Fiction to book Life Before Us - Essay Example

Human Experiences and Dignity Outline Introduction 2. Analysis of human condition 3. Themes 4. Conclusion Introduction Human beings go through various experiences in life; some due to unavoidable circumstances. It may lead to taking desperate measures to achieve certain dreams or goals. However, taking desperate measures should not be taken. Humans should aim at maintaining their dignity and self worth. They should have a clean record of their track. In case of a jobless man or woman who needs a job, they should not allow themselves misused.

Some give in to the pressure of getting favours through prostitution, which is not morally acceptable because it sets a bad example to young ones and lowers human dignity. The life before us tackles views on human conditions (Romain 128). Prostitution runs across the whole book, which helps us in developing the themes and show the characters. Human dignity has been maintained and some selected characters have brought this out. The help of this book and other sources has written this essay. They have helped highlight various literary devises.

This essay highlights human conditions as witnessed through experiences of abandoned child of a prostitute. This work is an analysis of Romain Gary’s book, the life before us. Analysis has been done on how the characters of this book have been used to effectively show experiences and human dignity, yet having a high sense of humour. It is a familiar text applicable in any context in the society. It serves as a tool for educating and having anaesthetic values due to the diverse language used.

Analysis of the Experiences Mohammed (Momo) a young abandoned Arab lives with an ex-prostitute, Madame Rosa who is a Jew living in constant fear of the French Government. Momo goes through a period of trauma where he feels he lacks parental love, although it is not that he is mistreated. Other children who live with him are occasionally visited by their prostitute mothers and brought for certain gifts. However, Momo sees none of these from her own mother. She never visits him and only sends money order for his up keep.

He feels deprived of maternal love, which makes him seek attention negatively. He shits in the house and throws tantrums. He refuses to eat and even fakes convulsions and stomach upsets all in an effort to make his mother feel sorry for him and come to visit. He even steals eggs from the shops so that he is punished by a woman, the same way mothers do. All these are in vain, as Madame Rosa gets infuriated and tells him his mother would not love that misbehaviour. Momo is a child who needs his mother, to feel him, to show him love and even reprimand him like other children.

He struggles for attention for love and each time someone shows affection towards him, he cannot help feeling emotional and wishing for a mother (Romain 58). This child grows up to love Madame Rosa like his own mother. When a certain woman who wore mini-skirts is kind and lures Momo to be his child, Madame Rosa gets offended because she brought up Momo with love. She feels Momo is ungrateful which was actually true because he had second thoughts. Madame Rosa is an ex-prostitute. She however is not reckless, brings up all the children with love, and gives them a home.

When Momo comes to learn that she is paid to take care of him, he gets very sad and even runs away to Monsieur Driss’s restaurant. He then asks him if one can live without love and when his reply was a yes, he cried the more. He felt he could no longer live without love because he thought Madame Rosa’s love was bought and not deep from within. This is ironical because love cannot be bought and even when Momo’s mother stopped sending money, Madame Rosa still loved him. Momo then learnt and saw how she loved him and he loved her too.

When Madame Rosa becomes sick, it worries Momo big and even cries at the thought of losing her. Dr. Kitz consoles him that death was normal. Momo is a responsible child and this is seen when he is the one who is instructed on how to take care of Madame Rosa. He is even trusted and told everything about the disease Rosa had. This is because Madame Rosa had brought him up well. He is a mature child who handles himself well and many women admire him and call him darling. Dr. Kitz is also fond of him and so it is Monsieur Hamil who sold Persian carpets.

He stands out to be better than other children who lived with Madame Rosa (Romain 152). It brings out the fact that his mother abandoned him but he still grows up well and becomes an admirable character. Themes The novel brings out the theme of prostitution. Madame Rosa herself was an ex- prostitute and the children who lived with her are of whores who pay for their upkeep. The women visit their children occasionally especially when not busy. This has resulted in the children being deprived of maternal love, a factor that makes the children feel incomplete.

The profession of their mothers traumatizes them because it is not a descent job. It leads to loss of dignity and self worth. The writer portraits France as a country full of whores and the men are addicted to sex, making the business of prostitution almost “normal”. There is conflict in this novel between various characters. First, there is conflict between Momo and Madame Rosa, especially when Momo wanted to see his mother. He seeks attention using crude methods that are not pleasing to Madame Rosa.

Secondly, there is conflict between Madame Rosa and the whores who fail to send the money for their children’s up keep. Madame Rosa is forced to use her own money, which is not enough to sustain the children. She sometimes abuses the children e.g. the Vietnamese child. There is also conflict between the French Government and the Jews, which results to violence. Some Jewish women are drugged in a clothing shop and shipped away to slave market. Racism has been addressed in the book where some races have been seen as lesser.

Madame Rosa abuses some children from other countries and thinks all Arabics are syphillic, which is prejudice. Monsieur Hamil wears gray djellaba, not because of the reason he gives but because he seeks an identity (Romain 186). Racism has resulted to broken families. Monsieur Hamil remembers his past life with his woman. Children who live with Madame also, lack families and an identity make her proud and the children feel alienated. The book’s setting in France brings out well these things and helps develop the book from the beginning, middle and the end.

Momo also lives in a house of an ex-prostitute a setting that effectively brings out characters such as Monsieur Driss, Le Mahoute, Banania, Madame Lola among others. Conclusion It is therefore evident that human dignity has been maintained. Despite being abandoned, Momo still grows up well. He learnt that his mother was a prostitute but it did not make him a lesser character. It instead challenges him and he becomes a responsible boy. He also lives with an ex-prostitute who instils values in him and not vices.

Circumstances that he finds himself in are compromising but Romain Gary’s book still manages to bring up the maintenance of human dignity and maintain a sense of humour through the experiences. Works cited Romain, Gary. The Life Before Us: ("Madame Rosa"). The New York: New Directions Pub. Corporation, 1986. Print.