I am starting to like Proust, I never thought this day would come. When the program first started, reading Swann’s Way, I believed I would love the novel becuase of the praise it has recieved over the years. While reading Swann’s Way, I started to hate the discriptions Proust used to describe Combray and his use of 10 page’s to describe one flower. This past week we had a guest speaker that really showed me the way to follow Proust. Patrick, our guest speaker interpreted Proust and his writing in a positive way and he allowed me to view the characters within In Search of Lost Time, in such a way that I have not before. Before venturing into Proust’s six volume set, I had the state of mind that becuase I love the works of Hemingway and Steinbeck that I would automatically love the work of Proust; I was wrong. While talking to Patrick he opened my eyes to the way Proust uses his personal life in the same why that Hemingway and Steinbeck.

One of the main reasons I love Hemingway was becuase he took his personal life and twisted it into a way that his novels followed his life. I love the way Hemingway portray’s his feelings and put them into the words that made up his novels. When I starting reading Proust, I believed he was nothing like this but then as I finished Swann’s Way and began Within a Budding Grove, Patrick helped me see that Proust, in his own way, is similar to Hemingway and his writing style. Proust took his personal life and his feelings and put them into his novels. This is what I love and what I am looking for. When I finally finished Swann’s Way I was realieved but then I felt a sense of relief when I started reading Volume II because it was finally what I had been looking for when reading Proust.

While continuing to read In Search of Lost Time, I am finding that I’m starting to understand why Proust uses the specific diction and phrases he does. I hope to continue to enjoy and question Proust in everything he does.