Sunday, December 13, 2015

Tonton Julian, the hidden wisdom

According to My love, my love, or the peasant girl, the story of the young Ti Moune included lots of interesting characters. Ti Moune always made me feel touched by her insistence even though I didn’t know why did she love Daniel. Mama was nice since she cared about her Ti Moune as their treasure so much. The Gods are livable since they appear to argue about Ti Moune’s future. However, the character I loved the most was Tonton Julian. Even though he was funny in the passages at first, the sentences he said were always extremely right and important among human’s philosophy. I like him, because of his love to Ti Moune, his philosophical sayings and his content in happiness.

Firstly, I knew that Tonton Julian actually loved Ti Moune so much. Even though he was being sarcastic to the Gods usually, he still agreed that Ti Moune was a treasure brought by the Gods. Since he loved Ti Moune so much, he would then agree to find Daniel’s father and went in to that dangerous forest and find his dad finally. Even he was offended or despised by Gabriel, Daniel’s dad, he still reached Ti Moune’s request. When Mama was surprised, “He didn’t ask you? And you gave him directions?” he wasn’t being angry to Daniel’s father but replied, “Mais oui. How was he to find the way?” (Guy. P54). He actually seen Ti Moune as the most important one and his emotion was strong and easily made me feeling moved.

Otherwise, he was sometimes silly, but he also acted like a philosopher. When Ti Moune wanted to leave the small village and to go to the big city to find Daniel, Tonton Julian was actually the only one who agreed. He knew that he couldn’t stop Ti Moune since the young girl has a too strong desire to find a new life, but he still tell her that, “But remember, bravery can sometimes be the mark of a fool, ma petite. The stronger the swimmer, the faster he drowns” (Guy. P62). Maybe Ti Moune would feel angry about his saying since that’s kind of offensive, but Tonton just wanted to tell Ti Moune about the real thing in real life. Also, Mama asked, “Ti Moune is our treasure, Monsieur Julian. How can we live without her?” and didn’t agree at Ti Moune’s leaving (Guy. P63). Tonton answered, “My wife, treasures that need constant watching have already been lost” (Guy. P63). He already knew that there must be a day that Ti Moune was going to leave them. Also, he knew that a treasure couldn’t stay with them for her whole life. He was deadly clever that he already knew the end so he was just happy with what he already had.

Finally, in the musical adaptation of the book, Ti Moune described Tonton Julian, “Tonton accepts what he gets, happy for tea in their cups and no holes in their nets.” For Ti Moune, this might be a reason that she wanted to leave because she always wanted to have a new life. However, in my perspective, I would describe it as the wisdom of life since he couldn’t change his life that much so that he didn’t impose or over demand anything. I would say that he was having the best attitude to face the life.


Guy, Rosa. My Love, My Love, Or, The Peasant Girl. COFFEE HOUSE, 2001. Print.

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