Liv Maria by Julia Kerninon: A Protected yet Authoritative Protagonist

Extract

[...] The only force that could restrain her is none other than her uncle "the only policeman on the island". The reader understands that her status as mistress of the island comes from her family. Liv Maria therefore dominates the inhabitants of the island, but it emanates from her a natural superiority. The metaphor highlights her predominance by comparing her to a star, where she would even dazzle the animal world made up "of sheep who craned their necks to look at her passer'. [...]

[...] This is what the author wants to tell us when she describes the heroine's certainly idyllic childhood but much too protected and ignorant of the outside world. Thus, Liv Maria had a wonderful childhood. The lexical field of happiness highlights this idyllic aspect: "happy"; "marveled"; "fully satisfied". The adverb "fully" reinforces her joy in driving or fishing. Her cheerfulness is reinforced by the use of the antithesis "Driving made her happy ( . ) She knew that elsewhere girls were afraid ( . [...]

[...] In fact, she was kept on the island, isolating her from the environment outside world. She became completely 'ignorant' and 'incomprehensible' of the world, as shown by the lexical field of misperception. Furthermore, the indirect object complement 'she had cried out of incomprehension' highlights her lack of knowledge of the rules, despite receiving only a fine for justified traffic. The hyperbole highlights the protection she benefited from, particularly from her uncles 'with giant hands'. A human shield separated her from the world. [...]

[...] Liv Maria took advantage of her family name to exercise her control over the island, even though she was then just a child. Her family protected her and she was able to live a wonderful youth, except that her surroundings kept her ignorant of the outside world. This excerpt portrays a young heroine ready to assert herself. She recalls the novel of Sula, in the eponymous novel by Toni Morrison where the heroine is also a young free woman who decides to leave to discover the world, evoking thus the journey of Liv Maria in Uruguay. [...]

[...] Liv Maria - Julia Kerninon (2020) - How does the author show that the protagonist is the mistress of the place and that it is a protected child? Liv Maria by Julia Kerninon, published in 2020 is an adventure novel that retraces the life of a 14-year-old teenager. This descriptive excerpt paints the portrait of Liv Maria, the heroine of the story, who has always lived on a Breton island. How does the author show that the protagonist is the mistress of the place and that it is a protected child? [...]