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Adaptation A French Novel Zazie Dans Le Essay

¶ … adaptation a french Novel Zazie dans le Metro It is quite clear from even a cursory analysis of chapters of 18 and 19 of Raymond Queneau's Zazie dans le Metro, described as one of the most laughable books originally written in French (Vincendeau, 2011), that the author is describing the events that take place in them in a humorous way. As such, the reader can infer that the actions described in these two chapters, and probably through the remainder of the novel, are not literal and are meant to poke fun at a greater concept. The author's humor is certainly understated, which is why these chapters read more like a satire than a straightforward novel to produce an overall "fun" effect (No author, 1999). It is highly important that in both chapters, a good deal of the humor revolves around women. A closer examination of the author's diction and tone of voice in these chapters reveals that he utilizes women as points of comedy to underscore points that are decidedly more serious.

The best example of this proclivity of Queneau's is found early on in his treatment of one of four female characters in these two chapters, the Widow Mouaque. As the name of this character implies, the author closely associates her with death. Although there are a number of characters who are in fatal danger in chapter 18, she is the only one who dies. It is ironic that of all the male characters that the Widow Mouaque is surrounded with, that she takes it upon herself to solely attack the heavily armed gunmen who are coming to threaten the lives of a group that includes Gridoux, Gabriel, Turandot, Laverdure and the young girl Zazie. When she spots the lead assassin, Trouscaillon, she "showed her intention of pouncing upon the assailants" only to be "cut short by a good volley of machine gun bullets" (Queneau, 1959). The irony in this situation, of course, is that a woman would choose to singly attack a group of well-armed killers -- despite the fact that she was with a group of men (one of whom, the servant, promptly hid at the site of the assassins). Her

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money with which to bribe them, conceivably. Queneau's decision to have the widow appraise her death scene as silly reinforces the comical way in which she dies, yet also serves to underscore a far more serious point that the remaining characters are in considerable danger.
Queneau invokes another female character as a means of comedy in the 19th chapter. Jeanne Lalochere is in a hurry and is supposed to pick-up Zazie from the latter's wild affair with Turandot and the others -- the details of which are unknown to Lalochere. However, in the midst of awaking and realizing she…

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References

Armstrong, M-S. (1992). "Zazie dans le Metro and Neo-French." Modern Language Studies. 22 (3): 4-16.

McDonald, J.Q. (2000). "Zazie dans le Metro." The Thumbnail Book Reviews. Retrieved from http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~jmcd/book/revs/zdlm.html

No author. (1999). "The complete review's review." The Complete Review. Retrieved from http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/queneaur/zazie.htm

Queneau, R. (1959). Zazie dans le Metro.
Vincendeau, G. (2011). "Zazie dans le Metro: Girl Trouble." The Criterion Collection. Retrieved from http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1906-zazie-dans-le-metro-girl-trouble
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