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Analysis of Maupassant’s Looking Back

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Emre Kahramanlar Hacettepe Üniversitesi İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı 4. Sınıf Eleştirel Okuma Analysis of Maupassant’s Looking Back Guy De Maupassant’s Story, Looking Back is a story of Abbe Maudit and his tragic life. It is centered on Maudit’s unfortunate, traumatic childhood , his isolated life, his disappointments and sorrows, which pushes him to choose a career to be a priest, who sacrificed his personal desires to be in service of people. The Story begins in M. le Cure’s residence. The atmosphere of the house is quite warm we are introduced to lovely grandchildren of M. le Cure’ Whom does Abbe Maudit tenderly love. Right after the children go to bed, M. La Cure is interested in Abbe …show more content…

“He laughed readily, and wept also, on slight provocation, just like a woman—which prejudiced him more or less in the hard minds of the country folk.” As it is seen with this quotation, because of his tender nature, because he cries with people, makes him weak in the eyes of the country folk, which again demonstrate the fact that he is being othered by the society. He himself states that he is not made for this world. He accepts the fact that he is the other in terms of handling life . There is one symbol in the story, and it is the dog Sam. Sam represents friendship for Maudit. He is the only figure in the story he attaches himself. Maudit loves this creature. He develops friendly relationship. This is because he feels he is not alone in this society. Sam cannot speak or make bad comments about his over sensitiveness. Sam just accepts Maudit as he is. They go together over fields, sleep together, which is a sign of good companionship. Maudit’s sense of isolation disappears when he is with Sam, which is the clear sign that Sam is the symbol of friendliness To sum up, Looking Back is a good story to read. It mainly, moves the reader as it has such kind of important themes and symbols as loneliness, isolation, being othered, friendship etc. These themes and symbols I think are important because they have universal touch; that is, they touch every single

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