Alain-Fournier's

A detailed Summary of Alain-Fournier's

In Alain-Fournier's novel, Le Grand Meaulnes, several key characters played intricate roles within the development of the novel. The two main characters, Meaulnes and Seurel, pass a majority of their time through reliving Meaulnes' adventure he had one day. The two males try to live their lives according to the adventure and the risks that were taken, as well as trying to relate the adventure to other children who had no basis for comparison, which proved to be a very difficult task. One character, Yvonne de Galais, played a very intricate role in the procession of the plot. Yvonne's role was multi-faceted. She played the sought after woman that Meaulnes had met, and she was also a reason for living and trying to escape the town in which the to boys had lived. Yvonne was also a fantasy. Meaulnes had known her for a very short time, but as a young boy he imagined himself being with her for the rest of his life and trying to find her proved to be a difficult task, even f!

To answer on of the questions at hand, Yvonne de Galais' is a tragic pawn in a male fantasy of romantic self-fulfillment. Meaulnes, the day he was at the estate of Yvonne, spent what to him seemed like an eternity with her, whe

giving the orders on that particular day. He shows this when Fournier says on page 65, "Augustin begged her to stay for a moment. His manner was awkward but in his voice there was so much perturbation that she listened, and walked along more slowly." When you truly love someone, you hold them on a pedestal, and you don't exactly know what to say or what to do when they are in your presence. This is what is happening to Meaulnes. He is scared that he might say something that will offend Yvonne, his fantasy woman, and she would run away and they would never speak again. However, Yvonne did stay and cared about what young Meaulnes had to say to her. While he was in her presence, he became very conscious about what he said and how he went about saying it. This is evident on page 66 when Meaulnes states, "'The name I gave you was a more beautiful one.'" Yvonne replies by saying, "Really? And what was it?" Meaulnes refuses to say what he really thought her name was because!

t the days of old, and by doing this hoping that nothing has changed. Yet, the two of them have grown up and Yvonne's estate is not the way that Meaulnes remembers it. Meaulnes would converse with Yvonne in the same manner as he did when they were children. Fournier says, "Meaulnes kept going back to the past and all its marvels. And at each evocation the tortured girl could only repeat that everything had vanished: the strange and complicated old house pulled down; the lake drained and filled in; the children and all their gay costumes dispersed..."(p. 155) Everything that Meaulnes once remember and fascinated him about Yvonne has disappeared and not been around for year, and this disappoints him because he wants to relive that day with her the day of their "outing" in the river. On page 157, Fournier states, "Why was le grand Meaulnes at that moment like a stranger, like a man who has failed to find what he sought and for whom nothing else held any interest? Three years!

he was afraid that he had offended her in some way or another, so he kept it to himself. These few lines above show that Meaulnes really did care about the girl, because he was afraid to offend her in any way possible, and if he did, he felt very bad about it. Although Yvonne was apparently a very beautiful young woman, Meaulnes treated her like a fantasy

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1569
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous