Themes
The novel is a strongly existential novel, responding to the void of meaninglessness and futility presented in the novel Heart of Darkness. The characters are not consumed, but manage to oppose the darkness of an amoral and uncaring world by finding meaning in the tasks they do. They must take up these tasks to avoid the existential darkness. Despite its dark subject matter, the tone is one of hope and triumph by the end of the book.
The landscape imagery of the novel is consistently one of a wasteland. Jean Ferrero, Ninon's father, travels on his motorbike through vast landscapes and impenetrable darkness. As he nears his ultimate destination, his daughter's wedding, the landscape becomes steadily more bleak. This symbolizes that he is getting closer and closer to a void. However, even at the uttermost edge of the void, at the end of the novel, all the characters manage to find meaning.
Read more about this topic: To The Wedding
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)