Proust- the now empty man

“Combray” by Marcel Proust is easily a book that can be understood and interpreted in many ways. First I will begin by saying that I did not enjoy the writing structure of novel, the long and extreme descriptive writing made it hard to follow the narrative at some points. In the first part alone, many characters were thrown into the mix (what felt like one per two pages) which made it hard to follow as well. However, I did enjoy how much you were able to experince the author’s reflection of Combray. It was like you and the author were there for the first time.

To be quite honest, throughgout reading I began pondering why we were reading the novel. Specifically, why this was assigned as our first novel. Trying to figure out the meaning behind the novel, I struggled. From the outside, the novel simply follows a man reminiscent on his youth. Although, I did notice a great emphasis on the author, his time at Combray, and most of all, his mother.

The narrator desribes a boy who in his time at the lovely Combray, remembers most of all, the deep love he felt from his mother’s goodnight kisses. The boy can be desribed as having an ailment, an unexplainable and bothersome psychological issue in regard to needing his mother to send him off to sleep every night. The father throughout the novel is seriosuly angered by this, giving the boy hell for needing his mother to leave the guests. But at one point, he finally lets his son be, claiming the boy will simply make himself sick if he is deprived of his goodnight kisses. It seems the boy sees other guests in his Aunt’s home to be a threat, such as M.Swann, keeping his mother up late for coffees and desserts when all the boy wants is his goodnight kisses. While the author describes Combray, and all it has to offer in its beauty as a wonderful experience, what stuck with me most was the distraughtness, stress, and strong desire for affection. While being attached to your parent at a young age is not uncommon, it is clear that this was becomming a concerning matter. So concerning, that the boy in his adulthood is fixated on this memory of his mother at Combray.

Fast forward to present, the man has a bite of a madeleine, a cookie once present at Combray, and is once again thrown back into the memory of his mother. To me, this novel follows a man who is need of deep, pure connection, and ultimately may deal with depression, possibly affecting his idea of an intimate connection. The man is stuck reminiscing in a time that brought him great joy and warmth, and is unable to move on from this memory. The man may live in isolation, and must lack the form of love he once had from his mother. It is clear the man, who was once a boy, is one who needs geniune connection to thrive, and has been struggling through life without this.

What about the author’s obsession with his mother’s kisses had him so distraught as a child? Why does the kisses mean the most to him?