Subjective Realism In Roy And Bessette

Subjective realism and the theme of the anti-hero in both Roy and Bessette's novels are relevant to contributing the Quebecois Literature theme of social criticism of the Quebec society. This theme reflected the conditions of the Quiet Revolution where many Quebec citizens were against the province being so conservative and exposed the social hypocrisy in novels, poems, literature in general with characters such as Herve Jodoin who tries to live of life avoiding nuisance at a time there were guidelines for the Quebecois to conform to the clergy at a place where he was given the chance to do so, or do otherwise and be part of the reformation. Primarily, through exposing the audience to Herve's anti-heroic attitude, the audience recognizes that …show more content…
Before this, the audience isn't entirely sure if he was selling the banned books because he simply did not care for guidelines from the clergy or if he truly was against censorship. The young student was very different from his other customers because those customers bought the books by choice; it is the customers who chose to go against the regulations on censorship. Rather, in the situation of the student, Herve chose to sell him to book, knowing that the child would be exposed to information against the current values of the church-influenced Quebecois government. As Quebec was alienated from the rest of Canada's collective movement towards reformation, Herve was also suffering from personal alienation because his values did not align with the ones of the church. His alienation was also shown through his interpersonal communication struggles and also through the author's choice of writing the novel through a series of Herve's diary entries. He is a character who was anti-conformist (as was Quebec to Canada) in an environment full of conformists; at least, this was his assumption before realizing how many citizens of the town came to his bookstore to purchase forbidden