1.1.1-Takethewatch

Quartrevingt-treize 1.1.1, The Wood of La Saudraie
Miraculously, I am posting about the first chapter on the first day of the read-along? I’m sure this will not last past chapter 5 but I guess I’ll enjoy this while it lasts.

So, this first chapter: This may be old old news (I am going into this absolutely blind as far as what the plot of the book is going to be), but I found it interesting how Hugo minimizes the importance of the different sides in the fighting, when compared to the human misery that fighting produces.

The chapter starts out with soldier from one side of a conflict creeping through the woods, looking for their enemies, along with a flurry of historical names that had no significance for me—so I was a little worried (hang on, I have no idea who any of these people are. Which side are the guys in the woods?  Are they the good guys or the bad guys?  Are there good guys and bad guys?  Am I in way over my head?). Have I mentioned that in addition to not knowing the plot of the book, I don’t know anything about the historical background? When people mentioned what side they were on, I paid close attention, hoping that I could catch up with what the sides were and what they were about.

But then we get this woman who knows nothing about the conflict except that it has ripped her life apart. She doesn’t understand when the soldiers ask her what side she’s on or where her loyalties lie. She doesn’t know why her home was burned down. The sergeant asks who killed her husband and she either doesn’t understand the question or simply doesn’t see its relevance:

—Est-ce un bleu? Est-ce un blanc? —C’est un coup de fusil.

For this victim of the war, the sides don’t mean anything; all she knows is that her home is gone, her husband is dead, and her children are hungry. Ironically, the blues are fighting for people just like her, people who have been oppressed by the aristocracy for generations—but the fighting hasn’t done her any good. And she doesn’t even realize that’s what the fighting is about.

And the vivandière echoes this idea in her speech about giving water to the wounded: “Wounded men are all thirsty. They die without any difference of opinions.” Such great lines in this chapter!

Commentary
Pilferingapples HELLO MY COMPANION IN KNOWING BASICALLY NOTHING HERE! HIGH FIVE! XD

A little more seriously, I wonder if that doesn’t put me more in sympathy with Michelle’s mindset than I otherwise would be. I mean, if this story were set in the American Civil War, or Revolutionary War, I’d know the broad-stroke issues, I’d have Opinions about the various factions. I’d sort of inevitably care who was shooting who here. As it is— Blues, Whites,hey, I DON’T KNOW EITHER. I am TOTALLY with her on the bafflement. What matters is that things burned down, there’s a war on, and these people I’m already pretty gone on are in imminent danger.

(well I mean that last bit happened as soon as they became players in a Hugo novel. but still.)