THE BIBLE AND MYTH IN
ANTONINE MAILLET'S
PÉLAGIE-LA-CHARRETTE

Paul G. Socken

The parallels between Pélagie's return to Acadia from exile in Georgia and events in the Hebrew Bible are striking and revealing. The story is the Biblical account of the exodus in a modern context enhanced and reinforced by elements of mythology.

The many similarities to the Biblical account are in some cases direct, in others, indirect. I propose to make these parallels clear and to suggest associations with some major motifs of world mythology in order to show how the dominant theme and images confer a larger--possibly universal--meaning on the narrative.

The novel represents the fusion of chronological time (Acadian history) and mythical time (the eternal cycle of perpetual life), and of Biblical imagery and that of ancient mythology. So too there is fusion on a spiritual level of the profane and the sacred, as the Acadians are portrayed as deceptively irreverent, for their rebirth reaffirms the principle of destiny and divine mission.

The general structure of the narrative loosely follows the Biblical text. The first chapters introduce us to Pélagie, Bélonie and the other characters, describe their situation, and establish the purpose of their journey, just as Genesis describes the Patriarchs and their times and points to an historical mission. The novel then proceeds to chronicle the journey itself, including the fighting and rebellion, corresponding to the "deliverance" and "apostasy" of Exodus. The remainder of the novel, except for the last two chapters and the epilogue , concerns the consolidation of the wanderers into a people, parallelling the same phenomenon in Leviticus and Numbers. The final part narrates Pélagie's address to the people, her death and her people's arrival in Acadia, as Deuteronomy recounts Moses' invocation to the Israelites, his death, and the arrival in the Promised Land.

Pélagie-la-Charrette, like the Bible, operates on two levels--those of sacred text and historical document; that is, the novel affirms elements of faith which are shared by a people and purports to be historically accurate. As sacred text, both are imbued with ritual, embody symbolism and imply a mission or destiny.¹ As historical document, they are rooted in time and place and chronicle real events.

In the novel, credibility is established on an historical level. Bélonie is the "historian" whose recollections and story-telling form an important link between the Acadians and their past. Pélagie III, called La Gribouille, insists on the historical accuracy of the account of the Acadian return as the basis of the people's revival: "la seule histoire qui compte . . . c'est celle de la charrette qui ramenait un peuple à son pays."²

In the Bible, too, great pains are taken to establish the authority and veracity of the text. The tone is one of unquestionable fact and historical record: "These are the stages of the children of Israel, by which they went forth out of the land of Egypt . . . and Moses wrote their goings forth, stage by stage" (Numbers 33:1-2).³

In addition, both texts rely on lineage to validate their claim to historical accuracy. Throughout, parentage, descendants and ancestors are a constant preoccupation: "Il n'avait rien perdu de son vieux fonds gaulois, le Bélonie, sorti de Jacques, sorti d'Antoine, sorti de Paris au temps des chansons et contes drôlatiques" (83). The words génération, lignée, ancêtre, and aïeul all appear on a single page (34). Enumerations concerning lineage abound in the Bible. Genesis 10 lists the generations of the sons of Noah; Genesis 22:20-24, those of Abraham's family; Genesis 25:19, the generations of Isaac; and Genesis 36, the generations of Esau. This is an important device that runs through both narratives to authenticate the stories and lend them verisimiltude.⁴

The Acadians are explicitly compared to the Israelites ("les Hébreux ont bien, eux, traversé le désert" [221) and the historical link between the two peoples is taken for granted: "Depuis quatre mille ans que la terre roulait sa bosse, combien y avait-il eu de générations entre Adam, Abram, Moise et le premier des Bélonie sorti d'un dénommé Jacques à Antoine, sorti de France au mitan du siècle précédent?" (57). In addition, the expelled Acadians all have their eyes "rivés sur cette terre promise" (175). Finally, Girouard accuses the Bourgeois family "de traîner dans la charrette de Pélagie un ménage capable de rebâtir Jérusalem" (59).

The historical and the sacred are aspects of the same phenomenon for the Acadians and the Israelites. Both cultures view ordinary events symbolically, with the result that historical reality is seen to transcend the mundane and to enter into the realm of the sacred. It is through ritual that this transformation occurs.

Because of the Acadians' and the Israelites' reverence for life and their attachment to their past, burial ceremonies represent moments of poignant emotion. A landowner surprises the Acadians who are burying the Cormier boy and demands to be paid for the use of his field (63-64), just as Abraham had to pay the children of Heth in order to bury Sarah (Genesis 23). This material payment symbolizes a spiritual commitment to the memory of those who are laid to rest.

The issue of leadership is vital to the Acadians and the Israelites. The leader symbolizes the people and its survival. There is an implicit parallel between Pélagie and Moses, for the two function similarly as peacemakers. Pélagie stands between the Bourgeois family and the others when they quarrel over bringing the chest filled with their possessions (59), she breaks up a fight between her son, Jeannot, and Maxime Basque (69). Moses, too, was constantly having to repair rifts and rally the people (Exodus 6:9, 14:11).

In addition, the two leaders symbolize the unity and ideals toward which their peoples aspire. Pélagie tries to keep the group together when some decide to leave for Louisiana (l13) and Moses does the same when the children of Reuben and Gad prefer not to cross the river Jordan (Numbers 32).

Pélagie, like Moses, is responsible for the safety of her people. She sends her twin sons scouting to gather news of Baltimore, and they return with a great deal of information (171-72), reminding the reader of Numbers 13 in which Moses dispatches twelve men to explore the land, to learn its character and that of its inhabitants.

Prophecy is an aspect of leadership in both stories. Pélagie sends off some of her group for water, saying that after "le règne des vaches maigres vient cestuy-là des grasses" (30-31), recalling Joseph's interpretation of Pharoah's dream in Genesis 41. In Virginia, they work the fields in exchange for food, "par rapport qu'il faut bien garder le meilleur pour le pire" (167), as did that other leader of the Israelites, Joseph. For both the Acadians and the Hebrews, there were to be hard times in store, and their leaders were invested with the power to forsee those events.

Symbolic changes of name are common to the novel and the Bible and reflect the importance of the respective leaders. "Pélagie Bourg, dite le Blanc" (15), becomes Pélagie-la-Charrette just as Jacob is renamed Israel (Genesis 32:29). In both texts, the main characters function as models for their societies and for successive generations. The change of name suggests that they are "reborn" to embody their people. Jacob is Israel. Pélagie is the cart that symbolizes the return to Acadia.⁵

The two leaders are both individuals and symbols representing a people. They are mortal and fallible, yet greater than the average person, a part of history, and instruments of a destiny which transcends historical reality.⁶

In addition to the symbolic attributes of the leaders discussed above, there are symbolic acts which link the historical and sacred levels of the narratives. The first of the acts concerns Rebekah. Rebekah personally offers water to Abraham's servant, demonstrating her quality of heart and worthiness to be Isaac's wife and thus one of the matriarchs of her people (Genesis 24). So, too, Pélagie performs the same act for the lost militiamen, thereby proving her merit and justifying her as the matriarch of her own people: "elle se dirigea droit sur ses hôtes et de ses propres mains leur offrit à boire dans la tasse dite de l'hospitalité, un goblet rituel (emphasis added) rescapé du Grand Dérangement. Et pour accompagner le geste, aussi la phrase rituelle (emphasis added):--Faites comme chez vous" (210). Pélagie's literal, factual, gesture represents a more important spiritual truth that identifies her with her Biblical forerunner.

Both cultures acknowledge a mysterious aspect to human life that springs from primal sources. This acknowledgement finds expression in rituals of various sorts. One of Pélagie's oxen is killed for food, but the vocabulary surrounding the ritual suggests a kind of religious sacrifice: "immoler" (214); "on accomplit le sacrifice dans les rites, comme si l'on retrouvait d'instinct ou par une sorte de mémoire involontaire les origines primordiales de l'immolation" (215); "les lieux du sacrifice" (215). Catoune is said to kill as if she were a high priestess (216). In the Hebrew Bible, after the Ten Commandments are given, God commands that sacrifices be offered, and sheep and oxen are specified (Exodus 20:21). In addition, the Israelites ratify the Covenant with a sacrifice of oxen (Exodus 24:5-6).

In this instance, the Acadians' killing is for food and the Israelites' is not, but the unconscious link with the Biblical rite is prominently and repeatedly mentioned. The Acadians' physical act is clearly replete with symbolic meaning that binds them to the Israelites. The Acadians assuring their corporal nourishment and physical survival (killing for food) finds its reflection in their spiritual nourishment and sacred mission (sacrificial rite).

The playing of music and singing, too, are ritual acts that are associated with dramatic and significant events in the life of both peoples. They function ceremonially. Since the arrival of the Basques, "le violon avait comme assourdi le grincement de la charrette" (68). The Acadians mourn the loss of the Cormier child with lamentations and the playing of a violin (61). Maxime Basque pulls out a reed flute and "casts a spell" over his Indian captors (222-23). Bélonie's death is lamented in song--«mille complaintes à la mémoire du barde centenaire" (317)--and the group's final entry into Acadia is accompanied by music and song--"L'Acadie tout entière rentrait en chantant" (339). Music is accorded an equally prominent role in the Bible. Moses and the Israelites sing a hymn of praise after the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 15: l-18), they sing a song of triumph after their victory over the Canaanites (Judges 5), and the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, which Moses sings before his death, is the dramatic culminating point of the Biblical narrative.

In addition to symbolic acts, there are symbolic objects which link the historical and sacred levels of the texts. Beausoleil appeals to Pélagie for some certainty and reassurance about their future by using the Biblical image of the dove: "J'allons-t-i' point un jour voir apparaître une colombe dans le ciel, Pélagie? Une colombe avec sa branche d'olivier dans le bec?" (123), recalling the dove and olive branch of Genesis 8:8-12, which meant that the inhabitants of the Ark would be safe and secure. Beausoleil's desire for a secure relationship expresses itself in a Biblical image of universal peace.

The two ships in the following passage, the one Acadian, the other American, represent attempts at self-determination:

Ce sont des frères de souche, sortis ensemble des chantiers navals de Liverpool, destinés aux mêmes déboires et à la même lutte, à la même gloire devait dire plus tard la chronique de chaque pays. L'un et l'autre ayant réussi un coup dont peu de naivres purent se vanter en cette fin du XVIIIe siècle: décocher un caillou en plein front à cette toute-puissante Albion, maitresse des mers, comme David à Goliath. Les quatremâts jumeaux avaient tous deux, à un quart de siècle de distance, fait un pied de nez à la marine anglaise. (199)

The Acadians' return occurs during the American Revolution of 1776. Acadia's struggle, like America's, is compared to that of David in the Bible. The ships serve not only a military and logistical purpose but, more importantly, are instruments of the universal quest for freedom of which Acadia is a part.

The people of Acadia themselves become ultimately more than a mere group whose drama is played out in a limited historical framework. They come to symbolize the possibility that a disparate group of exiles may become a people. They explicitly do not qualify as a people at the beginning of their journey: "Pas encore un peuple, non. . . . la troupe n'était constituée que de lan-Lbeaux de parenté et de voisinage" (101). However, by chapter fourteen, when they unite in an effort to save the cart, they have become indissolubly linked: "Astheur, les hommes,faisez une chaîne . . . " (280). They do join together ("on fait une chaîne" (281) and become "Des pavés humaines" (289). Pélagie is proud to witness the development: "son peuple. Pour la première fois, Pélagie s'aperçut que sa famille de Géorgie dans une charrette, rendue en Acadie était devenue un peuple" (341). So it is, too, in the Biblical narrative. At the end of the forty years of wandering, it is said of what had been a "mixed multitude" (Exodus 12:38), "this day thou art become a people unto the Lord thy God" (Deuteronomy 27:9).

Their struggle, as well, takes on symbolic proportions. Theirs is not simply a long trek to return home, but a conscious choice to survive as a people. They decide to live on in spite of the odds against them. The novel explicitly and repeatedly pits the forces of life against the forces of death. The narrator points to "une conversation qui s'était déroulée d'âme à âme entre deux patriarches jouant à colin-maillard avec la Vie et la Mort" (38). Death always stalks the travellers: "Car nul n'est dupe au pays, c'est la Mort en personne qui est entrée en lice ce jour-là et qui a tiré l'épée contre la Vie" (286). In the final analysis, Bélonie, who is associated with the "charrette de la mort," chooses life. He bargains with Death and saves Beausoleil (290). The Bible, too, asks the people to choose life: "I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:20).

To sum up this part of the study, Pélagie-la-Charrette and the Bible present themselves as part of history, for they tell stories that purport to be about real people at a point in time, yet they participate in the world of the sacred, as their undertaking clearly has meaning that transcends the literal. The leaders in both the Bible and the novel, the events that take place, and the objects that are named all exist for a purpose; that is, the people of Acadia and Israel are portrayed as participating in a mission. That they survive is no accident but the manifestation of their destiny.

* * *

The Biblical framework is augmented by additional archetypes associated with mythology. In the second stage of this study, I shall show how the dominant images of the circle and the "charrette" in the novel reflect ancient and primitive symbolic patterns. These images enhance the Biblical parallels and suggest that the Acadians are participating in a cycle of perpetual renewal and regeneration.

Before examining the implicit and regenerative imagery of the circle, let us first note some of the explicit references to rebirth. The reader's indulgence is invoked to witness "par quel miracle . . . des rejectons surgissent même d'une race éteinte"(86). Pélagie is confident that just as spring returns--"le printemps reviendrait avec les outardes, brisant les glaces, ouvrant les champs" (1 32)--so the people will be reborn.⁷ The birth of each new child is a triumphant reaffirmation: "La sage-femme rendait un enfant aux Cormier, un nouveau Frédéric en remplacement de l'autre. La vie avait en réserve des pièces de recharge et pouvait se refaire, par en dedans" (158-59).

Like all Acadians, it is incumbent upon Charles-Auguste "d'être digne fils de son père et des aïeux. Il lui faudrait réincarner toute la lignée à lui seul" (236). Even Bélonie, who is associated with the "charrette de la mort", and who thought his entire family was lost, is part of this renewal when his grandson is discovered (278).

In addition to the references to rebuilding and rebirth, there is an ongoing "dialogue" between the past, present, and future, from the very beginning to the very end of the novel. (Characters repeat statements first uttered a century before by other characters, and questions posed during one generation are answered several generations later.) The reader is informed that "Pélagie-la-Gribouille, un siècle plus tard, devait servir toute la phrase au descendant de Bélonie" (68) and, later, that "C'est le Bélonie contemporain de la Gribouille qui devait le répéter un siècle plus tard" (81). This kind of interchange is very frequent:⁸ it suggests that the past is never dead and lost, but is rather constantly present in a process of perpetual becoming.

Symbols reinforce the meaning of the text as representing a people's return to life. Images of the circle--including that of the sun and the wheel--and images of the "charrette" are indispensable to the development of the central theme.⁹

Pélagie herself is associated with the circle in its many forms. Pélagie enters "en plein mitan [centre] du cercle¹⁰ et d'un seul coup de front fit taire tout le monde" (70). She is in the middle of the circle, her place is at the hub of the wheel, that is, at the centre of her people. Beausoleil "prit dans ses mains le visage de cette femme (Pélagie) comme s'il fut sa boussole" (124). Pélagie, like a compass, guides her people and gives them direction. After the fire in Boston destroys one cart, Pélagie prevents Jeanne Aucoin from "auctioning off" the survivors to the other carts: "Ce jour-là, on l'aurait eu couronnée de lauriers, la Pélagie, si on avait été en saison" (269). The image of Pélagie crovrned queen serves to confirm her authority and leadership. Through the image of the circle Pélagie is represented as the undisputed head of her people.

However, the image appears independently of her. The Acadians are identified with it, too. They are determined to return and "renoueront le passé à l'avenir" (338), associating them with the "dialogue" between the past and the present discussed earlier, and suggesting their survival into the future. Jailed in Charleston after they stormed the slave market to free Catoune, they are subsequently released from prison:

Et rendus à l'anneau d'or, ils ouvrirent toutes grandes les portes cochères, après avoir fait passer le peuple de la charrette par les couloirs et labyrinthes puants de la prison de Charleston. (83)

The act of securing their freedom is associated with a circular form, the ring. Finally, captured by the Indians, one of the Acadians gives an Indian woman a crucifix, "transformant un chapelet acadien en collier sauvage" (225). The transformation of the Acadian rosary to the Indian necklace links the Acadian experience to its primitive origins just as the "sacrifice" of the oxen linked Acadia with its Biblical roots.

The journey of the Acadians is expressed through circular images. The voyage is a long one, "oui, mais la boucle se refermait" (326). The wheels of the cart carrying them home are mentioned. The caravan is said to have thirty-six wheels (270) and Acadia itself is compared to the spokes of a wheel: "Comme une roue de charrette, comme le timon [steering wheel, another circle] d'un bâtiment [here, meaning a ship], l'Acadie nouvelle avait lancé aux quatre coins du pays les rayons de sa rose des vents [wind chart in circular form], sans s'en douter" (350).

Thus Pélagie, her people, and their journey are associated with the image of the circle, the symbol of perpetual beginnings, constant renewal and eternal regeneration: it is implied that the death of Acadia is out of the question, that survival and good fortune await them.

The sun is yet another circle, by far the most dominant and suggestive. J. Chevalier points out that "le soleil est chez beaucoup de peuples une manifestation de la divinité. . . . Le soleil apparaît ainsi comme un symbole de résurrection et d'immortalité.¹¹ Furthermore, there is an important link between the sun and the wheel imagery in ancient societies:

Le soleil comme coeur du monde est parfois figuré au centre de la roue du Zodiaque . . . . Si le symbole universel du char solaire est généralement en relation avec le mouvement cyclique, la roue de ce char . . . est elle-même avant tout le symbole du soleil rayonnant. (892)

The circle, and its most powerful expression, the sun, therefore, suggest the very centre of life, the guarantee of immortality, and, for Acadia, return and rebirth.

The sun is omnipresent in the novel. When things are going badly for the wanderers in Pélagie-la-Charrette, it is said that "la terre tournait à l'envers du cadran solaire" (133). Beausoleil, whose very name is tied to the solar imagery, cannot die:

La chronique du temps en avait conclu qu'aucun Beausoleil jamais ne disparaîtrait sous l'eau, mais passerait son éternité à voguer loin au large, entre les algues géantes qui amarrent l'horizon au soleil couchant. (92)

Because he is associated with the sun, he becomes a symbol of immortality.

The caravan is guided by the sun as well: "Quand les charrettes reçurent la nouvelle avec les premiers rayons de l'aube . . . . Et les charrettes prirent le chemin de l'est, franc est, là où se lève le soleil" (146, 167).

The religious dimension to the solar image is recalled as the sun is associated with an implied church bell: "Mais au petit matin, le soleil sauta à l'horizon et fit sonner le ciel comme un gong" (295). Virginie's miraculous recovery takes place in the presence of life-giving sun: "La fièvre s'éteignit d'elle-même et l'enfant sortit de l'ombre comme un champignon de la nuit, en dressant la tête au soleil" (325). The people of Acadia are urged: "venez prendre votre place au soleil" (351).They return home in May, during springtime, under a resplendent sun (336).

The symbolism of the "charrette" is second in importance only to that of the circle. The word "charrette" is a metonymy for the Acadians: "les charrettes reçurent" (146), "les charrettes prirent" (167). The people themselves are referred to as "les descendants de la charrette" (83). And Pélagie herself is the cart--Pélagie-la-Charrette.

The cart had been handed down for one hundred years (11) and played a central role in Acadian society: "C'était coutume en Acadie d'apporter en dot une charrette à son homme, la charrette, signe de pérennité" (299-300). We note also the religious aspect of the image when Pélagie wishes the wood of the cart to serve as a cross for her grave (39).

G. Durand finds that the juxtaposition, and even the coupling of the two images, the circle and the "charrette," is highly evocative:

Il est tout naturel de rapprocher de ces techniques du cycle, de la mise en "joug" des contraires, le char traîné par les chevaux. Bien entendu la liaison est facile à établir entre la roue et le char qu'elle porte ou le voyage qu'elle suscite. Les dieux et les héros "fils," Hermès, Héraklès, et même notre Gargantua avec son "rude chariot" sont de grands voyageurs. Le char constitue d'ailleurs une image fort complexe, car il peut consteller avec les symboles de l'intimité, la roulotte et la nef. Mais il se rapproche cependant nettement des techniques du cycle lorsqu'il fait porter l'accent mythique davantage sur l'itinéraire, le voyage que sur le confort intime du véhicule. Enfin le symbolisme de l'attelage, de la mise au "joug" vient surdéterminer souvent le symbole cyclique de fusion des contraires. Dans la Gîtâ le "conducteur du char" et Arjuna, le passager, représentent les deux natures, spirituelle et animale, de l'homme. "Les deux personnages montés sur le char d'Arjuna n'en forment en réalité qu'un seul." Dans l'épopée védique, comme plus tard chez Platon, le char est le "véhicule" d'une âme à l'épreuve, il porte cette âme pour la durée d'une incarnation. Les conducteurs de char sont les messagers, les ambassadeurs symboliques du monde de l'au-delà, "un tour de char symbolise soit la durée d'une existence humaine, soit la durée d'une existence planétaire, soit la durée d'un univers." Ces chars flamboyants renvoient également au symbolisme du feu . . . . .     Ainsi technique du tissage comme technique du voyage se chargent l'une et l'autre, dès leur origine, de la riche mythologie du cercle. L'on peut même avancer que la roue et toutes ses variantes, mouvement dans l'immobilité, équilibre dans l'instabilité, avant d'être techniquement exploitée et de se profaner en simple instrument utilitaire, est avant tout engrenage archétypal essentiel dans l'imagination humaine.¹²

This brings us back to the harmonization of the circle and the "charrette" imagery which, together, combine to animate the novel with the theme of regenerative, eternal life.

This union, combined with the Biblical model, lend the novel an impressive authority. It is clear that, in Pélagie-la-Charrette, the cumulative effect of the two kinds of imagery is to convey the idea that Acadia's return is part of an eternal cycle of rebirth given expression in the imagination by established mythic patterns. It can be seen, therefore, as part of destiny that the people of Acadia, and Pélagie as one of the "conducteurs . . . ambassadeurs symboliques" mentioned by Durand, realize the dream of an Acadia reborn.

Pélagie-la-Charrette won the Prix Goncourt of France in 1979 and has met with wide acclaim in French Canada. The novel's success can be attributed, in part at least, to the fact that it is extraordinarily rich in the dîversity of the traditions upon which it draws and in its ability to assimilate them into a coherent narrative.

NOTES

^l In the Bible, God sends the Israelites on their mission. No such explicit divine injunction exists in Pélagie-la-Charrette. It is clear, however, through constant analogy to the Biblical text, that the fate of the Acadians is closely linked to that of the Israelites

² Antonine Maillet, Pélagie-la-Charrette (Montréal: Leméac, 1979) 100-01. All references to the novel are to this edition.

³ All Biblical references are to The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Ed. J.H. Hertz (London: Soncino, 1972).

⁴ The estent to which the Bible and Pélagie-la-Charrette record real events as opposed to fictional events is not the subject of this paper. Both tell stories which purport to be true and which, in any case, have a "moral" or symbolic meaning that transcenda literal truth.

⁵ The black man Pélagie freed from the slave market in Charleston assumes a new name, Théotiste Bourg (133-134) and,in the Bible, Abram becomes Abraham (Genesis 17: 15). It is thereby implied that all have a role to play in the establishment of the people.

⁶ Neither Moses nor Pélagie reaches his or her destination. The mantle of leadership is passed on, respectively, to Joshua (Deuteronomy 31) and to Madeleine, "digne rejeton de la charrette par la voie des femmes" (346).

⁷ Cf. "Le Printemps" in Antonine Maillet's La Sagouine. (Montréal: Leméac, 1971).

⁸ See also pages 12, 89, 117, 151, 191, 224, 233, 313. Ben Shek sees in it a structural device to syncopate the work. See his articles, "Antonine Maillet: A Writer's Itinerary," Acadiensis 12.2 (1983): 171-80, and "Antonine Maillet and the Prix Goncourt," CMLR 36.3 (1980): 392-96.

⁹ Other images link the novel to the world of mythology. I have chosen only the ones central to my theme. Others include the phantom ship (86-87, 41, 47, 194, 195-96), the albatross (127, 345), and fire imagery (64, 11, 10).

¹⁰ All italics in the quotations are emphasis added.

¹¹ J. Chevalier, Dictionnaire des symboles (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1982) 89 1.

¹² G. Durand, Les Structures anthropoIogiques de l'imaginaire (Paris: Bordas, 1973) 377-78.