The Sea Wall: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Sea Wall: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the dynamics of a struggling family in French Indochina, focusing on Ma, her children Joseph and Suzanne, and Monsieur Jo, a wealthy planter's son. Ma, a widowed settler, grapples with her failed attempts to make a living from her coastal land, leading her to blame external factors for her misfortunes. Her aspirations for her children—particularly her desire to marry Suzanne off to a wealthy suitor—are central to her motivations. Joseph, her resentful son, longs for escape and harbors disdain for Monsieur Jo, who seeks to court Suzanne.
Suzanne, a sharp-witted young woman, understands the harsh realities of her life and strategically engages with Monsieur Jo despite her disdain for him, seeing his wealth as a potential means to an escape for her family. The narrative reveals the tensions between wealth, manipulation, and familial bonds, exemplified by the interactions between the characters. Ultimately, the characters navigate a web of desires, dependencies, and the search for liberation from their oppressive circumstances. The interplay of these characters provides a poignant commentary on survival and the price of ambition within the constraints of their environment.
The Sea Wall: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Marguerite Duras
First published: Un Barrage contre la Pacifique, 1950 (English translation, 1952; also as A Sea of Troubles, 1953)
Genre: Novel
Locale: The Pacific coastal plain of French Indochina and the city of Kam
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The 1920's
Ma, a widowed, eccentric settler in French Indochina who has struggled for seven years to make a worthless tract of coastal land profitable amid the annual assaults of the Pacific Ocean. Much of her strength, resolve, and sanity was broken when her attempt to build a wall to hold back the sea failed. Following the collapse of the dikes, Ma's life has been a routine of planting rice in vain and finding some person, object, or institution on which to place the blame for her misfortunes. Ma's hope lies in her two children. She worships her son, Joseph, and continually entertains the dream that one day she will be able to marry her daughter, Suzanne, to a wealthy planter. That wish comes nearest to being realized in the person of Monsieur Jo, the son of a wealthy planter who wishes to take Suzanne as his mistress.
Joseph, Ma's idle, angry, twenty-year-old son, whose one desire is to find a way off the plain. There exists a strong bond between Joseph and Suzanne, and they spend much of their day together doing what they can to avoid the oppressiveness of the heat and of their mother's ranting. Joseph is a hunter whose record with both animals and women is unmatched by the other men of the area. He does not approve of Monsieur Jo's advances toward Suzanne and does nothing to mask his disdain for the man's appearance, wealth, and lust.
Suzanne, Ma's youngest child, a pretty girl who, like her brother, is waiting for a means to escape the hopelessness of their lives on the plain. Although Suzanne is still a virgin, she is not innocent; her life has been harsh and has shown her that she can manipulate men to survive. She loathes Monsieur Jo but allows him to call on her every afternoon because in him she sees the possibility for the money that the family needs to escape its present condition. She eventually persuades Monsieur Jo to give her a valuable diamond ring as a down payment for sex. After the ring is delivered, Suzanne reneges on the agreement, dismisses Monsieur Jo, and begins with the family a journey to sell the ring. Suzanne leaves the plain with Joseph and his girlfriend following Ma's death.
Monsieur Jo, the only son of a wealthy planter, a man of little worth other than his fortune. He is not a businessman, is not socially adept, and has no ambition other than to sleep with Suzanne, whom he sees in a bar in the provincial town of Ram. The extent of Monsieur Jo's inadequacies is seen in the way that he is manipulated initially by Ma and Suzanne to promise to marry Suzanne and to subsidize the family. Ma entices him through promises of sex with Suzanne. Suzanne receives his gifts and then provides few rewards. His gift of a diamond ring is met with jeers and confessions of the extent to which his presence is detested by all the family, including, by this time, Ma.