The Form of a Brute

While reading La Bête Humaine I discovered many parallels, but there was only one that I thought captured the essence of the book (I take that back, but I like this one all the same), and that was the parallel between the train wreck caused by Flora and the train wreck that would ultimately be caused by Pecqueux. These occur in chapters X and XII, respectively. These scenes were driven by the same raw emotion: Passion. Passion is "a strong & barely controllable emotion" according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Now, consider animal characteristics...the word "beast," which has in its definition, "brutish or untamed characteristics," seems very easily relatable with passion (OED). The characters in this book, in fits of passion, often become bestial. I think Flora and Prcqueux are irrational in their behavior leading to their actions concerning the trains of passengers they destroy, as they are compromising the lives of hundreds for the sake of a couple or one person(s). Considering what was said at Lilly on Friday about Zola, it would seem to me that the author is communicating the idea that people are not bestial until they give into their passions, or loose restraint rather. There is hope for humanity, lest they let the animal within consume them. It does appear so, as on 300, after Flora has done her deed and sees Jacques and Séverine amongst the survivors, the narrator declares her feeling,"A great chill fell upon her, and she gazed at the bodies of the dead: she had killed for nothing." This remorse, though erie and half-felt, does give the reader a sense of repentance by the character. On 302, she decides to die because she had created a bloody scene and is still on the periphery of Jacques. This is a mix of self-interest with humanity. I think the novel agrees that we are both self and social concious, and the animal inside us is more related to the former. The occurrence with Precqueux is just the same, as it deals with a man, who in his jealousy tries to kill the man whom has caused it in a fit of passion; the consequence of course being a train loaded with soldiers for the front. And so it is that two stories within this tome purport a similar occurrence driven by uniform experiences: passionate ones.

I do not purport to know the true cornerstone of this novel, but it would seem to that my observation can be read into the novel. This is a first impression of a complicated and wonderful work.