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Literary Works of Gabrielle War

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Gabrielle Roy was a Canadian writer, born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, in 1909. Her parents were part of the large Quebec emigration to western Canada in the late nineteenth century (Staines). During her carrier, Roy has explored diverse genres, such as autobiographies, letters, or essays. Among them, Roy's 1966 fiction The Road Past Altamont compiled four short stories. In a context where Quebec women writers, " have a commitment to feminine causes" ( Fisher), Roy's fiction retraces the life of three feminine characters: Christine, her mother and her grandmother. As she grows up in the vast Manitoban landscape, Christine, the narrator, learns, little by little, how to reunify the three generations and the two cultural heritages – Manitoban and Quebecer – throughout encounters and compromises. The Road Past Altamont approaches, throughout symbols and an incessant dialogue between the three generations, themes such as the nature, the souvenirs, the creation, the migration and so on. With the parallel analysis of the critics R. Dillman, A. Sechin and P.G. Lewis, this essay will focus on the signification of two symbols in "My Almighty Grandmother" and "The Road Past Altamont": the doll and the landscape. Therefore, this paper will show how those symbols affect the characters and the relationship between them. It will emphasize the meaning of those two symbols for the characters and in their relationship . In "My Almighty Grandmother", the doll symbolizes, first, the family. In fact, the material the doll is made of has belonged to many people of the family: “I recognized the remains of a dress that had belonged to one of my sisters, of a blouse of Maman’s, of one of my own dresses” (Roy 8). Although she does not always remember all the names of the members of her family, as she keeps asking for her grandchildren's names: "Who were they" (Roy 4), " And what is your name again?" (Roy 6) , with that process of making the doll, the grandmother can now draw all the memories attached to each member together in her mind. Therefore, throughout her gestures, she can recreate the whole family. Besides, throughout this process, the doll also symbolizes a new link between the little girl and her grandmother. Thanks to the doll, a relationship, which has not existed before, is born. Usually, the grandparents are considered as the bridge between the past and the modern time. They usually transmit knowledge to their grandchildren. And in return, the children take their parents and grandparents as models. Between Christine and her grandmother, this kind of relationship , based on sharing, has not existed before the confection of the doll. On the contrary, it was a superficial relationship that prevailed between the little girl and her grandmother. In fact, that relationship was only based on a harsh routine: "The strict daily schedule to which my grandmother held so firmly" (Roy 12-13), and on Christine's exasperation to Grandmother's obliviousness : " Christine, I told her with some annoyance" (Roy 6).The doll establishes a normal and quite deep relationship because its confection was an occasion for GM to transmit what she has learnt in her youth and for Christine to learn how people had to be deft in the old days: “When I was young, I had to get along without buying things in stores. I learned” (Roy 10). “No doubt that it was the creative talent of my grandmother that delighted me so” (Roy 10-11). Therefore, cooperation between the two characters and admiration from the little girl’s part are created little by little: “I noticed that she was beginning to associated me with her creative work and I felt prouder than ever of her talents” (Roy 11). Christine helps her grandmother to remember the names ,and at the same time, she is amazed by her talents. “You’re like God [] you can make t

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