Skepticism and Shocked with Marguerite Duras

 Hi everyone! I enjoyed reading Marguerite Duras's autobiography The Lover but was shocked and skeptical. This story starts when her whole family is together, but then her father dies, leaving her family without any incoming income, so they go to Saigon. Her younger brother becomes an accounting clerk, and her mother becomes a teacher who desperately wants her child to get an education, especially in math. This story takes place at the end of the 1920s. In my blog post, I will talk about the eldest brother, the relationship between Marguerite and her lover, and how Marguerite fantasizes about her love with her lover and wants one of her friends to experience it, even with her lover. 

In the Early pages, we understand who her eldest brother is and how Marguerite feels about him. She did not like how much her mother loved him, and because of the way he bullies Marguerite and his family, she wanted to kill him. "I wanted to kill my elder brother, I wanted to kill him, to get the better of him for once, just once, and see him die." (7). When I read that, I was shocked but could understand her hate for him. However, I don't think she should wish him to die; in my opinion, he should be punished, for example, by trying to rape the housemaid and his cruel ways. In the novel, Marguerite, her younger brother, and the eldest brother are having dinner in Sadec, and the eldest brother is putting the younger brother down, saying, "Don't overeat; that meat is mine." I was fuming when I read this because he was being rude and cruel and marking his territory. 

Marguerite says, "The story of my life doesn't exist" (8). That is about to change. 

Marguerite was 15 and a half when she boarded the ferry to Saigon for boarding school. While on the ferry, she noticed this limousine and an older man caught Marguerite's eye. He decided to talk to her and invited her into his car. The 15-and-a-half-year-old girl accepted, and his hand reached for hers in the car, and soon they were lovers. The Chinese man and the white girl had a 12-year age difference, which would be considered illegal; therefore, the man was 27 years old. One part that I was skeptical about was after they had slept together, he called her a whore and slut, which is entirely degrading. I believe she did have some control over the connection between the lovers as he would humiliatingly wait outside the high school for her, and she could choose when she wanted to see him. 

While in boarding school, Marguerite meets a friend named Helene, and she fantasizes about her body and looks. Helene is 17 then, and Marguerite distinctively describes what she looks like and how she feels about her. She wants Helene to experience what she has experienced and wants her to with Marguerite's lover, and Marguerite wants to watch. I hold no judgment towards Marguerite. She has experienced something so wonderful she wants others to experience what she has, especially her friends. This is the first time I have read a book like this with this type of circumstances in the story. 

Discussion Question: What did you think about Marguerite and how her lover made her think about life differently?