Madame Bovary

So far, I am enjoying Madam Bovary. It is easy for me to read from it because I have been able to find many similarities between the plotline and my life. Say, the beginning of the book. It is about a new kid in school, on how he feels and everyone laughing and mocking at him. He is shy and quiet, and all he does is work, and himself from the rest of the class. This kind of applies to me because I’ve been the new kid about two times, and it’s always the same, some kids making fun of you, and if not yourself, behaving like a castaway. Later on in the book, the author, first first person and then third, moves on telling the story about the shy new student. Turned out—and I didn’t expect it—that this kid was the main character, or the main character of the chapters I read. It is enjoyable to read how this same person changes as he grows and how everyone that he meets and everything that happens to him affect him.

About the style, it’s sort of complicated, but I enjoy the descriptions, similes and symbolism that the author uses, because it helps me visualize the characters and the setting a bit more. The plotline also reminds me of a book I read at the beginning of 8th grade, which was La Casa de Los Espíritus, by Isabel Allende. It also talked about the life of a family, in different generations, and how they got married, and their social lives. The setting though, is totally different (colonial Chile and France).

I really want to finish the book, because I feel like I really need to know the end, and all that will happen to the characters. I want to know why the book is called Madame Bovary, because so far they haven’t mentioned her as much as Mister Bovary. Also, I want to know, whether the author is in the story (first person) or not, because at the beginning he/she was. These are questions that I think about often as I go through the book.