"The War"
From “The War” by Marguerite Duras.
I chose to write about 2 quotes from the excerpt which describes Marguerite taking care of her sick husband Robert.
“The fight with death started very soon. We had to be careful with it, use care, tact, skill. It surrounded him on all sides. And yet there was still a way of reaching him. It wasn't very big, this opening through which to communicate with him, but there was still life in him, scarcely more than a splinter, but a splinter just the same” (Duras, 241)
“He ate. It was an occupation that took up all his time. He would wait for food for hours. He would swallow without knowing what he was eating. Then we'd take the food away and he'd wait for it to come again… He has gone and hunger has taken his place. Emptiness has taken his place.” (Duras, 243)
These quotes describe how sick Robert was. The first quote emphasizes how close to death Robert was. Marguerite explains that although he was very sick, there was a small part of him that was able to fight the sickness. She thought that he was going to die and describes his sickness as a “fight with death” but there was a “splinter” of hope that he would survive. The second quote explains the hunger that Robert felt when he was starting to get better. Marguerite describes his hunger as “an occupation’ because it was all he could do. She says that he was no longer himself, but that hunger had taken over him.
Robert’s sickness has such a big effect on Marguerite that when he was unable to eat or sleep, she was also unable to eat or sleep because she was scared she was going to lose him. She even mentioned the loss of her brother and her child to show how traumatic this experience was for her. While Robert was fighting for his life, Marguerite was fighting for both of them.
Word Count: 333
I like that you mentioned something about Marguerite's health as well. The fact the her husband was potentially dying because of war, but in a way she was dying as well. She had just about lost her mind goin to the train station all the time looking for people to ask if they had seen her husband or been friends with him. When he finally returned home he was so ill and she put her entire existence into taking care of him, in the meantime killing herself in a way both physically and mentally. This situation had to have been extremely tiring and taxing on her mind and body.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job of connecting how Marguerite was deeply affected by seeing Robert in such terrible condition. I think that this can give a better explanation of how relationships connect the two people that are in them. Even though Duras was fine before seeing her husband return home, his terrible condition put her in a terrible condition too. When one person suffers on a relationship, the other one feels it too and I think that is important to remember when we read these stories about heartbreak, hardship, and death because it can affect people more than they even realize.
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