A Simple Heart-Flaubert

A note before I talk about Flaubert.......I am flying out for Milwaukee this afternoon!  YAY!  I will make sure to write and post pictures.  I will be back next Saturday. 

I read one of my favorite stories again the other night because it had been a while.  It’s called "A Simple Heart" by Gustave Flaubert; it was published in French in 1877.  If you have ever read "Madame Bovary", this story is in direct relation to that novel. 

The story is about a young servant girl, Félicité, who has a very pure heart and loves God.  She is obedient in every way imaginable and she lives a simple life by serving others.  Not only does she serve them, but she does it with a happy heart.  She is extremely loving and obedient and doesn't expect anything in return from God or anyone else on the planet.  She is trusting and naive to the ways of the rest of the world is; she is good and pure.  She once has her heart broken by a guy we would refer to today as a "player" and she immediately cries out to God to help her in her despair.  She brushes herself off and ends up working for a widow with two young children and she adores them and is truly happy.  The love she has for the children helps her mend her heart.  She saves the children from being killed by a bull later in the story, but of course then blows it off later as if it is no big deal.  She loves everyone even when she should probably be upset with the way they are treating her.

Félicité is a devout Catholic and cries when she thinks of what Jesus went through on the cross, yet she understands nothing of the doctrine. (This makes you question religion and you could ask “if you get the message, which is grace and forgiveness, do the man-made rules of the church matter?”)  Her education in general is very simple, like the rest of her.  She believes and she lives as she should according to the Bible, and she analyzes nothing because she is simple and obedient.  Because of her lack of education and simple heart, she often gets taken advantage of, but she doesn't realize it.  The reader totally sees it, but Félicité does not. 

I’ll speed things along.  She goes through more hardships throughout her life and eventually ends up loving a parrot named Loulou.  It ends up dying.....just her luck.  At the end of the story, she is on her deathbed. 

Now, on one hand, if you read a lot of literature about the story, people will say things like "Oh, Félicité lived a simple life, but she received love in the end and blah blah blah.  She is the definition of a beautiful soul and although she lived a plain life, it held great meaning."  This is all true.  However, I read the story a little differently and my World Lit professor, back in the day, agreed with me.  Plus, Flaubert isn’t that simple, in my opinion. 

On her deathbed, she thinks back to her façade of an engagement and how she was treated in general and she feels pain.  She begins to catch on to all of the crappy things that people did to her; they flood over her.  It's like it finally dawns on her that she was stupid and naive and sees the world for how it really is.  She realizes this, which is so sad to read, and then she dies.  Long story short, she sees her parrot fly over her as she enters the gates of Heaven and she feels love. 

The reason that I loved this story so much is because I have always felt that although education is the key to so much success and it solves a lot of problems in the world, you also risk losing your soul.  You have to educate people to avoid disasters and poverty and all of that, but on the other hand, can you be as simple and innocent as Félicité if you understand the ways of the world?  I think that you risk becoming bitter and cynical because there is so much evil in the world, and then you risk not being true to the word of God, which is to turn your other cheek and push onward.  Sure, you don't have to become bitter, but that's sort of what happens over time to a lot of people. 

Look at Félicité.  Could she have been as good of a person if she had understood what others were really doing to her?  Can you be?  You can choose to still be good, but she didn’t even understand it, so her heart actually stayed innocent.  Her heart was like a child's.  Actually, let’s look at a child.  They are innocent because they know nothing of the world.  Look at Adam and Eve, before Eve ate the apple from the tree of KNOWLEDGE.  They were innocent before they learned of the world.  When I read this story, I wonder, is ignorance really bliss?  If you don't know how bad people can be and how awful the world is, is it easier to be a better person and just go on with your life?  Then I wonder, do wiser people find it more difficult to be Christians?  On the other hand, Félicité knew nothing about the doctrine, and yet she still cried seeing how painful it was for Jesus to hang on that cross...this doesn’t take education to feel....it takes heart.  Are you better off not questioning religion and digging around for answers because you are smart and have a deeper understanding?  Does it matter?  Does faith have anything to do with how smart you are?  Is it easier for people with low IQ's to be good people and have stronger faith because they are simple?  Is it harder in general for people with high IQ's to believe because everything is more complicated?  Or does education not affect your heart at all?  I think it just depends.  I think it goes both ways.

I know that with everything I read and learn though, I make it harder for myself to just accept the simpler answer.  Then again, I have always been curious, even as a child.  Maybe I am just curious and that's the way God made me.  Would it be easier not to be like Alice in Wonderland, following around white rabbits and looking for answers constantly?  I guess that’s why they say to safeguard your brain, your eyes, and your ears…..you lose a piece of innocence every time you see, hear or learn something new.  If I weren't curious I would be so bored, but maybe life would be easier......