Combray
Although I initially found Combray to be rather complex and verbose, upon further reading I greatly enjoyed the author’s use of memory as a trope to help tell a story. In the end, I really enjoyed Combray, and thought that each aspect of the novel was eloquently weaved together to provide us with a detailed picture of the author’s life in Combray, which is a small French town. Within the text, the narrator recounts his experiences and observations and guides us through the landscape of Combray and the characters that inhabit it. As the narrator recounts various experiences in Combray, he experiences a series of flashbacks which help to understand the narrative. These flashbacks help to better understand the author's life and contextualize the village of Combray. The main theme of "Combray" is the idea of memory, and the involuntary flashbacks that occur as a result of various triggers. One instance of this occurring was in the “Madeleine” scene in the text. The narrator’s...