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Analysis Of A Simple Heart Flaubert

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My initial responses to “A Simple Heart” by Gustave Flaubert left me with a rather somber, yet sad feeling. Having read the details of what Felicite went through, I admired her resilience more than anything within the story. Initially, I took the content at face-value, despite reading the biography of Flaubert prior, I looked at the story with a fresh lens, and keeping in mind Felicite’s portrayed psychology. I admittedly couldn’t help but immerse my own self into this character, often trying to understand and feel her emotions, despite inserting my own psyche in her. However, after the class lectures, I took into consideration the themes around the story, including the preface I read earlier, and my outlook changed. Going into the details about Realism, relatability, and knowing a bit about Flaubert himself, was I able to understand “A Simple Heart” on a slightly different perspective.
The first time reading about the preface and the short story, I expected Felicite to have as what the title says, “A Simple Heart” and a mind of even simpler naiveté thanks to the blinding drug we call “religion” atop a predominance of the lack of education. Much to my suspicion, I was right. Here we are, a story about a woman who was born and raised poor, living a simple life up until her parents passed, and her older sisters abandoned her, leaving her to fend for herself and work under harsh conditions for another farmer. Despite the traumatic experiences she dealt with, she carried the
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