Guy de Maupassant "The Dust"
Novella "Pyshka" - one of the most outstanding works of the writer. Here Maupassant describes the events that took place during the Franco-Prussian War.
In one diligence he reduced the "decent" masters andthe fallen woman. Pyshka is the nickname of an easy-going girl who rode with noble gentlemen in one diligence. Detained by a German patrol, the gentlemen pushed Pyshka to an immoral act, and then, having obtained the result, they themselves condemned it.
One of Maupassant's favorite techniques is paradox. In "Pyshke" he uses it to the fullest,opposing the "virtuous" citizens of Rouen and the "vicious prostitute Pyshki (all of them passengers of one diligence), as a result of which good and evil must be exchanged (prostitutes are more moral and more principled than" high "masters).
It is not strange, when describing the passengers of the stagecoachall "positive" characters get negative ratings directly from the narrative: the wholesale wine merchant Loiseau is a fraudster; his wife is a miser; the factory owner is a greedy hypocrite.
On the contrary, Pyshka is awarded the most flatteringdefinitions: fresh, rosy, gorgeous black eyes, thick eyelashes (although here the author, as it were, pushes us to the conflict situation, he describes the gentlemen from a moral point of view, and in Pyshka it affects only her appearance, not words without speaking about her profession, or about some of its moral aspects). This contradiction of Maupassant creates a paradox as a situation exposing all participants of the trip.
Farther, development of the paradox: the hungry gentlemen are forced to speak with Pyshka, since only she has a basket of food, which she, no matter how embarrassed, shares with the high figures.
Finally, conflict, as the main part of the paradox, without which heloses all meaning. The German officer demands a Pyschka (mademoiselle Elizabeth Rousse), and she refuses (officer Prussian). Here he is! Patriotism! And then Maupassant masterfully, on several pages, described all the hypocrisy, meanness and cowardice of people who inherited the right to be elected.
To finish the story, Maupassant draws a parallel with the beginning of the trip, now everyone has food, except for Pyschka, but only sharing with her no one will, and she has only one thing - to cry.
Maupassant masterfully exploits the possibility of a paradoxical situation, unexpected turn of events. He reaches maximum amusement, using all sorts of contrasts: social, domestic, religious and, finally, moral.
I advise everyone to read this novel. Yes, you probably will not see anything new in it, hypocrisy and hypocrisy are everywhere today, but I will keep silent about patriotism, since there is almost nothing to say about it in our time. But there is one question that you should ask yourself after reading this story and for which I suggest that you read this little novel: what would you do if you were in the situation of "decent" gentlemen?
