Resumo de Simon's Papa - Guy de Maupassant

SIMON?S PAPA

Simon?s Papa is perhaps the only short story of Maupassant with a child of seven or eight as its central character. Any child of that age calls for the softest feelings of the human mind and Simon, brought up by a lonely and fallen woman but dignified all the same, has all the sweetness, innocence and beauty of a well brought up child. His mother, without a husband and socially ostracized, wants him to be educated and sends him to the school for which she has to struggle very hard. But he faces a hostile population in the school. The boys taunt him for being born without a father. After heated exchanges and fisticuffs with the boys Simon gets beaten up. Now he decides to drown himself in the river because he heard people are happy after their death.

On the banks of the river we see the child in Simon. Seeing the clear water, the fish and their movement he is delighted. He even catches hold of frog and plays with it. Just then he meets a blacksmith who asks him good naturedly what he is doing there. Simon tells him the intent of his visit to the river. A newcomer to the village, the blacksmith, named Philip, understands the situation and promises to take the boy to his mother and find out a papa for him. He even thinks of using the women?s loneliness because a woman once fallen may again fall. To his great surprise he sees a girl of resolute character who will not allow him inside her neat little white house. Then suddenly Simon asks whether the blacksmith would be his papa and gets his acceptance. A great load is lifted from his heart and he proudly declares that Philip is his father. Again the boys taunt him that Philip is not much of a father because he is not married to his mother. The boy rushes to the work place of the blacksmiths where they are hammering red hot iron and asks Philip to explain the meaning of the point. Then the three blacksmiths, honest and noble workmen they are, ask Philip to marry La Blanchotte, the mother of Simon. That settles the question. Next day Simon tells his schoolmates that his father has assured that whoever tries to harm him will be duly punished.

The social stigma that is attached to single mothers is still there. But man should be that much civilized that a child can not be held responsible for the crimes or mistakes of adults and the child should not be treated like an outcast. The behaviour of the other children, which is compared by Maupassant to the birds in a poultry which flock together to kill a wounded bird, is a mere reflection of the low levels into which society has descended.

SATHYA

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