The ending of De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period confused me. We did discuss in class why J.D.S. might have had such a strange epiphany, but I never fully understood how the realizatoin affected his decision to leave Sister Irma alone. J.D.S's journal entry states (in French), "I am giving Sister Irma her freedom to follow her own destiny. Eveybody is a nun" (251). The first sentence makes is seem like J.D.S. thought he had control over Sister Irma's destiny, which is obviously arrogant for him to think. I wonder, though, how the two concepts (of controlling another's destiny and everyone being a nun) connect, and how this led to J.D.S's ultimate decision to stop obsessing over Sister Irma. Thoughts?
Julianne
well i dont think that he said that I give sister Irma her freedom to follow her own destiny was him trying to act arrogant (although it clearly was). I think it was mainly a way for him to glance away the fact that the one thing he wishes to possess is possibly the nun's affection and the fact that he knows he will never receive it, he tries to down play and act as though he controlled the decisive factor that would determine their "relationship." So mainly I think he says this to make the people think as if he controlled their "relations" and he chose wether they were going to be together or not. Regardless of the reason why he says this, i am also interested in the connection between these two concepts. i'm still looking into it.
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