THE ANALYSIS OF
GUY DE MAUPASSANT’S THE
TWO LITTLE SOLDIERS
By
Muhammad
Al-Fathaan
Summary
The
two little soldiers named Luc and Jean always spend their free time on Sundays away
from their camp. They spend their time out in the countryside. This "free
time" became their ritual thing. Every Sunday, they bring a food and wine
for their breakfast. They always came to the same spot in the woods and sit to
enjoy their food,wine, and the views of an area that reminds them of home.
One
day, their free time involves the present of a young village girl who brings
out her cow to the grass field every week at the same time when they spend
their free time. One day, the girl met them and speaks to them as she’s on her
way to the grass field. After she came back from the grass field, she shares
the cow’s milk with them. After that she leaves them and promise that they’ll
the following Sunday.
On
the next weekend, Jean suggests to Luc that they should bring something for
her. They choose candy as their present, but when the girl arrives, they are
too shy to tell her that they’ve brought something for her. At last, Luc
encourage himself to tells the girl about the treat, on the other side, Jean
who always brings the provisions, give her the bonbons.
As
the weeks pass, the two soldiers always talking about the girl when they were
in their camp. The three become a friends. The girl starts to share her
breakfast meal and seems to put and equal attention to both of the soldiers.
Then,
something unusual happen, Luc tries to leave on Tuesday and the following
Thursday. He borrows money from Jean without any explanation. But Jean still
gives him the money.
The
next Sunday, when the girl shows up with the cow, she rushes up to Loc and they
hug each other. Jean is really hurt and does not understand why suddenly the
girl turned all of her attention to Luc. Luc and the girl disappear into the
woods to take care of her cow. Jean is stunned. When they return, Luc and the
girl kissed, and the girl greets Jean and gone.
They
never speaks about the accident. When they return to the camp, they stop for a
moment on the bridge over the Seine. Jean leans over facing the water, then
suddenly fall down into the torrent. Luc can’t do anything but watching his
good friend drowns with a pain.
PLOT
Plot is the sequence of the event that make up the story, no matter if it's told, written, filmed, or sung. In the story of Two Little Soldiers by Guy de Maupassant, he used a progressive
plot to made the story. Because the story that presented just moved
along the way and never doing a flashback. This story has 3 steps starting from the
earlier step (a situation, introduction, and conflict), the middle step
(rising, conflict, and climax), and the last step (solution).
EXPOSITION
In this part, is where everything started. Because in this part is the part where the story Introduce the character or the opening of the story. This story started with two
little soldiers who served in a barrack every single day except Sunday because
every Sunday they dismissed and became their free time. Every Sunday, they
always spend their time outside the camp, to breathe some air and having their
own time together. Luc Le Ganidec and Jean Karderen are close friends,
even like a family. That’s why they always doing things together in or out of
the barrack. Exactly every Sunday, both of them go to the same way and the same
place every single time they were outside the barrack when they were free.
Before going to their favorite place, they always stop at the bridge for a
moment. Under the bridge is the Seine River. They stopped there to see
the ships on the river. After they crossed the bridge, they went to the store
to buy their breakfast. They bought provisions, cake, and wine. After that,
they entered a little forest that reminded them about the forest at Kermarivan.
From there, they always remembered their home, their family, and all the
memories they have in their home. In this part, the author tells us about how
they really missed their home using their freedom. When they free, they always
go the same way, and they remembered their home. Because they are soldiers,
they don’t always have free time, and they have their rules and must obey it.
The author tries to make the reader feel what it feels to be a soldier and far
away from home.
“Every
Sunday, as soon as they were free, the little soldiers would go for a walk.
They turned to the right on leaving the barracks, crossed Courbevoie with rapid
strides, as though on a forced march; then, as the houses grew scarcer, they
slowed down and followed the dusty road which leads to Bezons.”
“They always stopped for
a while on the bridge at Bezons, and looked at the Seine........
bending over the railing, watching the white sails, which perhaps reminded them
of their home, and of the fishing smacks leaving for the open.”
“Before
them was a plain with a few clumps of trees, which led to the woods, a little
forest which seemed to remind them of that other forest at Kermarivan. The
wheat and oat fields bordered on the narrow path, and Jean Kerderen said each
time to Luc Le Ganidec: "It's just like home, just like Plounivon."
"Yes, it's just like home.” And they went on,
side by side, their minds full of dim memories of home.”
RISING ACTION
This is the part where the
conflict is begin. The author starts to make the conflict by introducing the
girl to the story, let’s continue the story. They’ve arrived at the place that
always has been their favorite place when going out in their free time. A place
that makes them feel comfortable and relaxed while thinking about their home.
With beautiful scenery around the place, making the place even more
comfortable. Luc and Jean made a little fire from branches and roasted their
sausages using their knife. After that, they finished their bread and wine.
Leaning on the grass, looking at the sky, and relieving their stress, pain, and
fatigue. Every Sunday, they always saw a maid girl carrying a shining pail with
a cow’s milk inside it, passing them. Tall, freckled, tanned, a Parisian suburbs typical
girl. Luc and Jean didn’t have the brave to rebuke her. But that day, the woman
approached them, and the three of them talked, then the girl offered them a
milk to remind them of home. So in this part, is the part where the three of
them start to have chatted more and meet every time on Sunday. They meet at the
same place as usual, and the girl always gave them milk. One day, after leaving
the barrack, Jean said to Luc that they must bring something for her, and both
of them rushed to the store to bring something for her, but unfortunately they
are confused about what should they bring for her. So they decided to bring
candies. After bought the candies, they have their breakfast, but this time,
they ate it in hurry, because they want to meet with the girl, obviously. Jean
was the first one who spotted her and then Luc. Just like usual, they ate
together, drank together as well and Jean gave the gift that they bought
earlier to the girl, but Luc was the one that told the girl that they’d brought
her a gift. Unlike Luc, Jean didn’t have the brave to open up the conversation.
“Soon they would see the
girl, coming through the fields, and it pleased them to watch the sparkling
sunbeams reflected from her shining pail. They never spoke of her. They were
just glad to see her, without understanding why. She was a tall, strapping
girl, freckled and tanned by the open air--a girl typical of the Parisian
suburbs. Once, on noticing that they were always sitting in the same place, she
said to them: "Do you always come here?"......”
“The
following week as they left the barracks, Jean said to Luc: "Don't you
think we ought to buy her something good?" They were sorely perplexed by
the problem of choosing something to bring to the dairy maid...... and so they
went to a grocery to buy two sous' worth, of red and white candies.”
CLIMAX
In this stage, the conflict
is increased and started to blow. So,the author start it by made them met every
Sunday at the same place. One day, something’s weird happened. Luc left the
barrack without Jean’s knowing. And he did it twice, on Tuesday and
Friday. On Tuesday, Jean leave the barrack until 10 o’clock at night. On
Friday, he leaves again for several hours, but this time, he borrowed money
from his friend. Jean was confused, why would Luc do this unusual thing and why
he didn’t tell anything to Jean. He always knows what is his partner doing but,
this time he had no idea what is Luc up to.
“One
Tuesday something unusual happened to Luc Le Ganidec; he asked for leave and
did not return until ten o'clock at night. Jean, worried and racked his brain
to account for his friend's having obtained leave. The following Friday, Luc
borrowed ten sons from one of his friends, and once more asked and obtained
leave for several hours.”
The next Sunday after that
week, Jean feels something different approached him. What’s different is Luc’s
behavior. This time, Luc was kinda disturbed by the presence of Jean. But they
still went to the usual place anyway. Soon, the girl was spotted, and they were
watching the girl coming as usual, but this time something happened. When the
girl approached both of them, Luc was coming towards her, and both of them
kissed. And they didn’t care about the presence of Jean, they just continued
their things, pretended that Jean wasn’t there. Poor man Jean was standing like
a fool with confused and got his heartbroken because of that. It’s like, he
just got struck by the lightning. I mean, he just stands there and has a
thought to run away but he didn’t. He just stuck, don’t know how, and don’t
know what is he doing there. And now he knows, what is Luc doing on those 2
days of his missing.
“Soon
the girl appeared. They watched her approach as they always did. When she was
near, Luc arose and went towards her. She placed her pail on the ground and
kissed him. She kissed him passionately, throwing her arms around his neck,
without paying attention to Jean, without even noticing that he was there. Poor
Jean was dazed, so dazed that he could not understand. His mind was upset and
his heart broken, without his even realizing why.”
FALLING ACTION
The conflict is start to
decresed. Both of them went back to the barrack and passed the same way like
usual. Both of them didn’t speak, all remain silent. Just like usual, they
stopped at the Seine River. The sun goes down, as they watch the sail on the river.
Luc offered Jean a drink but he wasn’t listening to him. He still got that
“shock” from that accident.
“The
two little soldiers sat side by side, motionless as always, silent and quiet,...... Luc was
whittling a stick. Jean carried the empty bottle. He left it at the wine
merchant's in Bezons. Then they stopped on the bridge, as they did every
Sunday, and watched the water flowing by.”
RESOLUTION
This is the last part of
the story. The author put an end to this story by killed the second character
in the story, and made it so tragic. Jean just kept looking at the river, and
somehow he got hypnotized by something in the stream. And he fell into the river.
The look on his face said it all, Luc was shocked, and he tried to call someone
to help Jean, but it’s hopeless. Jean never be seen again after that. The body
was found by the boatmen. Luc came back to the barrack in hurry, and he told
everything that happened to Jean until he can’t say anything. Closed with a
tragic ending, the author trying to make the readers feel what it feels to lost
a friend, and watching your friend got drowned in the river and you can’t help
them but watching your friend died.
“Jean
leaned over the railing, farther and farther, as though he had seen something
in the stream which hypnotized him. Luc said to him: "What's the matter?
Do you want a drink?" He had hardly said the last word when Jean's head
carried away the rest of his body, and the little blue and red soldier fell
like a shot and disappeared in the water. Luc, paralyzed with horror, tried
vainly to shout for help. In the distance he saw something move; then his
friend's head bobbed up out of the water only to disappear again.”
“Luc ran back to the
barracks, crazed, and with eyes and voice full of tears,........”
POV (Point Of View)
Point of View or POV as we
know it has 3 types, First Person Point Of View, Second Person Point Of View, and Third
Person Point Of View. In the Third person point of view,
there are 2 kinds of it, limited and omniscient. In this story, the author used
Third Person Point Of View, omniscient where the narrator knows everything that happened in the story and the narrator has full access to all of the characters thoughts and feelings. And also used the pronoun of “he”,
“she”, “they” or even the name of the characters in the story. And the narrator
gave various thoughts to the characters. The narrator knows all of the
characters in the story and he made the story interested so that many readers
can easily understand the story and feel the story. Here’s an example:
“They
were sorely perplexed by the problem of choosing something to bring to the
dairy maid. Luc was in favor of bringing her some chitterlings; but Jean, who
had a sweet tooth, thought that candy would be the best thing. He won, and so
they went to a grocery to buy two sous' worth, of red and white candies. This
time they ate more quickly than usual, excited by anticipation. Jean was the
first one to notice her. "There she is," he said; and Luc answered:
"Yes, there she is."”
References
Maupassant, Guy de. (1850). Two Little Soldiers. The
Entire Original Maupassant Short Stories. Translated by McMaster,
Albert Mc. Etc. Ebook Directory.
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