claims, or is he merely
the means of kindling her memory to who she was at this time? Or does "the
Lover" refer to someone/something else?
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