Imagination, inner journey, transfigure reality, escape reality, Jacques Prévert, Maurice Sendak, Max and the Maximonsters, The Little Prince, Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Saint-Exupéry, personification, symbolic encounters, human relationships, travel, lexical field, freedom, powerlessness, loneliness, adulthood, realism, childlike soul, creativity, dreaming, escapism, existential questions, reflection, personal growth, maturity, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, En sortant de l'école, On Leaving School
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Abstract
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Abstract
This dissertation explores how the inner journey and imagination enable us to transfigure reality, escape painful experiences, and reflect on existential questions.
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[...] The speaker's view of the world is an embellished and poetic one. It is for this reason that we can indeed think that the text is written from the point of view of a child. The lexical field of travel is indeed very present in the text: 'taken', 'was walking', 'its scented islands', 'sailing boat', 'leaving for Japan', 'train', 'rolling', 'guardrails', 'returns', 'all around the earth', 'all around the sea', 'all around the sun', 'On foot on horseback by car and by sailing boat'. [...]
[...] Nevertheless, the inner journey can transform the real world. First, we will study how the inner journey allows us to transfigure reality, then we will study how this transformation of reality is not necessarily free but how it allows us to answer important questions. I - The inner journey allows us to transfigure reality Imagination allows us to re-enchant the world In Jacques Prévert's poem titled 'En sortant de l'école', the child transforms a simple exit into a wonderful adventure in which a train refuses to advance on a railway because flowers have magically begun to grow on it. [...]
[...] She now feels capable of detaching herself from the gaze of others, and this undoubtedly represents a great step forward for an individual to assert themselves independently of the judgment of others. The inner journey therefore effectively transforms the real world. It is simply a matter of 'finding one's child's soul' as we say colloquially to find this formidable ability of imagination to enchant the real as we do when we are young. Prévert proves it well in the writing of his poem. [...]
[...] First of all: the character explains that he is leaving school: 'on leaving school' (verse 1). The sentence structures are also childish: big railway' (verse 'all his shells' (verse 10). The way the speaker describes the world has something childish: 'golden wagon'. He transforms the world with his child's gaze by embellishing it. A 'golden wagon' is not something realistic. Like when through personification he describes 'the sea that was walking' (verse 'the moon and the stars' (verse house that was fleeing' (verse 'spring greeted us' (verse 39). [...]
[...] Imagination allows us to escape a potentially painful reality. It allows us to take a step back from feelings of powerlessness that can sometimes overwhelm us, for example. Furthermore, imagination, which allows us to escape, also allows us to reflect. The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry, for example, through the extraordinary stories he tells us, allows us to reflect. The gallery of characters that crosses the small work are as many reflection paths on the world around us. The same is true for the young woman named Alice in Lewis Carroll's book, who returns bigger from her extraordinary adventures. [...]
