The Profound Ideas of Honore de Balzacs Pere Goriot Essay -- Balzac P

The Profound Ideas of Honore de Balzacs Pere GoriotHonore de Balzac published Pere Goriot in 1834 (1), one of the outstanding refreshfuls in his panoramic study of Parisian life, the Human Comedy. Throughout Pere Goriot, Balzacs narrator oscillates between the roles of neighborly historian and moralist. Although the presence of both observer and commentator may ab initio seem mutually exclusive, it also is a large part of what makes this novel interesting and entertaining. Balzacs readers, as flesh-and-blood humans, do not segregate perception and psyche routinely in their everyday lives. By packaging profound ideas in a focus similar to natural human expectation, Balzacs narrator achieves an peculiarly comfortable and effective rapport with readers. One of the central threads of Pere Goriot is the trading floor of Eugene de Rastignacs rise from provincial obscurity to success in Paris. Along the way he learns much about Parisian society and human nature. In the following pa ssage from Pere Goriot, Rastignac pursues success through fashionable dress Eugene had begun to advance the influence a tailor can exercise over a young mans life. He is either a mortal enemy or a friend, and alas, there is no middle term between the dickens extremes. Eugenes tailor was one who understood the paternal aspect of his trade and regarded himself as a hyphen between a young mans past and future. The pleasant Eugene was eventually to make the mans fortune by one of those remarks at which he was in later years to excel I know 2 pairs of his trousers that bugger off each made matches worth twenty thousand francs a year. Fifteen hundred and fifty francs, and all the clothes he cared to rescue At this point the poor southerner felt all doubts van... ...ank and the English mathematician Charles Babbage veritable the analytical engine, precursor to the modern computer. 2 This quote from total heat Reeds 1962 translation, pages 99-100. (Honore de Balzac. Pere Goriot. New York Penguin Books, 1981) 3 The emphasis is mine. 4 Daedalus was a great discoverer in Greek mythology who escaped from prison with his son, Icarus, by flying forward on wings of feathers and wax. Not heeding the advice of his practical father, Icarus dared to fly close to the known sun. The wax wings melted, and Icarus plunged to his death in the sea below. 5 A corollary is that no one who hasnt been to the provinces knows a thing about human life, for a person who lives only in the city will also have a skewed perception. Work CitedHonore de Balzac. Pere Goriot. Translated by Henry Reed. New York Penguin Books, 1981.