Transition to Adulthood: Conflict and Self-Discovery

Extract

[...] - Repetitions ("life is not joyful, life is not a novel" / "Every day, lunch, dinner; every day the dishes"). - Enumeration of feminine activities: washing the dishes, washing plates, drying them, scrubbing pans, peeling vegetables? - Time = small grey squares all identical. - The monotony anguishes the narrator (pitied / anguished / desolate / dismal?). B. The questioning of the absence of perspective and meaning in adult life. - All of this makes no sense ("these hours endlessly repeated ? nowhere"). - Refusal of all of this since my birth? what's the point?"). III. [...]

[...] Transition to Adulthood : A. The physical and existential evolution of the narrator. - From the very first sentence: "My body was changing; my existence too: the past was leaving me". Use of the imperfect tense = ongoing change. - Physical change ("old photographs") and mental (reflection on the future). - Existential questions (would I live like this? / what's the point?). B. The loss of childhood references and relationships. - Events / changes: moving had moved"), departure of loved ones ("Louise had left", Grandfather was very old, he would die; the estate would belong to my uncle Gaston?") . [...]

[...] - Opposition between "somewhere" third paragraph and "nowhere" second paragraph. - would do it" = narrator is determined. B. Building a Future Project and Fighting Uncertainty. - She continues to look for herself ("Astronomy, Archaeology, Paleontology ? the intention to write"). - She lacked confidence in herself ("But these projects lacked consistency, I didn't believe in them enough to envision the future with confidence"). - The expression "mourning of my past" shows a narrator's guilt who, despite everything, does not dare to do different things. [...]