Rat Man of Paris: Analysis of Major Characters
The "Rat Man of Paris" is a compelling narrative exploring the complexities of trauma, love, and redemption through its central characters. The titular character, Etienne Poulsifer, known as the Rat Man, is a tragic figure haunted by the loss of his family during the Holocaust. He survives by extorting money from passersby, using an unsettling performance involving a rat and later a fox fur. The story also introduces Sharli Bandol, a devoted grammar school teacher who becomes enamored with Rat Man and attempts to nurture him, reflecting their shared emotional vulnerabilities.
A significant antagonistic figure in the narrative is Boche, an anonymous Nazi war criminal whom Rat Man believes is responsible for his family’s demise, although he is ultimately revealed to be Klaus Barbie. Other notable characters include Madame R., a harsh caregiver from Rat Man's past, and Alphonse, a janitor who deceives Rat Man regarding Boche’s imprisonment. The birth of Rat Man's son, Charles De Gaulle Poulsifer, adds a new layer to his quest for meaning as he grapples with feelings of jealousy and a desire to shield his child from the trauma of his own past. Through these characters, the narrative delves into themes of obsession, identity, and the search for redemption in the aftermath of unimaginable loss.
Rat Man of Paris: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Paul West
First published: 1986
Genre: Novel
Locale: Paris and Nice, France
Plot: Psychological
Time: 1944 and 1983
Etienne Poulsifer (ay-TYEHN pewl-see-FEHR), the eponymous “Rat Man of Paris,” a Parisian boulevardier famous for accosting strangers and flashing, from beneath his coat, a rat (later only a decrepit fox fur that once belonged to his mother). He is an emaciated, haunted figure in his fifties who lives on the meager sum that he extorts from strangers. Orphaned when the inhabitants of his childhood village were exterminated by the Nazis, Rat Man has spent his adulthood trying to forget the war. When he sees in a newspaper that a Nazi war criminal is to return to France and stand trial for his crimes, Rat Man creates elaborate street spectacles to awaken the nation's conscience. After being shot and convalescing, Rat Man fathers a child and arrives at a new sense of meaning in his existence.
Sharli Bandol (shahr-LEE bahn-DOHL), a grammar school teacher, an attractive woman in her thirties. She meets Rat Man at a café and essentially adopts him. As she comes to love Rat Man, he is also her obsession, someone she wants to civilize and nurture with her love. In many ways, Rat Man appears to be her opposite, yet they are significantly alike in their desperate emotional need to love and be loved. After his injury, she removes Rat Man to Nice, France, where she becomes pregnant, and the two settle down to an eccentric experiment in parenthood.
Boche (bewsh), initially an anonymous Nazi war criminal whom Rat Man believes responsible for killing his parents and neighbors. Except for a description of his picture in the newspaper, Boche is present only in Rat Man's fevered mind. Eventually, the reader learns that this is not the man stationed in Rat Man's village, but Klaus Barbie.
The Spanish novelist, an anonymous figure who is described as thin, dark, and hook-nosed. Rat Man believes that this figure follows him for the purpose of later using him in a novel. Although Sharli and the reader doubt his existence, the narrator eventually reveals that he is an actual person who contemplates but then rejects Rat Man as a subject for fiction.
Madame R., a large, impatient, insensitive native of Rat Man's village who shelters him for a few years. Loud and unaffectionate, she would tie the boy to a bed for days, then berate him for soiling the sheets and hose him off with cold water.
Alphonse (ahl-FOHNS), a janitor at the Paris jail where Rat Man erroneously believes that Boche is incarcerated. For payment in brandy, Alphonse pretends to smuggle personal effects of Boche's (used tissues and clippings of hair) to Rat Man. The latter soon realizes that these effects are a hoax.
Charles De Gaulle Poulsifer (shahrl deh gohl), Rat Man and Sharli's infant son. Rat Man begins feeling jealous of the child but grows to have a sense of cool affection for him. He resolves to protect the child from the horrors that have blighted his life.