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11 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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The Themes
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Heroism
Anti-heroes Confronting evil Forgiveness Loneliness Appearance and Reality |
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Heroism
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Before they even go to war, LaSalle is a hero to the kids of the Wreck Centre.
Francis is something of a peacetime hero as well – by becoming table tennis champion The scrapbook kept by the ‘Strangler’ at the St. Jude’s club contains newspaper clippings about all the ‘heroes’ of Frenchtown The Silver Star is the only medal awarded for ‘heroism’, we are told. Both LaSalle and Francis have been awarded this medal |
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Key Quote on Heroism
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Francis: ‘I was impatient to reach the age when I could join them in that great crusade for freedom.’
Francis: ‘He had been a hero to us long before he went to war.’ Francis: ‘Nothing glamorous like the write-ups in the papers or the newsreels. We weren’t heroes. We were only there.’ |
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Heroism
Heroes as victims |
The novel presents heroes as victims. Their heroism does not bring them happiness.
Mrs Belander’s face ‘softened’ and she calls him ‘poor boy’ when she meets Francis because of his injuries. In the St Jude Club heroes are treated with the utmost respect. When talking about Larry LaSalle, the bartender’s voice becomes ‘formal and dignified.’ He has a scrapbook containing their exploits but he can also see the reality of heroism in front of him. Arthur Rivier is surprised that Francis, a war hero with a Silver Star, should wish to remain anonymous, but it is this same respect for Francis which makes him agree to remain silent. It is noticeable that Larry welcomes the adulation of others and is happy to be a very public hero. |
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Anti-heroes
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Initially Larry is presented as an inspirational figure because of the work he does in the Wreck Centre. He is admired for the way he develops the talents of all who go there.
It is ironic that on the very night he is acclaimed by the whole town for his heroism he destroys the lives of both Francis and Nicole, two young people who regard him as a hero. But as Larry himself asks, does this flaw in his character destroy all the good he has done? Francis himself does not see himself as a hero because of his hidden motive for joining up. In fact he hates to be acclaimed a hero whether by his friend Enrico in Chapter 1, Sister Mathilde and Nicole in Chapters 15 and 16 or even Larry LaSalle in Chapter 14. In that conversation he admits that he was ‘a fake all along.’ However, we can see that he has the courage to challenge Larry and has every intention of killing him in order to expiate his guilt. |
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Confronting Evil
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Throughout the novel Francis struggles against evil. He believes that his cowardice has resulted in the suffering of the person he loves most and that an act of evil took place because he stood by and did nothing to stop it. For him, the greatest evil occurred where he least expected to find it.
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Guilt
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Francis is consumed by guilt throughout the novel.
He feels guilt at the thought that he intends to commit murder. His failure to save Nicole from Larry is an even greater source of guilt. Francis’ sense of guilt is compounded by the guilt he feels at being acclaimed as a hero when he knows he only committed his act of bravery in the hope that he would be killed. Larry is not affected by guilt |
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Forgiveness
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The theme of forgiveness in introduced in Chapter 1 where readers see Francis praying for a man who has done him harm. The religious element of forgiveness is emphasised here and again in Chapter 12 where Francis hides in the confessional at St Jude’s Church. It is as though he wants immediate forgiveness for his perceived sin of abandoning Nicole when she needed him most.
It appears to be easy for Larry to forgive himself as he does not seem to experience the sense of guilt that Francis does. For Francis self-forgiveness is harder to achieve. |
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Isolation/Loneliness
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Examine the way in which the characters struggle to communicate effectively:
Nicole’s reaction to the assault is to run away, taking her pain with her. The few words she exchanges with Francis before she leaves add to his state of despair. Francis can only return to Frenchtown as a stranger, since he is filled with self-loathing as a result of what he sees as his failure. He hates who he is so he needs to become someone else, hiding from the people he once knew. Larry returns to Frenchtown but now he is no longer surrounded by admires. He too can never recapture the past and lives alone, sitting in a rocking chair, not playing table tennis or dancing as before. Arthur feels trapped because he cannot speak to anyone about the war and feels no one cares about what he experienced. |
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Appearance and reality
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When Sister Mathilde says to Francis ‘We all have secrets’, she is in fact talking about everyone in the novel. There is a difference between how characters present themselves and the reality which lies beneath.
In the veterans’ club Arthur Rivier hides his depression after the war. Enrico Rucelli hides his despair behind a mask of humorous remarks. Francis goes to great lengths to hide his identity on his return to Frenchtown The theme of hidden identity is exemplified in the character of Larry LaSalle, about whom there have been rumours since his first appearance in Frenchtown. Nicole hides the attack from her family in order to spare them pain. |
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Cormier on Appearance and Reality
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Robert Cormier once said, ‘I really believe that most people hide who they really are and I think we all have hidden lives.’
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