What is the typical human nature and theme in Maupassant's short story My Uncle Jules?

Answer 1

My Uncle Jules-A Short Story By Maupassant(1850-1893), France.

Maupassant was a French writer who was a keen observer of human nature. Joseph Davranch, a boy, describes the folly that is his Uncle Jules (shools). The Davranch family consisted of him, his parents and two sisters. They were not rich and so suffered to make both ends meet. They accepted no invitations to dinner, for it would have to be returned. They had simple meals, provisions bought at reduced prices. The sisters made their own gowns. There were terrible scenes in the house on account of lost buttons and torn trousers. The author's words remind us of the terrible poverty among the masses which preceded and caused the blood-thirsty revolution in France and changed the social set up of our world permanently.

The only luxury in the family was their trip to church every Sunday. Then they put on their very best dresses and marched on ceremoniously like a procession. The sisters walked in front arm-in-arm and the rest followed behind. This they did to exhibit the sisters. How could a very poor family marry away daughters any other way?

Joseph's uncle Jules in his very early age had spent his money foolishly and soon became a pauper. He was shipped off to the New World that was America, and letters came telling he was doing well, was making money and would return soon rich. These letters caused much sensation in the family, were read and reread and shown to all in the neighbourhood. The family's negative attitude towards him changed and he began to be considered as a saviour. The sisters would be married away and a new house bought in the village. Hope- that is what sustains the poor.

Time passed on and nothing happened for ten years. Then a clerk married the younger sister and the family decided to make a steamer trip to the English island of Jersey two hours away. In the steamer the parents recognized the old ragged sailor selling oysters to the passengers to be their loser Jules. They got bewildered, upset, trembled, their speech stammered, and in a hushed up voice began again to talk of him as a thief and a cheater. Joseph overheard their speech and guessed it was his uncle. The sisters and the son-in-law were not given the news. It was not sure whether Jules had recognized them or not.

There is an element of unkindness in human nature which is evident in the character of Joseph's parents. They disowns their brother seeing that he has fallen in his financial position. Perhaps they may never again meet anywhere in this world. Perhaps, and most surely, this fellow might have been longing for a family reunion in his fall and yearning for family tenderness and care in his wretchedness. Prosperity, money and riches would have added charm to the relationship, but now the sanguine ties of blood are forgotten. Perhaps crushing poverty may disqualify virtues in the poor. But young Joseph is kind, generous and sympathetic enough to call the man,'His Uncle'. So when he was sent to pay price for the oysters, he paid him a generous tip of half a Franc. But when he went to see the man for a second time, he was much disappointed and sad to see that his uncle had disappeared into the dirty hold of the steamer. Perhaps Jules might have recognized his brother and his family, but did not want to trouble them any more. Most certainly he might have been watching his nephew from somewhere hidden, out of a broken heart. Maupassant has a habit of palpitating our heart, consricting our throat and wetting our eyes, through his stories of the poor. So it is impossible here to write anything more on this story. We will wonder why great stories of the poor have evolved from France and England- Maupassant, Victor Hugo and Dickens.