Written by Guy de Maupassant, this short-story is set during the Franco-Prussian War. It is about the trip of ten high-class people who go from Rouen, recently occupied by the Prussians, to Havre in a coach. Mademoiselle Elisabeth Rousset, a very fat, short but attractive courtesan, is called Boule de Suif by the rest of the passengers of the coach because of her figure.
In my opinion, the main theme of the story is morality. Morality is shown the moment Boule de Suif refuses to sleep with the Prussian Officer who, according to her beliefs, is the enemy that she hates so much. In spite of the fact that she is a courtesan, she respects her moral values and, in consequence, she remains inflexible. Finally, the rest of the passengers, who first applauded her patriotic act, convince her to leave her moral values aside and sleep with the Prussian Officer so that they are free to continue their trip.
Immorality is also present in the story: at the end, the passengers do not thank her for the moral sacrifice she had to do in order to help them. In addition to this, they also stop talking and paying attention to her since they consider the courtesan to be unclean.
To conclude, I think that people who leave their ethical principles to one side for the good of someone else deserve much better than those who don’t have ethical principles at all.
1 comment:
You have very good comments, and thank you for posting such a review for this story, i recently read it and completely agree with you, if you would, could you also discuss such stories as the one in the written collection, about the child and the horse, i found it a sad story and would be happy if anyone else had found something more uplifting than I did
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