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Articles

Volume 17, Number 2 (1992)

Carrier's French and English: "Yoked by Violence Together"

  • Paula K. Kamenish
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1992-06-06

Abstract

Roch Carrier's La Guerre, Yes Sir! is essentially a novel of decolonization, in which Carrier exposes the dangerously protective values of commitment to the land and the Church and the fallacies of tradition by which French-Canadians have been subordinated and dominated. The novel's attempt to reject the debilitating view of a peaceful, idyllic, rural life -- as portrayed in Louis Hémon's Maria Chapdelaine -- successfully brings to light the violence, both linguistic and behavioural, that characterizes a colonial revolt. Carrier's characters feel unable to overcome the social, religious, sexual, and economic realities that frustrate them; their struggle unites them as a culturally homologous community, but also ties them to their oppressors, the Anglais.