The pigeon (Süskind)

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The dove is the title of a novella from 1987 by Patrick Süskind .

content

“When the thing happened to him with the pigeon, which turned his existence off its hinges from one day to the next, Jonathan Noel was already over fifty years old, looked back on a period of almost twenty years of complete uneventfulness and would never have expected that anything else essential could happen to him than death one day. "

After two drastic experiences in his past (the deportation of his parents to a concentration camp and his unsuccessful marriage), which he prefers not to remember, Jonathan Noel prefers an uneventful life. He moves to Paris, where he finds a job as a bank security guard and a room. Although this room offers no comfort, it is the only reliable one in his life. Only one more installment is due, then it is his, and the uniformity of his life is guaranteed. He lives according to a meticulously determined daily routine, absolutely frugal, conscientious and voluntarily lonely. Then, however, one Friday morning in August 1984, suddenly and unexpectedly a pigeon was sitting in front of his room door. This incident upsets his entire life plan. All he knows is that he cannot live under one roof with a dove, the epitome of chaos and anarchy. Heavily masked and with his suitcase packed, he dares to leave his room. He doesn't think he can go back.

On the way to the bank, he informs the concierge , who always feels he is being watched, about the pigeon. However, he has no hope that she will do anything.

Unbalanced by the dove, the day turns into a disaster for Jonathan. In the morning he missed opening the gate to his boss's limousine, an unforgivable offense for him. At lunchtime he takes the cheapest room in a hotel so that he doesn't have to go back home. Then another event happened that was devastating for him: he accidentally tore his pants in the park. The afternoon, which he spends standing guard in front of the bank with his trousers poorly patched, doesn't go any better either. Jonathan wants to suffer; he feels such self-hatred that it eventually pours into the outside world. He would like to shoot everything down, but he recognizes himself: He is not a perpetrator, but a sufferer. He wishes it was all over.

After work he just drifts, wandering disoriented through Paris until he returns to his hotel exhausted and hungry. There he eats a meal in his room that he thinks will be his last. He goes to bed thinking of killing himself tomorrow.

There is a violent thunderstorm during the night. Jonathan first thinks the world is going to end. Then he says he is still a child, has only dreamed everything and that there is a war outside. Fearful of being abandoned, he realizes that he cannot live without other people. It starts to rain and Jonathan regains his bearings. He gets up and goes home.

The pigeon has disappeared.

interpretation

Süskind describes a person who isolates himself completely due to his difficult past and who, out of fear of experiencing another stroke of fate, chooses a life in absolute uneventfulness.

The unforeseen experience with the pigeon triggers a whole chain of events, which Noel is completely overwhelmed with. He simply lacks experience as he has led a monotonous, well-planned life for the past 20 years. Out of fear of life, he created his own living space, his small, safe room. The protagonist has absolutely no relationships with other people. He isolates himself, wants to be anonymous, and interprets any interest in himself as an intrusion into his privacy. Things that “normal” people would hardly pay any attention to, so-called banalities, cause an incredible mess in Jonathan Noel's life.

Süskind himself is very worldly and media shy. Based on this fact and his own statements ( see quote ) one could conclude that the author presented himself. Presumably he also wants to hold up a mirror to the reader, he wants to ask him to face life so as not to be caught off guard by life one day.

people

Jonathan Noel
main character. Loses his parents (mother was kidnapped "east" and father ran away), grows up with his uncle. Commits to military service. He gets married, the wife leaves him and he decides to live his life alone from now on, without attracting any attention and not being disappointed or abandoned by anyone.

Marie Baccouche
wife of Jonathan. She is pregnant before the two get to know each other; she runs away with a Tunisian fruit dealer.

Madame Lasalle

Owner of Jonathan's room, his refuge. She agrees to sell him the room.

Madame Rocard

Concierge of the apartment where Jonathan lives. Up until that day he has hardly exchanged a word with her, she is too curious for him. She is addicted to alcohol.

Monsieur Villman

Deputy Director of the bank where Jonathan works.

Madame Roques

Head cashier of the bank.

Monsieur Roedels

Director of the bank, Jonathan has to open the door to his limousine every morning.

Clochard (French beggar)

At first a symbol of freedom for Jonathan, until one day he sees him doing his business on the street. Then he finds him disgusting, pathetic.

Madame Topell a
seamstress in the supermarket who is supposed to sew Jonathan's torn trousers for work, but then doesn't want to help him out of his misery. It took three weeks to sew the tear in his pants.

Quote

“... when I spend most of my life in increasingly smaller rooms that I find it increasingly difficult to leave. But I hope one day I will find a room that is so small and encloses me so tightly that it takes itself with it when you leave. " (Quote from Süskind)