Andrea Allen
4/21/15
Pg. 504-506

The narrator at this time is a hormone driven teenage boy at this point in our reading and he has just stumbled upon a group of beautiful girls. Walking effortlessly with their “perfect suppleness,” perfect meaning entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings and suppleness as being capable of or showing easy or graceful movement. The narrator then states that the girls had a sincere “contempt” for the rest of humanity. Which tells us that the narrator believed the girls considered themselves better than the rest of humanity and our narrator. He described their movements as being as polished as the waltz. Once they come closer to the narrator he starts to differentiate them apart. One girl in particular sticks out to our narrator, she has a straight nose, and dark complexion and reminds him of an “Arabian King in a Renaissance picture of the Epiphany” (p.505).
When one looks up the Renaissance picture of the Epiphany you can understand what the narrator was trying to explain. In each photo the Arabian King or “baby Jesus” is the focal point, normally surrounded by many wise men, his mother Mary, a glowing Halo encircles his head and brings your attention directly to him. The author always refers to art and music throughout his books in a way for his readers to have a visual example of what he is writing and it gives us a glimpse of how it relates personally to him. Proust was an art and music enthusiast it is through his love for art and music that he refers to paintings or music in almost every passage.
The Narrator goes on to say that the girl’s “obstinate and mocking eyes…or cheeks who’s pinkness had a coppery tint reminiscent of geraniums.” Is what made her stand out from the rest of the group and that he had not permanently or “dissolubly” attached to anyone of the other girls rather than the other as each one passed and caught his eye. He continues by saying, the most different aspects or appearances of the girls were “juxtaposed” which means connected because all the color scales were combined in it when he saw them coming towards him in order they all seemed to blend back together, which confused him like a piece of music in which he was unable to isolate or identify. Before he becomes too confused the oval black/green eyes emerge and once again catch his attention even though he is unsure if it is the same girl. He is unable to relate them or draw boundaries between them and they flow past him reforming into a “collective and mobile beauty.”
When the girls pass him, he can’t help but wonder if they choose such beautiful friends for a reason. These girls to him seem confident and sure of themselves, he thinks them shallow and unable to ever find companions their age who are sensitive, shy or pensive attractive. The narrator is clearly explaining all his personal traits and how these girls would never think to look twice at him. Throughout the last book “Swann’s Way”, the narrator, even as a child had self-esteem issues. He seemed to be extremely close to his mother and had very little friends. He mentioned numerous times that he does not think himself as attractive or a good writer. When he starts to grow up and becomes a teen his insecurities about being shy and awkward surface more and more.
He begins to have a short imaginary introduction to these girls but instead of them finding him intellectual and moral, the girls think he is antipathetic or barbaric and aloof or detached. He pictures them attaching themselves to a straightforward and attractive character who promises them hours of pleasure. Once the narrator’s imaginary scene has played out, He begins to think about the class in which these fascinating girls belong too.
However back in the late 18th and early 19th century capitalism, commodities and progress started to emerge and instead of your family name determining your worth, your wealth, career and character determined your worth, also at this time classless societies and physical culture started to evolve. The author goes into a detailed passage about how it was hard to distinguish what class the girls belonged too and how “physical culture which had not yet been added the culture of the mind, a social group comparable to the smooth and prolific schools of sculpture which have not yet gone in for tortured expression, produces naturally in abundance fine bodies, fine legs, fine hips, wholesome serene faces, with an air of agility and guile. Ending with the girls reminding him of calm models of human beauty outlined against the sea, like statues exposed to the sunlight on a Grecian shore.
What these passages mean to me is that as the narrator grows older and approaches his adolescence he is becoming more aware of his insecurities about love, romance and woman. He labels himself and invalid and someone who is not worthy of a beautiful lady or her love. He mentions numerous times throughout both books his illness and how it isolates him from society and having a “normal” life. He is no longer in the comforting arms of his mother or Combray and he is beginning to see the world around him change from class driven societies into capitalistic societies. He is excited yet terrified of this new place and these new people he is starting to encounter.