Colonization
Through historical allusion ( colonization) Willa Cather updates a reader that Quebec was French’s colony, “Now for eight months the French colony on this rock in the North would be entirely cut off from Europe, from the world. This was October; not a sail would come up that wide waterway before next July. No supplies; not a cask of wine or a sack of flour, no gunpowder, or leather, or cloth, or iron tools. Not a letter, even—no news of what went on at home. There might be new wars, floods, conflagrations, epidemics, but the colonists would never know of them until next summer.” The ships are fundamental in expediting the conveyance of supplies and communication between French and its colony. The colonial allusion influences the viewpoint which a reader employs when analyzing the plot. Furthermore, it offers a clear portrayal of Quebec’s state during the colonial epoch.
Love
Cecile’s affection for Jacques is authentic and unconditional: “It was two years ago, soon after her mother's death, that Cécile had first noticed Jacques playing about the market place, and begun to bring him home with her, wash his face, and give him a piece of good bread to eat. Auclair thought it natural for a little girl to adopt a friendless child, to want something to care for after having helped to care for her mother so long. But he did not greatly like the idea of anything at all coming from La Grenouille's house to his, and he was determined to deprive Cécile of her playfellow if he saw any signs of his bad blood. Observing the little boy closely, he had come to feel a real affection for him.” In the context Lacanian psychoanalysis, Jacques is Cecile’s absolute Objet Petit a for a sibling. She adulates him whole-heartedly, notwithstanding his mother’s unappealing reputation. Cecile desires to have a younger sibling whom she can look after, and she finds the sibling in Jacques. Cecile’s maternal nature makes her Jacques’ superlative guardian for she cares for him more than his Biological mother.
