Personal Response, explanatory and critical reactions on the book by Essay

Personal Response, explanatory and critical reactions on the book by Sebastien Japrisot 'A Very Long Engagement' - Essay Example Throughout Mathilde’s search, the reader is provided with reminders about the theme of enduring love. A Very Long Engagement starts with a chapter entitled â€Å"Saturday evening.† In this chapter, the readers are introduced to the setting, which is a French trench during World War I. The author is introduced to five men that have committed self mutilation in order to be sent home, but these men have been convicted of this as a crime. Four of the five men admit what they have done, but Eskimo insists that his injury was accidental. Each of the men’s personalities and backgrounds are provided in order to present the reader with the necessary character information. The reader is also introduced to Mathilde, the finacee of the most youthful of the men, Manech. The reader is presented to her with the sense that she will become a very important character in the book; in fact, her relationship is where the title of the book derives. The next chapter in the book entitled â€Å"Bingo Crepuscule Analysis† moves the story forward about two and a half years. The focus of the story shifts to Mathilde. Manech is now dead and Mathilde is still trying to learn about what really happened to him prior to his passing. She therefore travels to a veteran’s hospital in order to find a man who had spoken to Manech the day before he died. Mathilde’s search introduces one of the prominent themes of the novel; that of enduring love and hope. This man is Daniel Esperanza, who is dying. He informs Mathilde that Manech did not perish in combat as the death announcement had stated. What in fact did happen was that Manech planned to have his hand intentionally shot because he was so depressed by the war, and this did occur. He was then convicted of self-mutilation and sentenced to death along with the other men. These men, though, were not shot by the firing squad; instead, the men they fought with were told to th row them over the top of