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What do you think about the title “Still Life”? Myrna stopped practicing psychology because she lost patience with people who lead “still” lives, “waiting for someone to save them….The fault lies with us, and only us. It’s not fate, not genetics, not bad luck, and it’s definitely not Mom and Dad. Ultimately it’s us and our choices.” How do their choices affect the principal characters in the novel? Do any of their choices remind you of ones you have made in your own life?
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The most insidious person with a “still” life in the novel is Ben, in my mind. He lies about his mother throughout his life to gain sympathy and to hurt her and excuses his lies to himself because “it could have been true” and he didn’t think he had done anything wrong. He stays at her home waiting for her fortune. It is ironic that, as Peter says, the one time Ben isn’t passive and erases his face from Jane’s picture, he gives himself away. There’s almost a kind of fate or divine retribution in that. Ben’s actions have profound effects on many of the characters, but most especially Peter and Clara, although Gamache to a lesser degree.
For Clara, she realizes that she has been blind and, in some ways, “passive” by judging Timmer because of her son’s words but not noticing Timmer’s actions or Ben’s. Peter chooses to retreat into himself and believes love can’t be trusted, and Gamache realizes he fooled himself (and jeopardized the case) by giving Ben an advantage by assuming he loved Clara.
There are actually several characters other than Ben who blame others for their unhappiness, and so you could argue they too are living “still lives,” unable to mature because their choices are to remain “stuck” in their points of view. There’s Phillipe, who is so angry and scared of being gay that he refuses to communicate with his parents and instead lashes out. There’s Yolande, who is hateful and yet desires attention, but she is blind to Jane’s lesson with the Queen of Hearts playing card, stuck in her ignorance. Agent Nichol can’t see past her own arrogance and need to be right and important.
As for their choices that remind me of my own, I think I can identify with sometimes indulging in blaming the outside world for my problems rather than examining my choices and recognizing my faults. I also sympathize with Clara because I’ve often taken people’s words at face value and been swayed by their words rather than judging their actions, much to my regret. But it’s all part of the process of growing, isn’t it? On a side note, this question also made me recognize how lovely the last line in Still Life is when Gamache looks down on Three Pines and thinks, “Life was far from harried here. But neither was it still.” A wonderful nod to the title and Myrna’s quote.
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As a title, “Still Life” seems like a play on words, a double entendre. As Armand and Tara note, Three Pines is anything but still! It is a hot bed of emotions, many of them less than admirable. Its residents are noble, caring and respectful of one another and petty, mean-spirited and, at least in one person, capable of murder. When I think of a still life as an art form, I picture something composed and arranged and controlled. That does not describe Three Pines. And it does not describe the lives of the Surete officers either.
Some of the characters make explicit choices based on principle. Matthew Croft refuses to defend himself from his son’s accusations in an effort to protect Philippe. Armand refuses an order to arrest Matthew, recognizing Matthews innocence of a murder charge and the damage even eventual exoneration would do, in the face of disciplinary action. Challenged by Armand to act on his assessment of Matthew Croft’s guilt instead of backing off because Armand disagrees, Jean-Guy accepts responsibility. I am sure there are more examples!
I can’t think of specific examples of personal choices BUT I am not certain I would have been willing to follow Jean-Guy’s example. As Tara notes, the temptation to accept another’s point of view and to go along is pretty hard to resist.
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As Jane says, Still Life is in my mind a play on words. Jane Neal’s painting, her portrait of Fair Day, is in some ways a “still life” in that it captured a moment in time that ultimately lead to her death and to the capture of the killer. It’s a messy process figuring out how to live an active life, to be engaged in our personal choices. I think it’s a recurrent theme in LP’s books. Tara mentions the negative destructive choices of several characters, Jane mentions the positive compassionate choices of several others. So there’s a lot of contrast between the lives of a lot of the characters that I appreciated more when reading the book again. Also Myrna’s quote reminded me of the Shakespeare one, ” The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
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That’s a great quote, Maureen; very pertinent. It’s a theme that’s been with us throughout the ages– many a wise person has nudged us to think outside of ourselves; to acknowledge that much of how we live our lives is dictated by our own selves and the choices we make. Ruth reminds herself every time she looks in the mirror that she’s “looking at the problem.” I admire her self-awareness. People like Ben, Yolande, and Yvette are so busy blaming others for their issues that they are frozen and unable to make progress. Their lives are thus so much less full, undermining their potential to stretch themselves and become better people. Ben has been mediocre at everything, but who knows what he might have become had he given up on waiting to inherit his windfall, and had actually tried to do something useful. Yolande has some success as a broker, but has a dismal, sterile family life and is never satisfied, wanting admiration, material wealth, and hiding behind her mask of makeup and superiority. Yvette, though having a certain amount of talent for her job, is nonetheless destroying her career before it gets a chance to flourish because she just can’t see or acknowledge her deficits. Their lives have become still because of the choices they’ve made.
In my own life, yes, I’ve made choices that in retrospect I wish I’d done differently, but I don’t think I’ve lived a still life; I just took paths that might or might not have led to different fulfillments. Everybody has a road not taken. I do try to take a page from Ruth’s example whenever I start to feel sorry for myself, though — “you’re looking at the problem” really resonates for me. I very much agree with that. I made the choices, for better or for worse; nobody else did. And I made the decisions to either accept them or move on to another choice. I don’t know anybody who is 100% happy with all their choices; but that’s life. Gotta keep swimmin’… (didn’t Dory say that in Finding Nemo)? Wise fish.-
Ruth’s example resonated with me too. And thank you for reminding me of Dory’s wise words – they brought a smile to my face.
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To be honest I’m not too sure what the title means: if it means people go along on cruise control for all or mist of their lives I can understand that up to a point but most people change and grow. Re choices, I think we all make choices but with constraints, after all if I want a new car it won’t be a Mercedes! And I think the concept of blame is useless as it tends to focus solely on the individual. Everyone makes wrong choices, that’s how we learn. But Ben Hadley, for me raises the question of evil. And I’m not sure how much that is down to choice.
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