A Simple Heart Ch 4, 5: The Shortest Death

Gustave Flaubert is the kind of writer that I would like to have as friend if was going to write a book. He uses different techniques to write that even though his theme of the story might become repetitive and without action he manages to keep you interested in it by the way he writes. He likes to get to the point rather quickly without any unnecessary writing. This help in some way get the reader interested because he know that instead of describing a flower as nature's most beautiful thing where birds stop and humans eyes rest, he will just say a flower. In a part of the story he did something that really got my attention. When he was talking about Felicite he started talking about a driver and what the driver saw. According to Flaubert: "Behind her, in a cloud of dust and impelled by the steep incline, a mail-coach drawn by galloping horses advanced like a whirlwind. When he saw a woman in the middle of the road" (Chapter 4). In this part he manages to confuse the reader and later in the next paragraph he makes everything clear by telling the reader that the woman in the road was Felicite. Another thing that Flaubert does that really impressed me was when he described very important events. In almost all the stories I have read until now the scenes where a fatal injury or a very important thing happens to a character there is a lot of description. There are whole stories that are based on important events like the death of a character. In Flaubert's A Simple Heart I think I have seen the shortest description of death and big losses. One clear example of this is when Flaubert describes Madame Aubain's death by saying "her tongue looked as if it were coated with smoke, and the leeches they applied did not relieve her oppression; and on the ninth evening she died, being just seventy-two years old (Chapter 4). How can the death of one of the main characters in this story be described so simply. Flaubert is describing more her death as if it was not important and making us feel that her life was not as important as it appeared to be. I think this is a new way of describing very important events in the story making it different. I personally do not like it and it wouldn't be my choice when describing something very important but it is a good technique to use if it goes along well with your story.