Story 1: The age of discretion
A story about growing old, about realizing that you have grown old. The heroine is faced with her age, her life is changing. She is retired, her only son has left her home and turned into a man she is disappointed in. Her husband has grown old too. There will no more be any excitment, any adventure, any new discoveries. Even her body is failing her, because she is no more young.
In her disappointment with her only son, she reminded me of another of Simone's heroines, Anne Dubreuilh in the The Mandarins. It was a great book to read. Both heroines had a disappointment in their children. Both didn't know how to communicate their love, only seeked to control and was disappointed when the mold of their child turned out into another shape, a shape too mediocre for their taste.
This short story is gloomy and sad to read but true. We feel the same but time pass and we are no more the same. It is about growing old, which is my own nightmare. I look to the horizon, every day thinking how will it be when I don't have so much still to achieve. How can take the day as good as it gets. Can I live through this peacefully. At 35, I am afraid of 65. But I think this will help me figure out how to deal with 65.
If I live to 65, I am preparing for that from now. I want to live a life and enjoy its end. I am not letting myself grow into an old grumbling lady. I will find a peaceful way.
In her disappointment with her only son, she reminded me of another of Simone's heroines, Anne Dubreuilh in the The Mandarins. It was a great book to read. Both heroines had a disappointment in their children. Both didn't know how to communicate their love, only seeked to control and was disappointed when the mold of their child turned out into another shape, a shape too mediocre for their taste.
This short story is gloomy and sad to read but true. We feel the same but time pass and we are no more the same. It is about growing old, which is my own nightmare. I look to the horizon, every day thinking how will it be when I don't have so much still to achieve. How can take the day as good as it gets. Can I live through this peacefully. At 35, I am afraid of 65. But I think this will help me figure out how to deal with 65.
If I live to 65, I am preparing for that from now. I want to live a life and enjoy its end. I am not letting myself grow into an old grumbling lady. I will find a peaceful way.
Story II: The monologue
I could really read it thoroughly. I was so distressed trying to get through its pages. It felt like being yelled at. I felt that that woman was shouting at me, fighting with me. No, indeed I felt I was in the mind of a crazy woman who feels she had always been victimized in her life and she feels hopelessly abandoned. I ran through the words, skipped paragraphs and pages just yo reach the end and feel a closure to this fight of a story.
Story III: The woman destroyed
This is a masterpiece. A painful painting of a woman destroyed by fatal love. In my opinion, Simone drew out a picture of all her fears in this short story. She never married the man she loved, because she was afraid she will be destroyed by that marriage. She wanted to keep her independence and keep him free too. She was afraid she will lose him if she captivated him into a marriage. A strange unnatural notion but it worked for them well but won't work for all.
Monique, in The woman destroyed, lived an assumed happy life. She believed she was happily married to a man who loved her for twenty years and still does. She believes she is a good mother with happy daughters. She sees the future at forty-five as harmonious and peaceful as can be. Suddenly, everything change. Her life is shattered inside out. Like a crumbling autumn leaf under her feet, her history and future crumpled and shattered into million pieces at her feet. It is painful to hear, see and feel her pain. She mistrusts her judgement and intelligence. She loses all self-confidence. Why all that? Because, she did what Simone is so afraid of, she gave herself totally into that marriage. She took her husband, her marriage, her daughters for granted. She overlooked small details and even her memory of things we are not sure of now after an incident that questioned them.
Maybe Monique was wrong, but the other way around is not the solution too. Maybe there can be marriages that survive forty and fifty years and keep intact. I think this needs to keep up the work and development, to keep questioning and curious about each other. Taking a marriage for granted is the worst thing, because you slip into a make belief. You no more want to see the truth but only the image that most make you comfortable and happy.
That's what jWoman has to say for today.
This is a masterpiece. A painful painting of a woman destroyed by fatal love. In my opinion, Simone drew out a picture of all her fears in this short story. She never married the man she loved, because she was afraid she will be destroyed by that marriage. She wanted to keep her independence and keep him free too. She was afraid she will lose him if she captivated him into a marriage. A strange unnatural notion but it worked for them well but won't work for all.
Monique, in The woman destroyed, lived an assumed happy life. She believed she was happily married to a man who loved her for twenty years and still does. She believes she is a good mother with happy daughters. She sees the future at forty-five as harmonious and peaceful as can be. Suddenly, everything change. Her life is shattered inside out. Like a crumbling autumn leaf under her feet, her history and future crumpled and shattered into million pieces at her feet. It is painful to hear, see and feel her pain. She mistrusts her judgement and intelligence. She loses all self-confidence. Why all that? Because, she did what Simone is so afraid of, she gave herself totally into that marriage. She took her husband, her marriage, her daughters for granted. She overlooked small details and even her memory of things we are not sure of now after an incident that questioned them.
Maybe Monique was wrong, but the other way around is not the solution too. Maybe there can be marriages that survive forty and fifty years and keep intact. I think this needs to keep up the work and development, to keep questioning and curious about each other. Taking a marriage for granted is the worst thing, because you slip into a make belief. You no more want to see the truth but only the image that most make you comfortable and happy.
That's what jWoman has to say for today.
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