Bonjour tristesse essay

Word Count: 362 It would be too easy to read a "moral" into Françoise Sagan's novella, a message regarding the unexpected and tragic things that can result from one's self-interested actions.

The scheme works, but it goes too far, with Anne dying (probably by suicide) in a car crash. Sagan's theme arguably involves, more than any moral point, the randomness and the inexplicability of the way fathers and daughters, and men and women, interact. The transient nature of love, both familial and romantic, is focused upon as well.

In the story, Cécile, the seventeen-year-old enjoying a summer holiday in the south of France with her widowed father, launches a plan to break up her father's impending marriage to his longtime business associate and friend, Anne. The scheme works, but it goes too far, with Anne dying (probably by suicide) in a car crash.

Cécile then encourages her own soon-to-be lover, Cyril, to make a show of interest in Elsa in order to arouse Raymond's jealousy, forcing his return to Elsa so that he will dump Anne.