Happiness - “The Mysterious Estate”
Alain-Fournier expounds, “Between two white posts, at the corner of the wood, Meaulnes found the entrance to an avenue and started down it. After a few steps, he paused, astonished, overcome by a feeling that he could not explain. Though he had been walking with the same tired legs and the icy wind was freezing in his lips, at times taking his breath away, none the less an extraordinary feeling of contentment raised his spirits, a feeling of perfect, almost intoxicating tranquillity: the certainty that he had reached his goal and that henceforth only happiness awaited him.” Meaulnes' aspiration is to attain happiness. Accordingly, fatigue does not discourage him from pursuing it. His optimism emboldens him to defy exhaustion and other obstacles which could impede his happiness. The serenity which he enjoys mitigates the damping effects of exhaustion.
Memories - “The Boarder”
Francois recalls, “And if I try to visualize the first night that I had to spend in my garret, between the first-floor storerooms, what I recall are actually other nights: I am no longer alone in the room; a great, restless, friendly shadow wanders back and forth along the wall. This whole, peaceful landscape – the school, Old Martin's field with its three walnut trees and the garden, filled every day from four o'clock onwards by visiting women – is forever enlivened and transformed in my memory by the presence of the person who caused such an upheaval in our adolescent years and who, even after he had gone, did not leave us in peace.” Francois’ remembrance of his family’s arrival at Sainte-Agathe surmises that his life at the school is utterly remarkable. Francois manages to pinpoint the specific incidents which made his stay there remarkable from the day they arrived there. Sainte-Agathe is engraved in Francois’ memory because it is contributory to his childhood memoirs.
